he writes the songs

Houston gallery displays paintings by iconic songwriter Bernie Taupin

Most people likely know Bernie Taupin as the lyricist behind Elton John hits “Bennie and the Jets,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” "Your Song,” and countless others. They may not know that he’s also an Academy Award winner and 2025 nominee, two-time Golden Globe winner, Recording Academy President’s Award of Merit recipient, Songwriters Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award winner, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and a New York Times best-selling author.

As if all that weren’t enough, Taupin is also a lifelong visual artist, and he’s bringing his collections of contemporary works to a limited engagement exhibit at Off the Wall Gallery. Bernie Taupin: Reflections & The Sixties will be on exhibit March 25 through April 12 at the Galleria-area gallery. Houstonians not only have the chance to view and purchase the works, they can also attend one of two receptions with Taupin this Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29, from 5-7 pm. RSVPs are necessary.

“I've been to Houston many times, obviously,” Taupin tells CultureMap about showing his work here (Taupin’s last show at Off the Wall in was in 2022). “[Gallery owner] Mimi [Sperber] always does a great job. She's a complete professional. She understands the work, and she displays it well. You do have a thriving art scene [in Houston] and I'm always attracted to that.”

The upcoming exhibit is a blend of original artwork and hand-signed prints. Reflections looks back on his 50 years of music partnership with Elton John, and incorporates Taupin’s lyrics into mixed media creations. The Sixties offers a unique glimpse into his personal and professional reflections on the social and cultural movements that shaped a generation, intertwined with his lifelong journey of writing songs and creating art.

In fact, Taupin prefers to be referred to as an artist, instead of being pigeonholed into one style of creator.

“I get the same kind of satisfaction and pleasure from creating in general,” he says. “Both endeavors [writing and visual arts] come from the same sort of creative space. One is visual and one is sonic. I’m not going to say one is more exceptional than the other. Both are of great importance to me.”

Gallery audiences will be able to see how Taupin has showcased that importance. His work highlights a lifetime of experiences that have taken him around the globe. Being a witness not only to events he lived through, but also history itself, show up in his work.

HRH Queen Elizabeth Her Heinzess juxtaposes an image of the late queen of England, who ascended the throne when Taupin was two and was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, with a series of Heinz beans labels. The photo is by photographer Terry O’Neill, and the labels will be familiar to anyone who’s also seen Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup images. Two Sides of the Sixties captures movie icons Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton set against a popping yellow background with dollar signs on it. The image is making its U.S. premiere at the show.

”Terry O'Neill was probably the premier photographer of the ‘60s,” Taupin says about using O’Neill’s images in his artwork. “I mean, he chronicled the '60s, probably more than any other well known, legendary photographer. Terry was also a very, very close, dear friend of mine. I approached Terry and his team. And I said, 'how about If you make me some big ass prints of your most iconic photos that I pick out of your extensive, extensive collection, and we mount them on hardboard, and just let me go to town on them and see what I can come up with.' Man, they were fun to do.”

Taupin's exhibit will be on display at Off the Wall Gallery at 5015 Westheimer, Suite 2208, in the Galleria, next to the Dior, Prada, and Louis Vuitton boutiques. The gallery is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 7 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. Those wanting more information about the exhibit or to RSVP for one of the meet-and-greets can visit the website, email the gallery, or call 713-871-0940.

No memorabilia will be signed by the artist.

Photo courtesy of Relevant Communications

Bernie Taupin, lyricist, artist, best-selling author and Oscar winner, brings his original artwork to Houston for a show at Off the Wall Gallery.

bernie taupin celebrities visual-art off the wall gallery

Fridamania sweeping Houston

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston celebrates Frida Kahlo with groundbreaking new exhibit

Nickolas Muray, Frida with her Pet Eagle, Coyoacán, 1939, printed 2024, inkjet print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Nickolas Muray Photo Archives.

Nickolas Muray, Frida with her Pet Eagle, Coyoacán, 1939, printed 2024, inkjet print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Nickolas Muray Photo Archives.

“Frida: The Making of an Icon" open at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in January, 2026.

From adorning high fashion to T-shirts, dishes to flags, the face and artworks of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has become some of the most recognizable images of the 20th and 21st century. She even has her own Barbie doll.

Yet, Kahlo never had this place in our global cultural psyche when she was alive. Now, Frida: The Making of an Icon, a pioneering exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, will trace Kahlo’s phenomenal rise onto the world art stage and her colossal influence on generations of later artists.

Set to debut in January 2026, Frida will showcase over 30 works by Kahlo herself. In addition, her artwork will hang amid more than 120 objects by artists from the 1970s into the 21st century who were influenced by her work. Some even co-opted and adapted her art and self-portraits to create their own.

While certainly not the first survey of Kahlo’s work, this is the first major museum exhibition to attempt a deep exploration of Kahlo’s evolution from an admired, but mostly regionally-known, painter, and artist wife of Diego Rivera at the time of her death in the 1950s to the universal icon and global brand she is today. The MFAH notes that her audience recognition and devotion rival that of legendary artists like Van Gogh and Picasso.

Conceived by MFAH curator of Latin American Art, Mari Carmen Ramírez, the show will be organized thematically with focuses on how art and cultural movements of the time influenced Kahlo's work and sense of self and how her art continues to influence us. MFAH visitors can expect galleries devoted to Kahlo’s many self-constructed identities, Surrealism influences, the 1970’s Chicano movement, and feminist activism that brought her artwork into more spaces in the U.S., as well as her “Pro-Activist Legacy” and even the “Fridamania” commodification of her life and art.

“The exhibition reveals how the different facets of Kahlo’s complex persona(lity), which she so carefully crafted and projected, were adapted again and again over her decades-long transformation into an icon,” describes Ramírez. “As a result, her image became subsumed within the desires, fears, and hopes of artists and activists who transformed it into innovative proposals that transcend their source of inspiration while commenting on pressing issues of their place and time. In exploring that process, the exhibition re- establishes Kahlo’s own identity, and asserts her persistent relevance to contemporary art as well as activism over the past 70 years.”

As anticipation builds for the early 2026 Frida: The Making of an Icon opening, expect Fridamania to sweep Houston and Texas, perhaps sparking Frida fans from all across the country on art trips to see this remarkable show. After Houston, global audiences will need to head to London’s Tate Modern for the next opportunity to view this Houston-grown exhibition.

“This Museum has been at the forefront of Latin American art since the founding in 2001 of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas,” notes MFAH director, Gary Tinterow, on the groundbreaking exhibition. “While there have been numerous Frida Kahlo exhibitions around the world since the 1970s, Mari Carmen Ramírez has leveraged the unparalleled resources of our ICAA to document and assemble a fascinating group of objects that attest to the enduring appeal of Kahlo’s art and life.”

"Frida: The Making of an Icon" will be on view January 18-May 17, 2026 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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