House of Cards presented by Bracewell LLP is a public-art piece by Israel-based design studio OGE Group consisting of 126 oversized playing cards, each of which features a unique piece of artwork.
During the day, the cards’ crisp white lines and colorful images will dazzle. At night, the structure will be animated to create the illusion of the house of cards rising, collapsing and being rebuilt.
The artists of OGE Group and the Discovery Green Conservancy see the House of Cards installation as a visual metaphor for how vital each piece of the community is for its overall strength and structure. Covid-19 has been a real-world example of just how interconnected we are and we’ve discovered we truly are stronger together.
In its original state, a house of cards is a fragile creation. This House of Cards is monumental and stable. At this moment, which feels very fragile, we welcome a House of Cards that stands strong as an international collaboration.
Public Viewing
Daytime viewing gives perhaps the best opportunity to view the individual cards made by 20 Houston artists and other artists from around the world, accompanied by the music score.
Nighttime viewing is a dramatic show: where the lighting and animation comes alive. Over a ten-minute cycle the installation animates in sync with the music, demonstrating the House of Cards building up and crashing down.
COVID-19 related safety measures
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- For everyone’s safety, masks or face coverings are required.
- Fencing around House of Cards allows individuals and families to enjoy viewing while socially distanced from other members of the public.
- Reservations are requested for viewing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. You can register on eventbrite here.
Reservations
Monday – Thursday and weekend daytime reservations are not necessary.
Friday – Sunday evenings reservations are strongly encouraged for viewing from 6 – 10 pm to help manage crowd size.
You can reserve at time to view House of Cards presented by Bracewell LLP through eventbrite. Click here.
There is no cost to attend.
Twenty Houston artists were selected to have their designs included to represent the city as the installation continues to tour the world. (Artist information below.)
Many thanks to Hilton Americas for being a sponsor. Make a reservation now.
The Houston artists selected are:
Daria Aksenova
Daria Aksenova is best known for her pen and ink, suspended, cut paper narrative shadowboxes. The current focus of her work is the creation of cinematographic storytelling through constructed dynamism – arising from layering and complexity of composition – within a static media, inspired by her past experience with the fashion and film industries.
dariaaksenova.com
Sharon Loy Anderson
Sharon Loy Anderson is a multi-media artist located in Texas. She was a commercial and newspaper artist in Houston. Later she became an illustrator and exhibits designer at the Houston Zoological Gardens. Art is a diary of her life. Each piece is a thought, a memory, or an experience through which media expresses the stories in colorful paint. Her work is signed with her middle name LOY. sharonloyanderson.com
Debra Barrera
debrabarrera.com
Vivienne Dang
Vivienne Dang is a Houston-based artist and designer in the U.S. who likes to explore the world of symbolism and surrealism. She incorporates her fascination for human emotions into her concepts and has been exhibited both locally and internationally. Vivienne is an advocate for public art and prefers to work large scale. She believes that art helps people see what is there but not easily perceived. Vivienne loves to experiment as an artist and hopes to share her joy of illustrating with people through her work.
viviennedang.com
Linh-Tran Do
Linh-Tran Do is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Houston, Texas. She communicates stories through visuals and words as a cross-disciplinarian artist, practicing at the intersection of design, illustration, and fine arts. Though she draws inspiration from many sources, her work often explores the duality of being Vietnamese-American as well as the importance of cultural representation and mental health awareness.
linhtrando.com
Bill Ferenc
www.billferenc.com
Vincent Fink
Born April 1st, 1984 and growing up in the ever-growing greater Houston area, Vincent Fink is an award-winning contemporary surrealist & full-time artist working out of his Winter Street Studio in the Arts District where he tirelessly adds to a multitude of expansive projects. His first series, Atlas Metamorphosis, started in 2010 with vigorously detailed greyscale sumi ink drawings spawned from a lucid dream. Since then, his art evolves from his series of Sacred Geometry Surrealism paintings, called Iterations, to multimedia public art and installations including sculpture and animation. The subconscious, with its symbolic storytelling, has always played a part in his cultural narrative message.
www.vincentfink.com
Moni Garwil
Moni Yael Garwil is a designer, illustrator, and artist with a thinking through making manifesto. Constantly striving for the best version of herself Moni has come to grow as a multifaceted creative with strong critical thinking skills and detail-oriented artistry. Exploration, thoughtfulness, and progressive activism have come to drive her professional and personal works.
http://moni.is
Nela Garzón
Nela Garzón is a multidisciplinary visual artist mostly working in painting but with a profound interest in exploring other media inspired by traditional crafts and cultures from all over the world. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, she obtained a Bachelor’s of Visual Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana on 2004. Garzón’s art explores the importance of identity and the transgression of acculturation, it encompasses topics such as: colonialism, racism, social injustice, immigration, the American dream and human behavior amongst others.
