With the delicate chiming of brass bells and the chanting of Buddhist monks in saffron robes, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's new China Gallery received blessings for prosperity on Wednesday night.

The new home for the museum's growing collection of Chinese art also received generous nods of approval from gallery donors and top-tier MFAH patrons who joined in the preview of the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery.

For weeks, anticipation had been building as Chinese gunpowder artistCai Guo-Qiangprepared his paper canvas that would be ignited to create the ethereal images that now line the walls of the new gallery. Major donors and museum patrons who had witnessed the ignition now oohed and aahed over the sublime finished product. A video documenting the creation of the work, titled Odyssey, looped on screen throughout the evening.

Anne and Albert Chao (the gallery is named in honor of his parents), Diane and John Riley, Nidhika and Pershant Mehta and Sima and Masoud Ladjevardian were among those praising the end result. That something so explosive could evolve into the serene landscape of the gallery walls seemed to captivate all that had seen the ignition, whether in person or via CultureMap's livestream of the process.

The artist — dressed in charcoal turtleneck, black suit and gray tennis shoes — beamed throughout the night as he strolled the gallery with the aura of a rock star. Michelle and Frank Hevrdejs, Martha Long, Ann and Charles Duncan, Pam and Dr. David Ott, Lily and Charles Foster, Jay Jones and Terry Wayne Jones were among those swept up in the moment.

In his remarks to the dinner gathering that followed inspection of the gallery, MFAH director Peter Marzio observed that "Cai's great work of art serves as a receptacle for the ancient arts of China ... It is a contemporary crucible to hold ancient work." This juxtaposition of old and new, he said, is something not replicated anywhere in the world.

Cai was clearly enjoying the moment. "What a wonderous evening is this," he said through his interpreter. Remarking on the gathering of 130 that included Chinese, Koreans, Indians and Japanese, he beamed, "This is truly a gala for Asians."

Christine Starkman, MFAH curator of Asian art and key in the Odyssey accomplishment, would probably have agreed. She even spoke a few words of Chinese in her remarks.

MFAH board chair Cornelia Long and Meredith Long welcomed guests that included Marjorie Horning, Leslie and Jack Blanton Jr., Susan and Lenoir Josey, Kent Shaffer and Joan Lu. Special guest was Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums which will hold its national conference in Houston in May.

Relive ignition night at the warehouse:

By this afternoon, the installation of the 42 panels of Chinese gunpowder artist Cai Guo-Qiang's Odyssey in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Arts of China gallery will be complete. Less than two days ago, the panels were marooned in the warehouse studio before the dramatic Wednesday night ignition that cemented the images on Odyssey forever.

As he surveyed the gallery this morning, Cai beamed before his first permanent museum installation.

The MFAH crew was aggressively installing the panels in numbered order.

"When we installed the first wall," relates MFAH curator of Asian art Christine Starkman, "I said we only need one wall; that's enough, the image was that powerful."

But the panels piled in, revealing Odyssey for the first time in its intended vertical formulation. The scent of fresh gunpowder pervades the gallery, which is already being quelled by a new air conditioning filter.

The drawing's narrative begins on the gallery's south wall with dark-shaded tropical plants, leading the eye to a series of wisps indicating misty, low mountain tops. A mix of palm trees follows the hills, whose varied layers provide glimpses of Cai's background as an oil painter. The north end of the drawing erupts with a bombast collection of mountains, crashing down to form a rugged coastline.

The depiction of such rugged terrain pays homage to monumental paintings of 13th-century China.

"Painters then were trying to capture the magnificence of the landscape," Starkman explains. "And Cai can do that too. It's here on the wall."

The east wall completes the sequence with depictions of peonies and other iconic Asiatic botanicals. As the panels were being installed, Cai marveled at the naturalism that envelopes the entire gallery. The artist spoke of the link between nature and knowledge, and that once the final panel is posted, a visitor can simply sit on the ground and receive such knowledge.

Standing in the gallery, the viewer is struck by the directness of particular features, but a closer examination reveals the various gunpowder effects, and a particular lightness emerges. Most subtle of all is the landscape's reflection on the polished black granite floor, which Starkman compares to a pool of water. The moment that Cai suggested mounting his drawings on the wall, it was at the suggestion of MFAH director Peter Marzio that a reflective stone be a part of the installation.

Feng shui plays a leading role in the layout of the drawings. For example, the placement of the monumental mountain image at the gallery's north end and a waterscape towards the south is in accordance with positive chi, explains the curator.

"The movement of the chi," Starkman elaborates, "combined with the spirit of all of the people who put their energy into this work — it is emitting all over the room."

Click here to watch the livestream replay of Cai Guo-Qiang's artistic explosion.

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The countdown is nearly complete.

After several days of preparation with the help of more than 100 volunteers, Cai Guo-Qiang will make last-minute touches to his Odyssey project tonight at a warehouse near the Astrodome and ignite the gunpowder to create a work of art that will frame the new Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Here's a breakdown of activities:

• The livestream of Cai's project begins on CultureMap at 5 p.m. Cai will give instructions to volunteers about the state of the drawing and what will happen as he makes final preparations for ignition.
• At 6 p.m., 500 guests begin arriving at the warehouse to observe the ignition. Once they are settled on bleachers lining the project, Cai will welcome guests, through an intepreter, and explain what he plans to do.
• He will ignite the gunpowder on stenciled drawings on the 42 panels, which stretch the length of two basketball courts, anywhere between 6:15 and 7:15 p.m.
• It will take six seconds to ignite the drawings on the 42 panels.
• Once the smoke settles, he and his team will strip away the cardboard stencils, leaving the finished piece of art.
• Afterwards, volunteers will gather with Cai for a group photo.

