Over the summer, the Moody Center for the Arts is presenting a window series with original works by Texas-based artists. With the goal of supporting artists in this time of crisis, the Moody’s west facade College Way, just off Entrance 8 at Stockton Drive, will become an exhibition surface, offering the Rice and Houston communities original works of art to engage with, reflect on, and enjoy.

The second installation of the Moody’s Summer Window Series is by the Austin-based artist Erin Curtis. Light Shift activates the architecture of the building through color and pattern, a joyful celebration of the natural world. The windows are covered with overlapping strips of color that evoke brush strokes of paint and form new color variations. Light Shift displays a palette based on various shades of green, creating a dynamic pattern reminiscent of speckled summer light shining through trees. The artist created a work “that reflects some of the experience of being outside, under a tree canopy during a Texas summer day.” In our pandemic-stricken society the outdoors have become even more important, as they represent a place of activity as well as a site of solace and contemplation. Light Shift combines the visual pleasure of looking at art with the physical experience of being outside.

Curtis studied at Williams College and the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, and received her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, was a visiting artist at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston in 2007 and went to Jaipur, Rajasthan, on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2008-09. She has created large-scale commissioned public artworks for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, the City of Austin, and the Chicago Transit Authority. Her work explores abstraction and decoration and its connection to ecstatic visualizations of our inner and natural worlds. Her intricate compositions are filled with buzzing energy and imagery that veers from pure abstraction to fractured and veiled landscapes.

The Moody’s summer window series is organized by Associate Curator Frauke V. Josenhans.

The summer window series is made possible by the Thomas D. and Pamela Riley Smith Endowment for the Moody Center for the Arts. Major support is provided by the Louis Sudler Endowment and the Brad and Leslie Bucher Artist Endowment. Additional support is provided by the Tamara de Kuffner Fund, the Kilgore Endowment Fund, the Sewall Endowment and the Houston Arts Alliance.