Best June Art

Where to see art in Houston now: 9 intriguing new exhibits opening in June

Houston welcomes lots of fun new art shows this month, including Lawndale’s annual “Big Show.” The Asia Society invites people on a scavenger hunt, and Sawyer Yards welcomes art selfies. After a lull during campus renovations, the place for innovative and provocative art at the University of Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum, opens three new exhibitions. Meanwhile, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston travels into a beautiful, luxurious past and into a mind-bending AI future as it celebrates some new acquisitions.

“The Big Show” at Lawndale Art Center (now through August 2)
One of Houston's favorite annual shows opens this month, as Lawndale once more puts local artists in the spotlight. As is tradition, this group exhibition features new work by artists practicing within a 100-mile radius of Lawndale. This year’s expert juror is Dr. Phillip A. Townsend, curator of art at the University of Texas’ Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS). Townsend has selected 88 works by 77 artists from nearly a thousand entries.

Naming this 2025 Big Show “Between Lines and Faces,” Townsend chose art that "explores the intersection of three seemingly disparate elements: text, portraiture, and the mundane. When woven together, these themes reveal profound insights into the human condition and the society we inhabit.

“Be the Art: The Silos Selfie Experience” at Sawyer Yards (now through August 9)
Here’s one with art created for all the Instagram/TikTok influencers out there. The artists at the Silos have been prompted to display large-scale, nearly immersive works, as an invitation for people to photograph them alone or to take selfies with them. Whether created as a painting, drawing, print, sculpture, or mixed media, these works are camera ready and willing to share screen time with a visitor's face. Each artwork also features a statement from the artist, providing some insights into the inspirations behind their choices in media, color, composition, and narrative.

“a way to mend” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through September 27)
Art heals at this new group exhibition showcasing 19 Gulf Coast artists whose work explores recovery, health, and restoration in mental, physical, or spiritual forms. These pieces also find a balance between landscapes and abstraction images. Our region is also a commonality in the work, as the Blaffer preview description of the exhibition notes that these artists find the Gulf Coast as a place of “resilience, transformation, and repair.” Along with visual artworks, the exhibition also features companion essays and poems by five authors who composed written work especially for the exhibition.

“¡Cuidado!” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through September 27)
This video installation and sculpture exhibition from multidisciplinary artists X Arriaga Cuellar and Adán Vallecillo also contemplate life and death but with a sharp focus on healthcare workers, especially those from Latin America who came to the U.S. to act as caregivers for the elderly. “¡Cuidado!” combines a video installation of performance work, centering on migrant caregivers from Honduras, with audio and sculptural pieces that represent different modalities of care. Scheduled live performances will also engage with these sculptures. According to the artists, the exhibition serves as a tribute to the Honduran immigrants, including Vallecillo’s sister, Mabel, who have dedicated their lives to this dignified and essential caregiving.

“Saif Azzuz: Keet Hegehlpa’ (the water is rising)” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through December 20)
In his first museum exhibition, award-winning California artist Saif Azzuz brings together installations, paintings, and assemblage pieces that examine themes of privatization of land, water, and natural resources. Some of these works will juxtapose 19th century artifacts – like old Allen Brothers advertisements to sell land around Buffalo Bayou — with historical references to indigenous western Gulf Coast cultures such as the Karankawa and Akokisa peoples. The show will include additional artwork from Azzuz’s family members, including Lulu Thrower, Elizabeth Azzuz, Viola Azzuz, Moya Azzuz, and Colleen Colegrove, all embracing ecological messages.

“Diamonds That Fall from the Treetop” at SANMAN Studios (June 14-July 26)
Houston-born multidisciplinary artist and curator Robert Leroy Hodge is most known for his award-winning, layered collage work. But with this mini-retrospective of selected works straight from his studio, art lovers will get to experience never-before-seen paintings, sculptures, and even musical compositions by Hodge.

“Diamonds” marks the first collaboration between the artist and SANMAN and High Hope Studios, and it's intended to demonstrate a shared commitment to creative excellence, cultural memory, and community-building. With this significant collaboration in mind, SANMAN will also offer free programing around the exhibition rooted in Black joy, sound culture, and community connection.

