On Common Ground is the latest in a series of focused exhibitions highlighting unique strengths in the MFAH collections. Celebrating recent acquisitions in particular, this installation also introduces a number of works that are new to Houston audiences.

Some of the works on display map the larger landscape, as seen in Wangechi Mutu’s evocation of the Kenyan highlands in The End of carrying All and in Oscar Muñoz’s bird’s-eye view of Cali, Colombia, in Ambulatory. Others close in on domestic spaces, such as Robert Gober’s untitled relief and Tony Oursler’s Hideaway. Huma Bhabha, Nancy Graves, and Jean-Pierre Larocque excavate the figure, whereas works by Francis Alÿs, Jasper Johns, and Julie Mehretu emphasize movement in space. The common ground shared by these artists is their concern not only with the world we live in, but also the world we have made.