This month takes Houston art lovers on some remarkable journeys — through time into the future and space through gardens and roadways. From outdoor festivals to color healing to new Abstract masterpieces at the Menil, we’ve got a lot to see this month. So whether you want to stop and smell the flowers at Rienzi or get revived up for the Art Car Parade, Houston has an art show for everyone this month.

“The Alchemy of Memory: Echoes Across Time” at Sawyer Yards (now through May 11)

This exhibition of artworks by Spring Street Studios artists and other Houston artists explores the power of memory and its ability to facilitate healing and dreams as it inspires artistic creation. The show’s curator, Gabriela Magana, is a founding member of LAWAH (Latin American Women Artists of Houston). In a statement, Magana explains that the artists working with this theme “reimagine new worlds born from the fragments of the past, bending reality into playful and surreal manifestations that challenge conventional thought.”

“The Healing Power of Color” at Spring Street Studios (now through May 11)

  

Photo courtesy of The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art

Charismatic cars are sure to make you smile.

The artists of Spring Street embrace their name with this in-season exhibition focused on themes of positivity and well-being. Thinking about the science of color and how studies have shown color can change behavior, moods, and thoughts, the artists have responded with a survey of works that examine our reaction to color. Some works of the show will also play with ideas on how the absence of color can also have an impact on how we feel, and when employed in art, it can create a different mental space. Strategically placed black and white images create a visual pause and allow for reflection. The stark contrast emphasizes the power of simplicity and encourages viewers to delve deeper.

“Color, Scent, and Memory: Rienzi’s Gardens 1954–1999” at Museum of Fine Arts Rienzi House (now through July 31)

Open to the public for a quarter of a century now in a River Oaks mansion, the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts has also provided Houstonians a place to explore a living collection of plants, flowers, trees, and sensory moments. This new exhibition presents an archival investigation into the history of Rienzi’s gardens. Originally owned by Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III, the couple worked with their friend, landscape architect Ralph Ellis Gunn, to create the landscape design that would showcase flowers, foliage, and sculptural forms on the banks of Buffalo Bayou by utilizing the natural ravines and towering trees to create a sense of grandeur. Take a stroll through the flowers of time as the exhibition examines the Rienzi gardens’ dynamic creation and celebrates its history.

Houston Art Car Parade Art Weekend at various locations throughout Houston (April 11-14)

One of our favorite annual multi-day art events begins early with the Main Street Drag, as the art cars zoom to locations across Houston and visit with individuals that may not have the opportunity to attend the actual parade, like schools, nursing homes, developmental centers, and hospitals. On Friday, we don our best art car glam and prepare to party down at the Legendary Art Car Ball at the Orange Show World Headquarters.

Saturday brings the big event, the 37th Annual Art Car Parade, as 250 rolling art/auto masterpieces cruise down Allen Parkway. Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner takes the wheel as this year’s grand marshal. The weekend ends with another celebration at the Art Car Awards Ceremony. Over $16,000 will be distributed to Art Car artists and groups in various categories through a judging process that rates entries based on their creativity, artistic techniques, and inspiration.

The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival at Town Green Park (April 12-14)

If your art tastes run a bit more stationary and you’d like to make an art find for yourself, head on up to The Woodlands for an art fest ranked among the top in the country. Set along the banks of The Woodlands Waterway in Town Green Park, festival guests will have the unique opportunity to enjoy a vibrant outdoor gallery with authors, music, food, and kids' activities while shopping for art created by local, national, and maybe even some international artists working in a variety of mediums. For those wanting some performance art amid their visual art, look for live music concerts throughout the 3 days of the festival.

"Mami Wata Afrofuturism: 500 Years Back to the [Afro][F]uture" at Houston Museum of African American Culture (April 13-June 29)

Organized by HMAAC’s chief curator Christopher Blay, this exhibition showcases artists who imagine future worlds but with visions reflecting the past. Giving viewers new insight on the complexity of this art movement, “Mama Wata” will focus on works by artists of the African Diaspora who weave the history of the transatlantic and trans-Mississippi delta journeys of Black people across waters into their art, carrying with them histories, mythologies, and cultures towards new futures. Blay states that the exhibition was inspired and influenced by his scholarly work on the Afrofuturism movement and his recent essay observing “The first acts of Afrofuturism began at the crossing of the Atlantic by enslaved people.”

Featuring the work of 7 artists — Arnold J. Browne, Carla Jay Harris, Lewinale Havette, Miatta Kawinzi, Abi Salami, Lakea Shepard, and Raymond Thompson — the art in the exhibition will take many forms, including paintings, photography, and digital painting on paper, photographs, video, and sculpture.

“Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow” at Contemporary Art Museum (April 20-October 27)

This first solo museum exhibition of breakout artist Erlanger’s work has landed on national must-see lists for 2024. Featuring a large scale installation, a video, and a series of commissioned sculptures, the show will continue Erlanger’s decade-long investigation into what it means to call a planet home.

The exhibition turns the downstairs Nina and Michael Zilkha Gallery. Erlanger into a sculptural landscape comprising of distinct yet interrelated zones. The opening “zone” will recreate the set of one of Erlanger’s films riffing on the psychology of interior spaces as well as acting as a platform for watching her new short film, Appliance. Other zones will feature dioramas of off-world landscapes and impossible architectures; illuminated planet sculptures; and a constellation of arrows piercing the Museum’s brutalist staircase.

“The sculptures, installations, and short film comprising ‘If Today Were Tomorrow' all take inspiration from my research into the semiotics of suburbia: the myths and symbols underpinning the banal promise of social mobility through property ownership,” describes Erlanger of the work taken together. “The project is in part inspired by the psychology of interiors — what we hide and what we display.”

Abstraction after Modernism: Recent Acquisitions” at Menil Collection (April 26-August 25)

Thanks to a series of acquisitions, promised gifts, and bequests, the Menil has grown its collection of non-representational artwork substantially over the last 15 years, with a special focus on works by women and artists of color. Now the museum puts some of these significant Abstract works together in their own exhibition featuring major pieces by Agnes Denes, Suzan Frecon, Sam Gilliam, Leslie Hewitt, Dorothy Hood, Ellsworth Kelly, Rick Lowe, and Richard Serra, among others.

While some of the pieces might be familiar as highlights of other Menil exhibitions over the last several years, this will be the first opportunity to see these works, which span decades, together. The show will also tell a very unique story of John and Dominique de Menil’s love of abstract art that remains part of the spirit of the museum.

"This exhibition is a celebration of how the museum's holdings have grown and evolved, and it reflects the conviction of our founders that modern art, especially abstraction, can illuminate the ineffable and create a place for the spiritual after World War II,” explains Menil senior curator Michelle White. “The works on view reflect this enduring belief, shared by many contemporary artists, that the language of abstraction can be a deep and direct expression of the world around us."