Here is a gallery of some my public art and public art I've seen on the streets. If you have comments or thoughts, e-mail at [email protected] or text at 713-591-0402. Please check back here often as I update the page. Please read all of NeilAquino.com. Here is my store on Zazzle where I offer fine items that have slogans from my signs on them. Many of the items can be customized. Take a look!
My first outing with a sign at the 45 S feeder road & Houston Ave. A few minutes after I started standing at the intersection, a motorist offered me a Gatorade and I knew I was on the right course. 5/17/16
On Preston in Downtown Houston. A friend took the picture. My shadow came out well. 5/20/16
Protesting with folks who were protesting some other folks in Downtown Houston. 5/21/16
Graffiti expressing a goal of mine to be out and about. 6/3/16
Regretfully this sign kept slipping off my car as I drove. I was told maybe my door had more plastic than metal. 6/7/16
My reflection on Westheimer. 6/10/16
I'd like to think Cesar Chavez would have approved. On Harrisburg. 6/14/16
Resting in a gazebo on Heights Blvd. 6/16/16
Public art at a Donald Trump rally was this giant mobile open carry gun. In the The Woodlands, Texas. 6/17/16.
I very much support an extreme makeover of the tone and substance of our society. On Bay Area Blvd. 6/23/16 (Update 1/23/18--Be careful what you hope for as we mark the one year point in Trump's Presidency.Still though we must remain hopeful.)
A young man on a skateboard stopped to ask me some questions. He also took my picture. In Hermann Park. 6/30/16
A man in Hermann Park said he'd draw my picture for a few dollars. 6/30/16
Linda walking down Beechnut in Sharpstown was very friendly and asked me many questions. 7/5/16
Frank, pushing a shopping cart, took my picture on Houston Ave over White Oak Bayou. 7/7/16
As I eat lunch and go about my day, I read and study to better serve you as a public artist.
Cordelia swung around her pick up truck from the other side of the street to talk to me at Tidwell & Wheatley. 7/12/16
Julius took this picture on Montrose Blvd. 7/13/16
A family with a baby stroller talked to me on Old Spanish Trail. 7/17/16
More graffiti I found useful.
An effort at decorating. On Navigation. 7/21/16
Picture taken by a former member of Houston City Council. On Harrisburg. 7/22/16
Photoshopped and sent to me.
A panhandler asked me to come to traffic median to read my sign. At Crosstimbers & Tidwell. 7/22/16
A nice woman was willing to put down her groceries as she was walking home with from the store & take my picture. At Airline & Rogers. 8/1/16
A picture taken by the very friendly Mario. At Airline & Cavalcade. 8/2/16
My first gallery space . 8/4/16
A 1980's punk rock flyer from the Jockey Club in Newport, Kentucky. This was across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Any 1980's Midwestern punk knows that you have to do it yourself.
In Eden Park in Cincinnati. Picture taken by a friend. 8/21/16
My friend Libby is enthused by ideas. In Cincinnati. 8/22/16
This picture was taken by a Turkish immigrant who told me she had been in the U.S. for six weeks. This was at St. Clair & Pennsylvania in Indianapolis. 8/25/16
My mom as the exhibit in an empty gallery of the Cincinnati Art Museum. 8/30/16
Taken by Univ. of Houston student on Martin Luther King in Houston. 9/6/16
The woman who took this picture extended me her blessings. At Yale & Red Ripple. 9/8/16
Taken by a friend at Main & Texas. 9/12/16
Taken by a man who was under the overpass at 610 & Westheimer. 9/15/16
The classic street art installation of the mattress in the road. And with a scenic view of Downtown Houston.
I sometimes travel with a framed picture of Sputnik. Sputnik was up there all alone, but still sent a strong signal and was in clear communication.
A young man on a hover board stopped to ask me some questions on Scott near the U. of Houston. 9/28/16.
Where the sign landed in the traffic median when a young man on a skateboard stopped, took it from my hands & tossed it away. At Scott & Hadley. 9/28/16
The woman was waiting at a bus stop, stopped me,asked some questions, took my picture & asked for money for bus fare. I was glad to help out. At Almeda & Calumet. 10/4/16
Packing sign in suitcase for flight to Atlanta. 10/5/16
The gentleman was willing to participate and not a prop. At Peachtree & 15th in Atlanta. 10/7/16
I'm not fake news---Atlanta. 10/7/16
When old ways of communication go away, take up the slack with your own efforts. On Harrisburg. 10/13/16
I stopped a pedestrian near the Astrodome to take my picture as I read my book and walked. I've been reading and walking for years and never bumped into anything. 10/18/16
Lamont on Gessner. We had a good conversation. 10/21/16
Here are some folks from Liberate Tate. They used performance art to successfully pressure the Tate Modern Museum to no longer take money from fossil fuel concerns. This event took place at Art League Houston. 10/21/16
If you see a gap, fill it in yourself. On Waugh. 10/25/16
The gentleman who took my picture here had a number of neck tattoos. At the 290 feeder road & Fairbanks/N.Houston. 10/26/16
Do it yourself. On West Gray. 11/3/16
In this ongoing interactive work at the corner of Main & Binz in Houston, motorists are asked to reimagine the contours of this traffic median by running their cars and trucks into the median. Please also note there is a banana on the median. The banana speaks meaningfully and with urgency (before the banana spoils) to the common question in our society of "How did that get there?
