Houston falls into new art realms this month as intriguing new exhibitions open that take art lovers from Earth’s elements, specifically silver, all the way to the Moon.
The Blaffer showcases provocative contemporary artists, and the CAMH gets back to the land. For those looking to start their own art collection, October is also the month for art festivals. Then, in keeping with the collecting theme, the MFAH brings Houston the world class Modernism collection from a true Texas original, Charles Butt.
“Maria Gaspar: We Press Our Hands to the Steel Curtain” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through November 21)
In her artwork, interdisciplinary artist Maria Gaspar considers the concept of walls not just as physical structures but as barriers that can influence individual psyches and even societies. Growing up in Chicago in the neighborhood near the Cook County Correctional Facility, Gaspar became interested in jails and prisons and how they impact communities within those wall and outside of them.
The exhibition brings together sculpture, sound installations, video, archival materials, and participatory projects that draw from Gaspar’s years of collaborative research inside and beyond the jails. A highlight of the exhibition is Clamour, a 60 hour video documenting the demolition of one of Cook County Correctional Facility’s housing blocks.
"Singular Visions” at The Silos at Sawyer Yards (now through November 21)
Sculpture Month Houston celebrates its 10th anniversary with this special exhibition in one of Houston’s most unique art spaces, the Site Gallery housed within the decommissioned former rice silos complex at Sawyer Yards. Participating artists have each taken over one of the cylindrical silo spaces, which allows visitors to enter and engage directly with the art in a truly immersive experience.
Look for work that intrigues as it challenges ordinary ideas of reality from some of Houston’s most dynamic artists, including: Tom Bandage, Michael Bhichitkul, Christie Blizard, Steve Brudniak, Alton DuLaney, Jonathan Durham, Alicia Eggert, Tim Glover, Stephan Hillerbrand + Mary Magsamen, Beili Liu, Steve Murphy, Steve Parker, Gladys Poorte, Chris Powell, Margo Sawyer, Amy Scofield, Zulma Vega, and Ed Wilson.
“Adriana Corral: As Long as Life Endures” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through December 5)
Texan interdisciplinary artist Adriana Corral uses a research-based practice to explore themes of memory, loss, human rights abuses, natural disasters, and hidden histories. Corral’s art installations, sculptures, drawings, and films attempt to unearth and preserve those histories.
The exhibition will feature the new film by Corral, Terrebonne, created as part of her research in coastal Louisiana, where she worked with members of the Pointe au Chien Indian Tribe. The film examines how land loss, rising waters, and ecological collapse disproportionately threaten Indigenous communities. Also on view is a large scale transparent bullet resistant polycarbonate sculpture that references above-ground mausoleums often found in places like New Orleans. The juxtaposition of the material with the form asks viewers to ponder questions of who can afford to buy environmental safety and who cannot.
“A Material Inheritance” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (now through January 30, 2027)
In celebration of its 25th “silver” anniversary, HCCC presents this once-in-a-generation exhibition that examines silver as material and metaphor. Giving both a bit of a science and art history lesson, the exhibition will explore how, as the Earth’s most reflective element, Silver has changed human cultures. Silver’s unique properties, along with human ingenuity, led to advances in mirror-making, photography, and scientific instrumentation, while its weight, density, and malleability established it as a prime medium for currency, ceremonial objects, jewelry, and treasured heirlooms.
The exhibition will showcase artists who work with silver in a multitude of ways, including: Shane R. Hendren, Edward Lane McCartney, Jaydan Moore, Leah Ying Lin, and Anjali Srinivasan. The selected pieces will span a range of ways to work with silver as a medium, from traditional metalsmithing and jewelry making to experimental glass, ceramic, and kinetic media practices that reveal silver’s remarkable conceptual and material range.
“Divination: Beverly Buchanan & Dionne Lee” at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston (now through February 14, 2027)
This is the second in a series of new exhibitions from the CAMH to bring together the work of artists across decades as a way to open up new interpretations. “Divination” finds thematic and art-making commonalities between photographers Beverly Buchanan (1940–2015) and Dionne Lee (b. 1988, New York City). CAMH senior curator Rebecca Matalon notes that though the artists come from different generations, they both explore relationships between Blackness and the land, share an interest in survivalist practices, and have unique relationships with their environment and landscapes.
