Bert Leon Luna

Bert Leon Luna’s collages and paintings incorporate original, vintage blueprints for oil and gas instrumentation and directly reference the city’s rich history as an energy producer. Born in Bogota, Colombia in February 1939, Bert Leon Luna’s first artistic pursuits were paintings on glass made as a boy under the direction of Franciscan friars.  He trained at the Paz del Rio Steel Mill and received degrees in industrial design and metallurgy in Buenos Aires in 1959. From 1960-74 he lived in New York City where he studied with painter Vincent Sandoval and operated an artistic foundry with sculptor Anthony Cipriano. After a brief time in Miami, Luna moved to Houston on a whim in 1976 and quickly found work within the city’s oil and gas industry, first at Gulf, then later at Transco. An avid soccer player, Luna established the city’s first soccer league in 1977. He also began to show his paintings in shows at Roberto Molina Gallery (1979), the Art League of Houston (1980), and the Galveston Arts Center (1980). In 1981, Luna organized “Latin Spirit of the ‘80s” at the Lawndale Annex, one of the first shows to introduce emerging Latinx talent to the wider Houston art community. Luna continued this advocacy with the establishment in 1983 of the Fine Arts Latin Association (FALA), a service organization to help identify and support Latin-American artists in Houston by mounting shows, and by connecting them with collectors and curators. For example, he introduced MFAH curator Barbara Rose to several artists she’d subsequently feature in Fresh Paint: The Houston School (1985). Later in life, he worked as a consultant on court cases involving the petro-chemical industry.

Notes: Pete Gershon interviewed Bert Leon Luna at his storage unit off Pinemont Drive on February 14, 2019. External Rode mic worked just fine in this open-air situation, good natural light. It was a treat to get to look at some paintings that rarely see the light of day.

This project funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.