Visitors asked if the Menil Drawing Institute has a permanent collection. These works answer 'yes.'
A trio of new work, two exhibitions and a wall drawing, have cropped up at the Menil Drawing Institute this fall. Their impetus is as interesting as the art itself.
Most Menil Drawing Institute shows of late have been comprised of loaned artwork or traveling exhibits. A treat for Houstonians, no question.
"Visitors have asked if we have a permanent collection," explained Kelly Montana, Menil Drawing Institute assistant curator. "The answer is, 'Of course we do!'"
And voilà -- the idea to unearth treasures from within the museum's own holdings was born.
"Fragments of Memory," which Montana curated, revisits the past to better understand the present through ephemera, such as scrapbooks. In "Out of Thin Air: Emerging Forms," curatorial associate Kirsten Marples welcomes visitors into close, complicating viewing; a recurring theme in this space is drawing as a form of meditative process.
While new wall drawing by Ronny Quevedo "C A R A A C A R A" (2024), Spanish for "face-to-face: in English, isn't from the museum's permanent collection, the commissioned work is site-specific, and will remain on view through August 2025.
Here's what to know about all three.
Quevedo, a New York-based artist, was a CORE Fellow with Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 2012 to 2014. His mother was a seamstress, his father played soccer. Nods to both dress-making patterns and the football pitch are both visible in some of "C A R A A C A R A's" freehand drawing.
The 36-foot triptych explores the relationship between origin, transfer and translation. Each panel of composition represents a different layer in the artist's process.
"He's interested in how we place ourselves in the world and project our desires," Montana said. "And how ancient populations would look at the stars. There's an interest in terrestrial movement and celestial bodies."
Sari Deines spent decades amassing artwork, community portrait and alternative archive for "Letterbox," which also includes papers, old posters, and exhibition announcements from a trip she took to Japan. The glass box display also includes letters written by Yoko Ono, hence the name.
Nearby, Barbara Chase-Riboud honors the work of people -- largely, those of color -- whose contributions were often overlooked by history.
There's an overarching feeling in this gallery that here, the things that most would blindly discard, these artists collect.
Hugging an entire wall is "Pulse" (2019) by Wardell Milan. "It's a club scene with joy and spontaneity in this collage," Montana said. "With the raw edge at the top, there's a pull into this work."
Milan depicts victims of the 2016 mass shooting, in an Orlando nightclub of the same name, as they would want to be remembered: dancing. He honors their legacy, and speaks out against violence against members of queer and Latin-American communities.
A number of works are on view for the first time. Among them, a quartet of pen and ink drawings by Gregory Masurovsky.
"They look like flitting swarms or a cloud formations," Marples suggested. "And, they appear as though if you breathed on them, they may disperse."
A copper and alloy installation, "Regla" (1990) by Alan Saret, is also on inaugural display. Marples described it as a "spiritual dimension of abstraction,' 'bursts of linear expressions' and a 'phantom life force.'
Neighboring works date from the late 1930s to present day. Many were acquired by founders John and Dominique de Menil, while others were gifts to the museum.
Collectively, they're a flex of depth and range on behalf of the drawing institute's permanent collection. And that's a gift to long-time museum supporters, too.