Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Ongoing
Installation view of Contested Landscapes.
Installation view of Love Languages.
Installation view of Line into Space.
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1956–62, oil on Masonite, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Anni Albers and the Josef Albers Foundation, Inc. © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Michael Armitage, Dead Soldiers, 2022, oil on Lubugo bark cloth, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Christen Sveaas, photograph by David Westwood, courtesy of White Cube, London. © Michael Armitage.
Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S. 562, Double Cone Form with Central Sphere), c. 1954, galvanized steel wire and brass wire, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © Ruth Asawa
Fred Eversley, Untitled (Parabolic Lens), 1974/2018, cast polyester, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © Fred Eversley
Teresita Fernández, Caribbean Cosmos, 2022, glazed ceramic mosaic tiles on three panels, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London; photograph: Eva Herzog. © Teresita Fernández
Ron Nagle, The Puddle of Love, from the series Snuff Bottles, 2003, porcelain, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, Museum purchase funded by the Schissler Foundation. © Ron Nagle
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building is dedicated to the Museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art. The soaring spaces feature displays that span media encompassing painting and sculpture, craft and design, video, and immersive installations.
The third-floor galleries are devoted to thematic exhibitions, with installations of art from the 1960s onward.
• Color into Light showcases work by artists celebrated for their study of color dynamics, including Josef Albers, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Sam Gilliam, Hans Hofmann, Hélio Oiticica, Fanny Sanín, and Ettore Sottsass. Among the works on view are neon pieces by Gyula Kosice and Keith Sonnier; investigations of transparency by Fred Eversley and Shiro Kuramata; and cameraless photographs by Christopher Bucklow and Susan Deges.
• Contested Landscapes brings together works of art that reexamine the traditional genre of landscape through an ecological lens. By using diverse materials and innovative techniques, the artists reshape representations of geography, topography, and the environment to examine human interaction with the natural world. Among the artists featured are Radcliffe Bailey, Teresita Fernández, Richard Long, Soledad Salamé, and Jennifer Trask. In their works, landscapes become contested sites of power, addressing cultural and environmental concerns.
• Hidden Histories explores the idea of anti-monuments through the work of artists who memorialize ordinary citizens or places that have been ignored, sidelined, or deliberately obscured. Unconventional means and strategies encourage viewers to think critically about the past and its relevance for the present and future. Featured artists—from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States—include Michael Armitage, Paul Briggs, Adriana Corral, Jamal Cyrus, Gilbert and George, Zhang Huan, Tom Huck, Kahlil Joseph, Anselm Kiefer, Julie Mehretu, Oscar Muñoz, and Vincent Valdez.
• Line into Space examines how artists explore line in multiple dimensions and media, from works on paper to jewelry, three-dimensional constructions, and furniture. This installation features works by Gego, including drawings, sculptures, and watercolor, presented with selections by artists including Ruth Asawa, Georg Dobler, Naum Gabo, Joris Laarman, Agnes Martin, and Tone Vigeland.
• Love Languages considers how the making of art is a type of love language all in itself. The installation offers insights into the question, “How do we prioritize tenderness against debilitating social conditions?” The work of artists including Dawoud Bey, Francesco Clemente, Nicole Eisenman, Louis Fratino, Ron Nagle, Anna Park, Joyce J. Scott, Rashod Taylor, and Billie Zangewa engage the necessity of intimacy in interpersonal and collective relationships.