CHILDREN'S MEMORIAL HERMANN HOSPITAL
TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK AND JASON MIDDLEBROOK
CITY/STATE
Houston, TX
LOCATION IN HOSPITAL
Imaging Wing Entrance
INSTALL DATE
2012
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ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
In March 2012, RxART installed works by Trenton Doyle Hancock and Jason Middlebrook at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. In response to the commission, Hancock created a dynamic mural that was installed at the entrance to the hospital’s pediatric imaging wing. Hancock’s color-saturated, three-dimensional mural was densely populated with figures and animals crafted in his recognizable comic style. Titled Hi and Hi, the mural was Hancock’s life-affirming response to a stylistically similar, albeit darker, work realized earlier in his career and held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s collection. The phrase “Hi and Hi” was interspersed throughout the mural; coupled with the bright characters, the mural’s message made entering the imaging wing a more welcoming experience for both young patients and their families.
Additionally, two large-scale drawings by Middlebrook were installed at the entrance to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, brightening the nondescript passageway with color, graphics, and natural imagery.
This project was made possible through the generous support of Mollie and Bob Myers.
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL
Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital is a 332-bed quaternary care hospital for women and children located in the Texas Medical Center. The hospital offers care in over 40 pediatric and women’s specialties, including the latest advances in maternal-fetal medicine and neonatal critical care services. It is also renowned for its programs in pediatric trauma, neurosciences, pulmonology, and cardiac care.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Trenton Doyle Hancock (b. 1974, Oklahoma City, OK) graduated with a BFA from Texas A&M University, Commerce and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Trenton’s intricate and whimsical drawings, prints, and collage-felt paintings hold powerful undertones and themes. Hancock’s narratives draw from both personal history (Biblical stories he learned as a child) and cultural tropes (comic-strip superhero sequences and medieval morality plays), which blend together to create new symbolic meanings unique to the mythical realm these characters reside in. Hancock lives and works in Houston, TX. Hancock has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and the Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. His works can also be found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; among others.
Jason Middlebrook (b. 1957, Jackson, MI) received his BFA from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He went on to receive his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Middlebrook is a mixed-media artist who works in sculpture, installation, and site-specific projects. His work often deals with the interaction of nature and humans and the exact moment at which they collide. He lives and works in Hudson, NY.
Middlebrook’s works have been featured in exhibitions at the New Museum, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL. He is represented by Miles McEnery Gallery.
