Members
At Throughline, our artist members are the lifeblood of our creative community. They come from various backgrounds and disciplines, including painters, sculptors, photographers, multimedia artists, and beyond. Each member brings their unique perspective, techniques, and inspirations, enriching the collective artistic journey. Their artworks range from abstract and thought-provoking to vibrant and whimsical, showcasing the diversity and talent within our organization. Collaborations and discussions among the artist members foster an environment of growth, innovation, and artistic exploration. Through their dedication and passion, our artist members continually push artistic boundaries, inspiring fellow artists and the local community. Throughline is proud to provide a platform for these talented individuals to showcase their work, connect with like-minded creatives, and contribute to Houston’s thriving arts scene.
Beatriz Bellorin is a Venezuelan-American photo and video-based artist and documentary filmmaker who uses the archive to examine narratives related to memory, displacement, and identity. Her artistic practice combines anthropological research and autobiography to delve into the way these documents overlap, interconnect, and confuse notions of memory evoked by emotional and collective aspects of social issues. She holds a BA in sociology from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela) and an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London. She studied photography at the Nelson Garrido Organization (Caracas) and is currently participating in the artistic training program Ecosistema de Afectos (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Selected group and solo shows include Holocaust Museum Houston, Post, Houston, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Aperture Foundation, Museum Fine Arts Houston in the traveling group exhibition of Latin American Photobooks, and Espacio MAD, Caracas. Beatriz work has been featured in publications such as Visions of Motherhood, La fotografía impresa en Venezuela, Sur- Revista de foto libros latinoamericanos and Clap 10x10: Contemporary Latin American Photobooks 2000-2016. She is co-founder of Automático Films, Foco Sustentable, and Centro Lyra, organizations dedicated to sustainable development and storytelling for at-risk populations in Latin America. She lives and works in Houston. www.beatrizbellorin.com
Carolina Borja was born in San Diego, California and raised in Mexico City. Her Industrial Design and Mexican Folk Art background is prominent in her art practice. She delves into themes of urban growth, mobility, and cross-cultural dynamics, resulting in sculptural installations and public art works. She is attracted to incorporating found objects, paper, concrete, and wood. Borja has been a recipient of several accolades, such as the ArtPrize Pitch Night award and grants from the City of Houston and Forecast Public Art. Her recent public art projects have been commissioned by institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The City of Sugarland, and The Alley Theatre. In addition to her studio work, Borja has contributed to cultural institutions like Ruta de la Amistad and Art Shanty Projects. Borja lives and works in Houston, TX. www.carolinaborjastudio.com
Angela Chen 陳勇氣 (she/her) is a Taiwanese-American photo-based artist, writer, and educator from the ethno-burbs of the San Gabriel Valley, California. Her early work combines autobiographical texts with photographs from personal and family archives to explore the immigrant experience, the process of assimilation, and intergenerational trauma. In the past few years, she has embraced an expanded mixed-media practice that calls attention to immigrant materialities and ecological entanglements. Using assemblage as a metaphor for diasporic identity- and world-building, her most recent work incorporates a range of media — photographic prints and transparencies, photo transfers, textile, plastic, and everyday detritus. Foregrounding how the act of photographing is embedded in specific political and ecological realities, she weighs her photos down, printing on fabric and encasing photographs in plastic. Angela is a graduate of the Yale School of Art, where she was an Alice Kimball Traveling Fellow and an Art and Social Justice Grantee. She previously taught photography at New York University, and is currently a photography lecturer at Rice University. angelachen.info
Jonas Criscoe is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited throughout the United States, most notably the International Print Center in New York and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Criscoe has also been featured in various art publications, Including Art Lies and New American Painting and has been a Jerome Fellow at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking as well as a West Prize acquisition recipient. A native of Austin, Texas, he received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and the University of Texas at Austin, and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently, he is on the Faculty at Austin Community College and was a founding member of ICOSA, an artists run space located in Austin, TX. Jonascrsicoe.com
Margaux Crump is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the entanglements between ecology, folklore, and magic. She is currently investigating the phenomena of the unseen, from the microscopic to the mythic worlds that surround us. Her work exists in a deep web of relationships where she co-creates alongside different forms of consciousness: animals, plants, fungi, spirits, stones, light, and subatomic particles. Taking form primarily through sculpture, photography, painting, and ritual, her work traces threads of the mythic, magical, and imaginal across disciplines and histories in search of how they inhabit and trouble the present. Crump has exhibited across the United States, most notably at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO; Women and Their Work, Austin, TX, DiverseWorks, Houston, TX, and Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY. She is a recent recipient of the Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award. Crump holds a MFA in studio art from Washington University in St. Louis. www.margauxcrump.com
