This Summer Gallery Show Includes a Cactus Party Favor

This Summer Gallery Show Includes a Cactus Party Favor

The cactus garden at Jonathan Hopson Gallery

THIS SCORCHING HEAT has done no favors for most plants and plant-lovers. But on Saturday, July 9, from 1-4pm, Jonathan Hopson Gallery hosts Oasis, a special “green sharing” event where visitors are invited to view some incredible art, enjoy a cool drink and purchase a specially priced cutting or potted plant from the home-based gallery’s extraordinary cactus garden.


Each summer, gallery co-owners Jonathan Hopson and Debra Barrera — who opened the gallery in 2016, and are married and parents to a ten-month-old girl named Aurora — take time to trim and share cacti cuttings from their garden with their Montrose neighbors and the larger Houston community. This year, they decided to combine the ritual with curation. Anyone who purchases a work from the exhibit can chose any size plant to take home at no cost. And if you work with public park or non-profit that has a cactus garden, Hopson and Barrera are more than happy to donate a cutting upon request.

Lauren Moya Ford's glazed ceramic piece 'Red Palm'

Guadalupe Hernandez's 'Quetzacoatl' installation


Oasis is rooted in the gallery’s current show pulp, a collection of smart and often humorous works on, made out of and/or inspired by paper. Six contemporary Texas- and Southern-based artists: Troy Dugas, Brandon Tho Harris, Guadalupe Hernandez, Hong Hong, Lauren Moya Ford, and Liz Rodda contribute to the show. For Oasis, new works by Hernandez and Ford will be on display.

Hernandez, who recently received his MFA from Houston Baptist University, and whose first solo exhibition Recuerdos Vividos is currently on view at San Antonio’s Presa House Gallery, creates meticulous, labor-intensive papel picado (or perforated paper) tissue banners that pay homage to his Mexican heritage and family history.

Meanwhile, like many young, contemporary artists, Ford’s practice embraces several mediums, including writing, printmaking, and live performance. For Oasis, she will be showing a large selection on new ceramics, which Barrera describes intriguingly as “drawings that have now become ceramics.”

Art + Entertainment
As Escape Spa Expands in 2025, Owner Has Advice on Personal Growth: ‘Focus on Intention Setting’

CHANGE IS A good thing, and with the start of a new year, I always like to reflect on how far I've come and start fresh by setting self-care goals for the coming months. Personal growth is a passion for me, and also something I enjoy. Guiding a business through growth and change is also one of my passions, so I am very pleased to announce that Escape Spa is going to be expanding in 2025! We’re honored that we’ve built such a loyal following since opening in Cypress in July of 2022, and we’re thrilled to be in a position to grow our wellness and recovery sanctuary just outside of Houston.

Keep ReadingShow less

Chairs Brady and Zane Carruth, Brittany and Adam Clark

IT ALREADY FEELS like spring in Houston and the spring social season is here with it! 375 guests donned in white-tie flocked to The Post Oak Hotel for the annual Houston Symphony Ball, one of the city’s most anticipated and A-list galas.

Keep ReadingShow less
Parties

ON JAN. 3, 2025, I observed a big personal anniversary. As of that day, it’d had been 20 years since I first moved to Houston — from the Big Apple media circus, by way of my home state of Louisiana — and began working as an editor in the lifestyle-magazine biz here. It’s been two full decades, which is hard to believe! I like to joke that I’m far too young and good-looking to have done anything for two decades. But here we are.

Keep ReadingShow less