“From India to the World: Textiles from the Parpia Collections" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June 22–September 14)
The exhibition will give visitors their first look at 67 of the 187 pieces the MFAH acquired from the Banoo and Jeevak Parpia Collection, considered one of the most significant holdings of Indian textiles in private hands outside of India. “From India to the World” will give museum visitors insight into the rich history of these silk, muslin, embroideries and vivid tie-dyes created and woven in India. The exhibition also explores the distinctions between textiles made for the Indian market and fabric exported all over the world.

“The Parpia textile collection is a pivotal addition to our collections,” said MFAH director Gary Tinterow. “Showcasing both trade and domestic textiles from India, it represents over 40 years of dedicated collecting by Banoo and Jeevak Parpia, who have assembled one of the foremost private collections of this material globally. The Parpias’ focus on singular works exemplifying traditional forms and techniques offers a comprehensive view of Indian textile history. With this acquisition, the MFAH collection now ranks among the top public Indian textile collections outside of India.”

“Memory Palace” at Asia Society (June 25-October 12)
Find the joy in discovery with this new exhibition of contemporary sculpture from Japanese artist Umico Niwa, whose work has been presented and celebrated in museums and galleries around the world. Resembling flower creatures or nymphs, the delicate Daphnes figures seem to be at play and invite visitors to imagine their own stories for the creations.

The Asia Society notes that “Memory Palace” draws on Japanese traditions of animism and ancestral reverence but resists easy categorization. Spread across the Asia Society space, the Daphnes call us to an art adventure, as we wander into this “Memory Palace” game of hide and seek.

“Anicka Yi: Karmic Debt” at Museum of Fine Arts (June 29–September 7)
Science, technology, and creativity meet in this exhibition at the MFAH. For the latest in the museum's series of immersive summer shows, Anicka Yi, a Seoul-born, New York-based art innovator, stretches the boundaries of art, science, and maybe even mortality in her work, taking visitors beyond time and space with two mind-expanding installations.

The first section will consist of five of Yi’s large scale, animatronic “Radiolaria” sculptures that resemble giant living cells. The sculptures will be installed so they seem to float within the gallery, as if it were inside a liquid environment. The second installation, the 16-minute video “Each Branch Of Coral Holds Up the Light Of the Moon” is the first work created by Yi using Emptiness, a software system/project created in collaboration with her studio and a team of engineers. Essentially, Emptiness is an AI algorithm trained on Yi’s work that might be capable of producing new Yi-style visionary video pieces even beyond her lifespan.

“Anicka Yi shows us that it is possible to use AI systems to express our most human concerns, as she invites viewers to consider our place in ever-evolving cycles of creation and change,” said MFAH director Gary Tinterow.

$\u200bThe Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents \u201cAnicka Yi: Karmic Debt\u201d$

Photo by Sun Shi

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents “Anicka Yi: Karmic Debt” (Anicka Yi / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of theartist and Gladstone Gallery).

visual-art museums openings

Best April Theater

The 9 best plays, musicals, and operas to see in Houston this month

Photo by Joan Marcus

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Houston theater companies seem to be feeling a bit nostalgic as they offer up some timeless and contemporary classics shows for audiences this month. Drama gets political, comedy gets historical, and an array of queens, knights, lunching ladies, and barbers sing. Celebrate the classics, and one world premiere, as theater blossoms across the city this month.

Brother Andrew at A.D. Players (now through April 26)
The family friendly and spiritual theater company's latest new work is this musical inspired by the New York Times Bestseller, God's Smuggler. The true story follows a young Dutch man who, after a dramatic conversion, takes on a new calling as Brother Andrew and risks his life to smuggle Bibles behind the iron curtain during the cold war. With music and lyrics by Christian rock star Neal Morse, Brother Andrew becomes an inspirational, thrilling musical, and Houston theater goers can be the first to see it.

Six presented by Broadway at the Hobby Center (April 7-12)
Let’s sing out “Yas, Queens!” as six divas take the Hobby stage once more to have (and belt) it out over who had a worst marriage to the king of bad husbands, Henry VIII. With those marriage outcomes being: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, they’ve got a lot to sing about. Coincidentally resembling some of the hottest pop stars of our age, the 16th century royals: Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anna, Katherine with aK, and the second Catherine with a C (Henry had a type for names), finally get to tell their own side of the story in this theatrical concert extravaganza. Six is one of those rare musicals that after many years is still going strong on Broadway, but you don’t have book a flight to seek an audiences with the queens, as Broadway at Hobby brings them back to Houston.

