October 27, 2023–March 10, 2024
120 Fine Arts Building
Houston, Texas 77204
United States
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10am–5pm,
Saturday–Sunday 12–5pm
T +1 713 743 9521
infoblaffer@uh.edu
Participating artists: Gwenneth Boelens, Benvenuto Chavajay Ixtetelá, ektor garcia, Lonnie Holley, Anna Mayer, Na Mira, Kate Newby, Josie Ann Teets, Chiffon Thomas, Iris Touliatou, Clémence de La Tour du Pin
The Blaffer Art Museum, in partnership with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston, is proud to present Intimate confession is a project guest curated by Jennifer Teets.
Intimate confession is a project is a group exhibition that considers transmission, intergenerational life, and cultural inheritance through the prism of intimacy and infrastructure. Through the work of eleven artists spanning generations and geographies, the exhibition thinks through infrastructure as an intimate holding cell, capable of affective and affirmative power.
The title is borrowed from a sonnet line by poet Juliana Spahr, and is recast to reflect on the relational infrastructures of cultural material. In recent years, a surge of scholarship on the built and unbuilt environments has emerged contrasting “humans, things, words, and non-humans into patterned conjunctures,” to quote feminist theorist Michelle Murphy. This exhibition examines how infrastructures can be understood as “affective” in their varied expressions of movement and imprint on cultural life.
With major support from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston, this exhibition will debut new commissions and site-specific projects that expand on material and immaterial histories of Houston. At times they refer to the unique context of the Blaffer, connecting art to other fields of knowledge and experience.
Intimate confession is a project is accompanied by a rich public program featuring talks, readings, concerts, and performances in connection with a range of citywide and institutional partners across the exhibition’s six-month run, including Basket Books & Art, the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Collection, Institute for Global Engagement, Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality, Project Row Houses, and UH School of Art.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog designed by Espace Ness, Paris and co-published by Inventory Press in 2024, featuring essays and writings by exhibition curator Jennifer Teets, poets Juliana Spahr, Roberto Tejada, Lara Mimosa Montes, theorists Ara Wilson and Kai Bosworth, and cultural critic Orit Gat, amongst others. This exhibition and its accompanying catalog and public programs are made possible with funding from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. The exhibition is also made possible with funding from The Mondriaan Fund, Dutch Culture Fund USA, and Etant donnés Contemporary Art, a program of Villa Albertine.
The Intimate confession is a project exhibition and public programs are organized by guest curator Jennifer Teets.
Related upcoming exhibition events:
October 27, 6–8pm: Opening reception
Live performance by B L A C K I E in collaboration with Ciarán Finlayson, 7pm
B L A C K I E All Caps With Spaces (official name) is an international experimental noise artist from Houston, Texas. They make raw stage performances with high volume sounds that often escalate into spiritual realms. They are a pioneer of Noise-Rap and considered to be highly influential in the wider American underground music scene.
October 28, 6:30–8:30pm: “The Book of Na,“ artist reading and recent works
Location: Basket Books & Art, 115 Hyde Park Blvd, Houston, TX 77006
Na Mira’s art practice uses intuition and perception to find emergent forms, particularly in language. Her recent publication, The Book of Na (Wendy’s Subway, 2022) features automatic writing and other divination practices. Join us at Basket Books & Art for an intimate reading with the artist alongside five guest readers: Nancy Douthey, Lara Mimosa Montes, JD Pluecker, Michael D. Snediker, and Kenneth Tam. An exhibition of new and recent drawings by the artist will be on view at Basket Books & Art through November.
About Blaffer Art Museum
Founded in 1973, Blaffer Art Museum is the contemporary art museum at the University of Houston. Its exhibitions and programs are always free and open to the public, striving to create community through dialogue, engagement, and participation. The Blaffer is a catalyst for creative innovation, experimentation, and scholarship, fostering collaborative opportunities across disciplines. For more information, please e-mail infoblaffer [at] uh.edu or visit blafferartmuseum.org.
