Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses, to speak for Architecture Lecture Series April 13

Artist Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses in Houston, will speak about his work at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 13, as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Architecture Lecture Series.

The talk, titled “Towards Social Sculpture,” is free and open to the public and takes place in Room 458 of Louderman Hall, located immediately north of the university’s Olin Library. The Architecture Lecture Series is sponsored by the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design.

For more information call (314) 935-9300 or visit www.arch.wustl.edu.

Established in 1993, Project Row Houses is an arts and cultural community located in a historically significant inner-city neighborhood in Houston’s Third Ward. Encompassing 22 now-renovated shotgun houses, the project is inspired by the work of African-American artist Dr. John Biggers — whose paintings celebrated the shotgun house — and combines aspects of neighborhood revitalization, low-income housing, education, historic preservation and community service. Ten of the houses are dedicated to art, photography and literary projects, which are installed on a rotating six-month basis.

In addition to Project Row Houses, Lowe has worked as a guest artist on a range of community projects, including the Rem Koolhaus-designed Seattle Public Library; the Borough Project for the Spoleto Festival 2003 in Charleston, S.C.; and the Delray Beach Cultural Loop in Florida. His art has been exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Los Angeles; the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, N.Y.; the Kwangji Biennale in Korea; the Kumamoto State Museum in Japan; and Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum and Museum of Fine Arts.

Lowe many honors include the 2000 American Institute of Architecture Keystone Award and the 2002 Heinz Award in the arts and humanities. In 2001-02 he served as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University in 2005 received the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Governors Award. In 2006 Lowe received the Brandywine Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented annually to a distinguished African-American artist, educator or civic leader.