Daniel, who had a sign himself, took this picture. At Milam & Rusk. 11/16/16
Another case in which graffiti offers useful instruction. Good thing I keep a chair and books in my car so that I could comply. 12/4/16
Photo taken by man in Downtown Houston in shorts and listening to headphines on a wet and cold day. 12/5/16
Here is a satisfied customer of my Zazzle store. This Connecticut mom and educator has her "Our Everyday Lives Have A Lot Of Value" coffee mug. You can tell by her smile that she is happy with this item! There are 3 different slogans to choose on a variety of items off the signs I walk around Houston carrying. Please check out my store and order something for you and yours. Many of the items are customizable to your further liking. Here is the link-- http://www.zazzle.com/neil_aquino/products And please share the link!
Out and about in the area of the Houston Galleria with my public art. On Westheimer. 12/13/16
The Christmas Tree of Tires I saw today at a Houston tire shop is hopeful and excellent public art. It is a very Houston thing to make something good with what you have at hand. At Chrisman & Isom. 12/23/16
I must have the proper artist's tools for my sign walks. In addition to my sign I have--- Pens and a notebook for any thoughts I have, business cards to refer people to my website if they are kind enough to ask what I'm doing, a camera for pictures of things I see beyond the camera I have in my phone & a book for when I sit down for a few minutes along the way to read. 1/5/17
This gentleman asked to be pictured with my sign after I got off a bus at the Magnolia Transit Center on Harrisburg in Houston. 1/5/17
Self-portrait nine days before the authoritarian takes over. 1/11/17
Here is yet another satisfied customer of my Zazzle store. This Oregon mom and good citizen has her "Our Everyday Lives Have A Lot Of Value" coffee mug. She loves this product! There are 5 different slogans to choose from on a variety of different items such bumper sticker, t-shirts and coffee mugs. Please check out my store and order something for you and yours. Many of the items are customizable to your further liking. Here is the link-- http://www.zazzle.com/neil_aquino/products And please share the link!
Near the intersection of Elgin & San Jacinto. 1/16/17
Segment of Berlin Wall I took a picture of at Rice University. The covering makes it look like a work by Christo. But it is covered because it was spray painted with pro-Donald Trump graffiti. In this form it is a piece of public art that offers evidence of repressive government in the Soviet-era Eastern bloc & here in the U.S. in the time of Trump. 1/17/17
At the Women's March in Houston. 1/21/17
"The only glacier coming down the mountain that does not melt is one made of concrete." Climate change public exhibit made by construction workers on Houston's Memorial Drive. 2/10/17
Keeping an item a day and brief notes about current events and my own life as we move towards authoritarian government. 2/26/17
Walking in Houston. Here in front of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Downtown Houston. 2/28/17
On the 20 bus in Houston. 3/12/17
At Ovid & Houston. 3/13/17
On the I-45 N. feeder road. 3/14/17
In this work located near intersection of Shepherd & Pinemont in Houston, the rule of law for all--represented by the speed limit sign--is teetering into the harshness of the security state of barbed wire under the cover of the American Flag. 3/15/17
On Gulf Bank Road. 3/15/17
Galveston installation--"Pipeline on Beach." 3/19/17
Basement art installation in Houston-- "Painting and stacking of microwaves" . 3/22/17 (Later submerged and destroyed by Hurricane Harvey.)
Public art installation at Houston's Memorial Park-- "Basketball court where you cannot dribble the ball." 4/4/17
Sandra Bland train car in Houston. 5/9/17
"The thickness of paint holds back the water." Houston. 6/4/17
"We put up images of your government to drive you to drink." Houston. 7/22/17
"10 apples a day won't keep the hurricane away." Reinterpretation by public of supermarket produce display. Houston. 8/25/17
Houston installation--"Harvey Pumps". 9/8/17
"Toxic Pile of Dirt" is a mass of chemical and sewage laced sediment left on the banks of Buffalo Bayou by Hurricane Harvey as floodwaters receded.
This accumulation has been painstakingly bulldozed from the shores of the Bayou up onto the walkway.
In this form, "Toxic Pile" manifests the intersection between people leaving things that block the sidewalk, and then the need of those who encounter the obstruction to find a way around the blockage.
"Toxic Pile" offers a necessary message of sustainability and renewal as there will always be another flood and plenty more filth to recreate this work after it is hauled away.
Not taken in by the blue skies framing this work, "Toxic Pile" speaks to each of us loudly right in our heads as we remain anxious and triggered by any reminder of the 51 inches of rain.
Natural, but man-made.
Inert, but the creation of a rampage.
In the city, but making big money for the out of city firms profiting nicely from the recovery dollars for our storm.
"Toxic Pile Of Dirt" addresses our powerlessness in ways we can accept. Even as we consider the implications of the work, we know somebody will come with a big truck to remove it from view until the next disaster.
This is an ever-changing work that will be gifted new form as it is inhaled and consumed by people who live the near the landfill where it will be taken by the trucks.
In this way, art is as timeless and indestructible as the starstuff that is the substance of the things we litter all over Houston and the discharge from the smokestacks all along our waterways.
10/27/17
"Hubcap in grass (With leaves.) Houston 12/18/17
"The rocket-like trajectory of the dropped two liter of Diet Coke." Houston 12/21/17
Amplifying my sign. Houston 1/9/18
"We are all artists now." Houston 1/15/18
Counterpoint. Houston 2/5/18
