Windbloom featured in the groundbreaking CODAWorx publication, “The Economic Power of Public Art”. CODAworx, the hub of the public art economy, has released comprehensive data estimating the size of this creative industry, along with revelations about the economic impact of the public art sector. This first annual groundbreaking study reveals that in 2023, the public art sector made a substantial economic contribution surpassing $4.4 billion.
Falon Mihalic to be featured guest speaker at RISD Landscape Architecture
Join us on Thursday, April 25th, for an alumni talk and gathering event with Falon Mihalic '12 in 159 Weybosset from 5:30-8:30PM. The event is hosted by the Landscape Architecture department and Landscape Forms to create opportunities for alumni and current students to mingle together.
Falon Mihalic is a collaborating artist for Meow Wolf Houston
“Since 2008, Meow Wolf has collaborated with hundreds of local and international artists to transport millions of visitors—of all ages—into breathtaking realms of alternate realities. This go-round, we have tapped into Houston’s already vibrant cultural landscape to wrangle a diverse palette of 40+ Texas-based artists for Meow Wolf’s newest macrocosmic mosaic……
“Since 2008, Meow Wolf has collaborated with hundreds of local and international artists to transport millions of visitors—of all ages—into breathtaking realms of alternate realities. This go-round, we have tapped into Houston’s already vibrant cultural landscape to wrangle a diverse palette of 40+ Texas-based artists for Meow Wolf’s newest macrocosmic mosaic. “
MidMod Art Garden Featured on AIA Houston Home Tour
Inside Poppi Massey’s Swinging New River Oaks Dream Home…
XO House Wins Texas Architects Design Award
The XO House by LO/JO Architects is the winner of a Texas Architects Design Award….
Windbloom at the new Alief Community Center set to open January 14, 2023
Windbloom, a permanent public art commission for the City of Houston’s Civic Art Collection officially opens to the public on January 14, 2023. The new Alief Community Center has three permanent public artworks that will be unveiled at the grand opening of the new facility.
Falon Mihalic commissioned to create permanent public artwork for the City of Miami’s Shenandoah Park.
Sea Grass is a supersized sculpture cluster of Johnson’s Seagrass, a federally listed threatened marine plant endemic to Miami’s Biscayne Bay. The sculptures are cast into molds using a proprietary mix of colored concrete and recycled glass then polished to a glossy terrazzo finish. Each grass blade is formed as a curvy leaf to create an organic flow of shapes as if being moved by water. Seagrass is nestled within the landscape design plantings at the new park’s swimming facility entry and sited to be visible among the other community buildings and park gathering spaces. Seagrass is a $100,000 budget project and is made possible by the City of Miami’s Art in Public Places’ percent-for-art program. The work is being fabricated in the artist’s Houston studio and will be installed on site in early 2023.
Art Houston Magazine Feature- read the interview
Falon Mihalic is interviewed in issue 14 of Art Houston, a local arts and culture magazine. Read the full interview here and some excerpts below:
Where are you from? Give me your life story in 100 words.
I’m from the Florida panhandle, a place of wild landscapes and incredible biodiversity. My experiences there greatly inform my work and how I see the world. I’m always searching for -and working to create- lush landscapes and to tap into their verdant qualities. I studied natural sciences in undergrad and then got my Master’s degree at the Rhode Island School of Design for Landscape Architecture. While at RISD, I explored site-based installation and laid the groundwork for my sculpture and painting practice. After working for a few corporate design firms, I became licensed in 2013 and launched my own hybrid practice of landscape architecture and public art.
Thematically, what is your work usually about? Why do you choose to focus on these issues?
I’m interested in our connection to the natural world and how we perceive natural phenomena like wind, water, and climate. Our understanding of the natural world is quite limited and I think art has the potential to open up new ways of seeing and experiencing that thing we call nature. Yet nature is not actually a separate entity from ourselves. We are bound up in it as emotional and social animals in an interconnected ecosystem. I want my work to give form and meaning to our ecological connectedness. I think it can result in greater empathy and a stronger social fabric, that’s certainly a driving factor in my public artwork and landscape projects. Our climate is undergoing rapid changes and we are struggling to process what it all means. Art provides people with a space for feeling and for understanding abstract concepts and relationships. I want my work to give people a place to feel and reflect on nature and our connection to the environment.
Is having a "successful career" as an artist something that is important to you? How do you define success?
