Core Artists & Critics
2024–2025 Core Residents
Artists-in-Residence
larí garcía, Umico Niwa, Carlos Vielma
Critics-in-Residence
Max Tolleson
larí garcía
larí garcía, two ants dancing (detail), 2024, installation. © larí garcía
Artist-in-Residence
larí garcía, born in Miami and currently living and working in Houston, explores themes of grief, precariousness, and loss through the lens of mysticism and ghostly matters. Recent exhibitions include Tela y Tijera y Ya at Proyecto Pikaro, Mexico City, and Snowing at D.D.D.D., New York. garcía holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA from Columbus College of Art & Design.
Umico Niwa
Umico Niwa, Baby Shoe Series: My Daughter Beluga, 2023, reclaimed materials and live cricket. © Umico Niwa
Artist-in-Residence
Umico Niwa received her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, in 2020. Rejecting Western notions of personhood, Niwa considers alternative modes of existence unbridled by bodily restrictions or gender constructs. Her creations speak to a state of being defined by perpetual movement - a flower, wilting; a fruit ripening. A seed vault, a genetic sequence, a sensorium, a somatic memory bank. A valley full of weeds, bursting with life.
Max Tolleson
Max Tolleson describes Anders Krüger’s Casa de los Valientes (1994) at the Chinati Foundation. © Josh T. Franco
Critic-in-Residence
Max Tolleson received a PhD in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2023 and specializes in the history of modern and contemporary art. His dissertation, "The Museum After Minimalism: The Chinati Foundation, 1978-Present," explores the social world of the foundation's permanent installations in Marfa, Texas. Max has written for Glasstire, ASAP/J, Artnet News, and Panorama, and is excited to engage Houston’s art and culture while a Core critic-in-residence. Max has worked for: Dia Art Foundation, the Dream House, the Judd Foundation, the Chinati Foundation and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and was a 2022-2023 Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York.
Carlos Vielma
Carlos Vielma, Laredo, 2019, bas relief on cotton paper rubbed with dirt from Nuevo Laredo, México. © Carlos Vielma
Artist-in-Residence
Graduated as an architect, Carlos Vielma works with painting, video, and installation, exploring subjects like longing, migration, and the Mexican-American border. He was awarded the FONCA scholarship for young creators and has been an artist-in-residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Casa Wabi, Mass MoCA, and The Banff Center among other residencies. His work has been included in Salon ACME and some biennials in Mexico and the United States. Recently, he was honored to be chosen as a member of the National System of Creators (SNCA).
The Core Program at the Glassell School of Art receives generous funding from The Joseph & Sylvia Slifka Foundation; The Powell Foundation; and The Glassell Family Foundation.
Core fellowships have been underwritten by Anchorage Foundation of Texas; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc.; Mr. Brad Blume; Mr. Ronald A. Logan; McClain Gallery; Karen S. Pulaski; and The Arch and Stella Rowan Foundation, Inc.
Additional support is provided by: Ellen and David Berman; Ms. Karol Kreymer and Dr. Robert J. Card; Ms. Bettie Cartwright; Mrs. Jereann H. Chaney Mr. and Mrs. Jamal H. Daniel; Heidi and David Gerger; Cecily Horton; Scott and Judy Nyquist; Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Robinson; Marc Schindler; Alana R. Spiwak and Sam L. Stolbun; and Cynthia Toles;
Endowments for the Core Program have been provided by Leslie and Brad Bucher; gifts in memory of Laura Lee Blanton; the estate of Margaret Gillingham; Rusty Burnett; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Eliza Lovett Randall; Herbert C. Wells; and Warren A. Hadler.