LOCAL Houston | The City Guide MARCH 2016

ART ART BLOCKS AT MAIN STREET SQUARE If you’re driving down Main or Dallas Streets in the coming months, pull over and take a break from the city traffic with a peaceful stroll through Main Street Square. You’ll be greeted by four year-long art installations dreamed up by the Downtown District and the Downtown District Public Art Committee, and jointly curated with the Weingarten Art Group. Artist JESSICA STOCKHOLDER, collective YesYesNo, as well as Houston’s PATRICK RENNER AND THE FLYING CARPET COLLECTIVE will each feature large-scale works on the walls surrounding the park. A fourth project will feature a rotation of works by four Texas-based artists. Jessica Stockholder’s work will take over the entire intersection at McKinney and Main Streets, covering buildings, sidewalks and even light posts with colorful pink, green and purple paint and vinyl in a work entitled Color Jam. Meanwhile, around the corner at One City Center, artist Patrick Renner and the Flying Carpet Collective will be piecing together a sixty-foot structure of recycled wood slats that will rise several stories in the air and create a covered canopy for locals to sit and enjoy their lunch or coffee. The slats were painted at a “painting party” earlier in January, where members of the public could paint slats to be used in the construction of the Trumpet Flower piece. Houston-based artist JAMAL CYRUS has designed one of the rotating pieces that will be plastered on the new Main Street Marquee, on the side of Just a 1.19 Food Store at the corner of Main and Walker. Cyrus’ artwork shows a set of playbills advertising a show by Houston blues legend LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS at the former Liberty Hall venue. “Houston really is in many ways a Southern blues city. And this piece is situated at a crossroads, which deals with a lot of blues folklore and philosophy. The crossroads is where lifechanging and transitioning events happen.” Making it the perfect spot to commemorate a Houston blues legend – and to help send this Downtown district into a new phase of beautification. For more information on the program of events surrounding the installations, visit www.downtowndistrict.org. By Emily Westbrooks Art by Jessica Stockholder 30 L O C A L | march 16

LOCAL Houston | The City Guide MARCH 2016 | Page 30