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Rick Lowe (born 1961) is a
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
-based artist and community organizer, whose
Project Row Houses Project Row Houses is a development in the Third Ward area of Houston, Texas. Project Row Houses includes a group of shotgun houses restored in the 1990s. Eight houses serve as studios for visiting artists. Those houses are art studios for ar ...
is considered an important example of social-practice art. In 2014, he was among the 21 people awarded a MacArthur "genius" fellowship.


Early life and education

Lowe was born in
Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
. He was trained as a landscape painter, attending
Columbus College Columbus State University is a public university in Columbus, Georgia. Founded as Columbus College in 1958, the university was established and is administered by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. History The university w ...
in Georgia, before moving to Houston in 1985. There, he created politically charged installations and studied with muralist and painter John Biggers at
Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,00 ...
. * 1979-1982: Columbus State University, Columbus, GA. * 1990-1992: Texas Southern University, Houston, TX. * 2001-2002: Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA. * 2013-2015: Mel King Community Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. * 2015: Honorary Doctorate, Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, CA. * 2015: Honorary Doctorate Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.


Work


Project Row Houses

Project Row Houses Project Row Houses is a development in the Third Ward area of Houston, Texas. Project Row Houses includes a group of shotgun houses restored in the 1990s. Eight houses serve as studios for visiting artists. Those houses are art studios for ar ...
' mission is " to be the catalyst for transforming community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture." Employing the terminology of the German artist
Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
, Lowe describes the project as "social sculpture." He also draws inspiration from the work of artist
John T. Biggers John Thomas Biggers (April 13, 1924 – January 25, 2001) was an African-American muralist who came to prominence after the Harlem Renaissance and toward the end of World War II. Biggers created works critical of racial and economic injustice. He ...
(whose own paintings depicted Houston's shotgun homes), working from his Five Pillars: Art and Creativity; Education; Social Safety Nets; Architecture; and Sustainability. PRH dates from 1993, when Lowe and fellow founding six artists James Bettison, Bert Long, Jesse Lott, Floyd Newsum, Bert Samples, and George Smith, alongside community organizers, arranged for the "purchase and restoration of a block and a half of derelict properties — 22
shotgun houses A shotgun house is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than about wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from t ...
from the 1930s — in Houston's predominantly African American Third Ward." With funding from the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, these houses were then converted to arts spaces, revitalizing the neighborhood and providing community development for the blighted neighborhood. More than 20 years later, according to an ''
ArtNews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...
'' article, the project has grown to 49 buildings spread out over 10 blocks and has a support program for young mothers. This unusual amalgam of arts venue and community support center has served as a model for Lowe to expand into other neighborhoods in need of revitalization. The artist has initiated similar projects in the Watts Housing Project in Los Angeles, in post-Katrina
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
, and in a North Dallas neighborhood with a dense immigrant population. In 1997 Project Row Houses won the
Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...
, a national design award that seeks to identify and honor projects that address social and economic concerns of urban design.


Other projects

In 1999, Lowe served as a selection committee member for the
Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...
. He received the 8th Annual
Heinz Award The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Economy and the Enviro ...
in the Arts and Humanities in 2002. Lowe developed Trans.lation: Vickery Meadow for the
Nasher Sculpture Center Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dallas Art ...
's 10th anniversary exhibition "Nasher XChange" and Victoria Square Project in Athens, Greece as a part of
documenta 14 documenta 14 was the fourteenth edition of the art exhibition documenta and took place in 2017 in both Kassel, Germany, its traditional home, and Athens, Greece. It was held first in Athens from 8 April to 16 July, and in Kassel from 10 June ...
in 2017. Lowe served as a visiting artist at UC Berkeley Arts Research Center, a Loeb Fellow at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, Haas Center Distinguish Visitor at Stanford University, a Mel King Community Fellow at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
, Breeden Scholar at
Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest ...
, and a Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellow at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. In 2016 he joined the faculty at the University of Houston's Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. in 2014. He also sits on the board of
Mark Bradford Mark Bradford (born November 20, 1961) is an American visual artist. Born in Los Angeles, Bradford studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Recognized for his collaged painting works, which have been shown internationally, his practice al ...
’s Art + Practice Foundation.


Art market

Lowe has been represented by
Gagosian Gallery Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in P ...
 since 2021.


Honors and awards

* 1997: Silver Medal by the Rudy Bruner Awards in Urban Excellence (jointly with Project Row Houses) * 2000: American Institute of Architecture Keystone Award * 2001-2002: Loeb Fellow at Harvard University (September 2001-June 2002) * 2002: Theresa Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities * 2005: Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Governors Award * 2005-2006: Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium in San Francisco * 2006: Brandywine Lifetime Achievement Award * 2007: Innovator Fellow with the Japan Society * 2009: Skandalaris Award for Art and Architecture * 2009: US. Artists Booth Fellowship * 2010: Creative Time Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change * 2011: Visual arts “master artist” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Syrmna Beach, Florida. * 2013: President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
appointed Rick to the
National Council on the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
* 2014: MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship * 2014: Mel Kind Fellow at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
* 2015: Auburn University Breedan Scholar * 2015: University of Houston’s President’s Medallion Award * 2015: Honorary doctorate degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Otis College of Art * 2016: Served as the Stanford University Haas Center Distinguish Visitor * 2016: University of Houston, associate professor of art


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Rick MacArthur Fellows Living people 1961 births