Pick Five (Plus)

Your weekly guide to Houston: Umbrella divorce, family tree fun and a dose ofGBS

The Iranian Film Festival is MFAH's longest running series. Now in its 18thyear, its selections are curated in collaboration with museums in Boston andWashington D.C.
Houston Arboretum is one a hidden treasure along Memorial Park. Arbor Day allowsguests and families to reconnect with our natural surroundings.
"Dead Man Walking" by the Houston Grand Opera is an emotionally charged operafocusing on the struggles around a death row inmate.
Classical Theatre Company's production of "Candida" is as relevant today as whenit was first published in 1898.

Today, I had to look at my schedule to remember what sort of trouble I managed to stir up last week. Whether that is a result of pre-coffee early morning writing or too much art fun, my week was filled with some firsts and the beginning of some lasts.

The Houston Symphony Orchestra was in top shape, scaring me half to death with Verdi's Messa da Requiem. With visiting conductor Thomas Dausgaard and a massive battery of musicians included chorus and soloists, swaying between the thunderous sonorities of the Dies Irae, sublime lyricism reigned, especially at the hands of soprano Angela Mead, who handled her top register with amazing control.

I managed to behave myself, as I tend to have strong reactions to good art, with the exception of a "Holy Crap" whisper while jumping off my seat. Principal percussionist Brian Del Signore severely punished, with a little sadistic enjoyment, the bass drum.

Houston Grand Opera's opening of Dead Man Walking was pure emotional exhaustion. Whether you feel it is a political work "all about the death penalty" or about the exploration of interpersonal relationships in the darkest of circumstances, the haunting arguments linger days later. Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen Prejean (who made an appearance at curtain call opening night) embraced her complex character with conviction while Frederica von Stade as Mrs. Patrick De Rocher, the death row inmate's mother, was able to externalize her character's deep psychological struggles and make the audience feel, and feel deeply.

The house was packed and I'm still screwed up from the experience.

Why is von Stade retiring anyway? She still has it.

Lets not forget the Houston Girls Chorus debut. With Michael Remson's guidance, this group will grow to become one of the city's vital cultural and education treasures.

This week, the amusement and exploration continues.

Houston Grand Opera's Dead Man Walking and Lucia di Lammermoor

Opening night was sold out, but you still have a few chances to experience Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, if for no other reason, to be present at Frederica von Stade's farewell performance run.

But in case you need more excuses to get out and and do opera, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor also opens this week and features Houston favorites — coloratura soprano Albina Shagimuratova (HGO Studio alum) playing the title role and Scott Hendricks as Enrico. The dynamic pair rocked Rigoletto last year. Dead Man Walking continues on Saturday while Lucia opens on Friday.

Mildred's Umbrella Theater's The Last 5 Years

Anything presented by Mildred's Umbrella Theater is bound to leave you a little twisted, even laughing at the sight of dropping dead babies. The Last 5 Years, written by Jason Robert Brown, is a twisted musical dealing with the whole continuum of a modern relationship: dating, marriage and breakup. And since nearly 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, adding a little music and jazz hands may just make the journey a little more enjoyable. Opens Friday at 8 p.m.

Iranian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

A tradition now in its 18th year, the festival is the longest in the MFAH film department's history and features movies produced in the last couple of years. The screenings continue this weekend with The White Meadows and Persian Catwalk. In collaboration with museums in Boston and Washington D.C., MFAH works together to underwrite and curate the selections, balanced with requests from the community.

Mohammad Rasoulof, writer/director of The White Meadows is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for propaganda against the state. Making its North American debut, Persian Catwalk is more of a film essay focusing on the development of fashion in Iran. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Arbor Day at the Houston Arboretum

You really should not need Arbor Day to connect with Mother Nature. But if you do, the Houston Arboretum is here for remind you that we need to co-exists with our surroundings.

A perfect family outing, Arbor Day activities will include tree planting demos, tree tours and native tree information sessions while children participate in papermaking, face painting, puzzle hikes, leaf rubbings and more. Saturday from 10 am-4 pm.

Chicken Soup Cookoff

There is something very satisfying about participating in a food event that also benefits organizations that fight hunger. Houston's top restaurants go head-to-head in a fight to see who has the best remedy for the common cold and the winter blues. Proceeds will benefit the Houston Food Bank and Congregation Emanu El. Sunday at 11:30 am.

My colleagues' selection:

Assistant editor Caroline Gallay's pick: Big Lebowski Quote-Along at Alamo Drafthouse

Caroline says: "What could be better than a brew with The Dude — the man has an Oscar!" Tuesday at 7:30 pm.