Diana Davis My interest in the way constructed space shapes our understanding of ourselves and our experience of the world drives both my engagement with architecture and visual art. Since the Renaissance, artists have placed their subjects against or within a constructed architectural setting, and the development of perspectival representation has directly influenced the way we comprehend our environments. As abstract art began to prevail in the twentieth century, representations of the built environment in visual art did not keep pace with our contemporary lived experience, outside of some notable examples such as the work of Edward Hopper, David Hockey, and others, who seek to address contemporary Western settings in representational painting. My visual art is the product of my deep belief in the psychological power and impact of contemporary architecture and our physical engagement with contemporary objects. It seeks to capture the poetics of light and shadow that arise in unexpected ways from the sculptural forms of architecture and to obfuscate the classical understanding of subject and object. It alludes to the sense of personal isolation felt in our contemporary society and to the loss of the scale of the body as a measure of space. While utilizing a painterly technique and drawing on the tradition of oil on canvas painting, it also attempts to blur the line between representation and abstraction, much in the way contemporary architecture challenges traditional definitions of shelter.
Luisa Duarte is an accomplished Venezuelan American multidisciplinary artist currently based in Houston, Texas. With a background in architecture, Duarte's artistic creations reflect a unique sensibility that is evident in all her works. Having relocated to the United States in 2003, she embarked on a journey of art exploration, engaging in independent studies at renowned institutions such as The Southwest School of Arts in San Antonio, The Glassell School of Art, Art League Houston, among others. Duarte has garnered widespread recognition for her distinctive and original artistic style, characterized by sharp-edged shapes that range from composed monotypes to vibrant paintings. Her art draws attention to compelling themes of boundaries, fragility, personal and public spaces, inviting viewers to reflect upon these captivating subjects. Duarte has recently served as an artist in residence at the Asia Society of Texas and the new P.A.C Art Residency, further deepening her artistic practice and expanding her creative horizons. In recognition of her talent and contributions to the art world, Duarte was selected to showcase her work in the exhibition "Texas Artists: Women of Abstraction" held at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi. Her artistic endeavors have been honored with the prestigious 2019 "Cities Initiative Grant" awarded by the Houston Arts Alliance, underscoring her commitment to artistic excellence and community engagement. www.luisa-duarte.com
Jake Eshelman is an artist and visual researcher exploring the complex relationships between people, our environment, and everyone we share it with. Working to transcend the notion that humanity is somehow separate from—or superior to—the natural world, his work creates opportunities to address anthropocentrism and (re)consider our ecological kinships. Eshelman has exhibited internationally including Vantaa Art Museum Artsi in Helsinki, Finland; Contemporary Calgary in Alberta, Canada; Houston Center for Photography in Houston, TX; The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge University, UK; Rhode Island School of Design, RI; and Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, UK. His photographs are in the permanent collections at Harvard University and have also been published in National Geographic. He is a recent recipient of the City’s Initiative Grant administered by Houston Arts Alliance, as well as the Idea Fund Individual Artist Grant. www.jakeeshelman.com
Garland Fielder has been involved in the arts for several decades, as a practicing/exhibiting artist, arts educator, art writer and finally architectural designer. His current practice includes a comingling of an architectural design practice, a fine art studio and a music production studio, with intended overlay. Born in 1971, Garland received an MFA in studio art from the University of North Texas in 2005, moving on to earn a MARCH1 in architecture from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015. His art has been included in several publications, most recently in New American Paintings #138; he has contributed to critical reviews for such publications as Artforum, ArtLies, Glasstire and Art Papers. His first solo architectural design was completed in March 2019 in Houston, Texas, where he currently resides. garlandfielder.com
Jeanette “Joy” Harris is a Houston-based artist, curator, and artistic researcher focused on the multi-dimensionality of performance and its intersection with philosophy. She is particularly interested in the constellations that emerge from the discourse between dance, performance art, vocality, and opera in the 20th and 21st centuries. Over the past 25 years, Joy has created projects that involve performance art, dance, video, photography, installation, and public engagement. She has shown creative work regionally, nationally, and internationally, including a solo show at Lawndale Art Center (Houston) and a video short at Aurora Picture Show’s “Extremely Shorts” festival. She has been involved in projects in Chicago, Dallas, Helsinki, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, the Netherlands, New Orleans, New York City, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, and Venice (IT). Her performances have been published in Emergency Index Volumes 9 and 10. Joy started her creative life in ballet and modern dance. She danced for several Texas-based dance companies and was a