Houston 'graffiti museum' would be the first of its kind in U.S.

GONZO247 is an artist whose works can be seen in murals all across Houston. He's heading up a project to establish a street-art museum on Houston's east side. GONZO247 is an artist whose works can be seen in murals all across Houston. He's heading up a project to establish a street-art museum on Houston's east side. Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 62 Caption Close Houston 'graffiti museum' would be the first of its kind in U.S. 1 / 62 Back to Gallery

Houston has museums for almost everything, from printing, bicycles, the funeral business, to art cars, and soon it will have its own street art museum.

This weekend Mario E. Figueroa, Jr., better known as Gonzo247, announced plans for the Graffiti and Street Art Museum of Texas to open in early 2016.

The museum will tell the story of street art and graffiti in Houston and also showcase the work of others across the country and the rest of the world.

Gonzo247 told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that the museum (a registered charity) has been in gestation for about a year.

“The streets are always the best showcase but it’s time for its own museum,” he says. He’s risen from doing random pieces around town some 25 years ago to being a fully-commissioned artist for the city of Houston itself. He’s seen as sort of the granddaddy of the Houston street-art scene.

Houston filmmaker Alex Luster looked at the Houston street-art scene in the 2011 documentary “Stick 'Em Up!” which brought the art form to a whole new audience and helped bring it above ground. Gonzo247 was a producer on the film.

The museum is planned to open at the Aerosol Warfare location on the east side of downtown for now but Gonzo247 is hoping that by it will have its own base to grow into by early 2016.

“The ultimate goal is for it to have its own proper space,” he says. “We want to bring the world to Houston.”

While other museums have established sections for street art, there is no other stand-alone graffiti museum in the country, he says, which should draw many visitors to Houston.

“The power of the Internet is great but to be able to walk through a place and see everything in front of you, it puts things in perspective for viewers,” he adds.

He envisions a day when international art lovers come to Houston to see the Menil collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the graffiti museum all in one weekend. He doesn’t anticipate there being an admission cost for this museum either, as he doesn’t believe in charging someone to see art.

“We’ve finally gotten to the point where street-art is accepted but the full history of it still hasn’t been told,” he says of street-art.

As for what guests would see in a graffiti museum, the collection is currently evolving. He’s going to include his own artifacts from his 25 years of work, original pieces from various artists around the country, and some of the tools of the trade.

“When we started there were only a few spray paints we used, whereas today there are super-fine import paints that are made for graffiti art especially,” Gonzo247 says. Even nozzles, which seem trivial to outsiders, will be showcased.

“You wouldn’t realize it but we had to take nozzles from other bottles and cans to come up with specific styles and effects,” he says. Just as painters might need to use different brushes on a canvas.

Visiting artists, video presentations, and on-site lecturers would make up some of the programming as well.

Gonzo247 says he's not retiring from the painting game, he says, this is just the next logical step in his career.

“What’s great about the scene nowadays is that other people are taking up the baton,” he says noting that the team behind the now-iconic “BE SOMEONE” art on I-45 make him quite proud.

“They are really all about the message now and very humble about what they have going on. They don’t want the personal credit. They have a message they stand on,” he says. The way people rallied behind the art when it was defaced a few weeks ago proves to him that street-art has now entered a new phase in pop-culture.

These days it’s not unusual to see young couples taking engagement photos in front of Houston-centric street art.

“People grew up with it as a public art and don’t see it as ugly or vandalism,” he says. “It’s a generational thing.”

When the announcement of the museum went out on over the weekend a prominent backer came forward to lend a hand monetarily, Gonzo247 says.

At the moment the artist is throwing the majority of his weight behind the upcoming the Hue Mural Festival set to run from Oct. 17 until Oct. 24 which will see over 15 buildings on Houston’s east side and the Washington Avenue corridor get mural makeovers.

“So many business owners are coming forward to ask how they can have their building painted that that number will surely go up,” he says. The goal in the end is to have a walkable district of street-art for people to come and enjoy when they want.