Roberta Harris Reconsidered

By Catherine D. Anspon // Mar 31, 2015

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Harris' "OK with Jack and the Jacks" (detail), 1990, is one of the works on view at the KCAM.

More Harris highlights at KCAM: "Nest in Time," 1998 and "Firefighter," 1984, both conjure post-modernism.

The much buzzed about "Texas Abstract" volume includes a chapter on Roberta Harris.

Once in a while, we get the chance to look at an artist we thought we knew and discover an entirely fresh take. So it goes with Houston talent Roberta Harris, celebrated in a doubleheader this spring.

First up, there’s the painter/sculptor’s high-energy five-decade career retrospective at the Katy Contemporary Arts Museum (KCAM, through April 19). Next, revel in an engaging pop-up show at the Mid-Main windows endeavor, aka Main Street Projects, opening Thursday, April 2, with a raucous evening of art, shopping, bites and cocktails. The show is organized by artist/gallerist Theresa Escobedo and co-curated by this scribe (through April 25).

roberta harris — The artist’s riotous painting “Primal Reality of Possibilities,” 2009, at KCAM, recalls the Pattern and Decoration movement.

As revealed at both venues, Harris’ arsenal extends from some very convincing Pattern and Decoration painting to lyrical postmodern sculpture making, as well as some wild canvases filled with figuration and an exuberant visual language that even in reproductions, jumps off the page.

Learn more about Harris in the recently release volume Texas Abstract, co-authored by curatorial eye Jim Edwards, who delves into the annals of the abstract movement in Houston alongside the wider expanse of Texas art history, including late great masters such as Forrest Bess, Toni LaSelle, Dick Wray and Dorothy Hood.