DeSantos Gallery is one of the first art houses to make use of QR Codes (Quick Response Codes), which is now a major marketing tool. The codes provide people with information on products and services in a very quick manner. The popularity of QR Codes skyrocketed especially after the latest smartphone models have included QR scanner applications. Carlos DeSantos, the gallery’s creative services manager took advantage of the QR Codes hype by launching the Free Art Giveaway offer. He says, “Scanning the QR code gives a novel twist to this promotion; Most QR codes that people scan only send them to an information page about a product or service. I believe we are one of the first, if not the first, in the Houston area to provide a free gift of art for just scanning a QRC.”

First Featured Artist: Cara Barer

The first brilliant artist to share her talent and give away her masterpieces is Houston’s very own local celebrity artist, Cara Barer. Barer is currently on exhibit at DeSantos, and she’s first on the list to provide the fine art print giveaways. An established photographer whose subject is the distorted pages of books, Barer has had a very strong following in the Houston area, though she has had art exhibitions all over the United States and as far as Canada. A celebrated photographer since 1994, art lovers would surely love owning a Barer masterpiece. Patrons of the DeSantos Gallery also have the opportunity to win one of Barer’s 36” x 36” limited edition prints.

The free artwork is limited to the number of prints provided by the artists.

The Gallery invites you to preview the collection at a special evening   reception from 5:30pm until 8pm on Saturday the 25th of June at the Gallery   located at 1724 Richmond Avenue, Houston TX 77098. San Francisco-based   installation artist [5]Liz Hickok recreates famous skylines and landmarks   using Jell-O as her construction material. “Remade in an unexpected   material, seemingly permanent architectural structures are transformed into   something precarious and ephemeral,” she explains in a recent interview with   [6]Inhabitat. “Their fragility quickly becomes a metaphor for the transitory   nature of human artifacts.” Click through to check out her jiggly versions   of New York City, San Francisco, and the White House.

[View with PicLens]

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One of her inspirations on memory is a book called Travels with Herodotus by Kapuscinski. The book talks about Herodotus, one of the first historians to travel and record history by way of stories people told and how they were interpreted. The stories demonstrated how people would both hear a narrative and re-tell it and it would never be quite the same .For the author of the book, memory is about man’s struggle against time, against the fragility of memory and its ephemerality and perpetual tendency to erase itself and disappear…” Christine further elaborates on her images…. “In my photographs, I am exploring the notions of time, space, place and the illusion of memory.

About the Artist
Christine Laptuta was born in Toronto, Canada and now lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Painting and Printmaking from York University, Toronto. Laptuta is included in the permanent collections exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Portland Art Museum. She is a recent recipient of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for 2nd place: Nature Category, and was a featured artist for Fotofest’s International Discoveries II exhibition.

The DeSantos Art Gallery is one of only two fine art photographic galleries in Houston and is dedicated to bringing fine art photography, both traditional and contemporary pieces, to the Houston community. In 2003, DeSantos moved into a new location after unveiling a custom constructed stucco and glass 4 story building designed by architect Fernando Brave. The gallery is located in the rapidly evolving artistic community near the Menil Museum, University of St. Thomas, and Houston Museum District. The DeSantos Gallery represents both American and International photographers and prides itself in selecting fine art photographers from the 20th and 21st century regardless of short-lived trends. The DeSantos Gallery also provides art consulting services, education and lectures on fine art photography and provides expert guidance to individual and corporate buyers regarding photography purchases and placement.