Lucinda Cobley - matrix - O'Kane Gallery, UH-Downtown

 First off, full disclosure: I work at the University of Houston-Downtown. In the nearly five years I've been there, I've been impressed with the O'Kane Gallery and the range of artwork it has presented. Up until now, it had been in a rather small space---which made the presentations all the more impressive, I think. Kudos to gallery director, Mark Cervenka.

On Thursday, February 4, 2016, the O'Kane Gallery inaugurated a new space, just yards from its previous location. The new space offered a new installation by locally working artist, Lucinda Cobley. It is an installation entitled matrix. 

I knew the first show in the new space would be an installation, which excited me---I do love the site specific, large scale works. What I hadn't expected was that this first exhibit would be so understated and subtle.

I do love understated and subtle, as well.

In her artist's talk, Cobley talked about her piece as being a response to the history and, particularly, the location of UHD. We are situated at a juncture of two bayous (White Oak and Buffalo). These bayous have served to shape Houston in a variety of ways, and so have been mapped extensively.https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5738266808396954868#editor/target=post;postID=3221669864198158684;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link

Cobley explained that much of her research for this piece involved looking at old maps, the way they were coded, how solid lines and broken lines communicated various information. As such the installation is built on a grid that is visible via the lighting underneath.

Moreover, she wanted to express something of the natural world that the bayous bring so close to this university. As someone who regularly explores the bayous on lunch breaks, I appreciated this aspect as well.

She further went on to talk about how she wished to bring into a busy university building a place of calm and quiet. Blue dominating the color scheme certainly speaks to that intention (and less to the bayous, whose waters are not exactly blue, but I digress).

I think this photo, even more than the others, gives an idea of the scale of the new space and the installation.

I will admit that the opening of an art show is not the best circumstance for experiencing all those things. I stood with the crowd at the opening and took it in, trying to listen to what Cobley was trying to tell me with her quiet work, but it was difficult to do with people milling about, chatting, eating hors d'oeuvres, and snapping photos with friends. 

So I returned to the space on Friday, when the campus is sparsely populated anyway. When I entered, there was only the gallery attendant and two friends who, while chatting about the coming weekend, did so in hushed tones---the effect of the installation? I wondered. I definitely found experiencing it with fewer people about to have a quieting effect, the illuminated blue speaking of sky even as the grid and lines and dots spoke of the earth. I heard more, I believe, in this quiet conversation than I had the night before.

It always seems a shame that the O'Kane Gallery is a bit removed from the usual paths of Houston art-goers. It is, it seems, a destination of it's own, not something people happen upon unless they are already on the UHD campus for other reasons. I certainly never knew of it until I began working there.

But I would hope this small write-up might encourage people---particularly those who like to take time to listen to an artwork---to make their way to the campus (most easily accessed via the MetroRail) and listen to matrix. The gallery hours are:
Monday - Friday
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday
12:00 - 5-00 p.m.