guest choreographer for two regional ballet companies. She was a social dance instructor at the University of North Texas. Joy’s research is rooted in Continental philosophy, strongly emphasizing phenomenology as a mode for experiencing and describing performance structures. She has presented papers at the American Political Science Association; American Society for Aesthetics; University of Cambridge, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics; Center for Phenomenology in South Africa; Carleton University Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies; Centre for Applied Politics, Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Brighton; Literary Landscapes: Forms of Knowledge in the Humanities at La Sorbonne Université; New Mexico Texas Philosophical Society; and Society for Italian Philosophy. Joy was a scholar in residence at the Hannah Arendt Institute at Bard College, is a three-time presenter at the Arendt Circle, and published a book review on Arendt and Adriana Cavarero in Arendt Studies. Joy is pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought at the European Graduate School. She completed an MscR in art history with an emphasis on performance from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in government with an emphasis in political philosophy from Texas Woman’s University. She has guest lectured at Texas Woman’s University, University of North Texas, and Houston Community College. She has spoken at public programs at the Jung Center Houston and Houston’s public philosophy network “Philosophically Drinking.” Joy has published articles in Glasstire, Hyperallergic, Beautiful Decay, smART Magazine, and Political Animal, among others. jeanettejoyharris.me
Heather L. Johnson is a cross-disciplinary artist whose drawings, embroideries and installations explore intersections between nature, mechanical systems, human emotion and climate change. Her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and the public realm internationally. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and has been awarded artist residencies at Grand Canyon National Park; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; Villa Bergerie (Spain); McColl Center for Visual Art, and other institutions. Heather is best known for her multi-year project “In Search of the Frightening and Beautiful”, for which she traveled solo by motorcycle throughout the Americas, making artworks on the road and giving them to strangers. During the pandemic she launched “Artificial Heart”, a wearable art practice of hand-making bags from repurposed materials, which she embroiders with maps and diagrams sourced for her non-commercial work. Both projects enable her ideas to travel beyond the confines of gallery walls.www.heatherljohnson.com
Cindee Travis Klement (B.1957 Dell City/El Paso, Texas) is a Houston-based visual artist who works in sculpture, printmaking, and social sculpture. Her recent work addresses conservation issues, looking specifically at living soil's ability to sequester carbon, soak up rainwater, and support wildlife. Klement incorporates systems thinking approaches to create a functional balance between healthy ecosystems, human economics, and societal landscape norms. Her work records our natural history to the collective memory so that it will no longer be endangered knowledge. Current and recent works include Echoes of Existence: A Journey Through Nature’s Narratives to Redefine the Anthropocene, a work in progress she is building with students in southern Indiana; Symbiosis, a social sculpture and living site-specific installation in the Lawndale Art Center Sculpture Garden (Houston, TX); Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus, a sculpture presented as part of Sculpture Month, an annual exhibit in the Silos (Houston, TX); and Rumblings, a collection-in-progress of monumental watercolor monotypes. Klement is an engaged Artist-in-Residency at Indiana University, Bloomington - Fall 2023 & Spring/Summer 2024. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed "August 24th, 2021, Cindee Klement Day" for her work to revitalize the community through art and conservation. She was named a finalist for the Artadia Awards in 2020 and 2021. Klement completed the BLOCK Program at The Glassell School of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2018. Cindeeklement.com
Molly Koehn is an artist and designer based in Houston, TX. She received an MFA with an emphasis in fibers from Arizona State University (2017), and her work continues to carry on the delicate, expressive qualities of her background and BFA in drawing from Fort Hays State University (2013). Melding a practice of drawing, weaving, and sculptural installation, Molly’s work examines idealizations of nature. She responds to urban structure through material and construction, exploring why we choose to seemingly improve the aesthetic appearance of our surroundings by often eradicating the “natural” in preference of the artificial. In addition to keeping a studio practice, Molly also teaches workshops and classes regularly. www.mollykoehn.com
Gabriel Martinez started making artwork in Washington, DC during the time of the USA PATRIOT ACT, the DC sniper, and the anthrax attacks. He writes, “the ground immediately around me seemed like the most fertile place to find inspiration and begin an assessment of the artist's role in a society where walking through the streets is at once pleasurable, precarious, and subjugating. Since then, my art has explored relationships produced by the built environment and the body's experience of history.” Martinez has exhibited his work in such venues as DiverseWorks, Artpace, Galveston Artist Residency, Blaffer Art Museum, Moody Center for the Arts, and Art in General (NYC); and has performed sound compositions at Lawndale Art Center, Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Menil Collection, and The Orange Show, among other sites. He has been awarded numerous prestigious artist residencies, grants and awards, and his projects and artworks have appeared in several publications. He currently lives in Houston, TX.
