ARTIST TALK FROM MARCH 24TH (Prince Varughese Thomas with Bridget Bray): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ylViGfEWds
Hooks-Epstein Galleries proudly presents "A House Divided", a new series of works by Houston-based artist, Prince Varughese Thomas, taking place in conjunction with FotoFest 2026: The International Biennial of Photography. The exhibition opens Saturday, February 28, 2026 with Thomas presenting an Artist Talk at 4:00PM; an Artist Reception will take place from 5:00PM-7:00PM.
***SAVE THE DATE 3.24.2026 | GALLERY HAPPY HOUR AT 5:00PM & ARTIST CONVERSATION AT 6:00PM | PRINCE VARUGHESE THOMAS + INDEPENDENT CURATOR, BRIDGET BRAY
"A House Divided" is a series of works that reflects the fractured pulse of our contemporary moment. Borrowing its title from a biblical warning, resurrected in Abraham Lincoln’s words, the phrase becomes a mirror, catching the light and shadow of our own age. The works do not merely look back; they stand in the present, where the seams of community strain, where fault lines thread through our shared spaces and private lives.
Within this fractured landscape, national symbols, monuments, flags, and currency are transformed into sites of inquiry that reflect a complex and difficult past and present. Camouflage patterns are meticulously layered over civic icons, interrupting their legibility and calling attention to what is hidden, protected, or deliberately obscured in the stories a nation tells about itself. Here, camouflage becomes more than a surface; it is a metaphor for how identity, history, and power are concealed and manipulated, and how what appears unified is often fractured beneath.
Through the act of seeing, we become witness and participant, framing the quiet ruptures and the loud fractures, the subtle gestures of division and the fragile, flickering signs of unity. The artworks in this project ask: what is the architecture of belonging, and how does it falter when the walls between us grow taller than the bridges we build? This body of work is at once a record of disunity and an elegy for what might yet be mended. Within each work lives the ache of separation and the persistence of hope; the belief that what has been split might, in time, be made whole.
Prince Varughese Thomas is an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines the intersections of culture, identity, and social commentary through drawing, photography, video, and installation. He has presented work in more than 275 solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, including the Atlanta Contemporary (GA), Queens Museum (NY), Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and Amarillo Museum of Art (TX). Thomas’ artistic impact has been recognized by the City of Houston, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from University of Texas at Arlington and an M.F.A. from the University of Houston. Thomas serves as a Professor of Art at Lamar University (TX).
Prince Varughese Thomas’ "A House Divided" is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