Art columnist Nancy Wozny's pick: Classical Theatre Company's Candida

Nancy says: "Feeling a little low on vitamin GBS as in George Bernard Shaw? I have just the remedy for you: Classical Theatre Company's production of Candida. Shaw may have written Candida in 1898, but the dilemmas of marriage remain. Do we choose the Christian socialist or the romantic poet? Written at the height of the women's suffrage movement, this is Shaw at his preach with a purpose best. Also, Shannon Emerick plays Candida. Who would want to miss that?" Opens on Friday.

Assistant editor and arts savant Steven Thomson's pick: Waste Land

Steven says: "Waste Land captured the Sundance Audience Award for Best World Cinema Documentary last January for its depiction of Brazilian catadores, or trash pickers living in Jardim Gramacho, one of the world's vastest landfills. A group of the scavengers collaborated with São Paulo-born artist Vik Muniz for the monumental series Pictures of Garbage, as documented in the film.

"Waste Land sheds light on this fringe society, and how art transformed their lives." Thursday through Sunday.

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Best March Art

9 new art museum and gallery exhibits opening in Houston this month

Ernesto Neto, SunForceOceanLife (installation view), 2020, crocheted textile and plastic balls, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund

As spring returns so does a flowering of biannual, annual, and biennial art festivals and events this month. Art blooms indoors in Houston's favorite museums but also on the city's streets, parks, and even waterways. Lots of immersive art invites viewers to journey into the picture.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston gets contemplative, and the Menil Collection displays some rare recent gifts. If that’s not enough art for one month, FotoFest celebrates a big anniversary, and the yearly “Night Light” art party heads downtown.

“Global Visions – FotoFest at 40” programming across Houston (March)
Marking four decades of photographic arts and education programming in Houston, this 2026 FotoFest looks back on key works and themes from the 20 previous biennials between 1986 and 2024. With participating art galleries and museums around the city offering special photography exhibitions over the next several month, FotoFest will feature more than 450 artists from the United States and 58 countries. Curated by FotoFest co-founder and former artistic director Wendy Watriss and FotoFest executive director Steven Evans, with co-curators Annick Dekiouk and Madi Murphy, “Global Visions” will explore some of the previous festival themes including geography, identity, war, ecology, and social change, while also celebrating FotoFest’s global reach and impact. Look for auctions, tours, conversations, art walks, and workshops as part of the programming.

“Buddha/Nature: Five Dialogues on a Shared World” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through May 10)
Ancient and contemporary art converse in this extraordinary new exhibition at the MFAH that explores key teachings of Buddhism centered on how we engage with the natural world. The exhibition is organized crossed five thematically focused galleries, including Samsara, Impermanence, Karma, Compassion, and Awakening. Each gallery features one of five ancient Buddhist sculptures from the Xuzhou Collection, a private collection of Buddhist masterpieces, along with works by international and Texas contemporary artists.

“This exhibition brings ancient Buddhist sculptures into dynamic dialogue with contemporary art,” explains Hao Sheng, consulting curator to the MFAH and organizing curator of the exhibition. “These sacred objects take on new resonance when paired with modern works that explore fundamental questions about existence and harmony. As we witness shifts in our natural environment, we are invited to reflect on the impact of our collective choices in order to achieve a deeper understanding of our place within a changing world.”

“Blooming Wonders: A Celebration of Spring” at Artechouse (now through May 31)
The Houston venue that acts as a greenhouse for art, science, and technology to grow together, Artechouse, brings back this hit exhibition from last year.To explore themes of growth, renewal, and sustainability, “Bloom wonders” showcases several dynamic installations, including “PIXELBLOOM: Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. In another immersive space, “BloomFall: Through the Infinite” guests enter an mirrored infinity room full of shifting floral dimensions. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program.

“Ernesto Neto: SunForceOceanLife” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now-September 7)
Immersive art gets elevated as the MFAH brings back this commissioned installation that had museum goers walking on air. Looking something like a giant starfish or spiral galaxy from underneath, Ernesto Neto’s singular work floats above almost the entirety of Cullinan Hall in the Caroline Wiess Law Building. One of the largest crochet works to date by Neto, the sculpture consists of yellow, orange, and green materials hand-woven into a myriad of patterns and sewn together in a spiral formation. Visitors can enter this rising labyrinth and wander through different sections filled with soft, plastic balls underfoot that move with each step. Once they reach the center of work, they might pause to view the piece from within the art and reflect on their own journey through “SunForceOceanLife.”

