best October art

Where to see art in Houston now: 10 exhibits and shows opening in October

The best art shows in October might also be the best explorations into scientific realms Houstonians will see all year. Nature, time, and the secret connective patterns of the universe seem to be major themes of artists and exhibitions this month. Art lovers can journey into orbital space habitats, dive into quantum landscapes, speed amid stars, and question the meaning of time.

Head back to Earth for Menil television, a look at a Jewish family's evolution, and a massive art show in Memorial Park. Finally, Anya Tish Gallery says goodbye with an era-ending show.

“Spectral Field” presented by Diverseworks (now through November 8)
Explore the nature of everything with this plasma art installation from Austin-based, Iranian-American artist Anahita (Ani) Bradberry in the art gallery at MATCH. These large sculptural pieces attempt to imagine unfathomable vastness, or at least put the viewer in the contemplative space to explore the cosmic scales of stars, time, particles, displacement, loss, and interconnectedness. In keeping with the interconnectedness of Texas art and science, the installation will include aspects of Bradberry’s collaboration with scientist and Rice physics and astronomy professor, Christopher M. Johns-Krull, as part of the Open Interval Cohort — a collaborative program for artists, scientists, and art organizations — awarded by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society and Culture division.

“Fractal Worlds” at Artechouse (now through November)
This Artechouse collaboration with cutting edge Dutch artist Julius Horsthuis takes guests on an adventure into the world of fractals, those complex patterns that repeat at every scale in nature from the branching of trees to our lungs, from the spiral of galaxies to sea shells. Along with this immersive cinematic journey, the exhibition will feature a Fractal Lab, with nine interactive works, an Infinity Room offering Horsthuis’ kaleidoscopic loops built from fractal formulas, and the meditative installation “Nascense,” Horsthius’ exploration of how nature is able to give rise to complexity.

"Growing Up Jewish – Art & Storytelling” at Holocaust Museum Houston (now through December)
This exhibition of acclaimed contemporary artist Jacquelline Kott-Wolle’s figurative paintings will chronicle one North American Jewish family’s story through five generations from 1925 to the present. Kott-Wolle’s parents and grandparents arrived in Canada in 1949 after the Holocaust, and their history has influenced the artist’s own identity and creative enterprises. The exhibition includes Kott-Wolle’s spoken stories about her family, as well as artwork depicting scenes of Jewish holidays, moments at Hebrew school, family vacations, and other milestone celebrations. Together they depict a rich mosaic of a family starting over in a new land, living, and thriving after surviving one of modern history’s darkest chapters.

CraftTexas 2025 at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (now through January 31, 2026)
The 12th edition of this series will feature 50 works from 49 Texas craft artists. The craftwork in this year’s show will touch on a diversity of themes, like caregiving, expanded approaches to quilting, and landscape exploration.

"The artists featured in CraftTexas 2025 demonstrate that craft remains a vital and relevant means of cultural expression, addressing contemporary concerns while honoring deep material traditions. These selected works collectively highlight that Texas continues to nurture some of the most compelling voices in contemporary craft,” juror Abraham Thomas, Curator of Modern Architecture, Design, and Decorative Arts at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art said in a statement.

"Lines of Resolution: Drawing at the Advent of Television and Video” at Menil Drawing Institute (now through February 8, 2026)
This extraordinary showcase at the Menil Drawing Institute will examine how artists responded to television's invasion into individual households from the 1950s into the height of the “network era” during the 80s. During this dawn and zenith of network programming power, the nature of people's responses to recorded imagery changed. Artists chronicled, were inspired, and sometimes rejected those changes.

With a special focus on drawing, the exhibition features 50 works on paper, video, mixed media sculpture, and an immersive installation, created by 25 artists from 10 countries. Look for several works that have never been exhibited in the U.S., including the groundbreaking “raster pictures” of German artist Karl Otto Götz, and the room-sized installation “4 mensajes [4 messages],” by Peruvian artist Teresa Burga.