Colleen Maynard I am a visual artist, writer, and administrator. I make highly detailed, large-scale drawings of marine invertebrates, prehistoric fossils, and overlooked life forms using analogue drafting tools and collage. Riveted by the complex anatomical and mechanical structures of these animals and colonies, I consider my drawings reverse dissections. Absorbing myself in the intricacies of each specimen and putting faith in deep geological time offers me a temporary life preserver to quiet down my concerns about humanity’s global environmental and social devastation, but I’m not averse to the human traces of fashion magazines, the laboratory, and engineering handiwork. To counteract these figurative field digs, I write poems and short fiction about the horrifying rituals of adolescence, familial absurdities, and orienting the world as a Queer, lifelong pedestrian and cyclist. My writing has appeared in places such as AGNI, matchbook, and Sand Journal. Most at home in a library or lab, I have collaborated with the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, University of Texas Medical Branch Pathology, and Emporia State University Geology Museum. I hold writing and painting majors from the Kansas City Art Institute, and studied botanical illustration at Illinois Natural History Survey.
Born in Paris, France, Carolina Otero is a Venezuelan visual artist currently based in Houston, Texas. A graduate of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, Otero works with painting, mixed media, collage, printmaking, photography, plaster and ceramics. In addition to her lifelong practice as an artist, Otero relishes teaching art. Her interest in learning creative processes has led her to pursue independent studies related to pedagogy and human development. Solo Exhibitions include Beatriz Gil Galería, Caracas; The Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, Houston; Pinta Miami Art Fair 2017, Pinta Platform, Galería Regina, Houston; French Alliance Gallery, Galería Okyo, Galería Félix and Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela; Asociación Ateneo de Aragua, Ateneo de Maracay, Venezuela; Galerie des 7 voies, Paris, France; Thereses Kunstsalong, Oslo, Norway. Group Exhibitions include Lawndale Art Center, Houston; Lone Star College, Kingwood; Archway Gallery, Houston; Amarillo Museum of Art; Holocaust Museum Houston; Sicardi Ayers Bacino, Artbox Gallery, The Union (Houston, Texas); Nina Torres, Miami; National Gallery of Art, and Mario Abreu Contemporary Art Museum, Venezuela. Her work is represented in private and public collections in the United States, Canada, France, Norway, England, Australi a, Colombia, and Venezuela. Reviews, interviews, and others have been published in mainstream newspapers and magazines in Venezuela, Norway, and the United States. Carolina illustrated the children’s book Las Historias de Miguel Vicente Pata Caliente, written by renowned Venezuelan author Orlando Araujo, that was published in the 1970s.
