Rick Lowe. Photo credit: Allison V. Smith.

The big news isn’t just that the acclaimed Houston artist, founder of Project Row Houses, will be the Nasher Sculpture Center’s first artist-in-residence. It’s that he’ll contine his ‘Trans.lation’ project, one of the ten works that the Nasher put up around the city as part of its tenth anniversary celebration, the Nasher XChange. For ‘Trans.lation,’ Lowe helped create a series of markets, workshops and art galleries in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood. Through his residency, the Nasher will “continue to support its growth.”

The full release:Nasher Sculpture Center Announces Houston Artist Rick Lowe as Inaugural Artist-in-Residence

Nasher XChange participant and Project Row Houses founder expands impact as social sculptor with new Nasher Sculpture Center partnership.

DALLAS, Texas (February 27, 2014) – The Nasher Sculpture Center is pleased to announce internationally-respected artist, Rick Lowe, as its inaugural artist-in-residence. Through his residency, Lowe will continue to impact the community through a variety of programs, including Trans.lation, the project he initiated for the Nasher’s 10th anniversary, city-wide exhibition, Nasher XChange.  Featuring a series of workshops, three free-standing White Cube gallery spaces for exhibitions, and Pop-up Markets in one of the most culturally diverse sections of Dallas, Vickery Meadow, Trans.lation, has enabled neighborhood residents to share their artistic talents and cultural traditions with each other and the greater Dallas community.

“We are honored to welcome Rick Lowe as the Nasher’s first Artist-in-Residence. Trans.lation has already seen important successes, and through the platform of this residency the Nasher will be able to support its continued growth. At the same time, Rick’s presence at the Nasher will allow us to benefit from the extraordinary insight, imagination, and expertise of this remarkable artist as we continue to explore the varied nature of modern and contemporary sculpture,” said Director Jeremy Strick.

Lowe has visited Dallas multiple times to hold community meetings with residents and property owners, who have shared an overwhelming desire to feel more connected to each other and to the city of Dallas, outside of Vickery Meadow. Lowe considers the research process by which he connects with and learns about a community to be an integral part of his art.

For his Nasher XChange commission, Lowe worked with an eclectic group of artists, community organizers, designers, and residents to highlight and translate the cultural diversity of Vickery Meadow as an asset for the neighborhood. Through a series of workshops and gatherings with residents, Lowe and the Trans.lation team identified residents’ creative strengths and connected them with local artists for collaboration and mentorship to ultimately engender opportunity and entrepreneurship.  Trans.lation facilitated a new vision of what public space and interaction could look like in Vickery Meadow.

“I’m very excited to be the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Nasher.  The Nasher XChange exhibition provided a platform for me to explore Trans.lation as a community engaged social sculpture project in Vickery Meadow. The residency will allow me to continue working on Trans.lation, as well as, connecting with other artists, organizations, and communities in the city,” said artist Rick Lowe.

Lowe is widely respected for one of the most successful community art projects in the world, Project Row Houses, located in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood.  There, Lowe and his team saved a series of shotgun houses from being demolished and transformed them into galleries, classrooms, studios for artist residencies, and community gathering spaces. Instead of allowing the history of an area to be erased, he created a place that nurtures a sense of togetherness and exchange.

In addition to Project Row Houses, Lowe has worked as a guest artist on a range of projects, including the Rem Koolhaas-designed Seattle Public Library; Small Business/Big Change in Anyang, South Korea, the Borough Project for the Spoleto Festival 2003 in Charleston, S.C.; and the Delray Beach Cultural Loop in Florida. His art has been exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, N.Y.; the Gwangji Biennale in Korea; the Kumamoto State Museum in Japan; and Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum and Museum of Fine Arts.

Nasher XChange was a dynamic public art exhibition celebrating the Nasher Sculpture Center’s 10th anniversary. XChange consisted of ten newly commissioned public artworks by contemporary artists at ten sites throughout the city of Dallas from October 19, 2013 to February 16, 2014. Additional commissioned artists participating in XChange included Ruben Ochoa, The Good/Bad Art Collective, Ugo Rondinone, Alfredo Jaar, Vicki Meek, Charles Long, Liz Larner, Lara Almarcegui, and Rachel Harrison.