"Decoupage House"Karl Virag

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Used with permission of the photographer, Larry Harris

Status

Extant

Address

Galveston, Texas, 77550, United States

Built

c. 1960s - 1970s

View All Images

About the Artist/Site

An émigré to the United States from the former Czechoslovakia in 1952, Virag lived in various locations prior to settling in Galveston. Renting a house off of Seawall Boulevard from his landlord, upon the latter’s death, Virag was gifted the property. Working in local hardware stores, he recovered store inventory and other found objects from the trash, brought these home, and began to use them to decorate his home.

He didn’t think about his decorations as art, he wrote later to the current owner, Recie Kraemer, “I was simply remaking the house to my own liking, my own private world in which to live.”

Virag later moved to East Texas, and by the time Kraemer purchased the home, it had been unoccupied for decades. She is currently exploring options for the home’s future, but may consider retaining it as a museum-type structure. It has been included in one of the Houston Orange Show Foundation’s “eye-opener” tours.

~Jo Farb Hernández, 2017