Friends and family visiting Houston during the holiday season will find art openings that appeal to every taste. Classic art and history buffs can take time traveling journeys into ancient empires with two blockbuster exhibitions from the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Younger generations with an interest in social media will find new immersive and interactive art that's perfect for sharing. For the adventurous wanting to see art in creation, consider taking a crawl through Warehouse District studios for art. Even busy travelers can see some of our best local artists with a special showcase at IAH.

“Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through January 25)
Featuring 160 objects of antiquity, including marble sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, delicate glass vessels, and bronze artifacts, the exhibition will transport visitors back in time to the Roman Empire during a flowering of art and architecture. The MFAH partnered with the Saint Louis Art Museum to organize the exhibition, which will showcase many pieces that have never been on view in the U.S.

While Emperor Trajan might not be the most famous — or in some cases, most infamous — of the Roman emperors, he ruled between 98 and 117 C.E. during the empire’s height and was the second of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. During his reign, he granted citizenship and rights to some peoples from conquered lands. The exhibition will explore how this time period expanded what it meant to be a Roman and how art reflected Rome’s power and promoted the empire’s values and ideals.

“Soledad Salamé: Camouflage” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through March 7)
This exhibition showcasing the Chilean-born, Maryland-based multimedia artist focuses on Salamé’s work with environmental themes. Using aerial photos of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, the site where millions of pounds of disposable textiles, often called “fast fashion,” are dumped and piled, Salamé then hand embroiders the photos with needle and thread, adding weighty details to these landscapes of immense fabric fields. For other pieces in the exhibition, Salamé gives new shape to humble dresses that the artist has fashioned from recycled cotton fabric. Throughout the exhibition, Salamé finds ways to marry art, research, and re-invention.

“Sawyer Yards 2025 Showcase” at Bush IAH (now through July 31)
Let local artwork lighten your wait and brighten your travels at Houston's busiest airport. Bush IAH received the 2023 Best Art in the Airport international recognition from Skytrax, a status it aims to maintain with a new selection of recent pieces by Sawyer Yard artists. The works on display in Terminal A represent 15 artists from each of the five studio buildings across the Sawyer Yards campus. The range of media, including drawing, painting, assemblage, and photography, highlights the diversity of Houston artists. The display will remain on view for one year and then be rotated with new selections from Sawyer artists. The exhibition is located in Terminal A, starting at Gate A7.

“Mario Ayala: Seven Vans” at Contemporary Arts Museum (November 14-June 21, 2026)
Though Ayala’s paintings have been showcased in museums across the globe, “Seven Vans” becomes the acclaimed contemporary artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. Known for his unique way of depicting life on the West Coast and especially California, this CAMH show will feature seven life-sized canvases painted as realistic portraits of the back of vans. The CAMH notes that word and concept of vans came into being as an evolution of caravans, making them also representations of commerce and both working and counterculture lifestyles.

Influenced by the diverse artistic landscapes of his Californian home, from Mexican-American mural art to body tattooing to highway signage and car culture, Ayala’s paintings of the backs of vehicles become a kind of portrait of their owners. Each one portrays an individual personality. Without ever painting their faces, Ayala offers a vivid portrait of the people of his community.

“Ayala’s impactful engagement with car culture encourages a fresh look at both vehicles and the spaces they occupy,” describes exhibition curator Patricia Restrepo, who makes the case that the show will have great resonance for Houstonians. “Seven Vans is designed to resemble a parking garage, with each vehicle frozen like a performer mid-scene. This eerie stillness may feel all too familiar in Houston, where more than a quarter of downtown is paved with parking lots and garages.”

“Phenomenomaly” at Meow Wolf Houston's Radio Tave (November 15-January 4)
Visual and performance art meet in the time and universe tripping dimensions of Meow Wolf’s Radio Tave, with live performances from Houston dancers, musicians, and storytellers every weekend. These live performances will help tell “Phenomenomaly,” an immersive, new sci-fi story about the mysterious Flickerwerms.

Depending on the day or time, visitors will encounter different characters in this ongoing tale with the chance of spotting the story reaching its crescendo as Mama Flickerwerm emerges in a dazzling sequence of dance and performance. Some of the eclectic featured live performances in November and December will be from the contemporary Bollywood dance company, T2 Dance, Houston’s own poetry superstar, Outspoken Bean, the sizzling Hot City Brass Band, the beer loving opera divas and divos of Hopera, and the always vibrant Mariachi Oro de mi Tierra.

“Pop Air – Art Is Inflatable” presented by The Balloon Museum (November 15-April 19)
Already a hit in Dallas and Austin, the Balloon Museum will arrive in Houston with a different show than our neighbor cities. “Pop Art” features immersive air art from 14 international artists all creating work with themes about the power of play and human connections.

Together, these large-scale installations will span more than 65,000 square feet, creating luminous spaces for visitors to interact with the art. From inflatable sculptures of humans, monsters, and geometric shapes to colorful virtual reality worlds to simulated cloud rooms to landscape installations that move thanks to the energy generated by biking power, “Pop Air” art really is inflatable, interactive, and very Instagramable.

“World of the Terracotta Warriors: New Archaeological Discoveries in Shaanxi in the 21st Century” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (opens November 15)
Ancient art marches into town to conquer our imagination once again with the return of the Terracotta Warriors. The HMNS has previously presented exhibitions of these burial sculptures depicting the armies of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but this new show will also deliver over 100 newly unearthed artifacts to North America for the very first time.

These latest archaeological discoveries tell the story of the people and culture that helped to give rise to the Qin dynasty. Included in the exhibition are jade pieces, gold ornaments, bronze vessels, and ceremonial horse fittings uncovered in the tombs of kings and noblemen, along with rare artifacts from the 4,000-year-old city of Shimao, China’s first walled city. The exhibition will include the Warriors in a variety of forms and roles including archers, kneeling figures, a high-ranking military official, and a even the figure of the emperor’s personal afterlife entertainer.

“This exhibit presents the latest archaeological discoveries that rewrote history,” says Dr. Dirk Van Tuerenhout, curator of anthropology for HMNS. “China’s advanced civilization did not start where once thought it did. This is a story of over two millennia with kingdoms waxing and waning. It ends with the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. His mausoleum still stands, undisturbed. His army and servants have awoken and await your visit.”

"Back in Black” at Laura Rathe Fine Art (November 20-December 31)
The group show represents a a new chapter for the Colquitt location of Laura Rathe Fine Art, reintroduced with a striking black façade to honor its legacy while embracing contemporary refinement. Featuring a curated selection of new works by LRFA artists, the exhibition celebrates individuality and collective vision alike. Each artist has spent months of dedicated work in the studio, refining their craft and creating pieces that reflect both personal evolution and shared purpose. Together, the art and the space tell a story of continuity, transformation, and the legacy of Laura Rathe Fine Art.

“ArtCrawl Houston” throughout the Downtown Warehouse District (November 22)
Take a pre-Thanksgiving crawl through some of the studios and artist spaces in the historic Warehouse District at the 33rd annual free event. Wander through open studios, exhibitions, and installations, all while catching pop-up performances in some of the spaces. Artists and visitors alike can expect a celebration of contemporary art in all its forms — abstract, figurative, digital, performance, and more — accompanied by food, music, and family-friendly programming.

Photo by Eric Scire/Atlas Media

Meow Wolf presents Phenomenomaly.