Design

Public Art Monday: Seeing Stars

On Mondays, we share our favorite public art installations from Houston and around the globe with you. We believe passionately in the transformative power of public art for both the individual and in communities.

This week, we take you across the pond, as it were, to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Recently installed at the entrance to the historic site is a new work by the iconic American artist, Frank Stella, titled Inflated Star and Wooden Star (2014). The two gigantic stars, resting on a framework that could arguably be described as reminiscent of a constellation, seem to push and pull towards and away from each other, creating tension inside an invisible forcefield.

Houstonians have long had a love affair with Frank Stella. Many of Stella’s works reside around the Bayou City, from the “Stella Project” that adorns the vaulted ceilings and hall interiors at the Moores Opera House at the University of Houston to works housed in the permanent collections of both the Menil Collection and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Look for more Stella this fall, as the Whitney Museum of American Art hosts the most comprehensive exhibition of the artists work to date. Is 2015 the year of Stella? We hope so.

Photo Credit:

Inflated Star and Wooden Star (2014), by Frank Stella
Photo: © Benedict Johnson