The exhibition will showcase Buchanan’s photography of her large-scale environmental works that she began in the 1970s, placing stone-like fragments in remote locations across the Southeast. "Divination" organizes Buchanan’s work in conversation with Lee’s 21st century photography and films that examine what it means to honor the land on which we live. The CAMH notes that the exhibition’s title comes from the idea that both artists created work to uncover hidden histories, but they were are also committed to letting these histories remain out of focus and elusive.
“Wall Drawing Series: Jitish Kallat” at Menil Drawing Institute (now through August 8, 2027)
Since 2018, the MDI has commissioned a contemporary artist to create a new work on an interior wall within the building. Art, Cold War history, and even state secrets merge in “Wall Drawing / Redux: A119,” the latest Wall Drawing Series installation by acclaimed multidisciplinary Indian artist Jitish Kallat.
The time-based wall drawing grows out of Kallat’s interest and research into Project A119, a U.S. Air Force plan in the late 1950s to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon. Of course, the plan was never carried out, but the report on the project was only partially declassified at the turn of this century. For “Redux: A119,” Kallat has layered pages from the A119 report, titled “A Study of Lunar Research Flights - Volume I” with his own drawings and watercolors. The piece was then sheathed in laminated glass, and Kallat and the Menil team collaborated with researchers at Rice University on an electrical system so that the glass changes degrees of transparency every 500 seconds, which is approximately the time it takes sunlight to travel from the Sun to the Moon creating what we see as moonlight.
“Bayou City Art Festival” at Memorial Park (October 9-11)
The annual festival always gives art lovers and collectors a chance to meet artists, view original pieces, and purchase artwork from more than 270 creators across 19 disciplines, including world-class paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures, and more, at prices for everyone. The fest will feature more than just visual artists, as a wide range of musical artists and bands take the festival stage, and look for roaming entertainment throughout the festival area. The three days also boast a wide range of interactive and educational activities for kids and adults.
Affordable Art Fair at George R. Brown Convention Center (October 15-18)
Presented in Houston for the first time, this fair's name sums up the mission, for the Affordable Fair is set to bring thousands of artworks from around the world. The prices, ranging from $100 to $12,000, will likely entice both the experienced and novice collector.
The fair will feature work from 55 galleries, including 17 Houston favorites, as well as 22 U.S from the U.S and 16 prestigious international galleries. Affordable Art Fair organizers have programmed many special events over the weekend, such as a spotlight on Hispanic and Latin American artists from Houston, Mexico, and Argentina, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month; special installations by artists Kayla Powers, Dan Trelenberg, and Brendan Flores; and a print workshops with PrintHouston. Look also for family hours with KIDO Preschool, Art After Hours evenings, and a Fair Director's Tour.
"American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 25-January 18)
As Americans continue to celebrate the nation’s 250th year, the MFAH offers up one Texan’s extraordinary collection of some of America’s greatest artists of the 20th century. While Charles Butt is well admired across the state for his philanthropy, especially when it comes to education, the H-E-B chairman also has a passion for collecting and wants to share that art with other Texans.
The exhibition will give MFAH visitors new insights into the extent of American artistic diversity in the 20th as it showcases over 80 works of art by such greats as Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, and Andrew Wyeth, as well as Texas artists like Everett Gee Jackson and Mary Bonner. "American Modernism" will likely also give attendees a glimpse into Butt’s own vision and focus, as it is organized into five intriguing thematic sections reflecting Butt’s life-long passions including: Intimate Perspectives, The Language of the Sea, Land Progressions, Geometric Utopias/Dystopias, and New Directions.
“More than a textbook survey of American modernism, the Charles Butt Collection shows many of the artists at turning points in their careers, with signature works and intimate sketches that encompass a remarkable range of expression and achievement,” MFAH curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Alison de Lima Greene said in a statement.
