HOUSTON ZOO ORANGUTANS AND ELEPHANTS  

“Pongos Helping Pongos: Paintings by Orangutans for Orangutans”
March 29, 2008 at G Gallery in the Heights

Media Note: High resolution images of the artists and the art work are available for your unrestricted use.  Interviews with primate and elephant keepers may also be scheduled at your convenience.  For more information, please contact Brian Hill at 281-380-5232 (cell) or 713-533-6531 (office).

(HOUSTON) March 3, 2008 … Rudi takes time to choose his colors and prefers cardboard tubes instead of paint brushes.  Kelly likes to apply paint to canvas using lengths of bamboo or ginger.  Cheyenne and Elok will use brushes but have developed an intriguing finger painting style.  Solaris usually ends up wearing as much paint as ends up on the canvas.  Despite his blustery demeanor, Doc’s images seem to indicate a gentle soul hiding behind all the bravado.  The artists have two things in common: they all create their images at the Houston Zoo’s Wortham World of Primates; and they are all orangutans.

See these amazing works of art during the single night exhibition of Pongos Helping Pongos 2008 on Saturday, March 29, 2008 in a fine arts setting, including a wine and cheese reception at G Gallery in the Heights, 301 E. 11th Street from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.   Pongo is the scientific name for orangutans, so the name of the exhibit translates as Orangutans Helping Orangutans.

The exhibition will feature not only unique orangutan art but also paintings by the Houston Zoo’s elephants and siamangs as well as collaborative works with prominent local artists.  At the close of the evening, all paintings as well as photographic portraits of the featured artists will be sold by silent auction.  The evening’s proceeds will be donated to the preservation of orangutans and elephants in their natural habitats. 

Since 2004, Pongos Helping Pongos has raised more than $35,000 for the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Program and more than $20,000 for Indonesia’s Gunung Palung National Park.  Both projects are on the island of Borneo and represent some of the last remaining habitats for wild orangutans. 

About Orangutans
Ten thousand years ago orangutans were found throughout Southeast Asia and into southern China.  Today the species is found only in limited numbers on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.  Due to habitat encroachment and illegal logging, the wild population of orangutans is estimated to have diminished in the past decade by as much as 50 percent. 

About Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
Home to orangutans, secondary forests of the Lower Kinabatangan are also home to approximately 200 of the 1,200 Asian elephants believed to remain in northeastern Borneo.  The elephants of this island are reported to be the smallest of their kind and are often referred to as “pygmy” elephants.  Recent research indicates that they are genetically distinct and have been separated from mainland Asian populations for millennia.  In recent years, however, their territory is being heavily encroached by expanding agriculture and there have been increasing numbers of human-elephant conflicts as a result.

About Gunung Palung Park
One of the last safe havens for orangutans in the world, Gunung Palung is home to an estimated 1,500 orangutans, ten percent of the world’s population.  The parks 241,700 acres encompass a variety of biologically diverse rainforest habitats.  Unfortunately, Gunung Palung has recently attracted the attention of illegal loggers and hunters who have encroached deep within the park, threatening one of the most viable orangutan populations.

About the Houston Zoo
Founded in 1922, the Houston Zoo is an exciting live animal adventure that provides a unique educational and conservation resource serving 1.5 million guests annually.  Set in a 55-acre lush tropical landscape, the Zoo is home to more than 4,500 exotic animals representing more than 800 species.  Operated by the not-for-profit Houston Zoo, Inc., the Houston Zoo is dedicated to the conservation of endangered species, the provision of engaging educational opportunities and the creation of stimulating exhibits that broaden the experiences of our guests and encourage their curiosity.

The Orangutans

Rudi Valentino
Rudi was born in Brownsville, Texas on December 9, 1977 and has lived in Houston since he was six months old.  As the most mature male among the Houston orangutans, Rudi jealously guards his dignity and will only play or paint in front of his most trusted keepers.  Due to Rudi’s considerable strength, he typically uses disposable objects such as cardboard tubes to manipulate the paint on his canvasses.

