Michael McFadden is a Houston-based writer and arts administrator. He holds an MA in Arts Leadership from the University of Houston's College of the Arts and has worked extensively with the Houston arts community. Learn more about him at pugintheair.com.
“I think about how a traditional painting is compressed unto itself,” Nathaniel Donnett explained. “The object, ground, surface, texture, subject or non-subject, and the process of applying a substance that could be considered as paint.”
Houston is a city with many identities, from Screwston, an homage to DJ Screw, and Bayou City to the simplicity of H-Town or the more commercial Energy Capital of the World. Space City, though, is more than a nickname; it speaks to a rich history of innovation and exploration entwining the city with NASA.
There’s an old adage about how those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it, but histories are constructed through the perspective of those in power.
Pollution is a constant presence in places like Houston, one that sinks into the background of our everyday lives becoming all too tolerable until we receive severe reminders of the impact.
For 75 years, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston (CAMH) has sought to engage its community in a dialogue that stems from its inaugural exhibition: This Is Contemporary Art (1948).