Asia Society Texas Announces 'Artists on Site' Series 3 Cohort

• For high-resolution images, please email Stephanie Todd-Wong, Director of Communications and Audience Engagement: STWong@AsiaSociety.org
• To download a PDF copy of this release, please click here

HOUSTON, July 11, 2022 — Asia Society Texas (ASTX) enthusiastically announces Luisa Duarte, Ruhee Maknojia, Matt Manalo, and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley have been selected to participate in the third round of the Artists on Site initiative that provides Houston-based BIPOC artists with space, funding, and the necessary support to experiment and take new risks. Beginning July 20, the four artists will transform ASTX’s galleries into public-facing artist studios — sharing their creative process with guests as the residency unfolds. Admission to view Artists on Site Series 3 (AOS 3) is FREE and open to the public Wednesday, July 20, through Sunday, August 28.  

Born out of conversations with artists in Houston and beyond, the AOS initiative was developed in 2020 to provide space and support for artists and their practices. The Series 3 cohort — selected with input from nominators Bridget Bray, Jennie Ash (Art League), Preetika Rajgariah (AOS 2), and Bennie Flores Ansell (AOS 2) — are provided a $1,750 artist stipend, $500 for materials, dedicated space for six weeks, and professional documentation of their work, as well as a platform for public programming and connectivity with patrons, curators, and other arts professionals. 

In addition to the space and financial resources provided by the program, the connectivity and relationships developed between the members of the cohort during the residency are key benefits of the program. Working across a variety of media — including painting, sculpture, textile production, printmaking, and installation — each member of the cohort brings with them a different artistic practice, lived experience, and diverse perspective. According to artist Matt Manalo, founder of Filipinx Artists of Houston, he is “looking forward to sharing the space with Ruhee, Luisa, and Lanecia and learning about their practice while investing in my own.” Lisa Duarte, a Venezuelan American artist whose background in architecture and design informs her art, is excited to work alongside her colleagues in a space that “inspires peace and tranquility, invites time for reflection, and that will surely transform the work to be created.”

The residency offers opportunities to witness the artistic process in-person, as well as artist talks and a closing reception. All the activities and programs in the initiative are FREE and open to the public.

Fast Facts

• Dates: Wednesday, July 20, 2022 – Sunday, August 28, 2022
• Admission: Free
• Hours: Wednesday – Friday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

About the Artists

Houston-based artist Luisa Duarte is a Venezuelan /American contemporary artist. She received her Bachelor’s in Architecture from the Universidad del Zulia, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, in 1987. 

Duarte's work has been exhibited in various institutions around the world, including the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas; The Museum of Geometric and Madi Art in Dallas, Texas; The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Zulia, Maczul in Maracaibo, Venezuela; The Museo of Miranda in Los Teques, Venezuela; the Galveston Arts Center in Galveston, Texas; and the 2017 Texas Biennial in Austin, Texas. 

Most recently, Duarte’s work was selected for inclusion in a major exhibition at the Art Museum of South Texas, Texas Artists - Women in Abstraction (2022); and a solo exhibition of her work, Inseparable Ties, was curated by Kinzelman Art Consulting, and exhibited in the TC Energy Building, Houston Texas (2021).

In 2019, Duarte was a recipient of the Houston Art Alliance’s City’s Initiative Grant; and she received first place in the 10th Annual Visual Arts Alliance juried invitational in 2016.

Ruhee Maknojia is an artist currently based in Houston, Texas. She holds an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Columbia University (2019). Her conceptual research and art practice developed around the rich heritage of textile and patterning and how they can act as a base to raise questions about contemporary ethics, values, and power structures in an ever-growing and interconnected world. 

In anthropology, clothing is one of the early indicators distinguishing humans from animals. From pre-history to the present day, textile, to some degree, holds a language of universality that binds the human condition. Throughout history, prints depicted on various fabrics have continually evolved and signify how different individuals, groups, and cultures decorate bodies and their surroundings. Painting patterns act as a base to speak to contemporary life and embody practices in Maknojia's work that produce connections between the local and the global, the individual and the collective, and aesthetics and identities. 

