Pat Colville
Conversations (with Walter Benjamin)
April 11 – May 23, 2026
Reception Saturday, April 11, 3-5 pm, Artist Talk 4 pm
Moody Gallery is proud to present Conversations (with Walter Benjamin), an exhibition of recent paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Pat Colville. Conversations (with Walter Benjamin), Colville’s eighth solo show at the gallery since 2004, is on view April 11 – May 23, 2026.
Pat Colville’s most recent abstract works feature a blend of hard-edged shapes and organic forms. In her paintings, these forms and shapes appear to float in indeterminate, atmospheric space. In her works on paper, these orange, white, black, and grey shapes, which interlock, adjoin, overlap, and intersect, are more pronounced, functioning as compositional focal points. As an artist, Colville is observant and sensitive to the visuals around her, finding inspiration in the ordinary and commonly overlooked imagery of her environment and immediate surroundings. For the artworks in Conversations (with Walter Benjamin), including the sculptural works, Colville sourced shapes and forms from everyday living. Through her artistic process, Colville transmutes ordinary sources of inspiration, like the peculiar outline of a falling shadow, into otherworldly abstract compositions. An intuitive artist, Colville likens her process of artmaking to a conversation or dialogue between artist and artwork. In her painting, she does not work from preparatory studies. Rather, Colville paints, edits, adds, and subtracts, until the composition ceases to respond or to call for more action, until the picture is resolutely arranged and all elements are responsive to or functioning with one another.
Pat Colville (b. New Orleans, Louisiana, 1931) currently lives and works in Houston, Texas and previously lived in New York City for thirty-five years. She received a B.S. degree from the University of Houston (1952) and a M.F.A. degree from the University of Oklahoma (1977). She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Grants, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a Benjamin Altman Award, a New York State Creative Arts Program Fellowship, and an American Association of University Women Fellowship. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Colville’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Art Museum of South Texas, San Antonio Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art, National Academy Museum, and the DeCordova Museum. For twenty years, Colville taught at The Cooper Union in New York City, Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and Bennington College in Vermont.
Moody Gallery is open Tuesday - Friday 10:30 am - 5:00 pm and Saturday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm. For more information, please call or email the gallery at 713-526-9911 or info@moodygallery.com. Conversations (with Walter Benjamin) can also be viewed online at www.moodygallery.com.