ON VIEW THRU SEPTEMBER 2, 2023: Curated by Christopher Blay, “El Franco Lee II: Mid Career Survey” is a collection of over 60 drawings and paintings created over the past 20 years of the artist’s professional career.

El Franco Lee II‘s works delve deep into the musical culture and history of Houston. The exhibit is an opportunity for those unfamiliar with the artist and his work to experience first-hand the breadth of his talent and gain insight into an underground strata of the city’s culture, including the storied history and ongoing creative influence of the late Robert Earl Davis Jr., a.k.a. DJ Screw.

Born in 1979, El Franco grew up in the Kashmere Gardens area of the Fifth Ward and started drawing at age three, trying to create “something that looked like the human form.” His father El Franco Lee served as a Texas State Representative from 1979 to 1985, and was the first African American elected to county commissioner in Harris County. From the very beginning, he fully supported his son’s attempts to draw such subjects as Bert and Ernie, Voltron and He-Man.