Exhibitions Coming to Houston Museums this Summer

With summer just around the corner, Houston-area museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum, and the Moody Center for the Arts, have announced their upcoming exhibitions.

Next month, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) will present an exhibition of 38 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation Collection. The collection was assembled by New York businessman Mr. Pearlman during the second half of the 20th century. 

In a press release, Gary Tinterow, Director and Margaret Alkek Williams Chair of the MFAH, commented, “Henry Pearlman’s highly personal approach to collecting sought to capture the momentum of art and thought at the dawn of the modern era. This exhibition is an exceptionally rare opportunity for visitors to see this distinguished collection outside of its home at Princeton University. For this presentation, we will be juxtaposing Pearlman pictures with works from the MFAH collection in order to broaden the representation of the artists, as well as to highlight Henry Pearlman’s distinctive point of view.”

The exhibition, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Pearlman Collection, will present works by Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, and others, paired with several pieces from the MFAH’s Audrey Jones Beck Collection. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Pearlman Collection will be on view from May 21 through September 17, 2023.

In June, the MFAH will present Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection, an exhibition featuring pieces from a significant private collection. Since the early 1980s, Ithaca, New York-based collectors Banoo and Jeevak Parpia have built a collection of textiles. Banoo Parpia has recently retired as director of development for Asia at Cornell University. 

Co-curator and consulting curator at the MFAH Amy Poster who is organizing the show, noted, “Seldom are collections of Indian textiles as comprehensive, or collected with such expertise. Assembled to reflect the myriad range of regional traditions, the Parpia Collection includes many singular pieces that reflect the extraordinary aesthetic and technical diversity of Indian textiles, from folk weavings to the most sophisticated court textiles.”

The show will include pieces spanning over 600 years, from the 14th to the early 20th centuries. The range of techniques displayed in the exhibition will include painting, block printing, ikat, tie-dye, brocade, tapestry, and embroidery. Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection will be on view at the MFAH from June 10 through September 4, 2023.

Next month, the Blaffer Art Museum presents a solo exhibition by American artist and writer Christopher Myers. The show explores ideas related to movement, migration, and exchange, and brings together Mr. Myers’ multidisciplinary work from the past five years. Some of the featured works include appliqué tapestries, stained glass lightboxes, and a new installation highlighting the artist’s performance work. Christopher Myers will be on view from May 20 until August 20, 2023.

Robert Hodge x Tim Kerr: No Kings But Us, a collaboration between Houston-based artist Robert Hodge and Austin-based musician Tim Kerr, will open simultaneously at the Blaffer. The two artists’ work is influenced by music and pop culture and explores issues related to racial equality and human rights. The exhibition will feature Mr. Hodge’s musically-inspired collage works that integrate screenprinting, stencils, stitching and record covers. Additionally, Mr. Kerr’s visual art draws on his own musical history to create vibrantly colored portraits and political messages. The show will be on view from May 20 through June 4, 2023.

In June at the Blaffer, Erika Mei Chua Holum and Rigoberto Luna are co-curating John Guzman: Flesh and Bone. The solo exhibition features large-scale paintings by the artist, some of which were created in Mr. Guzman’s hometown of San Antonio, and others that were completed during and following his time in the 2021 NXTHVN Studio Fellowship Program in New Haven, Connecticut. The show will be on view from June 23 through September 2023.

In late May, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) will present Ming Smith’s first solo exhibition at a major institution, surveying her work from the early 1970s to today. The show, Ming Smith: Feeling the Future is curated by James E. Bartlett, the former Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, New York. Perhaps best known for her informal photographs of Black cultural figures, Ms. Smith creates work that explores themes of Afrofuturism, Black cultural expression, representation, and social examination. Her portraits range in style from documentary street photography to more experimental ethereal pieces. Ming Smith: Feeling the Future will be on view from May 26 through October 1, 2023.

Also in May, the Moody Center for the Arts will host a solo exhibition of works by JooYoung Choi, a Korean-born, Houston-based artist. Love and Wondervision will feature new and recent works across mediums, including video, sculpture, painting, and large-scale installation.

Moody Center executive director and curator of the exhibition, Alison Weaver, remarked, “We are thrilled to present the imaginative work of JooYoung Choi in her hometown of Houston. This exhibition invites visitors to engage with a host of playful characters whose stories explore the weighty topics of cultural bias, gender discrimination, and the complex intersectionality of sexuality and race.”

JooYoung Choi: Love and Wondervision will be on view from May 25 through August 26, 2023.