Art Exhibition | Hey Young World
October 16, 2022
Featured Artists
On October 16, 2022, we had the privilege to work with the artists below in showcasing their work during our inaugural emerging artist exhibition: Hey Young World. The beautiful work was displayed at SanMan Studios, with proceeds from any work sold going to the SANMAN Foundation.
Chavonté Wright
Chavonte is from Texas. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Cum Laude, from Rice University in 2016 and her Masters in Sociology from Indiana University in 2021. Prior to graduate school, her interests in self/education/student wellness led to community organizing, classroom teaching, and work in college access. Currently an academic and artist, her work explores the ways we make our interior lives visible. Her website (chavonte.com) are some musings on the topic. Her work has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Foundation (SSRC), and the Houston Art Alliance (HAA) of the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. She can be reached at chavonte.wright1@gmail.com
Ghandiii
Ghandiii is a surrealist from New York. His art is an extension of himself. He practices what he calls autonomous painting, an intimate process of self-expression in which he experiments with various techniques in order to create a work that embodies his essence in its totality. The work portrays the duality that lives within him, reflecting a celebration of his spiritual growth while at the same time frankly displaying his struggles, such as addiction. Currently, his process starts with a pencil sketch on canvas but truly comes to life through his use of color. His first painting was completed while on psilocybin mushrooms and every painting since carries both the vibrant palette as well as the divine depth of the experience. Ghandiii aims not only to teach the viewer about himself but also to impart the spiritual gifts he has gained on his journey.
Garrett Griffin
Garrett was born into a military family and lived in several places internationally and in the states. These experiences in various cultures and environments gave him a strong interest in how societies and the natural world are organized and formed. He has taken that interest into his work, by making drawings, paintings, and sculptures that are influenced by manmade and natural forms, such as pupae, nests, redlining, and migration patterns. Garrett received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2013. After graduating, Garrett moved to New York and lived there for 6 years, showing his work in several group exhibitions and also attending the Vermont Studio Center. While in New York he freelanced at galleries as an art handler, the experience of working in and around galleries was a second education in fine arts by surrounding him with other makers and recent art graduates. The experiences of being around other painters as well as being in an art world hub helped push his work and helped him realize a return to an academic setting would help his practice, Garrett is currently attending the University of Houston for his MFA in painting.
Jonathon Jamill
Jonathon Jamill creates on the principle that there are two types of things that get labeled as “trash”: The first being actual detritus and second being things that hold value but frighten the establishment. He takes inspiration from what has been abandoned, aiming to find meaning in unconventional places in order to create art powerful enough to fall into that second category. Starting with a color, he bases the imagery of his painting on what that color evokes for him personally, he then adds accents that play with imagery until the work feels finished. Viewing himself as an adapter of things, he works diligently to express his perspective through paintings with the goal of inspiring the viewer to expand their own world view and perhaps even join the artistic conversation and create works themselves.
Abbie Preston Edmonson
Abbie Preston Edmonson is a ceramicist and object maker. She attended Valdosta State University in Georgia, graduating in 2009 with a BFA in ceramics and a secondary in painting. In 2016 Abbie founded Box Sparrow Studio, a Houston based brand creating functional ceramic works. In 2020, she was selected to participate in two celebrity design collaborations through Etsy and received a three-month residency at The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2021. Abbie is currently an MFA candidate in sculpture at The University of Houston.
She is currently serving as President on the ClayHouston board, a local 501(c)3 organization, and is the owner and founder of HTX Clay, opening in the winter of 2022. To learn more about Abbie’s work, visit www.boxsparrowstudio.com.
Remember Charles
For Charles, art is first and foremost a tool for human connection. When discussing his relationship to painting he does not focus on old masters. Instead, he shares the stories of his grandmother who bought him painting supplies as a child, an auntie who loved to draw and an uncle who taught him how to paint landscapes. Charles returned to painting after a time where his creativity was mainly serving other people. His loved ones nurtured him and by extension his craft, giving him the confidence to pursue a creative career. However, the one-sided nature of commissions became draining for Charles. He grew tired of executing the visions of others and not seeing himself in his own creations. Charles’s return to painting symbolized a commitment to himself. That commitment to authenticity creates an environment in which the viewer is able to do the same. These artworks often feature blurred and distorted figures, placing his perspective on display and encouraging those experiencing the work to question and share their own.Charles hopes engagement with his work will inspire others to create just as his family inspired him.
Douglas Welsh
Douglas Welsh is a lyrical abstract painter based in Houston and co-founder of the G5 Collective. He received his BA from Bates College and his MFA from University of Houston. Douglas has participated in group exhibitions at Foltz Fine Art, Blaffer Art Museum, Anya Tish Gallery, Box 13, Sanman Studios, Hardy and Nance Studios, Elgin Street Studios, UH Third Space Gallery, Conroe Art League and Williams Tower Gallery.
Josh Allen
Born and raised in Houston Texas, Josh was exposed to entrepreneurship, floral design, and hip-hop early on. The inspiration behind his work is rooted in travel and exploring how all forms of people embody chaos.
It twists and turns aimlessly. It tangles into knots and then loosens itself in an effort to find relief from the tension. But the relief is short-lived—for as soon as it unwinds it finds itself tangled again. This is Chaos: a vision of Josh Allen’s which uses an evolving pattern of black and white lines to draw expressions of emotion and thought that are timeless. Pulling titular inspiration from the Gang Starr track Soliloquy of Chaos, Allen uses his art to outline his worldview, his family tree, and his Third Ward upbringing. What began as the practice of drawing scribbles while in grade school has evolved into a vehicle carrying Allen’s idea for the future of art across all mediums. Welcome to A World of Chaos.
Zsavon Butler
Zsavon Butler is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist practicing with the mediums of painting, encaustics, ceramics, printmaking and drawing. Her work centers on abstract figuration, often using the body and environment to explore ideas and emotions taken from personal experience.
Born in 1979 in Woodbridge, VA, she pivoted from an uninspired IT career and rediscovered a deep passion for artmaking at American University in Washington, DC. Zsavon graduated with a BA in Visual Media. Soon after graduation, she chose to put her dreams to the side to raise her son and support her husband’s demanding career. She would continue to create in the background, showing her first exhibition in 2009.
Another relocation to Houston in 2012 reignited her art career. Exploration, experimentation and love of process has driven her recent flurry of exhibitions and private collections. Her work has been exhibited in many group shows from 2019-2022 including the Citywide African American Artist Exhibition in Houston, TX, and includes her first solo show In April 2022 at Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC).