Altamira

The Primal Urge to Create

October 9 - December 4, 2021

Opening Reception:
Saturday, October 9, 6pm - 9pm

Saturdays: Artist Talks / Tours at 2 pm by Curator Volker Eisele
Ambient Avenues Performing Arts Series (Select Saturdays)

Site Gallery Houston
The Silos at Sawyer Yards
1502 Sawyer Street, Suite 400
Houston, TX 77007

17,000 or so years ago in Altamira, in Northern Spain, prehistoric man created these magnificent and now famous cave paintings. Along with early carvings made out of animal bones or mammoth ivory these paintings and similar ones discovered in Lascaux or Chauvet can be considered the origin of art as we know it today.

We have proposed to our participating artists to sit back and picture themselves as cave artists, but with the entire array of modern technology at their disposal. They will try to explore and tie into this ”primal urge to create” that compelled our ancestors to become curious about the human existence and to transform their observations into tangible images.

As a fitting background, the architecture of the Silos represents an urban cave environment that provides a near authentic experience with its 34 individual art spaces, dark passage ways, mysterious side chambers and dramatic scale shifts.

ALTAMIRA ARTISTS:
Ariel Bowman, Robin Baker, Christyn Overstake, Justin Boyd, Elaine Bradford, Emily Link, Susan Budge, Larry Graeber, Suguru Hiraide, Allison Hunter, Kathy Kelley, Cindee Klement, Sue Anne Rische, John Runnels, Shawn Smith, Anthony Suber, Damon Thomas, Nestor Topchy

SOLID STATE ARTISTS: a group show of SMH artists in collaboration with Houston First @ Greater Houston Partnership
Leticia Bajuyo, Jill Bedgood, Dylan Conner, Katy Heinlein, Michael Sean Kirby, Paul Kittelson, Alex Larsen, Patrick Renner

AMBIENT AVENUES PERFORMING ARTS SERIES PRESENTED BY CHAPEL IN THE SKY

Ambient Avenues is an expanded performing arts series that merges living artists who create music, poetry, dance, and performance with living visual artists with an emphasis on instillation and video art. 

Performances will occur on select Saturdays at 3:15pm after the 2pm tour and artist talks in The Silos.

PERFORMANCES INCLUDE:

• October 16: Nestor Topchy

• October 30: RJSH

• November 4: Texas New Music Ensemble

• November 20: Chapel in the Sky

• December 4: Houston Poet Laureate, Outspoken Bean

PARTICIPATING VENUES:

Anya Tish Gallery, Art Car Museum, Art League Houston, Art Museum TX Katy, Art Museum TX Sugar Land, Barbara Davis Gallery, Blaffer Art Museum, BOX 13 ArtSpace, Deborah Colton Gallery, DiverseWorks, Foltz Fine Art, Gallery Sonja Roesch, Galveston Art Center, Gray Contemporary, Heidi Vaughn Fine Art, Holocaust Museum, Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, Houston Arts Foundation, Houston Botanic Garden, Houston First & Greater Houston Partnership, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston Heights Association, Heights Boulevard Sculptures, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Houston Police Officers Memorial, Lawndale Art Center, Meek Studio and Gallery, Moody Gallery, Motherdog Studios, Mystic Lion, Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, Public Art of the University of Houston System, Redbud Gallery, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino Gallery, The Tank @ Spring Street Studios, The Transart Foundation, The Techne at TXRX Labs, The University Museum of Texas Southern University, University of Houston, School of Arts