The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

The Menil Drawing Institute has invited four artists to stretch the boundaries of drawing and offer new characterizations of what drawing can be. This exhibition features site-specific installations by Jillian Conrad, Teresita Fernández, Tony Lewis, and Constantin Luser. Each artist will have an individual gallery space to explore the experimental potential of the medium, its boundaries, and its connections with other arts, such as sculpture and architecture.

Drawings that expand beyond a sheet of paper have a rich history within the 20th century. Examples include Alexander Calder and his wire sculptures from the 1930s and artists of the 1960s, like Dorothea Rockburne and Sol LeWitt, who pushed the parameters of the medium to include text, folded papers, and wall drawings. Eluding labels and limitations, whether they be in terms of material, scale, or ephemerality, the artists in this exhibition will reveal the continuing relevance, agility, and vitality of drawing and how it remains a rich and generative area of investigation.

Jillian Conrad explores questions of materiality and intangibility. Her sculptures and works on paper often engage aspects of the landscape and everyday materials with the goal of locating thresholds between the visible and invisible. Conrad has been a professor at the University of Houston since 2009.

Teresita Fernández is well known for her public installations and large-scale sculptures. Her art offers an expansive view of the landscape, forefronting questions of geography, cartography, cosmology, and political states. Fernandez lives and works in New York City.

Tony Lewis, in an ever-expanding engagement with drawing, harnesses materials like graphite powder, torn paper, and digital projection to confront social and political topics including race, power, communication, and labor. Lewis lives and works in Chicago.

Constantin Luser employs kinetic wire sculptures that cast elaborate shadows and inspire delicate line drawings for installations that challenge and delight visitors’ perceptions. Luser lives and works in Vienna.

What drawing can be: four responses is curated by Edouard Kopp, John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Chief Curator, Menil Drawing Institute, and Kelly Montana, Associate Curator, Menil Drawing Institute.

Major funding for this exhibition is provided by Phileas—The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art. Additional support comes from the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; Dillon Kyle and Sam Lasseter; The Novum Foundation; Leslie and Shannon Sasser; Ann and Mathew Wolf Drawing Exhibition Fund; and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.