The Colors of Houston: ‘Huestone’ Exhibit

Huestone, an exhibit housed at River Oaks District through Sept. 20, pays homage to Houston’s unique culture through color. Each “color of Houston” is represented by a color swatch located around the district shopping complex, as well as inside a small exhibit. Huestone was created by artist James Glassman, a fifth-generation Houstonian who founded Houstorian.  

Houston has such a unique culture that is often hard to describe to others. Pair that with our cool art scene, and you have Huestone: artist-created “paint swatches” that reference oft-forgotten elements of what makes Houston so great. 

We each have ideas of what colors are important to Houston, but my favorite part of the exhibit was looking at the colors referencing pieces of Houston I think we all take for granted, including “Live Oak” (a dark shade of green), “Juice Box” (a vibrant shade of orange), “Menil” (a calming shade of gray) and my personal favorite, “Pollen” (a scarily accurate shade of yellow/green). 

The paint swatches are located along the sidewalks on the outer rim of the shops, so it’s pretty easy to take a quick walk and see all the swatches. The standalone exhibit, located near the Dior store and big parking garage, shows all of the swatches in one place, along with several “scenes” focusing on one color with an “Instagrammable” spot. I took my picture with a few of the scenes - the blue NASA setup for the color “Space City,” and a pink kooky wonderland paying homage to Wes Anderson. 

The exhibit also gave thanks to our local healthcare workers, who are already seen as rock stars in Houston. A turquoise “Scrubs” color was one of the swatches, and inside the exhibit, a patchwork quilt of scrubs from our various Houston hospitals was hung to pay tribute to our hometown heroes. 

Huestone really is for all ages - it teaches young Houstonians about facets of our city that they may not have been exposed to yet (“Orange Show,” “Crude,” “Selena”), whereas other colors allow for older Houstonians to take a trip down memory lane (“Texas Cyclone,” “Astroturf,” “Lyle”). 

In light of Covid, Huestone is taking all the precautions to keep visitors safe. Masks are required to enter to standalone exhibit (I only took mine off for the pictures, and no one else was visiting at the time). A deep clean of the exhibit occurs every day from 2-2:30. I went right at 2:40 so I could see the exhibit at its cleanest! Overall, the space itself was pretty spread out, so I never came close to anyone. 

The exhibit is free to walk in and is open through Sept. 20. Find out more details and the hours here.