Art Cars Take Off at Houston’s Airports and The Parade Fun Beckons — Creative Rides Take Centerstage

Flying out of Terminal A at IAH recently, I was greeted by a startling site in the middle of the terminal that stopped foot traffic — a dazzling art car, tricked out in contortions of metal, Mardi Gras worthy beads and heavily bejeweled surfaces crowned by a rock ‘n’ roll figure in a yellow jacket raising a British Union Jack flag.

This vehicle, I later learned, was the first place winner in the Orange Show’s 2016 Houston Art Car Parade. Titled Bohemian Rhapsody: A Tribute to Queen and erected upon a 2004 Nissan Sentra, it was created that year as a collaboration between legendary art car maker/teacher Rebecca Bass and the Houston Heights High School Art Car Club.

A bookend to this tricked out art car is Hobby Airport’s lobby installation of another creation by the same team: Pride and Joy: A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, the 2019 winner of the Mayor’s Cup Prize in the Orange Show’s Art Car Parade.

“Having art cars (at the airports) has been my dream since starting here five years ago,” says Houston Airports curator of public art Alton DuLaney — the force behind Houston Airport Systems capturing the 2023 World Airport Award for the Best Art. “I actually pitched the idea of art cars in my job interview.”

Both of these raucous rolling artworks will hold court into next spring, generating excitement for the art car movement and the upcoming parade put on annually by the Orange Show Center of Visionary Art (which also collaborated with Houston Airport Systems and DuLaney on the airport displays).

The Orange Show’s 37th Annual Houston Art Car Parade Presented by Team Gillman — the oldest and largest art car gathering anywhere on the globe — rolls into action next Saturday, April 13 at 2 pm. The coveted grand marshal spot goes to the man at the top of Saint Arnold Brewing Company Brock Wagner, a storied art car and Orange Show supporter. (Wagner’s brewery sales team drive company art cars, and there’s always a phalanx of arty wheels parked at Saint Arnold.)

We never miss parade day’s VIPit Party & Benefit, which takes place from noon to 4 pm at Hermann Square by City Hall, bringing bites, adult beverages and swell people watching, along with the best seats to watching the Art Car Parade in town.

Just in: California-based art car and Burning Man artist David Best — creator of the Temple burned annually at Black Rock Desert, Nevada — has been anointed the 2024 Orange Show artist in residence. Watch for Best astride one of his art car confabulations at this year’s parade.

You can also be there for the big reveal of Best’s 12 by 12 by 24 foot Houston Temple, crafted from salvaged wood, at the Art Car Ball next Friday, April 12 from 6 pm to 11 pm at the Orange Show World HQ. Designed as a space for contemplation, Best’s Houston Temple will be burned in an elaborate ritualistic ceremony this December.

The Orange Show’s Art Car Ball takes place next Friday, April 12 from 6 pm to 11 pm at Orange Show World HQ, located at 2401 Munger Steet. The Art Car Parade VIPit Party & Benefit is set for next Saturday, April 13 from noon to 4 pm. The 37th Annual Houston Art Car Parade Presented by Team Gillman rolls out on Saturday, April 13 at 2 pm For more information, go here.