Rick Lowe

Lowe was born in Eufaula, Alabama as the eighth of twelve children{{Cite web |last=Huebner |first=Michael |date=September 17, 2014 |title=Alabama Artist Rick Lowe Receives $625K MacArthur 'Genius Grant' |url=https://www.al.com/entertainment/2014/09/alabama_artist_rick_lowe_recei.html |access-date=May 1, 2024 |website=AL.com |language=en-US}} on a sharecropping farm.{{Cite book |title=Rick Lowe |date= |publisher=Gagosian and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society |year=2024 |isbn=9781951449452 |editor-last=Sargent |editor-first=Antwaun |location=New York and Chicago |publication-date= |language=en-US |editor-last2=Roelstraete |editor-first2=Dieter}} He was trained as a landscape painter, attending Columbus College in Georgia, before moving to Houston in 1985.{{Cite news |last=Sewing |first=Joy |date=May 27, 2016 |title=Project Row Houses Melds Art and Community in the Third Ward |url=https://www.chron.com/local/history/culture-scene/article/Project-Row-Houses-melds-art-and-community-in-the-7950310.php |access-date=May 1, 2016 |work=The Houston Chronicle |language=en-US}} There, he created politically charged installations and studied with muralist and painter John Biggers at Texas Southern University.{{cite news|author1=Kriston Capps|title=How a Houston Housing Project Earned a MacArthur Grant|url=http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/09/how-a-houston-housing-project-earned-a-macarthur-grant/380401/|access-date=6 October 2014|work=Atlantic City Labs|date=Sep 19, 2014}}Tom Finkelpearl, "Interview: Rick Lowe on Designing Project Row Houses," in Dialogues in Public Art, ed. Tom Finkelpearl (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000), 243.

• 1979-1982: Columbus State University, Columbus, GA.
• 1990-1992: Texas Southern University, Houston, TX.
• 2001-2002: Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA.
• 2013-2015: Mel King Community Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Project Row Houses' mission is " to be the catalyst for transforming community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture."{{Cite web|title = Project Row Houses|url = http://projectrowhouses.org/|website = Project Row Houses|access-date = 2016-02-05}} Employing the terminology of the German artist Joseph Beuys, Lowe describes the project as "social sculpture."{{Cite web|title = Interview with Rick Lowe {{!}} Art Practical|url = http://www.artpractical.com/column/interview-with-rick-lowe/|website = Art Practical|access-date = 2016-02-05|first = Bad at|last = Sports}}{{Cite web|title = About PRH|url = http://projectrowhouses.org/about/about-prh/|website = Project Row Houses|access-date = 2016-02-05}} He also draws inspiration from the work of artist John T. Biggers (whose own paintings depicted Houston's shotgun houses), working from his Five Pillars: Art and Creativity; Education; Social Safety Nets; Architecture; and Sustainability.{{Cite web|title = Interview with Rick Lowe {{!}} Art Practical|url = http://www.artpractical.com/column/interview-with-rick-lowe/|website = Art Practical|access-date = 2016-02-05|first = Bad at|last = Sports}}{{Cite web|title = About PRH|url = http://projectrowhouses.org/about/about-prh/|website = Project Row Houses|access-date = 2016-02-05}}

PRH dates from 1993, when Lowe and fellow founding six artists James Bettison, Bert Long Jr., Jesse Lott, Floyd Newsum, Bert Samples, and George Smith, alongside community organizers, arranged for the "purchase and restoration of a block and a half of derelict properties — 22 shotgun houses from the 1930s — in Houston's predominantly African American Third Ward."{{Cite web|url = http://www.macfound.org/fellows/920/|title = MacArthur Foundation website|date = September 17, 2014|access-date = September 29, 2014|website = MacArthur Fellows / Meet the Class of 2014 Rick Lowe|publisher = MacArthur Foundation|last = |first = }}{{cite web|url=http://projectrowhouses.org/about/mission-history/|website=Project Row Houses Mission + History|access-date=23 April 2016|title=Mission + History}} With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation,Nikil Saval (December 3, 2015), [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/t-magazine/art/theaster-gates-mark-bradford-rick-lowe-profile.html Three Artists Who Think Outside the Box] T. these houses were then converted to arts spaces, revitalizing the neighborhood and providing community development for the blighted neighborhood. More than 20 years later, according to an ArtNews article, the project has grown to 49 buildings spread out over 10 blocks and has a support program for young mothers.{{Cite web|url = http://www.artnews.com/2014/04/07/art-of-social-practice-is-changing-the-world-one-row-house-at-a-time/|title = How the Art of Social Practice Is Changing the World, One Row House at a Time|date = April 7, 2014|access-date = September 29, 2014|website = |publisher = ArtNews|last = Miranda|first = Carolina A.}}

This unusual amalgam of arts venue and community support center has served as a model for Lowe to expand into other neighborhoods in need of revitalization. The artist has initiated similar projects in the Watts Housing Project in Los Angeles, in post-Katrina New Orleans, and in a North Dallas neighborhood with a dense immigrant population.{{Cite web|title = Rick Lowe — MacArthur Foundation|url = https://www.macfound.org/fellows/920/|website = www.macfound.org|access-date = 2016-02-05}}

