2024-25 Academic Year
HCU Fine Art Museum and Galleries events are free and open to the public unless otherwise specified, and held in the University Academic Center (UAC). For directions, please see our campus map.
Thank you for your continued support of the fine and performing arts at HCU.
Art Exhibitions Fall 2024: October 10-December 5
Jack Massing: “One Man’s Trash”
Opening Reception: October 10, 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Contemporary Art Gallery
Gallery hours: Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays, 11 AM – 4 PM.

About the Artist:
JACK MASSING is a Houston-based artist, born in Buffalo, NY (1959). Massing studied Fine Arts at the University of Houston and he was part of the collaborative “The Art Guys” from 1983 to 2019, with Michael Galbreth (1956-2019). Jack Massing is the Executive Director of the Orange Show, Center for Visionary Arts. His pieces of art, including drawings, performances, installations, and videos are exhibited at the most important contemporary and fine art museums.
If Jack Massing is a fictional character or a new artist who has emerged since then, I won’t have information about them. If you have specific details or characteristics you’d like me to include in a fictional biography for Jack Massing, please provide more information, and I’d be happy to help create a creative and imaginative biography for this artist.
Motoko Yasue, “A Pilgrimage into the Oculus”
Opening Reception: October 10, 4:00-7:00 p.m.
University Academic Center, 222
Gallery hours: Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays, 11 AM – 4 PM.
About the Artist:
MOTOKO YASUE is a Houston-based artist born in Tokyo, Japan. Her main media are watercolor and oil. She graduated with an MFA at Houston Christian University in 2021. She serves as an artist in Residence at Art Museum TX.
Artist Statement:
Nature and its beauty fuel the strength of my artistic vision, which is all about seeking to express my deepest senses and feelings about life. Life includes adversity; nature helps me face difficult situations.

This work is the compositional challenge to unify three oculi with one another. The theme is the humble human existence compared to the greater nature such as mountains and the expanse of the sky. The piece uses the gem of watercolor, “leaving the white of the paper unpainted” to depict light. It suggests the spiritual, unknown world that we must acknowledge and appreciate.

Each oculus illuminates the scenery within. Dripping paints, colors, and textures are important elements in my paintings which resonate with human emotions. It portrays the relieved feelings of the two depicted children (symbolizing me and my brother) with the subtle silhouettes found the red stones representing the spirits of our deceased parents. The viewers are able to find their own narratives and emotions in this painting.