May – June 2022
Drivers, my solo project with Public Space One
Friday, May 13, 2022 – Saturday, June 4, 2022
How do infrastructure, culture, and climate change connect?
gallery hours:
Thursday 4-6p
Friday 3-6p
Saturday 12-3p
& by appointment
Downtown IC Gallery Walk
Friday June 3, 5-8pm
Public Space One
229 N. Gilbert St.Iowa City, IA 52245
United States
March 2022
Writing the Ethanol Implosion with Public Space One, Iowa City, IA, Saturday, March 19th, 2022.
Ethanol: love it or hate it? Folks are invited to bring objects that relate to ethanol and/or petroculture to show and tell, such as your flex-fuel car keys, chemistry sets, and corn man action figures. Together we will select one of these artifacts to study and unpack unexpected connections through different lenses of inquiry, including historical, labor, economic, political, material, and symbolic dimensions. The ecosystem that we uncover during this workshop will be mapped by the artist into an installation, to go on view in late spring.
This “Writing the Implosion” workshop format is based on the writings of Donna Haraway and Joseph Dumit, and is courtesy Trash Academy of Mural Arts Philadelphia.
Fall 2020
I presented a new Sea of Oil performance lecture at the conference Experiences of Oil, at the Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger, Norway (November 24, 2020).
My recent Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Chat webinar, with Bridget McKenzie and Jessica Sim and myself, on October 7, 2020, is now subtitled and online.
Fall 2019
I am pleased to announce the Sea of Oil book release and exhibition, at the Solar Studios at Rice University, hosted by the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) at Rice.
Sea of Oil
Laura Napier
December 6 – 13, 2019
On view every day after dusk
Book Release & end-of-semester CENHS Reception:
Friday, December 6, 4 – 6pm
The Solar Studios at Rice University
At the corner of Alumni Dr. and College Way
Houston, Texas 77030
Spring 2019
Sea of Oil: Story Circle Show & Tell, Friday, March 8, 2019 DiverseWorks
I am hosting a series of Sea of Oil: Story Circle Show & Tells in Houston this spring. Here, the industry is part of everyday life. Participants are invited to bring personal items related to the oil and gas industry from coffee mugs, t-shirts, key chains, etc. for a show and tell. Items brought by participants will be discussed and photographed. All participants will receive a copy of an artist produced book, created from selected stories and images, to be released in fall 2019.
Schedule:
Friday, March 8, 6pm – DiverseWorks, Houston, TX
Saturday, June 15, 2pm – Transart Foundation, Houston, TX
Saturday, August 10, 2pm – Sterling Library, Baytown, TX
This project is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. Visit the Cultural Events Calendar here: calendar.haatx.com
February 2019
Join me at DiverseWorks in Houston Thursday, February 21, 7-9pm, for curator Ashley DeHoyos’ project, Collective Presence! What places are illegal to garden in Houston? What spaces are inaccessible to you? To others? We will create pollinator-supporting, native wildflower seed bombs together. This is a reprise of my project, Bronx Guerrillas, 2008, originally shown with the Bronx River Art Center.
January 2019
New Year’s resolution: this year I will produce an original artist book with story transcripts and photographs drawn from a new series of participatory oil and gas story circles, funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance! More details soon.
November 2018
I co-presented a workshop, Entering the Community 101, with Jessica Lorena Rangel of T.e.j.a.s., at Culture/Shift 2018 in Albuquerque, NM, hosted by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture.
How do we enter a community? How do we work intentionally in cultures different than our own? This workshop, led by an activist and an artist, gathered participants’ ideas on best practices and common pitfalls, drawing from current literature and the facilitators’ personal experiences working together and separately in Houston, Texas, and beyond. A participatory game (Rafa’ Rafa’, by Simulation Training Systems) led to feedback, discussion, and sharing of know-how from participants. This workshop welcomed artists and activists of all interests and levels.
Travel funding was generously provided by the Bedichek-Orman Grant, Houston Community College Faculty Association & HCC Foundation.
August 2018
I presented a new Sea of Oil lecture/performance about safety swag, staged a DIY O&G fashion show, and screened archival news footage at Alabama Song, Houston, Texas on Sunday, August 26.
I also presented a talk on oil and gas safety swag on the panel Creative Practices of Energy (with Ruth Beer, Nick Laessing and Kathleen Thum), during the Petrocultures 2018 conference at the University of Glasgow, UK, on August 31.
June 2018
I co-organized Lucha Por Nuestra Tierra: Arte Poder / Fight for Our Home, a hybrid, collaborative, bilingual (Spanish/English) environmental art event produced with Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, Law Office Center for Citizenship and Art, and Environmental Working Group (a local group of creatives brought together by Art Takes Action Houston) for the east end in Houston.
For the event I hosted a video booth for acting out instances of environmental harassment for the activist/artist Environmental Working Group.
May 2018
I shared strategies I employed during class on inauguration day at HCC, and during social media threats at the University of Houston, during a #CrisisPedagogy Resource Sharing Party hosted by Natilee Harren, at Flatland Gallery, Houston, Texas on May 25th.
May 2018
Environmental Working Group, a new Houston based artist/activist collaboration I am part of with t.e.j.a.s., presented during Open Platform at the Open Engagement conference at the Queens Museum in New York City on Sunday, May 13.
October 2017
I have written a new Report from Houston for the Las Vegas art blog Settlers + Nomads. Keywords: downstream: Arkema, Harvey, flooding, industrial infrastructure, upstream: Luling pump jack art; art funding, oil funding, Liberate Tate, Trump.
Documentation of art pump jacks in Luling, Texas by artist George Kalesik.
May 2017
Sea of Oil (Aramco/Texas City) was selected by M.M. Serra of Film-Maker’s Cooperative for this year’s Extremely Shorts Film Festival at Aurora Picture Show! There will be two screenings of my short on Friday May 19th, 2017 at 7pm and 9pm.
http://aurorapictureshow.org/calendar.asp?pageid=83&calid=1020
April 2017
My short video, Emilio Sanchez and the Bronx, is now archived with the University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection. As an artist, it is a great feeling to know that one’s work will be taken care of outside of one’s own studio archives. The video will be available for future scholars alongside materials donated from the Emilio Sanchez Foundation.
2016
Laura Napier, Report from Houston is now live on the Las Vegas art blog Settlers + Nomads.
2016
Sea of Oil is now supported by a Spark grant from the Idea Fund, a re-granting program in Houston administered by DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. More information at www.theideafund.org
