Terry Suprean Terry Suprean (he/him) is an artist, arts organizer, and educator based in Houston, Texas. He spent his youth embedded in the activist punk movements of the 90’s playing in bands and show promoting in his hometown of New Orleans before moving to Houston in his early 20’s. Before being turned onto visual art by Houston artist Virgil Grotfeldt in undergraduate school, he was a physics major—an influence still felt his experimental, process-based approach to painting and paint making. Suprean has worked since 2014 as an art organizer and curator; first through Civic TV, an artist-run gallery space he founded in Houston’s warehouse district dedicated to collaborative curatorial practices and exhibiting new media art and experimental music. After Civic TV closed during the pandemic, he opened Ruth Street Projects in 2022—a small community-centered gallery run out of a spare room in his home. Ruth Street Projects is currently active producing exhibitions for Houston-based artists several times a year. These art organizing projects, influenced by Joseph Beuys’ “Social Sculpture” model, have been as important and essential to Suprean’s practice as his studio work. Artist Statement: Suprean's painting process is best understood as an experimental approach to the material nature of paint itself, and the paintings as a genre of diaphanous landscape painting situated within the beginning moments of the Anthropocene. His practice starts with the manufacturing of acrylic paints made from experimental binders that allow for the development of painting processes (what Suprean calls Paint Systems) that reflect environmental processes, and pigments that are mineral-based and sourced from the earth (i.e. mineral and gold dusts that emit a glittery, holographic glow). These paints have various viscosities and chemical properties and are applied layer by layer to canvases laid flat. In this way the paintings build up slowly over time like sedimentary landscapes—by manipulating the way each layer of paint interacts with another (or water) the painting processes begin to mirror geological forces; such as the way tectonic layers shift, oceans carve shorelines, or the way water evaporation effects the life cycle of glaciers. Everything seen in Suprean’s paintings are results of these processes (no brushes are used in their creation)—although some paintings have more finite shapes, these are created by tearing up layers of paint. Suprean’s paintings record a highly physical interaction between the artist and the canvas as each layer of his highly fluid paint is manipulated through the lifting, titling, pushing, and angling of the canvas—and at times, after the paint has dried, the ripping up of layers to excavate what is underneath. Suprean’s paintings take inspiration from landscapes as diverse as the Gulf Coast, glaciers, images from the Mars Rover, as well as satellite imaging of earth. Artist Interview Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION2005 M.F.A. Painting, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX2003 BA English & BA Studio Art, Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS2023 Futurescapes – Reeves Art & Design, Houston, TX2022 Five Artists Five Rooms – Reeves Art & Design, Houston, TX (five simultaneous solo shows in the gallery's five rooms)2021 Our Secret Sadness – Bill Arning Exhibitions, Houston, TX2018 Spectral Dregs & Reflective Topographies – Pablo Cardoza Gallery, Houston, TX2015 Radiant Beings of New Flesh – Civic TV Collective, Houston, TX2014 Being In Danger – Peveto Fine Art, Houston, TX2010 Genesis – The Temporary Space, Houston, TX2006 Watery Domestic – Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas, TX 2005 Works From 2005 – Texas Christian University Gallery, Fort Worth, TX SELECTED TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS2019 Earthly Delights – with Melinda Laszczynski – ARC House, Houston, TX2014 Before Disappearing Into The Wilderness – with Andy Grotfeldt – Beefhaus Collective, Dallas, TX2009 We Buy Gold – with Andy Grotfeldt – The Grotfeldt Estate, Houston, TX2004 Fishtanks – with Blakely Dadson – TCU Campus-Department of Art and Art History, Fort Worth, TX SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2023 Crossroads – Big Medium, Austin, TX2022 For Ellen – Hardy Nance Studios 2022 Art League Houston – Annual Auction & Gala 2021 Chromamania – Dallas Art Fair (via Bill Arning Exhibitions booth) – Dallas, TX2021 Tectonic Abstraction – Bill Arning Exhibitions, Houston, TX2021 Art League Houston – Annual Auction & Gala 2020 Plans for The Fall – Bill Arning Exhibitions, Houston, TX2020 Art League Houston – Annual Auction & Gala 2019 Art League Houston – Annual Auction & Gala 2019 Contemporary Art Museum Houston Annual Gala Auction & Exhibition – Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Houston, TX2019 Midas Touch – Midas Touch Warehouse, Houston, TX 2018 Celebrating Zhang Diqian 120 Years & 40 Years Of Chinese American Diplomatic Relations – China Town Cultural District, Houston, TX2018 Entropy – Flatland Gallery, Houston, TX2018 Art League Houston – Annual Auction & Gala 2018 Texas Contemporary Art Fair – Pablo Cardoza Gallery Booth, Houston, TX2018 Give Me Shelter – Civic TV Laboratories, Houston, TX2018 Dangerous Professors – Flatland Gallery, Houston, TX2012 Funkmotor – Peveto Fine Art, Houston, TX 2008 Faculty Exhibition – Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX2007 Faculty Exhibition – Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX2005 Double Vision – The Old Jail Museum, Albany, TX 2005 Paper Or Plastic – University of Dallas, Dallas, TX2003 Figuratively Speaking – Gallery 414, Fort Worth, TX GRANTS AWARDS2020 Idea Fund Grant, Catalyst Grant, Administered by DiverseWorks in partnership with Aurora Picture Show and Project Row Houses and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts2020 Let Creativity Happen! Grant, Administered by Houston Arts Alliance PUBLICATIONS2023 Houstonia Magazine, Fall 2023 – Home is Where the Art Is by Daniel Renfrow – Feature on Home Galleries and interview with Ruth Street Projects founder Terry Suprean 2022 The Great God Pan is Dead – Watching Artists as They Age by Robert Boyd – Exhibition Review of Five Artists Five Rooms2021 PaperCity Dallas, Winter 2021 – Dallas Art Fair Returns by Catherine Anspon – Featured artist in article about the return of the Dallas Art Fair2021 City Book Houston, March 2021 – Terry Suprean Paints a Colorful Commentary on the Apocalypse by Daniel Renfrow – Review of Solo Exhibition Our Secret Sadness at Bill Arning Exhibitions ARTS ORGANIZINGFounder & Organizer of Ruth Street Projects—an artist-run art space in Houston, Texas (2022 - Present)https://www.instagram.com/ruth_street_projects/Founder & Visual Arts Curator of Civic TV—an artist-run gallery and social practice space based in Houston, Texas (2014 - 2020).Archive Link9 - An exhibition guest curated for the 2020 Fotofest Biennial – Fotofest Biennial WarehousesArchive LinkGive Me Shelter - A series of ongoing cross-pollination exhibitions & gestures between artists residing in Houston and Dallas.​Archive Link 1Archive Link 2Common Field Convening - Guest Speaker on Nomadic Art Organizing with Jessie Bowman of FLATS Presents and j. bilhan.