The February art scene turns a bit quiet and contemplative with major shows, like the Museum of Fine Art's "Gauguin in the World," set to close and with new blockbusters coming in March. Yet, that makes this month a great time to check out recent exhibitions at some of our beloved mid-sized art spaces and organizations around town. Spring art blooms early at Art League Houston and Lawndale with new openings. Art gets real, or in this case “reel,” during a festival presented at Sabine Street. Plus, the Menil celebrates the 30-year anniversary of a gallery that’s become a landmark on the Houston art landscape.

“Reliquaries” at Archway Gallery (now through February 27)
This show by glass artists Chris Alexander and Deborah Ellington illustrates the medium’s dueling natures and its ability to appear at once transparent and opaque, solid and fractured, protective and delicate. The title of the exhibition refers to a vessel traditionally created or used for sacred relics, but Alexander and Ellington say they are reinterpreting the concept of the reliquary through the lens of glass. These works are not only physical containers but also metaphors for the human impulse to create. The art embodies emotion and the passage of time, reminding us of the changing nature of the world and our attempts to find our place within it.

Cy Twombly Gallery 30th Anniversary Celebration at the Menil Collection (ongoing)
The Cy Twombly Gallery opened in February 1995, and so 30 years is the perfect time to celebrate this only permanent retrospective exhibition of Twombly’s work. Look for special programming throughout the spring, including concerts, lectures and curator talks. Along with these programs, the Cy Twombly Foundation has gifted the Menil two rare early paintings and 121 drawings by Cy Twombly.

“For thirty years, the Cy Twombly Gallery, with its soft filtered sunlight and classical proportions, has invited visitors to discover the work of one of the most important artists of the 20th century,” describes Menil director Rebecca Rabinow in a statement about the anniversary and the Cy Twombly Foundation’s gift. “Inside is a chronological presentation of paintings and sculptures by an artist who beautifully balanced the traditions of modern abstraction with a fascination for history, classical mythology, and poetry. The building and its installations are a testament to the power of inspired collaboration between an artist, architect, and museum.”

“Becoming Sticky: Equatorial Visions from Central America” at Art League Houston (now through April 11)
This expansive show will feature work by three Central American artists: Salvadoran-American Tesora Garcia, Salvadoran Lorena Molina, and Guatemalan-born Martín Wannam. As the work is presented together, the exhibition creates a kind of conversation between the artists that considers the aesthetic and political context of making art from and inspired by a tropical region. The artists work in many mediums including photography, sculpture, video, and even living plants. Yet, the exhibition will explore some of their common themes like climate change, migration, and political and economic influences on culture. The exhibition focuses on approaches with “equatorial vision,” which means alerting audiences to how tropical weather — humidity, volcanic heat, rain, lush flora — affects the practices of the artists.

“We Have Been Here Before” at Art League Houston (now through April 11)
This exhibition of San Antonio artist Brittany Ham includes painting, sculptures, and tapestry, all exploring concepts of parenthood as a transformational experience. According to the Art League, the show delves into the intricate process of self-reinvention that occurs with the arrival of a child, examining the shifts in identity, priorities, and perspectives that reshape an individual and what it means to become a parent in the modern world.

“Animals, Monsters, and Creatures from the Collection” at the Menil Collection (now through October 19)
Looking back into the Menil’s rich art history, this unconventional section of pieces from the collection takes inspiration from “Constant Companions,” an exhibition curated by Dominique de Menil and Jermayne MacAgy for the University of St. Thomas in 1964 that garnered critical acclaim and national attention. Paying homage to that show, this display brings together a selection of paintings and objects that highlight artists’ continuing fascination with fantastic and monstrous creatures across time and cultures.

ReelArt Exhibition at Sabine Street Studios (February 23)
Part of the ReelAbilities Festival, this exhibition showcases work from the artists of the ReelArt For All and ReelCommunity programs. Come see the world through the eyes of artists from Celebration Company, an entrepreneurial employment program for adults with disabilities, and enjoy the works of this year's featured artist, Keith Wasserman. The artists of Celebration Company work with various mediums, including painting, photography, and glass fusion and are equal members of a profit share. This allows them to feel that their perspective is appreciated while they actively contributing to their society.

“The Fever” at Lawndale Art Center (February 27-May 3)
Iran-born, Houston-based artist Farima Fooladi, was already a 2023 “Artists on Site” resident at the Asia Society Texas Center, where her site-specific mural is still on view. This exhibition showcases some of new paintings that explore the interplay between architecture, memory, and displacement. According to curator Rachel Vera Steinberg of the Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, NY, Fooladi’s paintings “propose a progression of time when one can be confident that more memories will accrue and, therefore, increase the spatial depth. As Fooladi’s frames continue to expand, the world becomes bigger, more chaotic, and more nuanced through the palimpsests left within the edifice of her memory.”

“An Infinite Picnic” at Lawndale Art Center (February 27-May 3)
Influenced by his background in architecture, much of Mexican visual artist Carlos Vielma’s work explores themes of longing, landscape, monuments, and the US-Mexico border. This exhibition in Lawndale’s Cecily E. Horton Gallery will feature a video installation inspired by “The Million Year Picnic,” the final short story from Ray Bradbury’s post-apocalyptic science fiction The Martian Chronicles. In Bradbury’s dystopian short story, a family escapes Earth in an attempt to rebuild their life on Mars. Similarly, Vielma’s rural adaptation of this short story explores themes of migration, colonization, and human existence on planet Earth.

Spring Exhibitions at Box 13 ArtSpace (February 28-March 29)
The artist-run nonprofit organization opens four new solo exhibitions of paintings. “On the Backroads,” a survey of works by Jonas Criscoe, looks to the rural backroads of Texas for inspiration, as the work depicts the forgotten towns, faded facades of old buildings, and the natural cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. Alexandria Canchola’s show, “Fruits of Their Labor,” depicts the dynamic contrast between two extraordinary women who shaped the artist, Canchola’s Cuban grandmother and Mexican-American aunt. “Cosmic Duality" from painter Cassie Gnehm presents select oil and acrylic paintings that portray the connections between creation, transformation, and the infinite cosmos. And Mateo Gutiérrez’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It,” presents large scale hand-embroidered artworks depicting images of people coming across the US-Mexico border juxtaposed with images of people in the aftermath of shootings.

  

Courtesy of the Menil Collection

The Menil Collection celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Cy Twombly Gallery.