We are proud to have the opportunity to work with such amazing clients. Houston Lifestyles & Homes features this beautiful residence.
MKG Art’s Founder is featured in the APAA Newsletter 5 Questions.
Association of Professional Art Advisors 5 Questions with Melissa Kepke GrobmyerRead More
MKG has been busy across Texas recently with diverse projects, both public and private. We are pleased to announce the installation of a new public sculpture by Tim Bavington, installed at Victory Park in Dallas in October. Bavington’s work translates music into the visual world by assigning color and height to each sound in a composition.
Installed just outside the W Hotel in Victory Park, the artist chose the song ‘Matchbox’ by the Beatles for this sculpture. Originally recorded as ‘Matchbox Blues’ in 1927 by Blind Lemon Jefferson, a native Texan who performed near Deep Ellum in Dallas, Bavington chose the song because of its Texas roots. Bavington, born in the United Kingdom, draws on Texas culture and Dallas history to transform the chords of the song into vibrant bands of colored steel. Through the carefully selected colors and heights in the steel pipes, the artist expresses the melody, translating the aural to the visual. Tim Bavington lives and works in Las Vegas, Nevada and is represented by Mark Moore Fine Art.
On another long term project a few hours outside Houston, MKG has been working to enhance a corporate ranch retreat with art focused on wildlife and nature. The found copper Deborah Butterfield sculpture, shown above, compliments the larger-than-life portraits of trees by Louisiana-based artist, Dawn DeDeaux
A view of a hallway towards guest quarters showcase animal portraits by Michelle Decker flanking a painting with heavy impasto of gulf oysters by John Alexander. A photograph of a cougar by Nine Francois is placed prominently along the stairwell.
Floating on a knotty pine paneled wall, April Gornik’s stunning landscape hangs in a common area of the lodge. Other common areas, shown below, highlight diverse works including a limestone and recycled redwood hawk by Jane Rosen and a sculptural gold leaf and galvanized steel wall work by Nathan Slate Joseph.
Rice Village, a shopping district near Rice University, has begun the next phase of its ongoing makeover. The latest phase will update the retail space and streetscape on the south side of Amherst Street between Kirby Drive and Kelvin Drive which will include widened sidewalks separated from vehicular zones with landscaped planters boxes, new crosswalks and public art added throughout Rice Village.
Houston Business Journal – Next phase of Rice Village transformation beginsRead More
MKG is proud to announce Houston’s newest art addition in Rice Village. California based artist Nathan Mabry recently installed a vibrant, modernistic owl perched atop a stairwell on Kelvin Drive, north of University Boulevard. The owl is Mabry’s first public sculpture in the US (he completed a large-scale sculpture in Toronto last year).
Houston’s “Rice Village,” eponymously named for the adjacent Rice University, is a cultural nexus for Houston’s Southwest inner loop neighborhoods. Inspired by Rice University’s owl mascot, Mabry created the gigantic origami sculpture from aluminum. Mabry’s work has long explored the depiction of birds from all facets of art history, and there are four life-like owls which playfully flank the sculpture’s structural scaffolding. All are monochrome, deep blue. Mabry’s work can be seen at Cherry and Martin in Culver City, CA.
MKG has been working with Trademark Property Co. to visually enhance the shopping district through a public art program. Stay tuned for upcoming MKG projects at Rice Village, including two murals by Houston based artists.
Private collections have also kept us busy at MKG, above highlighting some art additions to Houston collections. Whether working in tandem with interior designers, or directly with a collector intent on formulating a fine art collection, MKG’s expertise contributes to the definition of residential interiors.
Works by Susan Dory (hall way) and Andrew Kuo (dining room), Seattle and New York based artists, both engage color and negative/positive space. Their color, hard edges, and joie d’vivre energize these interiors.
On the other hand, mercury glass disks by Paris based artist Arik Levy, commissioned especially for this master bath, give an air of serenity to the space. Interior by ESY Design.
Aaron Parazette (above left) and Terrell James (above right), two of Houston’s best known and most established artists, punctuate each space while adding visual interest. Interior by ecco design.
Paul Villinsky’s aluminum butterflies, each unique and cut from a discarded soda can, flutter around this dining area. Villinsky’s work can be seen at Morgan Lehman in NYC.
Chinese artist Zheng Lu (b. 1978, Inner Mongolia) has long been fascinated by the properties of water, from its amorphous shape to the quality of light that glints across its surface. Lu also grew up in a literary family where the art of Chinese calligraphy played a meaningful role in his upbringing. In his stainless steel sculptures, the artist merges these two unrelated interests to create gravity-defying waves of calligraphy. Zheng Lu exhibits his work at Sundaram Tagore in NYC.
Finally, this classic Vernon Fisher painting from 2002, exemplifies his meticulously-rendered visual narratives. Woven with literary and scientific references combined with pop cultural iconography culled from his youth, Fisher’s humorous, ironic, and melancholic works exhibit paradoxical subjects and stylistic variations. Fisher’s work can be seen at Hiram Butler Gallery in Houson. Interior by Karen Burke Interiors.
Check out the Ron Mueck exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Born in Australia, and living and working in London, the artist creates exceptional hypereal. Mueck portrays his everyday subjects with extreme naturalism and stunning detail, yet always plays on scale, some figures filling an entire gallery while others a few feet tall.
The exhibition features 13 sculptures, about one third of the artist’s entire production, spanning from 1999 to 2013. The exhibition runs through August 13th.
MFAH is open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Wednesday,10 am to 9 pm Thursday, 10 am to 7 pm Friday – Saturday, and 12:15 pm to 7 pm on Sunday; closed Monday.
Opening this month at McClain Gallery is an exhibition featuring work by Gisela Colon, on view April 20th through June 17th. Born in Canada, raised in Puerto Rico, and currently working in Los Angeles, Colon’s ‘Glo-Pods’ represent the work of the next generation of California Light and Space artists. Her pods are produced using a ‘blow-molding’ technique, layering tinted acrylic sheets and molding them into the desired anamorphic shape with hot air. The ‘Glo-Pods’ have an organic quality, as the iridescent colors continually change by moving around the sculptures.
McClain Gallery is open Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm, and Saturday 12 to 5pm.
Currently on view at Sonja Roesch is an exhibition of work by California artist David Simpson. Like Gisela Colon, Simpson also uses light as a key element in his works. The paintings have an iridescent and ever changing surface depending on light and vantage point. The exhibition runs from March 25th through May 17th, 2017.
Sonja Roesch Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 6 pm.
