Rare Andy Warhol Photos Obtained By UH Art Collection

Andy Warhol’s art colorfully captured New York’s bohemian scene and Hollywood’s iconic stars. Soon, a collection of Warhol photographs depicting personalities of Tinsel Town and the Big Apple will have a home in the Bayou City thanks to a recent gift to the University of Houston Art Collection.

An extensive selection of photos featuring celebrities, socialites and scenes from the artist’s private life was donated to UH by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. These images will be on view at UH and available for research and study by students and scholars. Houstonians can view more than 50 of them during the exhibition “Celebutants, Groupies and Friends: A Photographic Legacy from the Andy Warhol Foundation” Sept. 13 – Oct. 18 in Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of UH.

Among the famous faces captured by Warhol’s camera are Jamie Lee Curtis, late Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell, 80s rock icon Billy Squier, Princess Caroline and singer/actress Pia Zadora.

“The photos are most valuable because they are a rarely seen glimpse into Warhol’s working process, especially for his famous portraits,” said Michael Guidry, curator of the UH University Art Collections. “Warhol would take many, many Polaroids of his clients, posing them, putting high contrast make-up on them. Some are very flattering and some not so flattering. Most of the Polaroids were studies for paintings and the black and white photos are a mix of travel and party pictures of his friends and social network.”

The Warhol Foundation’s gift to UH was made as part of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program in honor of the foundation’s 20th anniversary. As one of the participating institutions in this program, UH received approximately 150 photographs selected by Jenny Moore, curator of the Photographic Legacy Program.

UH Researchers Win Top Prize For Research
with Humanitarian Applications

We all understand that even the tiniest changes in the environment can create big opportunities and challenges for plants, animals and humans, but rarely do we consider what’s happening on a microscopic level and what those changes could mean for the infinite varieties of life on Earth – or how mankind’s day-to-day experiences could be affected.

But University of Houston researchers Yuriy Fofanov and Lennart Johnsson understand that what we don’t see often carries big-picture implications. They’ve recently garnered international recognition for applying such vision while creating technologies to help monitor the sizes and genomic diversity of microbial communities.

Fofanov and Johnsson, both of UH’s Texas Learning and Computation Center, were named this month as the winners of the second annual Itanium Solutions Alliance Innovation Contest for the humanitarian applications of their team’s research.

Microbes, which are responsible for more than 50 percent of the oxygen produced on Earth, play integral roles in human body function and ecosystems, and the team’s new computational tools will help researchers better understand how human activities and environmental changes affect the multitude of microbial communities that govern human health and life on our planet – and perhaps others.

“To put it into perspective, there are more microbes than there are cells in the human body. In fact, they often are the first line of defense against disease or environmental disasters,” explains Fofanov, associate professor of computer science, biology and biochemistry who heads up the Bioinformatics Laboratory. “Microbes are mostly our friends, but sometimes they can be pretty nasty.”

While microbial communities are ordinarily relatively stable, climate and environmental factors can spur the success of some and the destruction of others. In agriculture, for instance, changes in diverse microbial communities can cause complete crop loss; however, by learning how to manipulate them, farmers may one day be able to better manage plant diseases and insect infestations.

“This approach will advance human progress in environmental protection, public health and safety, sustainable energy and many other research areas,” Fofanov said.

Similarly, some microbes have been known to make polluted water drinkable, and harnessing that quality has the potential to eradicate water-borne diseases and help alleviate drought and famine.

“The computational tools will pave the way to less expensive and more reliable tests that can be used across the globe. The sheer number of microbial communities presents great commercial potential,” said Johnsson, Cullen distinguished professor of computer science, mathematics, and electrical and computer engineering and head of UH’s TLC2 and ACRL.

The team’s winning contest entry was judged by internationally recognized industry and academic leaders in computation and research and used both high-performance computational tools at TLC2, which were powered by Intel Itanium-based systems, and the latest genomic sequencing analysis technologies.

The Itanium Solutions Alliance Innovation Contest recognizes solution-based research projects in three categories: humanitarian impact, business application and entrepreneurialism. The winner in each category receives $50,000 or can make a charitable donation to an organization of his or her choice.

Texas Society of Architects Honors Work of Two UH Architecture Professors

The work of two professors at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture has been recognized with the Texas Society of Architects’ prestigious Design Award.

Associate professor and architect Geoffrey Brune was honored for his vision of the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration Center and William Truitt, adjunct assistant professor, was recognized for his planning study on Houston’s near Northside neighborhood.

Brune designed the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration Center as a laboratory space for architecture and industrial design students that ‘recycled’ one of UH’s oldest buildings. The renovated structure houses state-of-the-art equipment and the Graduate Design-Build Studio. Students and faculty use the facility for research, studio work and individual projects.

The design concept emphasized energy conservation including functional natural light, ventilated shops and shaded south facing glass. The new and existing construction, use of building materials and organization of machines are clearly defined.

The building also features the only sloped, green roof in the city. Green roofs are vegetation-covered roofs on buildings that create an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional roofs.

“This award recognizes that a functional and well-designed building can be achieved even with a restricted budget, complex client and small scale of space,” Brune said. His firm, GBA Architecture, donated its time to the project that took three years to complete. The Keeland Center opened its doors in 2007.

Truitt’s study of Houston’s Near Northside, conducted by Truitt Foug Architects, considers Northside Village as primed for tremendous growth in the coming 30 years. The area between downtown and the northern suburbs is largely overlooked for development and neighborhood improvements, according to the study.

“Our goal is to broaden the perception of the city to include these middle territories lying between the center and the new suburbs so they are seen in relation to the history and topography of the city as a whole,” Truitt said.

The 15 winning design awards and four studio awards came from 354 entries from across the state. The Brune and Truitt awards were the only two recognized among submissions from Houston.

The winning designs will be featured in the September/October issue of Texas Architect magazine. The Design Awards will be presented during the TSA convention in Fort Worth Oct. 23-25.

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