Drawing from her environment, growing up in the United States in an Indian-Pakistani home, Maknojia colorfully unfolds traditional wisdom from a place of intuition and intention. Pulling from many different South-Asian and American histories and philosophies to highlight the intersecting complexities of contemporary life through patterns and repetition. 

Her art engages a broad audience across various topics by using marks and symbols from her environment and leaving imagery open-ended to encourage the viewer to complete the story. Maknojia's engagements translate into site-specific installation, video, painting, drawing, and printmaking. 

Select exhibitions include One Flower | One Life, Box 13 ArtSpace, Houston, TX (2022); Time Won't Tell, Project Gallery V, New York City (2021); The Happiness Curriculum, Eastern Connecticut State University Gallery, Connecticut (2019); Harlem Perspectives II, Faction Art Projects Gallery, New York City (2019); Feel That Other Day Running Underneath This One, Time Square Space, New York City (2018); and 42/18, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York City (2018).

Matt Manalo is a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Manila, Philippines, and resides in Houston. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting at the University of Houston.

His environmentally conscious work incorporates raw materials and found objects and tackles ideas surrounding his own immigrant identity, displacement, and how “home” is defined. Manalo is influenced by the physical and social structures that exist in both the Philippines and the United States as well as the erasure of histories and presence of colorism that have resulted from colonization. 

His work was recently seen in the exhibition, Carriers: The Body as a Site of Danger and Desire, Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas curated by Tyler Blackwell and Steven Matijcio and he is included in the 2021 Texas Biennial: A New Landscape/ A Possible Horizon curated by Evan Garza and Ryan Dennis.

Manalo is the founder of Filipinx Artists of Houston, a collective of visual, performing, literary, culinary, and multidisciplinary artists. He also runs an alternative art space: Alief Art House, a hub for creativity that highlights the cultural richness of the multiple communities within a unique Houston neighborhood.

Lanecia Rouse Tinsley is a multidisciplinary artist who splits time between Houston, TX, and Richmond, VA. Her portfolio includes a range of abstract painting, photography, teaching, writing, speaking, and curatorial projects for various non-profit organizations. 

Lanecia is the Artist-in-Residence at Holy Family HTX (2017-Present). She is a Co-founding Creative Director for the ImagiNoir Equity Group, an international alliance and community development and equity group of black activists, artists, writers, scholars, philanthropists, and educators. In addition, she is the Director of Justice and the Arts with projectCURATE. She was recently the 2020-2021 Artist-in-Residence for the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) at Rice University. 

Lanecia has exhibited at Urban Zin Gallery, New York City, NY (2021 + 2022), The Brooklyn Collective, Charlotte, NC (2021 + 2022), Monterroso Gallery, Houston, TX (2022), Duke University Chapel (2022) ; Collect it for the Culture, Houston, TX; Houston First Corporation, Houston, TX (2021); Inman Gallery, Houston, TX (2020); Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2020); Community Artists’ Collective, Houston, TX (2020); Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI; Forth and Nomad Gallery, Houston, TX (2019); American Church in Paris, Paris, France where she did a 1-month residency (2018); and Fourth Chapter Gallery, Kansas City, MO (2017 + 2021). 

Lanecia is a graduate of Duke University Divinity School and Wofford College. Aside from shows/exhibitions, you can see her work at the Hardy + Nance Streets in Houston, TX and High Dawn Studios in Richmond, VA.

This project is organized by Asia Society Texas. Exhibitions and their related programs at Asia Society Texas are presented by Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, and Leslie and Brad Bucher. Major support comes from The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston Endowment, and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. Generous funding also provided by The Anchorage Foundation of Texas, The Clayton Fund, Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Wortham Foundation, Inc., and Ann Wales. United Airlines is our official airline partner. Funding is also provided through contributions from the Exhibitions Patron Circle, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional visual art to Asia Society Texas.

About Asia Society Texas

Asia Society Texas believes in the strength and beauty of diverse perspectives and people. As an educational institution, we advance cultural exchange by celebrating the vibrant diversity of Asia, inspiring empathy, and fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world. Spanning the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, our programming is rooted in the educational and cultural development of our community — trusting in the power of art, dialogue, and ideas to combat bias and build a more inclusive society.