The panels will be transported to the Museum of Fine Arts on Friday. The gallery will open to the public Oct. 17.

If you miss the ignition live, CultureMap also has you covered. A few minutes after the livestream ends, a replay that begins with Cai's remarks and runs through the ignition will be shown in a loop on the Cai Odyssey page. You'll be able to catch anything you missed or relive the explosive art moment.

It was the ultimate in performance art.

As an audience composed of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston donors and friends watched from hard steel bleachers for several hours Wednesday night, a grim-faced Cai Guo-Qiang pensively walked the perimeter of the massive work of art he was creating before their eyes. Time and time again, he bent down and scooped his hand into a bowl of black gunpowder and sprinkled it like swirly sugar onto the stenciled drawings laid out on the floor. Before the evening was even half over, his hand was as black as a piece of coal. It made you wonder how he ever washes off the sooty gunpowder residue.

He moved nimbly on the warehouse's hard concrete floor and I wondered how his back and legs had survived for several days — until I looked down at his feet. He shuffled by in pastel blue terrycloth bedroom slippers.

Fire marshalls had limited the number of those who could watch the gunpowder artist ignite Odyssey, the artwork he was creating for the new MFAH China Arts Gallery, which only made it a hotter ticket. On the front row, museum trustees Jeannie Kilroy, Marty Goossen, Prabha Bala, Mike Linn and lead donors Anne and Albert Chao watched intently. Nearby, Nidhika and Pershant Mehta, major contributors to the museum's Arts of India Gallery, and their young children eagerly awaited the explosion.

"I can't imagine something as destructive as gunpowder coming alive in such an instructive way," said Nidhika Mehta.

MFAH trustee Michael Zilkha and Jeffrey Deitch, new director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, also sat on the front row but they abruptly dismissed a question about what they thought of the evening's activities and shooed a young reporter away.

As the evening dragged on, the audience grew a little restless but the excitement didn't fade as Cai methodically worked, refusing to be rushed.

They watched transfixed as staff from his studio and a team of MFHA workers painstakingly laid thin wax paper over the gunpowder drawings and covered them with a thin sheet of cardboard and then a thicker piece, with bricks on top so the cardboard wouldn't pop off when the explosion happened. He explained the multi-layered procedure was intended to trap the smoke emmited by the gunpowder and allow it travel along the canvas.

While they worked, Cai's staff assistant, Kelly Ma, kept the crowd entertained with her instructions to the workers and to the audience.

"Do not attempt to do this on your own," she shouted just before Cai lit the fuse."And do not panic. Can you promise me that?"

Like a lot of the volunteers and studio staff, she had sliced up her official Odyssey T-shirt so that it fell down over one shoulder, Flashdance style. She looked like a contestant on So You Think You Should Dance.

At last it was time to light a fuse on either side of the long drawing. Officials had estimated it would take around six seconds for the painting to ignite. It was over in two — barely enough time to get earplugs in place — followed by a burst of white smoke that rose to the ceiling.

In fact, it happened so quickly that a camera mounted on a tiny car that was set up to run the length of the drawing couldn't keep pace.

As workers removed the cardboard and paper — like peeling layers of an onion — a strong odor of sulfur permeated the air. It smelled like the Fourth of July.

Afterwards, Cai flashed a smile, although he seemed concerned about a center portion of the large artwork.

"It came out even better than we expected,' he said, through an interpreter. "The smoke traveled so beautifully. It managed to pierce the sense of the artificial, but maintain a contemporary image."

Nearby Ma accepted compliments for her running commentary. "I hope it was at least entertaining," she said.

Even the fact that the spark out-traveled the camera car didn't ruffle the evening, she said.

"Sometimes the imperfect is the most perfect."

Saint Arnold Brewery Company was awash in deep green MFAH stickers Wednesday night for the viewing party of the explosive creation of Chinese gunpowder artist Cai Guo-Qiang's Museum of Fine Arts, Houston installation.

It was standing room-only at the brewery with all the benches filled. Several hundred art and beer fans crammed in.

As is usually the case with anything artistic, things didn't quite go as planned. The ignition was delayed, but with the help of Soma Sushi, Sprinkles cupcakes, and three award-winning brews among Saint Arnold's usual stable the crowd was kept satisfied and at bay.

A little after 8:30 p.m. the gunpowder was lighted and the throngs watched as Guo-Qiang, at last, examined his final product.

We won't see the finished panels for a while (and it was difficult to discern the artist's reaction) but it was a major event for those who've been following the process through to the finish.

Benches were up at Saint Arnold on the tables by 9 p.m. in a speedy culmination of months of preparation. The Kirby warehouse cleanup would take a little longer. We can't wait to see the panels installed in the new Arts of China Gallery — tell us, was it everything you'd hoped?