HEIDI VAUGHAN FINE ART is proud to present NECTAR, an exhibition of exuberant oil paintings and mixed-media works by Houston-based multidisciplinary artist Janice Freeman. The show opens on Saturday, October 24, 2026, at 3510 Lake Street at Colquitt in the Upper Kirby Galleries in Houston's Oldest Gallery Row. Doors open at 11. The reception with the artist will take place that evening from 5 to 8. Guests are encouraged to dress in the spirit of the show's title, Nectar. The exhibition is curated by Alton DuLaney, Chief Curator of Public Art and Director of Cultural Arts for the Houston Airports. An artist conversation moderated by DuLaney will take place at 1 on Saturday, November 7. All events are free and open to the public.
Freeman grew up in south Texas. Seeking out shade there and in the high plains of Mexico where she spent time was a primal concern. The giant magueyes of Central Mexico became one of her go-to shade corners. She began to peer through the shade into what she came to call the underneath - the echo, the light, the ecosystems so alive and thriving, seeking the same cover from the sun that she was. In her paintings, drawing the eye ever deeper is an important quality of the work. There is no obvious central focal point. The eye forages through it, which is an unusually apt visual metaphor for Nectar.
"The different bodies of work I've created throughout my life, I have come to know, are very much like creating new languages. In Nectar, painting moves into fabric and fabric moves into sculpture. Surfaces are covered and revealed, forms push forward and fall back, and what is underneath becomes as important as what is immediately seen. The birds inhabit that same world, carrying color, texture, and material completely into three dimensions. Tools, mediums, people, places, and situations filter through my emotional lens - or my soul, as one might put it. My capacity to take risks and make mistakes is the basis of the process that leads me to my most satisfying discoveries and exciting applications." - Janice Freeman
