Verdant Laboratory

Verdant Laboratory transforms the gallery into a speculative ecology—part science lab, part art installation—that tells the story of Houston’s wild and often overlooked landscapes.

Through large-scale mixed media drawings, sculptures, and a video projection, Mihalic explores the living systems that form Houston’s foundation. Houston is not just a city built on bayous—it is a bayou. Situated at the intersection of the Galveston Bay estuary and coastal prairie, Houston exists within a dynamic and powerful web of water, soil, and biodiversity. Verdant Laboratory invites visitors to reconsider the city’s terrain not as backdrop, but as a vibrant, evolving protagonist.

“This work is about listening to the land,” said Falon Mihalic. “Houston’s ecology is alive. It floods, it heals, it reshapes itself. Through art and design, we can begin to see landscape not as a passive setting but as a resilient, responsive system essential to our urban future.”

As the effects of climate change become more visible and the city of Houston continues to grow, Verdant Laboratory prompts a critical conversation: How can we foreground landscape ecology in shaping the resilient cities of tomorrow? Join us as we reexamine what it means to live with, not just on, the land.

Opening: 12.6.2026, 5:30 pm