The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s Teen Council is pleased to present Perspectives 181: Human Nature, a group exhibition featuring work by Houston area teen artists. The exhibition explores conceptions of humanity: what it is to be human or inhuman. The exhibition features work by 49 teens in a variety of media ranging from photography to video and sculpture.
Human Nature is the 8th biennial youth art exhibition organized by the CAMH’s Teen Council. Drawing from an open call, the Teen Council received over 300 submissions responding to the questions: Is there a universal human experience? In order to explore human nature, must we examine our base animal instincts? Or does that which makes us human originate from a higher order?
Says Jamal Cyrus, Education Associate at CAMH, “From ideas about the material connection between mankind and nature to those of body image, consumerism, and social control, the artists featured in Perspectives 181: Human Nature take aim at the show’s theme from a variety of perspectives and stances.”
Photography figures prominently in this year’s exhibition. Clinton Elliott’s Untitled is a series of ten 5 x 7 inch photographs of portraits of people. In each of the photographs, however, the subject’s face has been obscured with objects ranging from banana peels to fruit loops and Christmas decorations. Cory Jo’s black-and-white image Truthshows a young racer, completely covered in racing jumpsuit and helmet, reading the obituaries. Many of the artists fuse human and nature together such as in Ashley Lawhorn’s Redwoods digital photograph that shows a female figure with the head of a blue jay wearing a dress and leaning against a redwood tree. Zoie Brown’s sculpture Treefingersdepicts human fingers growing out of tree branches.
Human Nature is a meditation on human nature—its appearance and character—from the perspective of those who will shape the next iteration of humanity. The exhibition reminds us that where there is dark, there is also light, and it is this dualism that makes us human.
Human Nature features work by: Lynne Addison, Ronan Allencherril, Alex Ambriz, Ashlin Arnold, Adriel Barrios-Anderson,Daisy Betancourt, Kate Bomar, Chantal Bondoc, Rachel Bride, Zoie Brown, Emily Camp, Evelyn Cauley, Kassi Choate, Evan Coleman, Brittany Keil Craig, Glenn Grace Davis, Claire Dorfman, Stacie Dudley, Adam Elkhadem, Clinton Elliot, Felisha Falcon, Andrew Flanders, Melinda Flores, Hazel Fricke, Christiana Garcia, Kathy Hernandez, Kendall Hertenberger, Will Insul, Miranda Jankovic, Cory Jo Martin, James Kerley, Ashley Lawhorn, Chiang Leong, David Loera, Javier Mata, Katie Miller, Madison Morgan-Rawlings, Eva Nip, Alyssa Oliver, Caitlin Rhoades, Christina Rodriguez, Patricia Rodriguez, Karla Serrato, Judy Solomos, Dana Suleymanova, Morgan Tao, Sidney Tennant, Kameron White, Colin Yeates, Patrick Zapien.
About CAMH’s Teen Council
The CAMH Teen Council is a group of motivated young people (ages 15-19) employed by the Museum, who are committed to bringing the art of their time to their peers. They meet regularly to explore the arts and create youth-oriented programming and events. Every other year, the Teen Council organizes a Perspectives exhibition in the Zilkha Gallery featuring new work by young, Houston area artists. The Teen Council selects the theme, title, and guest juror, and helps with the design, installation, printed exhibition catalogue, and programming.
About Exhibition Juror
Rachel Cook is a curator and writer. Recent curatorial projects include Undetectable (Visual AIDS, La Mama Galleria, NYC), Not-Not-Not Images-Objects (Meulensteen Gallery, NYC), and Three Evidentiary Claims (CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson). She has previously worked for dOCUMENTA (13)’s publication team and most recently as a summer fellow for the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York. Cook is a Houston native and HSPVAgraduate. She holds a MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Currently, she is the Assistant Curator at DiverseWorks.
Exhibition Support
The Perspectives Series is made possible by a major grant from Fayez Sarofim and by donors to the Museum’s Perspectives Fund: Anonymous, Bright Star Productions Inc., The Brown Foundation, Inc., Dillon Kyle Architecture, Heidi and David Gerger, Kerry Inman and Denby Auble, Mady and Ken Kades, Karol Kreymer and Robert J. Card, M.D., Poppi Massey, Leslie and Shannon Sasser in Honor of Lynn Herbert, William F. Stern, Martha Claire Tompkins, and 20K Group, LLC.
Education Support
The Museum receives support for its education programs from: Anonymous, Dillon Kyle Architecture, Louise D. Jamail. Mr. and Mrs. I.H. Kempner III, Kinder Morgan Foundation, Robert and Pearl Wallis Knox Foundation, Leticia Loya, Elisabeth McCabe, M.D. Anderson Foundation, Marian and Speros Martel Foundation Endowment, Andrew R. McFarland, Mark and Mary Ann Miller, Texas Commission on the Arts, Texas Women for the Arts, Ms. Louisa Stude Sarofim, Martha Claire Tompkins, and Elizabeth Satel Young.
Teen Council is supported by Ms. Louisa Stude Sarofim, Texas Women for the Arts and Texas Commission on the Arts.
General Support
Funding for the Museum’s operations through the Fund for the Future is made possible by generous grants from Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Anonymous, Jereann Chaney, Sara Dodd-Spickelmier and Keith Spickelmier. Jo and Jim Furr, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Brenda and William Goldberg, Marley Lott, Leticia Loya and Fayez Sarofim.
The Museum’s operations and programs are made possible through the generosity of the Museum’s trustees, patrons, members and donors. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston receives partial operating support from the Houston Endowment, the City of Houston through the Houston Museum District Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and The Wortham Foundation, Inc. CAMH also thanks its artist benefactors for their support including Ricci Albenda, Anonymous, McArthur Binion, Brendan Cass, Mel Chin, Leonardo Drew, Tim Gardner, Robert Gober, Wayne Gonzales, Oliver Herring, Jim Hodges, Michael Joo, Kurt Kauper, Jon Kessler, Terence Koh, Sean Landers, Zoe Leonard, Marilyn Minter, Donald Moffett, Ernesto Neto, Roxy Paine, Laurie Simmons, Josh Smith, Marc Swanson, and William Wegman.
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