About Us

2024 Artists

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media. Museum visitors have the unique opportunity to visit the artists’ studios and watch the artists at work. Interacting with the resident artists is a great way to learn about a range of craft processes and techniques. In turn, the artists receive a unique opportunity to gain exposure, make connections with the Houston community, and help educate the public about craft.
Photo courtesy of the artist.

Rebecca Padilla-Pipkin

Medium: Fiber
Residency: June 1, 2024–
August 31, 2024

Rebecca Padilla-Pipkin is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator based in Phoenix, Arizona. Since moving to the United States at age 10, she has lived a transient life and is influenced by the many places she has lived. Her work explores ecologies of place through a wide variety of site-specific materials and processes that index moments of interaction between the human and more-than-human. Ultimately, she strives to make work that deepens the care and attention we give to the places in which we dwell.

Padilla-Pipkin received a BFA from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA from Arizona State University. Her work has been exhibited through solo and group exhibitions, which include shows at the South Mountain Environmental Education Center, Tempe Center for the Arts, Eric Fischl Gallery, and the Institute for Desert Humanities in Arizona; at the Greater Denton Arts Council in Texas; at Mark Arts Gallery in Kansas; and at the Lightwell Gallery in Oklahoma. Her work has been generously supported through many opportunities, including the Osher Life-Long Learning Grant and the City of Tempe’s Studio Artist Residency.

To learn more about Rebecca Padilla-Pipkin’s work, visit www.rebeccapipkinfineart.com.

The artist’s work is featured in HCCC’s In Residence: 17th Edition exhibition.

Rebecca’s residency was generously sponsored in part by Brad & Leslie Bucher.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Perata Bradley

Studio: Anne Kinder Studio
Medium: Mixed Media
Residency: June 1, 2024–
November 30, 2024

Perata Bradley was born and raised in Freedmen’s Town in Houston’s Fourth Ward. She graduated cum laude at the University of Houston with a BA in art and a Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) certification. Bradley is a mixed-media artist who spotlights gentrification through the use of photography and sculptures at the intersection of architectural design and social narrative. She says, “Through the mediums of craft and design, working with foam and cardboard material, I construct visual installations that pay homage to the historical significance of architectural landmarks in Houston’s historic Freedmen’s Town Fourth Ward.” While at HCCC, her goal is to recreate remaining historical structures in the Fourth Ward, as well as include the downtown Houston skyline for her first public exhibition, “The Holy Truth.”

Perata’s residency was generously sponsored in part by Rob Greenstein.

Photograph by Arnelle Lozada for HGTV Handmade.

Gabo Martinez

Studio: Scott + Judy Nyquist Studio
Medium: Clay
Residency: June 1, 2024–
November 30, 2024

Born in Tarimoro, Guanajuato, Mexico, and raised in Houston, Texas, Gabo Martinez graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos with a BFA in studio art. Drawing upon both traditional and contemporary motifs, Martinez utilizes these visual languages to craft a narrative of her own that reclaims and honors her heritage. Combining the use of printmaking and ceramics, she creates installations and spaces that evoke the warmth of brown bodies and rich vibrant colors. These energetic spaces become vehicles for the re-emergence of barro rojo (red clay), a material with an ancestral legacy, into the contemporary moment. She molds this soft and malleable clay into objects that immortalize her culture and narratives.

Martinez has exhibited her work at Front Gallery in Houston, Wrong Gallery in Marfa, Lone Gallery in Dallas, Texas A&M International University Gallery in Laredo, and at the Sonoma Community Center in California. Her work is carried by All The Feels shop in Houston and Neighborhood Store in Dallas.

To learn more about Gabo Martinez’s work, visit www.gabomartinipotts.com.

Gabo’s residency was generously sponsored in part by Mariela Poleo.

Hai-Wen Lin's headshot
Photo by Harlan Bozeman.

Hai-Wen Lin

Medium: Fiber
Residency: March 1, 2024–
May 31, 2024

Hai-Wen Lin (they/them) is a Taiwanese-American artist whose work explores constructions of the body and its surrounding environment. Lin grew up in Elk Grove, CA, and is currently based in Chicago, IL. The artist’s kite-making practice borrows from the languages of garment construction and pattern-making as a sculptural means of understanding how to free, fly, and extend the body, placing it in conversation with the sun, wind, and sky.

Lin earned a Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023 and a BA with a double major in design and psychology from the University of California, Davis, in 2016. They are an alum of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and attended the Ox-Bow School of Art as a LeRoy Neiman Fellow. Lin has exhibited work at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, 3S Artspace, and the Mosesian Center for the Arts, as well as on the walls of their home, their friend’s home, on a plate, on a lake, and in many skies.

To learn more about Hai-Wen Lin’s work, visit www.haiwenlin.com.

The artist’s work is featured in HCCC’s In Residence: 17th Edition exhibition.

Hai-Wen’s residency was generously sponsored in part by Eddie & Chinhui Allen.

The application for the 2025 – 2026 cycle opens December 1, 2025. It’s free to apply!

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.

The application for the 2025 – 2026 cycle opens December 1, 2025. It’s free to apply!

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.

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