“The works on display in Lines of Resolution present new opportunities that artists found for drawing through its relationship to and its interactions with the small screen,” explains Kelly Montana, the exhibition’s co-curator. “Some of the artists featured used the screen as a surface, a mirror, and as an interface — prefiguring our use of screens today. Others used drawing to critique and deconstruct the power television exerts over its audience.”

Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park (October 10-12)
The festival always gives art lovers and collectors a chance to meet artists, view original works, and purchase artwork from more than 270 artists across 19 disciplines, including world-class paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures, and more at prices for everyone. Special treats this year include an interactive art portal from Meow Wolf Houston’s Radio Tave, the iconic “Be Someone” graffiti transformed in a sculpture, and art cars from Houston Art Car Klub. Also look for selfie stations, some mini-sized mini golf, a beer garden and wine bar, live entertainment throughout the day, and a food truck park.

"Temporal Estrangement: A Path to No Place” at Lawndale Art Center (October 17-November 15)
Inspired by traditions of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist art, Black queer Southern dance performance (J-Setting) and Afrofuturist soundscapes Houston-based artist Christopher Paul explores ideas of changing identities through self-portrait collages. This multidisciplinary exhibition will feature projection mapping, video, sound, and works on paper and textile. Paul’s artistic ambition is to create a space of “no-place” that is neither here nor there, where time is unraveled and the self is dissolved into the cosmic unknown.

"The House of Pikachu: Art, Anime, and Pop Culture” at Asia Society (October 17-March 15, 2026)
Japanese animation, a.k.a anime, has taken over global popular culture and our imaginations in recent years. But some of the aspects of anime – particularly the flatness, saturated colors, and stylized features – have also been an inspiration and influence on artists for decades. This new exhibition will explore that influence of Japanese animation on contemporary art, presenting the work of 25 national and international artist including creators from Japan, Brazil, China, Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, and Texas. Highlights of the exhibition include work from animator Yoshitaka Amano, renowned for his work on Speed Racer the Final Fantasy game series, Houston-based artist Gao Hang, who creates retro-futurist pieces that mine the language of '90s video games, and acclaimed artist Monsieur Zohore, who is creating for the exhibition the monumental painting “Houston, We Have A Problem.” Look for iconic Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s large scale sculpture “Your Dog” on special lone for the show.

“End of an Era” at Anya Tish Gallery (October 24-December 31)
After the death in 2024 of its influential founder, Anya Tish, the gallery continued to present diverse and intriguing shows, but the time has come for the gallery to close. This final group show will be a chance for the gallery and the whole Houston art community to look back with artists and artwork that still define the present and the future of contemporary art. The show will feature artists who have shaped the gallery’s program and their expansive range of works, including figurative and abstract paintings, sculptures in various mediums, video art, light installations, animations, photography, and drawings.

“Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic" at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 26-January 25, 2026)
From the opening of its doors five years ago, one of the stars of the MFAH’s Kinder Building has been international avant-garde artist Gyula Kosice’s masterpiece, “The Hydrospatial City,” the room-sized sculptural installation that depicts utopia orbital cities of the future. The mammoth installation will go on a journey this month as the centerpiece of “Intergalactic,” a traveling exhibition of the art and artistic experiments of pioneering sculptor, painter, poet, and theorist, Gyula Kosice. Co-organized by the MFAH and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, this first large-scale survey of Kosice’s art in the U.S. will feature more than 70 two-dimensional works and kinetic sculptures made of acrylic materials, air pumps, water, light components, and neon gas tubes.

“Gyula Kosice’s radical vision continues to challenge us, with novel ideas about society, the environment and art that seem as forward-thinking now as they were more than a half-century ago,” MFAH’s curator of Latin American art, Mari Carmen Ramírez, said in a statement. “Kosice’s fascination with technology, and his commitment to expressing the possibilities of a hopeful future, led to the groundbreaking works of art that we are presenting.”

