Runaway Hit

Lifelike sculptures by Ron Mueck draw record crowds to MFAH's most popular exhibition ever

Ron Mueck's lifelike sculptures are drawing record crowds to the MFAH. This one is titled "Couple Under An Umbrella."

Photo by Patrick Gries

When it comes to art, impressionist painters are usually the biggest crowd pleasers at museums around the world. But at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, an exhibition of hyperrealistic creations of everyday people by London-based Australian sculptor Ron Mueck has turned into a runaway hit.

The exhibition of the lifelike figures made of resin, silicone, and other materials — some oversized and others much smaller — has captivated large crowds since opening in late February in the museum's Audrey Jones Beck Building. With a few weeks to go before it closes on August 13, Mueck's work has attracted nearly 108,000 visitors, making it already the MFAH's most popular exhibition of all time.

"Ron Mueck is on track to be our most popular exhibition ever and we've had some of the biggest days ever at the beginning," MFAH director Gary Tinterow tells CultureMap. "And what's especially satisfying is the exhibition is strongly appealing to college students. We've had the largest proportion of college students attend that exhibition than any other. And also nonmembers. So it means we're reaching a new audience and that's what we hope to do."

Tinterow chuckles when asked if he thought the Mueck exhibition would be this popular. In fact, he did, he says, since an exhibition of Mueck's work drew more than 1 million visitors at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris four years ago and has drawn large crowds in museums around the world since then.

Why has it connected with audiences? "I think we're all fascinated to see ourselves and other humans from beginning to end, from birth to death. It's a very moving exhibition," Tinterow says.

In a review of the exhibition, CultureMap arts writer Tarra Gaines noted:

The exhibition offers 13 sculptures, but since Mueck takes approximately a year to complete a work, the galleries contains almost “one-third of the artist’s total oeuvre,” according to the MFAH. And yet, we could probably spend a full afternoon staring at this baker’s dozen of sculpted people (and one dead chicken) as our gaze turns into a kind of visual exploration into the intricacies of their bodies and faces: the creases of wrinkles, the fine hair on an ankle, a line of veins under the skin, even the smear of blood glazing a newborn.

Mueck purposely crafted the sculptures to be larger — or smaller — than life; some figures are big enough to fill one gallery while others are only three-feet high. “I never made life-size figures because it never seemed to be interesting,” he explained in a rare interview in 2003. “We meet life-size people every day. (Altering the scale) makes you take notice in a way that you wouldn’t do with something that’s just normal.”

Other popular exhibitions at the MFAH have included:

Degas: A New Vision (October 16, 2016 to January 16, 2017) — 82,004
The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (December 21, 2013 to May 3, 2014) – 78,498
Picasso Black and White (February 23 to May 26, 2013) – 74,267
Monet and the Seine (October 25, 2014 to January 31, 2015) – 71,486

Another exhibition currently at the MFAH might join that list. Pixel Forest and Worry Will Vanish, a grand-scale immersive exhibition created by video artist Pipilotti Rist, has already drawn more than 46,000 museumgoers since it opened earlier this summer. It runs through September 17. "The average daily attendance for the show, so far, in the first four weeks, has been higher than any recent ticketed exhibition, so it is proving to be just as, if not more, popular than expected," a museum spokeswoman said.

Like Ron Mueck, the Rist exhibition has proved popular with a millennial crowd that doesn't often frequent museums. To make it more attractive to that demographic, the MFAH is offering at "2 Pack" Combo Package, with admission to both exhibitions for $25. Advance reservations can be made online. (A "3-Pack" Combo Package, which also includes admission to the new Mexican Modernism exhibition, is $30.)

museums

Best May Art

Floating worlds and immersive experiences top Houston's 9 best new art openings

Photo courtesy of Artechouse

“Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience!” opens at Artechouse in May.

After an blooming array of outdoor art installations the last few months, new art takes flight indoors for some rocking immersive shows and stunning exhibitions embracing the natural world. Art and science meet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Houston Museum of Natural Science, while art and history merge at Rice Moody Center, the CAMH, and the Menil Collection. Houston-based artists also take the spotlight in several big shows across the city.

“EAT!!” at the Silos in Sawyer Yards (now through May 24)
This exhibition from local mixed-media artist Diane Gelman showcases the art of dining in a thoughtful-yet-whimsical new way. A feast for the eyes, this new solo exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and installations all about one of our favorite subjects, food. For Gelman, a registered and licensed dietitian, food is a celebration, served with joy, fostering social activity and positivity the world over. It is a universal language that promotes cross-cultural connection, and nourishes both our bodies and souls. “EAT!!” will encourage personal reflection and will be an entire smorgasbord for the senses. Gelman was awarded a 2025 Individual Artists Grant for EAT!! from the City of Houston.

“Audubon's Birds of America” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (now through September 1)
Perhaps one of the most famous naturalist books of all time, John James Audubon’s Birds of America series captivated its original 19th century audience with its spectacular, life-sized ornithological illustrations and helped to make birding the hobby that it is today. This fascinating exhibition at the HMNS gives us the chance to see these illustrations up close in all their colorful plumage. Originally organized by the National Museums Scotland, the exhibition includes 46 prints from their rare unbound collection of Birds of America. Along with these magnificent illustrations, the show will explore both the beauty of Audubon’s work and the complexities of his legacy, including Audubon as an adventurer and naturalist legend, as well as the more complex, problematic realities of his actual life.