In 1997 Project Row Houses won the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, a national design award that seeks to identify and honor projects that address social and economic concerns of urban design.{{Cite web | url=http://brunerfoundation.org/rba/index.php?page=Past | title=Call for Entries: $50,000 Award for Urban Excellence}}

In 1999, Lowe served as a selection committee member for the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rudybruneraward.org/committee-members/rick-lowe/|title=Rick Lowe|website=Rudy Bruner Award|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-22}} He received the 8th Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities in 2002.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Heinz Awards - Rick Lowe|url=http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/rick-lowe|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}}

Lowe developed Trans.lation: Vickery Meadow for the Nasher Sculpture Center's 10th anniversary exhibition "Nasher XChange" and Victoria Square Project in Athens, Greece as a part of documenta 14 in 2017.

Lowe served as a visiting artist at University of California, Berkeley Arts Research Center, a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, Haas Center Distinguish Visitor at Stanford University, a Mel King Community Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Breeden Scholar at Auburn University, and a Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago. In 2016 he joined the faculty at the University of Houston's Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. in 2014.{{Cite web|title = Interview with Rick Lowe {{!}} Art Practical|url = http://www.artpractical.com/column/interview-with-rick-lowe/|website = Art Practical|access-date = 2016-02-05|first = Bad at|last = Sports}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.macfound.org/fellows/920/|title = MacArthur Foundation website|date = September 17, 2014|access-date = September 29, 2014|website = MacArthur Fellows / Meet the Class of 2014 Rick Lowe|publisher = MacArthur Foundation|last = |first = }} He also sits on the board of Mark Bradford’s Art + Practice Foundation.Nikil Saval (December 3, 2015), [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/t-magazine/art/theaster-gates-mark-bradford-rick-lowe-profile.html Three Artists Who Think Outside the Box] T. Lowe had a critically reviewed inaugural exhibition at Storage Art Gallery by artist Onyedika Chuke in 2021, which was Lowe's Manhattan debut exhibition, described by Artforum as "paradigmatic".{{Cite web |last=Chamberlain |first=Colby |title=Colby Chamberlain on "Storage_" |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/202101/storage-84682 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=www.artforum.com |language=en-US}} His first exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in the fall of 2022 further solidified his work interrogates social structures, probing questions on wealth disparity, architectural inequity, and aerial discrepancies.{{Cite web |last=Amadour |first=Ricky |title=Don't Miss These 10 New York Art Shows |url=https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2022/09/07/10-new-york-fall-shows-2022 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=www.culturedmag.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last1=Master |first1=Web |last2=Fuse |first2=Arte |date=2022-10-09 |title=Art Exhibits, Art Magazine, Contemporary Art, Art Blogs, Art Artists |url=https://artefuse.com/2022/10/09/rick-lowe-meditations-on-social-sculpture-at-gagosian-gallery/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=ArteFuse |language=en-US}}

Lowe has been represented by Gagosian Gallery since 2021.Maximilìano Durón (September 20, 2021), [https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/rick-lowe-gagosian-gallery-representation-1234604266/ Gagosian Now Represents Rick Lowe, Whose Art Has Its Roots in Local Communities] ARTnews.

• 1997: Silver Medal by the Rudy Bruner Awards in Urban Excellence (jointly with Project Row Houses)
• 2000: American Institute of Architecture Keystone Award
• 2001–2002: Loeb Fellow at Harvard University (September 2001-June 2002)
• 2002: Theresa Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities
• 2005: Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Governors Award
• 2005-2006: Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium in San Francisco
• 2006: Brandywine Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2007: Innovator Fellow with the Japan Society
• 2009: Skandalaris Award for Art and Architecture
• 2009: US. Artists Booth Fellowship
• 2010: Creative Time Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change
• 2011: Visual arts “master artist” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Syrmna Beach, Florida.
• 2013: President Barack Obama appointed Rick to the National Council on the Arts{{cite web |website=White House Archives |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/11/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts |title=President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts |date=11 April 2013 }}
• 2014: MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship {{cite web |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/rick-lowe-wins-625000-macarthur-genius-award-59846/|title=Rick Lowe Wins $625,000 MacArthur Genius Award |date=17 September 2014 }}
• 2015: Auburn University Breedan Scholar
• 2015: Honorary Doctorate, Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, CA.
• 2015: Honorary Doctorate, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
• 2015: University of Houston’s President’s Medallion Award
• 2016: Distinguished Visitor, Stanford University Haas Center

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage =

| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsJrRRT8-68 Public Artist Rick Lowe, 2014 MacArthur Fellow], MacArthur Foundation{{cite web | title =Rick Lowe | work =MacArthur Fellows | publisher =MacArthur Foundation | date =September 17, 2014 | url =http://www.macfound.org/fellows/920/ | access-date =December 13, 2014 }} }}

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"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUhYb7SoMzU Rick Lowe Maps the Unknown]" on the National Gallery of Art's "West to East" stories page{{Authority control}}

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Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:Living people

Category:1961 births

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Category:American male painters