$Gyula Kosice, La ciudad hidroespacial (The Hydrospatial City) [detail], 1946\u201372, acrylic, paint, metal, and light, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment. \u00a9 Fundaci\u00f3n Kosice \u2013 Museo Kosice, Buenos Aires$

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Gyula Kosice: "Intergalactic"

openings museums visual-art

Best February Art

10 art museum and gallery exhibits to see in Houston this month

María Fernanda Cardoso's Maratus: Spiders of Paradise

Image courtesy of Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino

María Fernanda Cardoso, "Spiders of Paradise: Maratus plumosus", 2024. Pigment print on paper, 35 7/16 x 35 7/16 x 1 9/16 inches.

Art and history merge in many museums and galleries across Houston this month, as contemporary artists and curators look to the past for inspiration and examination. From Black History Month to agricultural history in the Americas to queer history to the mid 20th century glamorization of dining, we’ve got a range of shows for all art and history tastes. If that’s not enough, we get up close to Australian spiders and celebrate Houston as a town of makers.

"The Black Experience: Past, Present and Future” at Bisong Art Gallery (now through February 28)
Celebrating Black History Month, Bisong Art Gallery presents this show curated by The Dream Affect Foundation. With a focus on Black artistic practice as both an archive and a catalyst, the exhibition features the work of six contemporary artists, including Lauren Luna, Romeo Robinson, Craig “TheArtist” Carter, Corey Haynes, Lanre Buraimoh, and John Whaley Jr. The gallery notes that these artists’ works reflect the enduring influence of history while asserting bold, forward-thinking visions of Black life, identity, and imagination. Though using a varied of medium and visual languages, what each artist has in common is an engagement with cultural memory, resilience, and creative sovereignty.

"Just Wood - Mostly” at Archway Gallery (now through March 5)
Featuring whimsical, creative, and utilitarian works “mostly” in wood, this new show showcases the quirky utilitarian and decorative sculptures by Robert L. Straight, as well as cabinet work by guest artists and furniture maker Tom Wells. From wooden race cars to body parts, Straight’s work offers many unique visions of what woodwork can be. Look for sculptures, new furniture, clocks, and sundry surprises from both artists.

“Nick Vaughan And Jake Margolin: Around The Corner And Two Blocks Down” at McClain Gallery (now through March 7)
The acclaimed Houston-based duo continues their multimedia 50 State Project to reveal lost queer histories and stories from across the U.S. This exhibition at McClain Gallery features some of the latest art from their wind drawing series, a selection of charcoal work within the larger project.

To explore ideas of history lost and rediscovered, the artists translate photographs of prior queer spaces into laser cut stencils and lay down charcoal powder onto the page. Then, they blow the charcoal away using pressurized air. The force of the wind drags the charcoal particulates across the tooth of the paper, etching the final image onto the page.

“Art, Place, and Power: Project Row Houses in Houston's Third Ward” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through November 8)
One great Houston arts institution celebrates the history of another great Houston art organization with this MFAH installation of works on paper by several of the founders of Project Row Houses, including James Bettison, Bert Long, Jr., Jesse Lott, Rick Lowe, and Floyd Newsum. In 1993, seven artists came together to transform a block of abandoned row houses in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood, making them into a new kind of cultural space. As the Project Row Houses mission reminds us, the founders sought to preserve the culture and history in one of the city’s oldest Black neighborhoods through the practice of socially-engaged art.

For over three decades PRH has staged free exhibitions, offered artist residencies and youth programs, promoted the preservation of historic architecture, and become a cultural landmark in Houston. With this installation, the MFAH helps Houstonians gain further appreciation of the founders' art. These works celebrate the powerful impact of community-oriented artists and art.

“Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try” at Holocaust Museum Houston (February 13-July 19)
For this exhibition focused on Boris Lurie, the acclaimed artist, writer, and Holocaust survivor, organizers use his artwork to trace the story of his remarkable life. Viewed together within the show, Lurie’s paintings, drawings and sculptures – many of which he never exhibited during his lifetime – create a portrait of an artist reckoning with devastating trauma, haunting memories, and a lifelong quest for freedom. The HMH notes that these works, presented along with objects from the artist's personal archive, trace his experience from his childhood in Riga through the concentration camps and postwar period in Europe, to his immigration to the United States, followed by his return visit to Riga thirty years after the Holocaust and beyond. Photographs, official documents, and personal writings underpin the visual retelling and processing of Lurie's survival and its crucial function in forming his identity as an artist.

