HOUSTON, TX.- This winter, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston will present Perspectives 154: Robert Pruitt, on view December 15, 2006 to February 18, 2007. Perspectives 154: Robert Pruitt is the first solo museum exhibition for Robert Pruitt, a Houston-based artist who takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the critical issues surrounding race and culture in today’s society. His work, which ranges from drawings on paper to sculpture, video, and installation, draws upon the vernacular of black culture to examine the historical and contemporary struggles of black Americans. Robert Pruitt will bring together several multimedia works from the last three years, as well as new work that will debut in this show.

“Robert Pruitt creates vibrant art that simultaneously disarms with humor while broadcasting politically- and socially-conscious ideals,” said CAMH associate curator and exhibition organizer Valerie Cassel Oliver. “His witty yet meaningful work takes on history through the prism of contemporary culture to form a perspective that resonates for all viewers.”

Pruitt integrates disparate ideas, events, and objects into his work, including elements of current scholarly thinking and the intangible sensibilities of blackness that exist in all facets of society, especially music, religion, dance, and dress. His sculpture and installation work have included such objects as a Duchampian bicycle wheel decked out in “low rider” style, African masks and hip-hop accoutrements, and guns and bubble gum. However, beyond the scathing social and political commentary is Pruitt’s unbridled celebration of the power and resilience of blackness as well as the strain between the reality and ideals of the black community.

Robert Pruitt was born in 1975 in Houston. He received his BFA from Texas Southern University and his MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently an Artist-In-Residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. His work has been seen in solo exhibitions at the Clementine Gallery, New York (2004), the Galveston Arts Center (2003), and Project Row Houses in Houston (2003). It was also included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial in New York. The artist lives and works in Houston. The exhibition will be on view from December 15, 2006 to February 18, 2007, and will be accompanied by a Perspectives-format catalogue with an essay by Cassel Oliver, reproductions of exhibited work, and documentation on the artist’s career.