“Ernesto Neto created this site-specific piece as a tribute to the life-giving forces of the sun and the ocean. Inspired by crochet, which he learned from his grandmother, the piece transforms this traditional Brazilian craft into a massive, enveloping structure that engages the body and the mind,” remark Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art on the return of the monumental installation.

True North 2026 along Heights Boulevard (now through December)
Once again, art grows on the Height Boulevard esplanade with this annual outdoor sculpture exhibition sponsored and partnered by the nonprofit Houston Heights Association. The outdoor show features the latest work of some stellar Texas and Houston artists, including Hans Molzberger, Suzette Mouchaty, James D. Phillips, Roger Colombik, Mark Nelson, Robbie Barber, Jim Robertson, Keith Crane/Damon Thomas. Since the artists don’t always install their sculptures on the same days, True North is always an artful excuse to make time for a walk along the boulevard to see what new work has popped up. This beloved tradition is once again thanks to an all-volunteer team, along with the Houston Heights Association in cooperation with the City of Houston Parks and Recreation and Public Works Departments and the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

"Rebel Girl" and “The Vanguard” at Houston Center for Photography (March 12-April 12)
Just a few days after International Women’s Day, HCP continues their historic commitment to championing women’s photographic careers as they present two exhibition exploring the complexities of female identity. “Rebel Girl” exhibits the work of Luisa Dörr, Selina Román, and Jo Ann Chaus, artists whose work challenges convention while questioning stereotypes and illuminating the evolving roles and perceptions of women today. For “The Vanguard,” HCP executive director, Anne Leighton Massoni, went through their archives and selected the work of 20 trailblazing women who exhibited at HCP within its first 20 years. Taken together their work illustrate the diversity of women’s artistic visions and creativity.

“The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly” at the Menil Collection (March 27-August 9)
Perhaps as a nod to the Menil Collection being the home of the only permanent retrospective exhibition of 20th century pioneering artist, Cy Twombly’s, work, last year the Cy Twombly Foundation made an extraordinary gift of 121 of Twombly’s drawings to the institute. Now art lovers around the world will get to see some of that landmark gift, as the Menil Drawing Institute presents this exhibition featuring 30 of those works. Covering three decades of the artist’s activity, from the 1950s to the 1980s, the show will feature work created by Twombly’s use of a broad range of materials, from graphite to oil paint; techniques such as drawing and collage; and themes that are fundamental to his entire practice, such as classical antiquity, eroticism, and nature. Some highlight of the exhibition will be a series of lush and unrestrained landscapes from 1986 that verge on pure abstraction; two untitled works from 1970 that are related to the artist’s “blackboard paintings” on view in Cy Twombly Gallery; and Narcissus, 1975, a collage of paper, with oil, charcoal, and wax crayon on paper. None of these works have been exhibited in the U.S. before.

“Night Light” at Allen’s Landing at Buffalo Bayou Park (March 28)
The annual free festival of video art along Buffalo Bayou moves west this year from its usual setting along the industrial and residential landscapes of the Buffalo Bayou East trails to Allen’s Landing in downtown Houston. The concrete bridges and underbellies of the major city freeways that emerge from watery bayou depths become the canvases for three site-specific installations from some of Houston most innovative video and multidisciplinary artists. Co-presented by the Aurora Picture Show and Buffalo Bayou Partnership “Night Light” puts the spotlight on new works from artist, designer, and engineer, Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr.; video, installation, and performance artist and Rice professor, Kenneth Tam; and award winning collaborative duo Hillerbrand+Magsamen. And it wouldn’t be an outdoor Houston event of any kind without food, so expect a lively night artisan market hosted by East End District and BLCK Market at East River featuring local vendors and food trucks plus tunes from DJ Gracie Chavez.

Bayou City Art Festival Downtown at Sam Houston Park (March 28-29)
Downtown Houston continues to sprout art everywhere, as the last weekend in March also heralds the biannual Bayou City Art Fest in Sam Houston Park. Showcasing art from 250 creators from around the country, the festival always brings a wide selection of paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures, and functional art at all price levels. Fest goers also have the opportunity to meet the art makers and hear the stories behind the art. This year’s featured artists is Lijah Hanley, a digital photographer from Vancouver, WA who first found his place behind a camera lens when he was 13. Along with a day of art, a ticket includes live music all day long on two stages, roaming performers, exciting kids areas with interactive crafts, and culinary arts demonstrations.

$Ernesto Neto, SunForceOceanLife (installation view), 2020, crocheted textile and\nplastic balls, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the\nCaroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund$