Friday Focus Tour:
Jorge Pardo’s Folly with Maria Gaztambide
Friday, October 21st, 2022
12:00 – 1:00pm
Explore Folly, an immersive, architectural installation by Jorge Pardo, with a tour presented by Executive Director and Chief Curator Maria C. Gaztambide. Inspired by a garden folly, a decorative structure meant for delight rather than function, Pardo’s Folly corresponds to the natural setting of Wilhelmina’s Grove.
Event Location
University of Houston
Wilhelmina’s Grove
Parking
Metered visitor parking is available in Lot 16B, located across from Wilhelmina’s Grove near Moores Opera House in UH’s Arts District at 3333 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77004 , or in the neighboring Elgin Street Garage.
UH students, faculty and staff with a valid parking pass, regardless of assigned zone, can park in Lot 16 (Zone B) during evenings and weekends free of charge.
For new rates and other updates, check UH.edu/parking
About the Artist
Jorge Pardo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1963 and studied at the University of Illinois, Chicago and received his BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Pardo’s artwork explores the intersection of contemporary painting, design, sculpture, and architecture. Employing a broad palette of vibrant colors, eclectic patterns, and natural and industrial materials, Pardo’s works range from murals to home furnishings to collages to larger-than-life fabrications. He often transforms familiar objects into artworks with multiple meanings and purposes, such as a set of lamps displayed as both sources of illumination and as freestanding sculptures, or a sailboat exhibited as both a utilitarian, seaworthy vessel and as a striking obelisk. Working on small and monumental scales, Pardo also treats entire public spaces as vast canvases. Pardo engages viewers with works that produce great visual delight while questioning distinctions between fine art and design.
His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions including Pinacoteca de Estado São Paulo, São Paulo (2019); Hacienda la Rojeña, Tequila, MX (2019); Victoria Miro, London (2018); Petzel, New York (2017); José García, Mérida, MX (2016); David Gill Gallery, London (2015); Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (2014); neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2014); Gagosian Gallery, New York (2010); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2010); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2009); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2008); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2007).
His work is part of numerous public collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Jorge Pardo has been the recipient of many awards including the MacArthur Fellowship Award (2010); the Smithsonian American Art Museum Lucelia Artist Award (2001); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (1995).
Jorge Pardo currently lives and works in Mérida, Mexico.
Folly Public Opening and Housewarming
October 19th, 2022 | 4:00-6:00pm | Join Public Art UHS and artist Jorge Pardo for the public opening and housewarming of Folly, his new temporary commission at the University of Houston.
Liminal: A Conversation with Jorge Pardo
October 20th, 2022 | 5:00-6:00pm | Artist Jorge Pardo in conversation with María C. Gaztambide, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Public Art UHS, and Roberto Tejada, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor at UH.