Ellen H Ray is a Houston based, interdisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in meditation and the study of genetic and spiritual connections, especially where it leads to healing between communities, and between humans and the natural world. She makes paintings, drawings, and objects in which trees, root systems, organic and spiritual imagery, and vibration patterns are recurring themes that speak to her interest in the way the Earth communicates and holds memory, and the way all beings can connect through consciousness. After studying painting at University of North Texas, she began a sole proprietor decorative arts business in Dallas, which she ran for nearly twenty years. In 2015, Ray moved to Houston and returned to her art education at Glassell School of Art, the education arm of the Museum of Fine Art Houston. She was selected for the 2 year studio intensive GlassellBLOCK program ( cohorts XIX and XX ). Her work has shown in private galleries, colleges, and art centers including Monterosso Gallery, Bosque Gallery, Lone Star Cyfair, Jung Center Houston, Tank Space Houston, and Mönchskirche Cultural Center in Salzwedel, Germany. Her work is included the Baylor College of Medicine collection and in many private collections throughout Texas and the US. Future work includes an opportunity to collaborate with scientists and researchers at a nearby college where she will further her research on genetic connections across life forms and what impact consciousness has on the planet.
JR Roykovich (JRR) is a conceptual & research-based artist, working In/Between New York, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis and now Houston. JRR’s current practice explores relationships with one's specific location, intersected with the psychic history that resides at that site. Utilizing the lens, JRR investigates and intuits the spatial exchanges occurring among entities at these locations, while documenting the geo-spectral networks embedded within. This data is then used to create immersive installations containing arrangements of made and found objects, photographs, drawings, performance documentation and video. The work connects site to spirit, and serves as a nerve center to find new phenomenological mythologies.
JRR holds an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and a BFA in Art and Visual Technology from George Mason University. Residencies attended include the Galveston Artist Residency, the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, the Chautauqua Institution, and The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. JRR has also held teaching positions at Rutgers University, George Mason University, Gustavus Adolphus College and most recently, Rice University. JRR has shown work throughout the United States, as well as internationally, and has work in several public and private collections. jrroykovich.com
Alexander Squier is an interdisciplinary artist who works across media including printmaking, drawing, sculpture, installation, video and sound. He is interested in cycles of construction and destruction, and thinks critically about our natural and built surroundings, questioning human legacy as it is represented by the man-made environment. Through his work, he aims to blur time, creating new contexts for reconsidering our landscape. Squier earned his Bachelor's Degree in Studio Arts from the University of Rochester in 2010, and his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (Tufts University) in 2013. He taught printmaking there before returning to his hometown of Houston in 2015 to complete Remnants / Visions, an installation converting a derelict house in Sharpstown into an archaeological museum of the area. Squier received the city's "Individual Artist Grant" in 2018 to complete Earthly Bodies: The Houston Brick Archive, a mobile museum and archive of bricks collected over several years from all around the city. Currently, Squier has a studio at BOX 13 Artspace in Houston's East End, and serves as the Exhibitions Director at the Sawyer Yards art studio complex. Squier also teaches locally at the Art League Houston and the Houston Printing Museum. He has also taught at the University of Houston, and headed up the Printmaking Department at the Glassell School of Art (MFAH) from 2016 - 2020. alexandersquier.com
Sarah Sudhoff is a Cuban-American artist based in Houston, Tx. Her work has been exhibited at Blaffer Art Museum, McNay Art Museum, Donggang Photo Museum, Austin Museum of Art, Pioneer Works, Luckman Gallery, Magenta Foundation, Filter Photo, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, Galveston Arts Center, and the Colorado Photographic Arts Center. Articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Time, Cabinet, and Southwest Contemporary. Sudhoff’s research and residencies have been supported by Artpace, Tiffany Foundation, Penland School of Craft, McColl Art Center, Houston Arts Alliance, Kinsey Institute, the DoSeum, and DOMUS Artist Residency in Italy. Sudhoff's recent visiting artist lectures include Rice University, RMIT University in Melbourne, Rhode Island School of Design, Blaffer Art Museum, Health & Wellbeing International Conference in Oxford, England, and Material Selves: Health, Gender and Performance symposium at the University of London. Sudhoff’s recent and forthcoming exhibitions, public installations and performances include; Vignette Art Fair, Dallas; Sculpture Month Houston, Houston; Idea Fund/MATCH, Houston; Gatewood Gallery, UNC, Greensboro; Visual Arts Center, Richmond; DOMUS Artist Residency, Italy; Houston Center for Photography, Houston; Canopy Projects, Austin; Aurora Picture Show, Houston, Texas; Satellite Art Fair, Miami; Blaffer Art Museum, Houston; Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio; Ellio Fine Art, Houston; and the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock. Sudhoff completed an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design, New York, and a BA in Journalism and Photography from the University of Texas at Austin. sarahsudhoff.com