Financially, I need to be successful because art is how I make a living. Intellectually, I define success by showing up to the studio each day and chipping away at big difficult ideas. How do I build a structural metal piece about something as ephemeral as wind? How do I express our city’s flooding bayous with immersive light art? These are hard questions that require a lot of ingenuity and ambition. I can’t be afraid to fail. I have to stubbornly pursue these ideas. Eventually, I make something that other people feel a connection with. I think a specific artwork is successful when I feel something- something a bit undefinable like mesmerizing wonder- and I get feedback from other people that they feel something from it, too.
Falon Land Studio to design 7 new green playspaces in Walker County
Falon Land Studio is working in partnership with the Kaboom Foundation and community groups in Huntsville, Texas to design seven new green playgrounds. We are delighted to work alongside Kaboom and community stakeholders to design seven new playspaces in the City of Huntsville.
Windbloom: Artist Talk at the Alief Library
Meet the Artist for Windbloom, the outdoor permanent public artwork coming to the new Alief Neighborhood Center.
7979 S Kirkwood Rd, Houston, TX 77072
March 17, 2022 | 4-6pm
Windbloom is a supersized flower that maps Alief's prevailing windspeed and direction. A permanent public artwork for the City of Houston’s Civic Art Collection at the new landmark Alief Neighborhood Center……
Falon Mihalic to speak at the Prague City Data Congress and the Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning
The Prague City Data Congress is a conference focused on data, urban planning, and municipal coordination.
In the 2021 edition, defined by the times of altered balance and changing perceptions, PCDC will focus on accessible design, data visualizations, and data-based storytelling.
Falon Mihalic will speak about Art as a Tool for Data Expression. Using the Bayou Beacon as a case study, this talk explores how to create immersive public art using freely available environmental data. The Bayou Beacon is an immersive light art projection that activates a former industrial space to express historic bayou flood data as a pulsing swarm of water drops. Installed in Houston, Texas, USA, the project activates an underutilized urban space and is funded through a city hotel occupancy and tourism tax.
Upswell Conference Panelist on Health Equity and Environmental Playgrounds
Falon Mihalic is a panelist on the Deep Dive Session titled, Supporting Health Equity and Environmental Resilience Through Green Playgrounds - A Texas Case Study. Falon will share how she has leveraged community engagement and fundraising to design environmentally resilient playgrounds in underutilized spaces. She will present alongside the Kaboom Foundation and the El Paso County Parks and Recreation Department.
Falon Mihalic’s Newest Public Artwork slated for 2022
From the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs: “Embedded in the urban parkscape, Windbloom will give form to the site’s ephemeral ecological qualities and fortify the new neighborhood center as a place for reflection, connection, and discovery.”
Bayou Beacon Launches April 23rd at Sawyer Yards
The Bayou Beacon is an environmental light sculpture designed by Falon Land Studio, a Houston-based interdisciplinary practice in public art and landscape architecture. The Beacon expresses the water fluctuations of White Oak Bayou as it monitors historic water quality data then projects a dynamic, parametrically-designed light animation onto suspended semi-transparent fabric panels. On view at night on Friday, April 23rd and Saturday April 24th, inside the Train Shed at Sawyer Yards’ Art Alley…..
April 15th: Beginner's workshop- Light Art and Data Visualization
Falon Land Studio is hosting a free workshop for beginners on light art and data visualization through TouchDesigner at 5pm CST on Thursday, April 15th. The workshop is geared towards emerging new media and light artists. No prior experience in TouchDesigner is required. The workshop is free to attend.
Falon Land Studio featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine
“Making the Meander: Falon Land Studio’s Prototype Practice” features the hands-on innovative work of building a recently completed public art commission in downtown Houston.
Meander at Market Square Park Now Open
Permanent public art commission in downtown Houston is featured in Culture Map, “Immersive New Artwork..” The project has been covered extensively by local media including the Houston Chronicle and Houston Press.
Spring 2020 Invited Lectures
Spring invited lectures:
April 4 2020: Portland Oregon, Oregon ASLA Design Symposium
April 14 2020: Rhode Island School of Design, Spring Lecture Series
April 29 2020: Lone Star College, Department of Fine Art
Falon Land Studio Summer Internship Program
Falon Land Studio is hiring two intern positions in Houston, Texas to work with our diverse team. Our work is a hybrid of landscape architecture at a variety of scales and public art commissions for municipalities and non-profits. We are looking for ambitious emerging designers with an interest in crafting construction drawing sets for permanent public art commissions, landscapes, and urban plazas…….READ MORE
TOPO for Outdoor Voices opens December 13th
TOPO is a constructed landform of artificial and living plants, commissioned for the new Outdoor Voices retail shop in the Heights Mercantile. Opening is December 13th at 6pm.
Details and RSVP here: https://events.outdoorvoices.com/ovhoustongrandopening