VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Consulate General of Mexico and the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture present the exhibition Emilio Said - Unreal Cities: Informal Architecture Zone, on view in the College of Architecture Gallery October 7 through November 20. On Thursday, October 7, Emilio Said will give a lecture at 6:30 pm at the University of Houston College of Architecture Building Theatre, followed by the opening reception of the exhibit at 7:30 pm, at the Architecture Atrium.

Emilio Said: Unreal Cities traveling exhibit sponsored by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consists of seventeen formal abstractions. The works are created in different media, including painting, photography, blueprints, and charts. These generate visual fields that create a different meaning of the surrounding space, matching the preconceived notions of the pictorial space, and transforming them into a metropolis which in turn becomes its own abstraction.

Emilio Said’s unique exploration and dissection of the modern metropolis is the subject of this exhibition Unreal Cities: Informal Architecture Zone, in which the artist breaks down the binary opposition of form versus content through artwork in a wide range of media. The objects include paintings, drawings, sculpture, and photographs.

Through Said’s consideration of open space, the city undergoes a process of formal abstraction that encourages its interpretation as both the container and the contents of collective memory. Unreal Cities refers to the intangible space where the events and concepts that shape our realities are enacted. The artist’s term Informal Architecture refers to the structure of this cultural and social memory; it therefore stands as a metaphor for subjects such as philosophy, history, fiction, geography and poetry.

Emilio Said has exhibited throughout the Untied States and Europe, as well as in his native Mexico. His work has won acclaim for its adept exegesis of such complex subjects through representation in abstract spaces and forms that are permeated with meaning.

All events are free and open to the public.

Supported by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs in honor of the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution and the Bicentennial of its Independence, and by Bank of America.

Pictured above:  Emilio Said, detail Zone, Oil, collage, photo and resin on wood.