Artist Sergio Prego in Conversation

Sergio Prego "High-Rise" (2016)

Learn more about the exhibition “Rose-colored Drift/To the Students” during a conversation with Spanish artist Sergio Prego, curator Javier Sánchez Martínez and Natilee Harren, assistant professor of contemporary art history and critical studies at the University of Houston.

“Rose-colored Drift/To the Students” is the first US museum exhibition by Prego in a decade and consists of sculptures, works on paper and videos. The exhibition begins with a 14 feet high dome-like pneumatic structure made out of polyethylene and aluminum tubes that takes over the monumental high ceiling gallery at Blaffer, almost compressing its surroundings. The artist has also covered the entire surface of each of the walls and the ceiling of the gallery with more membrane structures that bulge out of the wall. As a consequence, the central piece is encapsulated between the warped membranes attached to the walls and the ceiling.

Blurring the immediate surroundings, the installation transforms the viewer’s perception of the space as well as the familiar experience of his or her own body. The exhibition continues with a second gallery also covered with bulging translucent, pneumatic membranes that contains drawings and prints. Numerous cylindrical sculptures with erotic connotations are on display on the floor. Additionally, a selection of Prego’s videos spanning 20 years is on view in the Salieri Studio on the second floor.