Comforter
Lovie Olivia
COMPLETION DATE
2024
LOCATION
George Bush Intercontinental Airport, D-West Pier
2800 N Terminal Rd
Houston, TX 77032
District B
CLIENT
City of Houston
SPONSORING DEPARTMENT
Houston Airport System
PROJECT BUDGET
$90,000.00
Photo: Shau Lin Hon, Slyworks Photography 2024
Lovie Olivia – Comforter
Inspired by the vast ethnic and cultural diversity within Houston, histories and southern traditions of quilt making, and importantly, the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Lovie Olivia’s Comforter is a series of large-scale paintings created to reflect the love, curiosity, and pride the artist has for the city of Houston. The quilt’s design weaves together patterns and symbols that celebrate the city’s vibrant tapestry of communities and histories. The artwork serves as both a literal and metaphorical embrace, offering comfort and connection through its layers of meaning.
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HAA oversaw the artist selection, design, fabrication, and installation process for this artwork. Working diligently with sponsoring city departments, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and the selected artists, HAA created and publicized the opportunity, coordinated the panel process, managed artist communications, and monitored on-site installation. Recommendation reports were submitted at the conclusion of Artist Selection and Design phases, and a robust closeout report was provided upon project completion detailing project summary and ongoing maintenance requirements.
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The Houston Airport System (HAS) is the City of Houston’s Department of Aviation, comprised of George Bush Intercontinental Airport, William P. Hobby Airport, and Ellington Airport/Houston Spaceport. The System served 54 million passengers in 2022 and nearly 60 million in 2019. HAS positions Houston as the international passenger and cargo gateway to the South-Central United States and as a primary gateway to Latin America. It contributed $36.4 billion to the local economy in 2019 and is responsible for creating 190,000 jobs.
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This project was funded through Houston’s Civic Art Ordinance, which requires 1.75% of the budget for eligible City-funded construction projects to be spent on integrating artwork and artists' ideas in public spaces and conserving the City of Houston’s Civic Art Collection. The Houston Arts Alliance administers the civic art program for the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
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ARTS REPRESENTATIVES/PANELISTS
Alison de Lima Greene, Isabel Brown Wilson Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Melanie K. Brown, Division Manager for Customer Service, George Bush Intercontinental Airport
Andrew Czobor, Assistant Director, Terminal Management, Terminal D, George Bush Intercontinental Airport
Felicia Kizzie, Secretary, Heather Ridge Village Homeowners Association
Naiomy Guerrero, Graduate Center Teaching Fellow, The City College at The City University of New York
Nicole Mullen, Curator of Exhibitions at SFO Museum at the San Francisco International Airport
Nominating Committee
Christian Wurst, Assistant Curator of Exhibitions at the Sheldon Museum of Art
Marcela Guerrero, Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Mari Carmen Ramirez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Rita Gonzalez, Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Artist Bio
Lovie Olivia -- born, living and making in Houston Texas creates paintings, collages and sculptures that are an assembly of found and manipulated objects. Their work mines the scarce archives of Black, Queer and Womanist personifications and imagines meliorism through memory, gesture, and speculation. Inspired by the historical excavation work of writers like Christina Sharpe, Saadiya Hartman, Audre Lorde and Zora Neale Hurston. Olivia’s work hangs in numerous private and public collections including the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institute, Intercontinental Airport Houston TX, University of Texas Austin, and Brooklyn Museum. She is a recipient of three Individual Artist Awards, which are funded by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. She has exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Frist Museum Nashville TN, The Phillips Collection, DC, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn NY, 1969 Gallery Manhattan NY, Jam Gallery Brooklyn NY, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago IL, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC), Houston TX, Art Pace, San Antonio TX The Station Museum, Houston TX, Project Row Houses, Houston TX, TSU University Museum, Houston TX, Arthello Beck Gallery in Dallas TX, and more.