Company from Garden Theatre (April 10-19)
Garden continues to celebrate its fifth season by remounting some of its audience's favorite shows, and the final musical of the season is no exception. Stephen Sondheim’s exploration of New York marriages through the eyes of a single and singular man, Bobby, also gave us Sondheim fans some of our most adored songs, like “Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive.” Through a series of dinner parties, first dates, and candid conversations, Bobby explores the highs, lows, and absurdities of modern relationships, gaining insight into marriage, commitment, and his own persistent bachelorhood. Garden Theatre’s founding artistic director Logan Vaden, plays Bobby, alongside a cast of Garden regulars.

The Designated Mourner from Catastrophic Theatre (April 10-25)
Because of scheduling and production issues, Catastrophic made some changes to its announced season and brought back this contemporary political classic by American playwright and actor Wallace Shawn. Unfolding in a series of monologues and short scenes, three characters, a husband, wife, and her father, talk us through a labyrinthine tale spanning the years before, during, and after a populist uprising in an unnamed country. Now teetering on the edge of authoritarianism, the government has targeted artists and intellectuals for imprisonment and execution. Catastrophic co-founder Jason Nodler, who will direct, says the power of Designated Mourner is that it pushes audiences to reflect on their own beliefs and ideals if confronted by such circumstances. Previous productions have left audiences thinking and questioning long after the final lines.

Spamalot presented by Theatre Under the Stars (April 15-26)
Clap your coconut shells together as the revival of the smash Broadway hit clops into Houston. As the original description so honestly stated, Spamalot is lovingly ripped from the film classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but fans know the musical definitely expands on the film.

Follow King Arthur and his nights of the Round Table on a set of meandering adventures through ancient England, a land full of flying cows, killer rabbits, French taunters, dancing girls, shrubbery, and watery lake tarts dispensing swords. While this revival garnered critical acclaim on Broadway for its new design and staging, the original book, lyrics, and music by Python member Eric Idle still remain, so expect to sing along with knightly songs like “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “The Song That Goes Like This,” and “Find Your Grail.”

Othello from Classical Theatre Company (April 16-May 2)
The Houston theater company that specializes in bringing new perspectives to theatrical masterpieces describes its 18th season as “sad plays for sad days.” In keeping with that theme, it brings the always complex and provocative Othello to the DeLuxe stage.

The play follows the heroic Moorish general in the Venetian army, Othello, whose life is destroyed by his insidious and conniving ensign, Iago. Calling Othello his favorite Shakespeare play, company founder John Johnston finds many parallels between the play and our current political landscape, especially Othello’s blight and Iago’s ability to manipulate others using fear and racism as a wedge.

Messiah from Houston Grand Opera (April 17-May 3)
As the music rises to the heavens, the Wortham stage will be filled with images reminiscent of fantastic dreams in this rare staging of Handel’s Messiah, arranged by Mozart, as a full operatic production. Though classical music lovers likely are more accustomed to hearing Handel’s Messiah as a holiday tradition in concert halls, Wilson’s acclaimed production becomes a surreal, transformative experience.

Performed by the HGO Orchestra and Chorus alongside soprano Ying Fang, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, tenor Benjamin Bliss, and bass-baritone Nicholas Newtona, as well as internationally celebrated dancer Alexis Fousekis, this Messiah production will be one audiences will not soon forget.

Fences at Alley Theatre (April 17-May 10)
It’s been some time since the Alley produced a work by August Wilson, one of the great American playwrights of the late 20th century, but this Pulitzer and Tony winner is certainly a momentous one to welcome Wilson’s work back to the Hubbard stage. Fences tells the story of a former baseball player, Troy Maxson, who struggles with the realities of life and the pursuit of happiness. The play explores themes of racial prejudice and unfulfilled dreams, while depicting the challenges of parenthood and the strength and bonds of family when they are tested.

The Barber of Seville from Houston Grand Opera (April 24-May 10)
One of the most beloved comic operas, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville gets a colorful and exhilarating new staging created and directed by Joan Font, founding director of the Barcelona-based company Comediants. The opera follows the story of the dashing Count Almaviva, who is captivated by the mysterious Rosina but thwarted in his pursuit by her pompous old guardian, Dr. Bartolo. In order to get close to the cloistered beauty, Almaviva enlists the help of the scheming barber Figaro and his clever tricks, leading to a series of elaborate disguises, intercepted letters, and outrageous mix-ups before true love triumphs at last.

Photo by Joan Marcus

Broadway at the Hobby Center presents Six.

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