“Floating World: A.A.Murakam” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through September 5)
In the past few years, Houston has become home to so many immersive and interactive art spaces, but the MFAH will always be the pioneer when it comes to giving viewers the chance to play amid the art. Once again, the MFAH has captured art lightning in a bottle, this time literally, with the multi-gallery exhibition by the Tokyo and London-based A.A.Murakami, also know as Azusa Murakami, and Alexander Groves. Melding science, nature, and art, the duo create large-scale immersive landscapes working in mediums of light, fog, plasma, bubbles and sound. Each gallery holds work that is etherial, constantly transforming and will never be the same with each visit. Expect “Floating Worlds” to be a local social media art star by June.

“This is the first exhibition in a U. S. museum of the work of these remarkable artists,” noted MFAH director Gary Tinterow. “The term that A.A.Murakami has used to characterize their work, 'Ephemeral Tech,' aptly captures the uncanny nature of these mesmerizing environments, which rely on the latest innovations in artifice and science to evoke the timeless, fleeting moments of nature’s forces.”

“The Eternal Garden: Titanium Art by Aka Chen” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (now through September)
This exhibition of work by the renowned Taiwanese artist Aka Chen features 20 sculptures that uniquely combine jewelry artistry and Chinese brush painting using titanium and gemstones. Chen’s unique process involves sculpting the metal under water using precision tools originally designed for medical applications and working at extraordinarily high temperatures. Once shaped, the titanium undergoes an anodization process, revealing a mesmerizing iridescent shimmer. This intricate process culminates in the artful setting of carefully selected gemstones, each enhancing the inherent beauty of the titanium and elevating the pieces into works of art. Chen’s sculptures represent the most delicate objects and creatures in nature, like flowers, butterflies, and dragonflies, but are formed by some of the strongest natural material.

“Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience!” at Artechouse (May 15-August 31)
When the artful fun house that is Artechouse opened last June, the plan was always to rotate in new installations and exhibition, and this latest one will surely rock our art world. This immersive video experience takes audiences on a 50-minute rock ‘n’ roll journey through music history, dropping them into a 270-degree, floor-to-ceiling, 18K-resolution digital canvas and state-of-the-art surround sound. Putting viewers right in the midst of rock history and classic concerts, “Amplified” features rare footage from live performance and behind-the-scenes and candid artist moments, exclusive portrait sessions, album art, and posters. Artechouse says “Amplified delivers one of the most comprehensive collections of rock ‘n’ roll imagery ever assembled and includes the work of 500 photographers and film directors."

“The Space Between Looking and Loving: Francesca Fuchs and the de Menil House” at Menil Collection (May 23-November 2)
This show of the acclaimed Houston-based artist’s latest work was inspired by a 50-year-old letter that John de Menil wrote to Fuchs’s father, a German classical archeologist, when seeking his expertise on a sculpture in Menil’s private collection. Decades late, Fuchs found a photo of that piece in her father’s personal effects. “The Space Between” becomes Fuchs’s response to John’s unanswered letter, in the form of her painting various objects, including other art work, from the de Menil House. Through her own artwork, Fuchs reflects on the nature of everyday objects, attempting to capture their fundamental truths. For this series of paintings, Fuchs researched hundreds of photographs taken of the de Menil’s home and studied how artworks were moved through the interior spaces throughout the decades.

“Francesca’s sincere and inspired approach to researching the de Menil house and permanent collection has generated a refreshingly original and rich perspective on the lives of objects collected by John and Dominique de Menil,” described Menil Collection curator, Paul R. Davis. “Her enduring pursuit of painting compels us to think about the layered and fungible meanings of everyday objects.”

“Figurative Histories” at Rice Moody Center (May 30-August 16)
For their dynamic summer exhibition, the Moody Center celebrates Texas-based artists Letitia Huckaby, Earlie Hudnall, Jr., David McGee, and Delita Martin. Besides hailing from the Lone Star State, these four artists also create figurative artwork influenced by their personal histories and socio-political themes. Their work often depicts the human body and uses images from the past to understand the present. Many of the pieces in the exhibition also explore historical absences, especially the lack of Black representation in traditional Western art.

The exhibition will include photographs by Earlie Hudnall, Jr. of daily life in Houston’s Third, Fourth, and Fifth Wards, eight portraits from Letitia Huckaby’s acclaimed “A Living Requiem” series. The show will also feature seven large-scale watercolors from David McGee’s “Avenging Angels” series, more than one hundred works on paper from his “Tarot Cards” series, and brand new works by Delita Martin, drawn from her “Song Keepers” series, which honors the presence of Black women in history, memory, and spirit.

“Clément Cogitore: Collective Memories” at Rice Moody Center (May 30-August 16)
Presented in adjacent galleries, these two video installations from the renowned French artist, director, and photographer, Cogitore, create a dialogue with each other about the nature of community performance and collective energy. The first film, Les Indes galantes, offers a contemporary version of the the 18th century Baroque opera ballet by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. In this reimagining, classic ballet is replaced with krumping, a dance style popularized in South Central Los Angeles in the early 2000s. The second video, Morgestraich (2022), pays tribute to the Carnival of Basel, an event held in Switzerland since the Middle Ages. The piece features elaborately dressed carnival participants against a dark backdrop, walking continually toward an invisible crowd.

“Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe” at Contemporary Arts Museum (May 30-March 29, 2026)
This mid-career survey of the award-winning, Houston-born artist will showcase nearly a decade of her multidisciplinary work, including painting, printmaking, video, photography, fiber, and sculpture. Jackson creates much of her art through a research process grounded in interviews with local community members, historians, and advocates. Jackson weaves together color theory and these discovered histories to explore themes of land, labor, and law — culminating in vibrant pieces that celebrate the empowerment of disenfranchised groups within American democracy.

“My family is a product of the Great Migration route from Texas to California and I am thrilled to bring Across The Universe to Contemporary Arts Museum Houston,” Jackson said in a statement. “This opportunity to share more than 10 years of my work visualizing public narratives across disciplines to the city of my birth is a long held dream come true.”

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