 

Cheyenne  
Born on May 13, 1972 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Cheyenne came to Houston in 1993.  Though Cheyenne has never had any offspring of her own, she has provided excellent care and companionship as a surrogate mother to Luna and Elok.  One of Houston’s most prolific orangutan artists, Cheyenne readily finger-paints but typically wields a brush in characteristic sweeping, side-to-side strokes.

Kelly
Kelly was born in San Diego on September 22, 1980.  At a disadvantage because she was not raised by her own mother, Kelly failed to nurse her first infant, Luna.  However, maternal training from her keepers and a growing familiarity with the young Luna prepared this highly intelligent ape for her second baby, Solaris.  She is now an excellent mother.  As an artist, Kelly seems torn between her urge to create a painting and her desire to destroy the brush.  Consequently, most of her works are made with lengths of bamboo or ginger.   

Doc
Born in Dallas on Christmas Day 1984, Doc was brought to Houston at the tender age of three as a social companion for the adolescent Kelly.  Known in his early years as a good-natured clown, Doc has more recently adopted an imposing, blustery demeanor as if to emphasize his new adult status.  The patience and gravity with which he paints reveals the gentle soul behind the bravado.  
     

Elok
Elok was born in Memphis on November 1, 2000.  One year later, he was brought to Houston to be raised by Cheyenne who had proven herself as a surrogate mother to Luna.  Despite his generally placid nature, he competes avidly with both Cheyenne and Luna for the chance to paint.  Although just learning to manage a paintbrush, Elok also produces some very interesting works by finger-painting.

Solaris
The son of Kelly and Doc, Solaris was born in Houston on June 22, 2003.  He is friendly and sweet tempered, charming all who watch as he explores his environment under his mother’s watchful eye.  A budding artist, he began finger-painting before his first birthday.  He becomes very animated when he paints, taking frequent breaks to swing around his room.  He and his mother can often be seen wearing much of the paint from his most recent work.   

When she paints, the normally dreamy Indah displays uncharacteristic powers of concentration.  As with most young orangutan artists, she paints with her hands rather than using a brush.  However, she has pushed the boundaries of finger-painting further than any other, experimenting extensively with the use of unusual body parts, most notably her backside, to paint.

The Elephants

Born in Thailand in 1969, Methai came to the Houston Zoo in 1980.   Methai, the most artistic elephant at the Houston Zoo, takes almost any opportunity to paint.  She shows her enthusiasm by holding her ears forward, her eyes squeezed almost closed in concentration.  Due to the possibility that she will finish off a painting session by breaking the brush, Methai uses a modified paintbrush with the handle and all metal parts removed.

Born in 1965 and named for his country of origin, Thai became a member of the Houston Zoo’s herd in 1980.  One of the largest Asian elephants in North America, Thai is too dignified to express any enthusiasm for artistic pursuits.  The most reluctant painter of the Houston Zoo herd, Thai has become more reticent as the years pass.  On the rare occasion that he does produce a painting, he does so as quickly as possible.  Thai begins each work with a brush.  If, as often happens, he discards the brush, he completes the painting with the “finger” at the tip of his trunk.     

The largest of the gibbons, a radiation of small ape species indigenous to Southeast Asia, the siamang lives in small family groups.  Gibbons are noted for their arboreal acrobatics and their elaborate vocalizations, territorial duets which can be heard up to two miles away.  Though the siamang is not endangered, the rainforest habitat it shares with orangutans and many other vulnerable species definitely is.  Several gibbon species hover at the brink of extinction.

Jambi and Raya love to paint.  Typically they enjoy painting under the spreading oak in their yard, reaching through the mesh of the exhibit to a canvas held by one of her keepers.  A painting usually begins with Raya swiping a few dollops of the non-toxic paint and licking it off of her fingers.  Then she settles down to a more deliberate manipulation of the paint, often holding the edge of the canvas loosely with her fingers and painting with her thumb.  Here paintings often bear the parallel marks of her nails.  He   Jambi and Raya frequently work the same canvas together.