August is always a wonderful catchup month for Houston art lovers, as many of the big summer blockbuster shows are set to close either this month or in September. But even in the hottest month, art is always in bloom in the city with several cool, new gallery shows opening.
The Asia Society opens a window onto the artistic process, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston throws a big 25th anniversary art party of an exhibition for their collaboration with another Houston institution, the American Institute of Architects. Student artists and their instructors get their own exhibitions.
Art League Houston School Exhibitions (through August 31)
Take a look at the latest work from established Houston artists as well as up-and-coming artists with the Art League’s annual shows highlighting the students and teachers from the Art League School. Both exhibitions feature the latest work in drawing, mixed-media, ceramic, printmaking, and painting. A third show titled “Who are You, Who am I,” features works by the 16 talented teen artists of their Summer Intensive program. This showcase of emerging talent explores the complex themes of identity, heritage, sense of self, mental health, and persona through a diverse range of mediums including painting, sculpture, ceramics, and fiber arts. Art League hopes the works on display will serve as mirrors for viewers to contemplate their own identities and place in the world.
"Drawn From Life” at Archway Gallery (through September 5)
Archway Gallery’s longstanding life drawing program allows professional, mid-career, and fledgling artists to draw together and continue honing those drawing skills by learning from the human form. This new exhibition features works created in or inspired by these weekly sessions and curated by a team of Archway artists including Trudy Askew, Cecilia Villanueva, and Maryam Lavaf.
Sawyer Yards Showcase at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (through June 2025)
If you’re catching a flight at IAH, don’t forget to check out some hometown art on display at Terminal A. Located near Gate A7, the display represents 21 artists from each of the five studio buildings across the Sawyer Yards campus. The range of media, including drawing, painting, assemblage, photography, and more, highlights the diversity of the studio artists. Awarded an international Best Art in the Airport from Skytrax, this current display will remain on view for a year before a new selection of artwork from Sawyer artists rotates in.
“Short and Sweet: Group Exhibition” at Anya Tish Gallery (August 9-24)
This pop-up exhibition features artists who have interned at Anya Tish Gallery. Showcasing a diversity of media and visions, the show will include representational painting, sculpture, and mixed media with an eye towards work that challenges conventions and invites viewers into a dialogue with the art. Featuring new work by Elisabeth Bell, Anastasia Bodagovskaya, Jasmine Cogan, Josephine Diehl, Hanna Jasmyn, Zoe Lozano, Andrea Marmol, Aranxa Ortega, and Madelline Vincencio, “Short and Sweet” illustrates the gallery’s commitment to nurturing new talent and perspectives.
“Arielle Masson: Chaotic Nodes” at the MFAH’s Glassell School of Art (August 10–October 6)
The MFAH begins a new series of exhibitions at the Glassell which will celebrate the work of the school’s faculty. First up, is Mexico-born, internationally educated award-winning painter, Arielle Masson, who first earned an MFA from the University of Houston and was also a Glassell Core fellow before becoming a teacher. Of the exhibition’s title, Masson says “A chaotic node happens when the collective creations of the mind achieve an existential paroxysm of absurdity, manifesting itself as a tear in the fabric of reality.”
The MFAH's Glassell School presents Arielle Masson: Chaotic Nodes (Mugwort Zone, 2009, egg tempera and oil on canvas on panel).
Photo courtesy of the MFAH
“Back on Track” at Sawyer Yards’ Winter Street Studios (August 10-October 19)
After the fire in 2022 where so many artists lost work — and the slow but sure reconstruction of the studio spaces — the artists are back and have something to prove about resilience. This exhibition by current and new tenant artists will show a selection of paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, and more that fulfill the show’s title.
"Artists on Site: Series 5" at Asia Society (August 14-September 22)
Created in 2020 as an initiative to transform the Asia Society galleries into studio and project spaces for individual Houston-based artists while allowing Houston art-lovers the opportunity to see the artistic practice, this fifth series gives space to artists Claire Elestwani, Loc Huynh, and Chayse Sampy. For the first time, the fourth slot goes to an artist collective, Open MFA. Claire Elestwani is a multi-disciplinary, Lebanese and Filipina artist and designer who uses paper, ceramics, and pliable materials to create research-based “body objects.” Growing up in a Vietnamese-American household in Texas, painter Loc Huynh uses elements of various visual cultures in the work he has shown in many Texas galleries and national museums. Mixed media, Afro-surrealist painter Chayse Sampy is also an artist-in-residence at Sanman Studios. As a collective, Open MFA provides community, dialogue, and cross-disciplinary collaboration for artists based in the Houston area and is thereby shaped by every artists that takes part in the organization.
"Out Of The Strong, Something Sweet” at Jung Center (August 19-24)
For art on the literal lighter side, the Jung Center will host an exhibition from DJ Morrow, a Houston-based balloon twister turned contemporary artist. Morrow creates intricately detailed balloon sculptures that paint dark narratives laden with symbolism. Morrow’s art reflect his upbringing in what he describes a religious cult. For “Out of the Strong” Morrow’s balloon sculptures and sculpted paintings depict images and themes from the Biblical story of Samson and the lion as personal exploration of his past as well as themes of isolation and alienation. Morrow will be continually expanding the balloon environment during the week-long show, creating a living exhibit that visitors can watch grow and change.
The Museum of Fine Arts presents "150 Years of Design: The AIA Houston Collection.”
Photo courtesy of the MFAH
"150 Years of Design: The AIA Houston Collection” at Museum of Fine Arts (August 31, 2024–August 2025)
For 25 years the MFAH has collaborated with the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects to fund and build an AIA Design Collection at the museum. With the mission of the collection to focus on international architect-designed objects made since 1880, particularly furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, lighting, and industrial design, this partnership has helped to add even greater breadth and depth to the museum’s already impressive decorative arts and design collection.
For its 25th anniversary, the MFAH unveils this year-long exhibition featuring nearly 60 objects, the majority of pieces funded by the AIA since the inception of the collaboration. From a early 20th century sterling-silver flower basket by Josef Hoffmann to an early 21st century Maarten van Severen translucent, molded-plastic chair, the works in the exhibition showcase the true art of design.
“The MFAH is proud that this collaboration with the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects is unique,” explains Cindi Strauss, MFAH Department of Decorative Arts, Craft and Design curator, and a consultant on the collaboration from the beginning of the project. “It demonstrates the commitment Houston architects have to the community as well as their forward thinking. The opportunity to build a first- rate collection of architect-designed material is both challenging and exciting; the museum and Houston’s public have benefitted greatly from this singular partnership.”
The Jung Center presents DJ Morrow: "Out Of The Strong, Something Sweet."
