Asia Society Texas Announces 'Artists on Site' Series 4 Cohort
Fourth Round of Support for Houston-Based BIPOC Artists
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HOUSTON, June 8, 2023 — Asia Society Texas (AST) is thrilled to announce Tatiana Escallón, Farima Fooladi, Naomi Kuo, and Alexis Pye have been selected to participate in the fourth round of the Artists on Site (AOS) initiative that provides Houston-based BIPOC artists with space, funding, and the necessary support to experiment and take new risks. Beginning July 26, the four artists will transform AST’s galleries into public-facing artist studios — sharing their creative process with guests as the residency unfolds. Admission to view Artists on Site Series 4 (AOS 4) is FREE and open to the public Wednesday, July 26, through Sunday, August 27. The residency will conclude with a closing reception on Friday, August 25.
Born out of conversations with artists in Houston and beyond, the AOS initiative was developed in 2020 to provide space and support for artists and their practices. The Series 4 cohort are provided a $1,750 artist stipend, $500 for materials, dedicated space for five weeks, and professional documentation of their work, as well as a platform for public programming and connectivity with patrons, curators, and other arts professionals. This year’s cohort was selected by a committee including AOS 3 alumnae Luisa Duarte and Ruhee Maknojia, Contemporary Art Museum Houston Curator Patricia Restrepo, and AST’s Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions Owen Duffy.
In addition to the space and financial resources provided by the program, the connectivity and relationships developed among the members of the cohort during the residency are key benefits of the program. Working across a variety of media — including painting, fiber, and installation works — each member of the cohort brings with them a different artistic practice, lived experience, and diverse perspective. For Naomi Kuo, connectivity to the other artists in the cohort is an important component of the experience: “I’m most looking forward to connecting with the other artists and just being open to the chance meetings and conversations that can happen.” Farima Fooladi, whose work is influenced by architecture, is looking forward to being immersed in the Asia Society Texas Center itself, stating, “Architecture is a gateway in my paintings; I cannot wait to see how spending days and weeks at AST, with its unique architectural features, transforms my work. Spending five weeks creating art in a museum is humbling.”
The residency offers opportunities to witness the artistic process in-person, as well as artist talks and a closing reception. All the activities and programs in the initiative are FREE and open to the public.
Fast Facts
- Dates: Wednesday, July 26, 2023, through Sunday, August 27, 2023
- Admission: FREE
- Hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Closing Reception: August 25, 2023, 6–8 p.m.
About the Artists
Tatiana Escallón is an abstract artist, born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Escallón started her creative career as a designer and illustrator. It was years later when painting became her main language. She received her Bachelor of Graphic Design at the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano. At the same time, she took fine art courses at Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia in 1995.
In 2023, Tatiana was an invited panelist in the program "Latin American Women Artist of Houston," led by the University of Houston and Latino Art Now. She exhibited at the X WTA (Woman in Textile Art) Biennale of Contemporary Textile Art, Manizales, Colombia, (2022); Museo Silverio Perez, CDMX, Mexico (2022). Her work was awarded at Jardin de Los Artistas and is in the permanent collection of Casa Museo El Romeral, Spain since 2021; Holocaust Museum, Withstand: Latin Art In Times of Conflict, Houston, Texas (2021); V Photography Competition, "Resilient Woman Surviving Woman," 3rd place, Madrid Spain, (2021); Art Museum Texas, Sugarland, Texas; Serrano Gallery, Houston, Texas. She also has a 41 feet long mural commission piece for Sugarland Town Square, the City of Sugarland, Texas.
In 2019, Escallón was a recipient of the SACI Grant (Support for Artists and Creative Individuals), from the City of Houston through Houston Art Alliance.
Farima Fooladi was born in Tehran, Iran, in a transition period from monarchy to the Islamic Republic and theocracy. She lives in Houston, Texas. She teaches at the University of Houston.
Fooladi's paintings depict spaces using memory, compressing architecture and landscape from her upbringing in post-revolutionary Iran with those surrounding her as an adult after emigrating to the United States. She combines details from Southern Iran's arid environment with luscious flora and other specifics of her current home in Houston, Texas. Water appears as a motif in pools, waterfalls, and lakes. In Iran, a scarce resource and abundant in Houston, water plays a significant role in Fooladi's work. It is a texture and a symbol, referencing specific yet undocumentable recollections and shifting availability due to climate change.