www.minkstereo.com
Sebastian Gomez de la Torre
Sebastian Gomez de la Torre was born and raised in Peru and emigrated to the US in 2001. After receiving his BFA in Illustration from the College for Creative Studies, he worked at different places throughout Houston. Currently he is a freelance artist and designer working in Montrose.
illseabass.com
Sherry Tseng Hill
Sherry Tseng Hill was born in Taiwan and lived there until she was a young teenager. She first picked up a paint brush when she was 7 years old and since then, has explored art in a variety of media. Reflecting the multi-layered world we live in, she often layers imagery and pattern, and plays with combining opposite expressions: the soft and the hard, the transparent and the opaque, the flat and the spatial, the literal and the abstract.
www.sherrytsenghill.com/art.html
Hedwige Jacobs
Hedwige Jacobs is a Singapore born Dutch artist. She currently lives and works in Houston. “Everything I do starts from a drawing” says Jacobs. Her drawings are made with simple materials such as pencils, pens and markers on paper. These form the basis from which she creates animations and site-specific installations. It is here where the drawing comes alive for a few seconds. They question how personal and shared space are experienced.
www.hedwigejacobs.com
Patrick Joven
Patrick Joven is a self-taught artist who pursues hobbies such as making music, making art, playing sports, exercising, watching movies, and learning. All of these interests are the foundation of where he gets the ideas for his art. His goal is not to just to create and sell his works, but to give a piece of himself to whoever wants it and hope that they get something in return out of it. He hopes to not only relate to certain feelings and ignite deep thought with the symbolism in his surrealistic art, but to also feed minds with informative art on the human body. www.instagram.com/biocreative_arts/
Heather Ohuabunwa
Heather Ohuabunwa was born in Louisiana but considers herself a true Texan, having grown up in The Woodlands, Texas. She studied at the University of Houston and graduated in 2016 with a BA in Art. She works in Houston as a freelance artist and graphic designer. She works mostly in watercolor and acrylic paint and the Adobe Suite programs but also enjoys working with screen print, ceramics, and other media. www.instagram.com/aycho.art/
Zeus Paredes
Born in Manila, Philippines, Zeus P Paredes grew up playing in the rough streets of his neighborhood “Tondo” with concrete pipes and metal roofs as play structures as well as the idyllic countryside, spending his days taking naps in mango trees and exploring the mountains of Zambales. Zeus’ training started with the influence of his family, following the footsteps of his grandfather and father who were architects. For the last decade, Zeus has been rediscovering his artist’s voice culminating in over 300 pieces focused on his representation of the human experience through pen and ink.
zevsartworks.wixsite.com/home
Hugo Perez
Hugo Pérez lives and works in Houston, Texas. In 2018 he co-founded the art collective:Qollective, which aims to investigate contemporary social issues through visual and performance art. Pérez produces figurative paintings, drawings, and prints that carry an autobiographical emphasis. Pérez, whose influences range from early 20th century cubism to post-painterly abstraction, says that his practice reflects a sense of duality, a result of his Latin American heritage.
hugoperezart.com
Carra Sykes
Janice Tauro
Janice Tauro is a Houston-based illustrator who has been working under the name Journeybunny for more than 3 years. Heavily inspired by 90’s anime, Janice pursued a career in art where she’s found herself most at home creating digital and watercolor pieces. Janice believes in passing skills on to the next generation of artists in Houston, and spends time teaching art classes at Honey Art Café with students of all skill levels. Janice works as a freelance artist, creating portraits and personalized branding for clients both locally and across the world. Janice regularly exhibits her artwork at anime and pop culture conventions in Texas, and is constantly exploring new creepy-cute ideas for her next illustration series.
journeybunnyart.tumblr.com
David Tsai
David Tsai is a designer and artist based in Houston, Texas. His work is inspired by the mind/body, nature, technology, the future and interactions. Ideas he explores range from the roles of objects and their relationship to man, to musings on the now. David embraces both analog and digital technologies and utilizes both to realize his work. David has exhibited work both domestically and abroad, among the cities exhibited in are New York City, Milan, Chicago and Houston.
davidtsaidesignstudio.com
Jasmine Zelaya
Jasmine Zelaya is a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute and received her BFA in Painting in 2006. In 2008, she was awarded a residency through the Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project, in Kansas City, Missouri. Based in Houston, her work has been exhibited throughout the US. In 2018, her painting “Twins” was displayed on the Main Street Marquee, a billboard- sized installation displayed on the exterior of the Main Street Market building in Downtown Houston. Her work has been included in several publications within the US and internationally, including ArtMaze Magazine, and New American Paintings West Issue #132, for which she was the cover artist.
www.instagram.com/Z_E_L_A_Y_A/