Rick Lowe Explained

Rick Lowe
Nationality:American
Occupation:artist
Known For:Social Practice Art
Education:Columbus State University (then Columbus College);
Texas Southern University
Awards:Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities (2002)
MacArthur fellowship

Rick Lowe (born 1961) is a Houston-based artist and community organizer, whose Project Row Houses is considered an important example of social-practice art. In 2014, he was among the 21 people awarded a MacArthur "genius" fellowship.[1]

Early life and education

Lowe was born in Eufaula, Alabama as the eighth of twelve children[2] on a sharecropping farm.[3] He was trained as a landscape painter, attending Columbus College in Georgia, before moving to Houston in 1985.[4] There, he created politically charged installations and studied with muralist and painter John Biggers at Texas Southern University.[5] [6]

Work

Project Row Houses

Project Row Houses' mission is " to be the catalyst for transforming community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture."[7] Employing the terminology of the German artist Joseph Beuys, Lowe describes the project as "social sculpture."[8] [9] He also draws inspiration from the work of artist John T. Biggers (whose own paintings depicted Houston's shotgun houses), working from his Five Pillars: Art and Creativity; Education; Social Safety Nets; Architecture; and Sustainability.[10] [11]

PRH dates from 1993, when Lowe and fellow founding six artists James Bettison, Bert Long Jr., Jesse Lott, Floyd Newsum, Bert Samples, and George Smith, alongside community organizers, arranged for the "purchase and restoration of a block and a half of derelict properties — 22 shotgun houses from the 1930s — in Houston's predominantly African American Third Ward."[12] [13] With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation,[14] these houses were then converted to arts spaces, revitalizing the neighborhood and providing community development for the blighted neighborhood. More than 20 years later, according to an ArtNews article, the project has grown to 49 buildings spread out over 10 blocks and has a support program for young mothers.[15]

This unusual amalgam of arts venue and community support center has served as a model for Lowe to expand into other neighborhoods in need of revitalization. The artist has initiated similar projects in the Watts Housing Project in Los Angeles, in post-Katrina New Orleans, and in a North Dallas neighborhood with a dense immigrant population.[16]

In 1997 Project Row Houses won the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, a national design award that seeks to identify and honor projects that address social and economic concerns of urban design.[17]

Other projects

In 1999, Lowe served as a selection committee member for the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.[18] He received the 8th Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities in 2002.[19]

Lowe developed Trans.lation: Vickery Meadow for the Nasher Sculpture Center's 10th anniversary exhibition "Nasher XChange" and Victoria Square Project in Athens, Greece as a part of documenta 14 in 2017.

Lowe served as a visiting artist at University of California, Berkeley Arts Research Center, a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, Haas Center Distinguish Visitor at Stanford University, a Mel King Community Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Breeden Scholar at Auburn University, and a Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago. In 2016 he joined the faculty at the University of Houston's Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. in 2014.[20] [21] He also sits on the board of Mark Bradford’s Art + Practice Foundation.[22] Lowe had a critically reviewed inaugural exhibition at Storage Art Gallery by artist Onyedika Chuke in 2021, which was Lowe's Manhattan debut exhibition, described by Artforum as "paradigmatic".[23] His first exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in the fall of 2022 further solidified his work interrogates social structures, probing questions on wealth disparity, architectural inequity, and aerial discrepancies.[24] [25]

Art market

Lowe has been represented by Gagosian Gallery since 2021.[26]

Honors and awards

External links

"Rick Lowe Maps the Unknown" on the National Gallery of Art's "West to East" stories page

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The New York Times. September 17, 2014. September 29, 2014. MacArthur Awards Go to 21 Diverse Fellows. The New York Times.
  2. Web site: Huebner . Michael . September 17, 2014 . Alabama Artist Rick Lowe Receives $625K MacArthur 'Genius Grant' . May 1, 2024 . AL.com . en-US.
  3. Book: Rick Lowe . Gagosian and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society . 2024 . 9781951449452 . Sargent . Antwaun . New York and Chicago . en-US . Roelstraete . Dieter.
  4. News: Sewing . Joy . May 27, 2016 . Project Row Houses Melds Art and Community in the Third Ward . May 1, 2016 . The Houston Chronicle . en-US.
  5. News: Kriston Capps. How a Houston Housing Project Earned a MacArthur Grant. 6 October 2014. Atlantic City Labs. Sep 19, 2014.
  6. Tom Finkelpearl, "Interview: Rick Lowe on Designing Project Row Houses," in Dialogues in Public Art, ed. Tom Finkelpearl (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000), 243.
  7. Web site: Project Row Houses. Project Row Houses. 2016-02-05.
  8. Web site: Interview with Rick Lowe Art Practical. Art Practical. 2016-02-05. Bad at. Sports.
  9. Web site: About PRH. Project Row Houses. 2016-02-05.
  10. Web site: Interview with Rick Lowe Art Practical. Art Practical. 2016-02-05. Bad at. Sports.
  11. Web site: About PRH. Project Row Houses. 2016-02-05.
  12. Web site: MacArthur Foundation website. September 17, 2014. September 29, 2014. MacArthur Fellows / Meet the Class of 2014 Rick Lowe. MacArthur Foundation.
  13. Web site: Mission + History. Project Row Houses Mission + History. 23 April 2016.
  14. Nikil Saval (December 3, 2015), Three Artists Who Think Outside the Box T.
  15. Web site: How the Art of Social Practice Is Changing the World, One Row House at a Time. April 7, 2014. September 29, 2014. ArtNews. Miranda. Carolina A..
  16. Web site: Rick Lowe — MacArthur Foundation. www.macfound.org. 2016-02-05.
  17. Web site: Call for Entries: $50,000 Award for Urban Excellence.
  18. Web site: Rick Lowe. Rudy Bruner Award. en-US. 2019-03-22.
  19. Web site: Heinz Awards - Rick Lowe.
  20. Web site: Interview with Rick Lowe Art Practical. Art Practical. 2016-02-05. Bad at. Sports.
  21. Web site: MacArthur Foundation website. September 17, 2014. September 29, 2014. MacArthur Fellows / Meet the Class of 2014 Rick Lowe. MacArthur Foundation.
  22. Nikil Saval (December 3, 2015), Three Artists Who Think Outside the Box T.
  23. Web site: Chamberlain . Colby . Colby Chamberlain on "Storage_" . 2023-05-21 . www.artforum.com . en-US.
  24. Web site: Amadour . Ricky . Don't Miss These 10 New York Art Shows . 2023-05-21 . www.culturedmag.com . en.
  25. Web site: Master . Web . Fuse . Arte . 2022-10-09 . Art Exhibits, Art Magazine, Contemporary Art, Art Blogs, Art Artists . 2023-05-21 . ArteFuse . en-US.
  26. Maximilìano Durón (September 20, 2021), Gagosian Now Represents Rick Lowe, Whose Art Has Its Roots in Local Communities ARTnews.
  27. Web site: White House Archives . President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts . 11 April 2013 .
  28. Web site: Rick Lowe Wins $625,000 MacArthur Genius Award . 17 September 2014 .

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