A student of the University of Houston inspects closely at the artworks within the “Structures of Feeling” art exhibition, on Thursday, September 24, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Gillian Wisniewski/The Cougar
Art senior AJ Ogden is exhibiting mixed-media artwork about Houston’s highways, particularly I-45, at the Third Space Gallery to explore how these massive structures shape the city and its residents.
For most Houston residents and UH students, Interstate 45 is simply a background to the daily commute: a stretch of concrete to travel through on the way to somewhere else. For Ogden, it is something worth stopping to explore.
Ogden uses a combination of painting, photography, drawing and printmaking. Through her work, she examines the physical structures surrounding the city and asks viewers to reconsider the role these structures play in shaping communities and environments around them.
Ogden’s exhibition alternates between black-and-white photography, handmade prints and other works created from reclaimed materials. The arrangement of the gallery is intentional: one side features silver gelatin photographs, while the other contains colorful, vibrant handmade work.
Ogden described the black-and-white photographs as a kind of research phase, with the ideas becoming more elaborate as visitors move through the exhibit.
“I think the introduction of color can come as an intimidation thing for a lot of artists,” Ogden said. “So, sometimes when you’re trying to figure out a concept, you start with values and then you kind of elaborate once you have those figured out.”
One side of the exhibits features primarily silver gelatin photographs produced in the University’s darkroom. Silver Gelatin is a black-and-white photographic printing process that uses silver suspended in gelatin to create a light-reactive image.
The use of photography is especially significant to Ogden, who has painted for years but rejects the idea that painting and photography exist in opposition to each other.
“I’ve been painting for a long time, and I think a lot of painters define painting in opposition to photography,” Ogden said. “But I think painting benefits so much from photography. The relationship between the camera and painting as a discipline, it’s a lot longer and deeper than people give it credit for. ”
Ogden also uses reclaimed materials to create prints depicting Houston’s highways. Some of the works are made from discarded packaging, including soda boxes and material from Kolache Factory.
The choice of materials is tied to the subject itself. Highways are massive, permanent structures, but the experience of traveling along them can feel temporary and disposable, Ogden said.
The prints use intaglio techniques, in which an image is carved into a surface and ink is applied to the recessed areas. By using discarded packaging as the printing surface, Ogden creates a contrast between the scale of highways and the disposable materials often littered around them.
Ogden said the highways represent “moments of your day that you’re not really paying attention to.”
“When you’re on the highway, you’re trying to get past that part so that you can get to living,” Ogden said.
Anthropology and archaeology have also influenced Ogden’s approach to the work. The title of her exhibit, Structures of Feeling, was coined by literary theorist Raymond Williams to describe the cultural complexities which artists take inspiration from.
Anthropology, Ogden says, provides a way to examine how people experience and understand the world, while archaeology allows us to view material remains of a culture and assess their values. That perspective led Ogden to consider highways as a form of contemporary material culture.
As an archaeology student, Ogden became accustomed to looking at the physical remains of past cultures and considering what those remains might reveal about the people who created them.
Ogden found that the same approach is applicable to the highways that dominate modern Houston.
“They are enormous objects that have a huge impact on the shape of our lives and where we can live, and they’re often under-discussed, even though they have that status,” Ogden said. “They have the ability to pave over neighborhoods and destroy them to make way for this.”
Ogden said she finds it fascinating that despite the profound impact highways have on Houston residents, they are often treated as objects that should be ignored rather than examined.
That recognition is at the center of Ogden’s work with Interstate 45. Instead of presenting the highway simply as an eyesore or a mundane piece of infrastructure, the exhibition asks viewers to consider its cultural significance and place in our daily lives
“I think there is a perverse beauty in them,” Ogden said. “And, a beauty that comes with a forced familiarity.”
For Ogden, creating art about the highways is ultimately an attempt to understand something that is deeply embedded in everyday life.
“Maybe this is an attempt to comprehend the beast that I live with,” Ogden said.
Her attempts to communicate this beauty reached painting senior Jasmine Diaz, who reflected on the nostalgia evoked by the artwork.
Having grown up around Houston’s major highways, Diaz says the roads feel like a familiar part of home and everyday life: the highways may carry people to different destinations, but the shared experience of traveling them creates a sense of connection.
“It’s like a home in a way,” Diaz said. “We’ve all been there. We all travel that same road, but at the end of the day, we’re all going to separate places.”
The exhibition also reflects Ogden’s belief in the importance of giving student artists opportunities to create and exhibit their work publicly.
Ogden said undergraduate arts programs like the one at UH provide students with experience that extends beyond creating individual pieces. Students also learn about organizing exhibitions, writing show proposals, managing projects and handling the administrative work that accompanies a career in the arts.
For Ogden, those opportunities allow young artists to develop ways of expressing their experiences and sharing them with a broader audience.
“I think it’s hugely important to give young artists, especially artists in undergrad, the opportunity to practice modes of expressing that reality that can access the public and can get grant funding and can keep them alive and producing art,” Ogden said.
The value of student exhibitions extends beyond the artists themselves, Ogden said. Campus galleries can introduce students and visitors to new artists, ideas and perspectives
“I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve attended in this gallery and made friends and learned about an artist I didn’t know about or a thing I didn’t think about,” Ogden said.
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