“I Am Content With What I Lack” Exhibit From Japan America Society Opens This Weekend

A contemplative and peaceful exhibit is open and free to the public September 11-19 at 4411 Montrose, in part thanks to the Japan America Society of Houston. Houstonia got a preview as well as an interview with the project’s curator, Christine Starkman, who is also the head of the Museum of Fine Art’s Asian art department.

Starkman told Houstonia she wants the exhibit to take people to “another place” of contemplation and meditation, just as if they were visiting a Japanese garden. The premise, tying four Houston artists’ work together, is the phrase, “I am content with what I lack,” an inscription found on a stone water basin in the gardens of the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.

“Activating calmness and emptiness” is one of the exhibit’s goals, according to Starkman, which she hopes is achieved through various mediums like paper, stoneware and granite as well as a space designed specifically for the purpose of housing the art itself.