Proximity: Constructed Relations

• Sat, May 23, 2026 - Sat, Sep 12, 2026  9am - 5pm On View
• Saturday, Jun 6, 2026  6pm - 8pm Artist Reception

The artists of Spring Street Studios at Sawyer Yards present Proximity: Constructed Relations. This exhibition emerged through a process of visual recognition, an awareness of how works begin to interact when placed near one another or in an intentional order. While curating the work within a shared studio environment, connections surfaced across composition, color, material, and concept, shaping a curatorial approach grounded not in a predetermined theme, but in relationships discovered through sustained looking. 

Proximity: Constructed Relations was curated by Katherine Rhodes Fields, Dean of the Media, Visual, and Performing Arts Center of Excellence at Houston City College. She describes her process here:

"Through intentional pairings and spatial interventions, works are brought into dialogue, revealing
relationships that extend beyond the individual object. I want the viewer to consider how
meaning appears through proximity.

This exhibition emerged through a process of visual recognition, an awareness of how works
begin to interact when placed near one another or in an intentional order. Curating the work
within a shared studio environment, connections surfaced across composition, color, material,
and concept, shaping a curatorial approach grounded not in a predetermined theme, but in
relationships discovered through sustained looking.

While some works were conceived as diptychs or triptychs, others revealed unexpected
alignments when brought into dialogue. These pairings extend beyond formal similarity, tracing
moments of resonance, tension, and conceptual overlap that unfold across the exhibition. In this
way, the selection process became less about identifying singular works and more about
recognizing how meaning can expand through adjacency.

Rather than presenting each work as a self-contained object, the installation considers how
meaning shifts in relation. Forms echo across space, contrasts sharpen perception, and visual
conversations emerge between works that might otherwise remain independent. The exhibition
invites viewers to move between works, to notice not only what is present within each piece, but
what occurs between them.

This relational framework extends beyond the gallery walls into the studio environment itself.
Selected works are intentionally placed just outside studio thresholds, serving as points of entry
that draw viewers inward toward the artists, their processes, and the spaces where the work is
made.

My intent is for the location to operate as invitations, fostering curiosity and encouraging
dialogue between audience and artist. The exhibition does not impose a fixed theme, but proposes a series of encounters. What emerges is not a singular reading, but a network of relationships made visible, where meaning does not reside in the object alone, but in the space between or within a new arrangement created by placement."

- Katherine Rhodes Fields, Curator
April 2026

Spring Street Residents: Bob Lytle #240, Carrie Swim #108, Cheri Randolph #121, Constance Braden #207, Gabriyela Ayarzagoitia #135, Gwen Jurez #230, Jeneen Poole #225, Leonor Ratliff #106, Lou Vest #223, Meribeth Privett #114, Mona Ghazi #111, Nena Marsh #120, Stacey Manella #210, Syd Moen #130, Terry Halsey #236

Invited Guest Artists: Ashley Hope, Darla Barolini-Lawrence, Jill Foote-Hutton