SIX ARTISTS AND ONE COLLECTIVE ARRIVE AS HOUSTON TAKES CENTER STAGE IN THE ART WORLD

HOUSTON, TX [August 26, 2026] – Project Row Houses (PRH) today announced the artists selected for Southern Survey Biennial III (Artist Round 61), opening Saturday, October 3, 2026, in Houston's Third Ward, with the exhibition running through February 14, 2027. Admission is free, and the public is invited to walk the houses, meet participating artists, and take part in programming throughout the run.

Now in its third iteration, the Southern Survey Biennial spotlights the creativity of artists working across the American South, giving Southern voices space, resources, and a larger stage in the contemporary art world. This year's opening also falls the same week Untitled Art, the contemporary art fair known for its independent, artist-first approach to exhibiting emerging and mid-career artists, returns to Houston. This adds another reason for visitors from across the country to be in the city and make their way to Third Ward.

One artist from this round will receive the $25,000 Tony Chase and Dina Alsowayal Prize award, among the largest awards of its kind offered to a Southern-based artist, selected by this year's guest curator. Jessica Hong is Chief Curator at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Each selected artist also receives a $5,000 stipend toward materials and creative labor, along with travel and lodging support, reflecting PRH's commitment to paying artists equitably for their work and vision.

"Pioneering social practice as a generative art form, I have long admired Project Row Houses and the ways in which they foreground the necessity for artists, cultural practitioners, and community members to be their whole selves, creating vital spaces that make this possible," said Hong. "I am honored to serve as this year's curator of the Southern Survey Biennial, supporting artists in this meaningful way and celebrating the region's vibrant cultural landscape."

"Every round of this Biennial is proof of what happens when we give Southern artists real resources and real room to work," said Danielle Burns Wilson, PRH Executive Director and creator of the Southern Survey Biennial. “This year, we invite Houston, and visitors from across the country, to come see for themselves what the South's artists are building."

Selected from an open call that drew more than 200 submissions from artists across thirteen Southern states, this year's cohort spans photography, sculpture, painting, moving image, printmaking, sound, food art, and social practice. The artists are:

• Beatriz Bellorín (Houston, TX) - photography, moving image, and installation

• Jhanielle Brown (FL/TX) - photography and visual storytelling

• Kennedi Carter (Durham, NC) - photography, sculpture, and archival practice

• Carrie Iverson (North Texas) - printmaking, glass, photography, handmade paper, and installation

• Emmanuel Massillon (Washington, D.C.) - painting, sculpture, performance, and sound

• Billion Tekleab (Houston, TX) - written word, moving image, sound, and sculpture

• CAO Collective, Huiyin Zhou and Laura "Dudu" (Durham, NC) - poetry, performance, food art, clay, photography, sound, video, and social practice

For 33 years, Project Row Houses has shown what art rooted in community can do. The Southern Survey Biennial extends that legacy outward, inviting artists from across the region to bring their own histories, materials, and points of view into the houses that first made this work possible. PRH invites longtime neighbors and first-time visitors alike to experience it firsthand.

ABOUT PROJECT ROW HOUSES (PRH)

Project Row Houses (PRH) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people and enriching communities through engagement, art, and direct action. PRH was founded in 1993 to be a catalyst for transforming the community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture. Inspired by the work of German avant-garde artist Joseph Beuys and American artist and founder of the Texas Southern University Department of Art Dr. John Biggers, the seven founders, James Bettison, Bert Long, Jr., Jesse Lott, Rick Lowe, Floyd Newsum, Bert Samples, and George Smith, purchased 22 historic shotgun-style row houses in a disinvested neighborhood in Houston's Historic Third Ward and began using the houses as spaces for thematic art interventions. The site, which now features 39 structures over five city blocks, serves as home to numerous community initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. For more information, visit projectrowhouses.org.