“Midcentury Menu: Dining in the Atomic Age” at Rienzi (February 18-July 31)
The MFAH plates up a visually delicious dish of Midcentury Modern at Rienzi, the museum’s house for European decorative arts located in River Oaks. This unusual and fascinating exhibition draws from Rienzi’s historical cookbook collection and loans from the Heritage Society, to explore how convenience, technology, advertising, gender, and labor converged to redefine the meaning of eating in postwar World War II America.

The exhibition will examine how American’s perspective on food and dining changed at the end of WWII with waves of scientific advancement, complex supply chains, and the rise of popular culture media that put preparing meals, dining, and ads for modern appliances into magazines and on television. Cooks like Julia Child encouraged women to experiment with French cuisine, and the fictitious Betty Crocker championed convenience with step-by-step guidance. Food and home entertaining took center stage in this new age of abundance, and a wide range of cookbooks promoted everything from curious Jell-O salads to international cuisine.

“In Search of History” at Throughline Collective (February 20-March 21)
This juried exhibition and part of FotoFest Houston’s “Participating Space” program, examines the evolution of lens-based art. Curated by Museum of Fine Arts photography curator, Lisa Volpe, this show focuses on 21st century photography and especially the new uses of technology and the diversity in stories that technology brings.

“The works of art submitted to Throughline Collective demonstrate the wide-ranging vision of lens-based art,” Volpe said. “The artwork included in this exhibition provides a fascinating cross-section of artistic production, representing the diverse landscape of contemporary photography and also the vigorous involvement of the artists in contemporary discourse.”

“Maratus: Spiders of Paradise” at Sicardi Ayers Bacino (February 27-April 11)
This show of multi-disciplinary artist María Fernanda Cardoso’s work will feature her ongoing photographic project to bring the minuscule Australian Maratus spider into larger focus. Featuring large-scale and small-scale digital photographic portraits of various Maratus species, each photographic image is comprised of over 1000 individual photos. Seen together as one spider image, the photos reveal the spider’s colors and form and especially its unique and brightly colored abdomen that are part of the species’ elaborate mating rituals. Much of Cardoso’s work explores connections and tensions between society and the natural world.

“Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue” at Lawndale Art Center (February 28-May 2)
Last month, the Blaffer Museum opened the first section of this exhibition, organized by Blaffer chief curator Laura Augusta, that uses artwork to trace the historical entanglements between the United States and Central America through the angle of U.S. agricultural policy. Now Lawndale expands the selection of works from artists with ties to farming communities in the U.S., Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador. To complement the Houston presentation of this exhibition, Lawndale has commissioned a mural from Dario Bucheli, activations with Zine Fest Houston, and textiles and candies made by Jorge Galván. Lorena Molina will also install an outdoor corn maze in Lawndale’s 4900 Main Street lot as an immersive piece that explores the experience of immigration and diaspora.

“Clutch City Craft” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (February 28-August 8)
Clutch City, Space City, Bayou City, now among our other favorite monikers for Houston, HCCC would like to add one more: Maker City. Calling H-Town “one of the nation’s most formidable centers of making” HCCC celebrations that maker spirit by organizing this special exhibition to examine Houston’s craft traditions and material cultures. The show features a wide spectrum of making practices, from the artists behind century-old, mosaic street signs to cowboy boot makers and fiber artists who design space suits and preserve the woven interiors of NASA mission control.

“Drawing its title from the city’s emblematic nickname — earned during the Houston Rockets’ back-to-back NBA championship wins in 1994 and 1995 — this exhibition uses Clutch City as both a cultural ethos and curatorial framework to examine how skilled craftsmanship underpins Houston’s industrial, social, and aesthetic identities,” HCCC Curator and Exhibition Director Sarah Darro said.

$Mar\u00eda Fernanda Cardoso's Maratus: Spiders of Paradise$

Image courtesy of Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino

Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino presents "Maratus: Spiders of Paradise"

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