Growing up in post-revolutionary Iran, Fooladi remembers how urban spaces and people changed gradually. She remembers how architectural open spaces became covered with materials and transparent windows became matte. She mentions the apartment she grew up in had a communal swimming pool, which didn't come to fruition. Due to the regime change, they turned it into a garden to make it more conservative. All the abandoned and repurposed swimming pools inspired the confused swimming pools in her paintings, which she and many of her generation didn't swim in while growing up in Iran.
Fooladi completed her MFA and taught at Penn State University before moving to Houston, Texas. Fooladi's painting titled "Mirage" was purchased with the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA)'s support for Houston Airports in 2020 to add to the Civic Art Collection at Houston Airports. Fooladi is fascinated by the lasting impact of collective trauma caused by invasion, migration, and displacement. The transformation of civic spaces caused by social and political changes particularly interests her. Fooladi's 8th solo show opened on January 15, 2022, at Smack Mellon in Dumbo, Brooklyn, New York. After her solo show in Dumbo Brooklyn, she was interviewed by the BBC. Her recent painting has been published in New American Paintings, No 162.
Naomi Kuo is a Taiwanese American artist based in Houston, Texas. She utilizes drawing, collage, textile-making, and various collaborative modes to make connections between social systems, material culture and individual experiences—particularly in peripheral spaces. Through her work, she hopes to address both critical and everyday gaps in cultural understanding and to contribute to the well-being of her local community. Subjects of interest include urban ecology, Asian American identity, and solidarity economies.
Kuo received an MFA in Studio Art/Social Practice at the City University of New York, Queens College. Her artwork has been exhibited in the Queens Museum of Art, Queens Public Library, and Houston City Hall, among other places. She is also a recipient of The Idea Fund grant (2023).
Alexis Pye (born 1995, Detroit, MI) explores the tradition of painting as a way to express the Black body outside of its social constructs, to evoke playfulness, wonder, and blackness, as well as the joys amidst adversity. Pye received her BFA in Painting from the University of Houston in 2018. She was selected as a Summer Studios Resident and for Round 51: Local Impact II at Project Row Houses, both in 2018. Her work was exhibited in a group show of young artists at the David Shelton Gallery for Everything's Gonna be Alright in 2019, curated by Robert Hodge. Pye received the "Juror's Choice Prize" for the 20th Annual Citywide African American Artists Exhibition held at Texas Southern University in 2019, selected by Kanitra Fletcher.
She was included in the group show Animal Crossing at Inman Gallery in 2020, and presented her first solo show, The Real and the Fantastic/The Irrational Joys of the Axis, at Inman Gallery in July 2021. In 2021, her work was included in the group exhibitions My Mirror Is Fine, curated by Miles Payne at the Community Artists Collective, Houston and Honor Thy Self at Martha's Contemporary in Austin. Her work was also in the MFAH staff art show at the Museum Fine Arts, Houston in 2021 and she has collaborated with the Houston Rockets x CAMH at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2022. She is a Round 16 "Lawndale Artist Studio Program" Participant for the 2022-2023 season.
Alexis Pye lives and works in Houston, Texas.
The Artists on Site project is organized by Asia Society Texas. Exhibitions and their related programs at Asia Society Texas are presented by Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, and Leslie and Brad Bucher. Major support comes from The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston Endowment, and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. Generous funding also provided by The Anchorage Foundation of Texas, The Clayton Fund, Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Wortham Foundation, Inc., Agnes Hsu-Tang, Ph.D. and Oscar L. Tang, and Ann Wales. United Airlines is our official airline partner. Funding is also provided through contributions from the Exhibitions Patron Circle, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional visual art to Asia Society Texas.
Presenting Sponsors
Nancy C. Allen
Leslie and Brad Bucher
Chinhui Juhn and Edward Allen
Program Sponsors
About Asia Society Texas
Asia Society Texas believes in the strength and beauty of diverse perspectives and people. As an educational institution, we advance cultural exchange by celebrating the vibrant diversity of Asia, inspiring empathy, and fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world. Spanning the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, our programming is rooted in the educational and cultural development of our community — trusting in the power of art, dialogue, and ideas to combat bias and build a more inclusive society.
