Top Exhibitions in Houston This Month: January 2022

Catch the latest exhibitions and installations at art galleries and museums throughout Greater Houston in January 2022.

The new year offers many exciting incoming exhibitions on the horizon—including the re-opening of the Moody Center—but first, galleries and museums across the city have a slate of exhibitions on their way out this month.

Among several Houston institutions, you can take time to stop by closing installations at Lawndale Art Center, MFAH, Menil Collection and the cavernous Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern.

Plus, you can get a look at all the ongoing exhibitions when you check out our guide to installations and exhibitions in Greater Houston.

First Look: Opening Exhibitions in Houston This Month

• Archway Gallery in Montrose | FREE – The Dunlavy art gallery welcomes Public Spectacles by Joel Anderson this month (opens Saturday, January 8), which takes the viewer on a walking tour of some of Houston’s most captivating gardens, parks and public spaces, capturing the different kinds of beauty through photographic and encaustic painting techniques.
• Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Museum District | FREE – Three exhibitions open up at HCCC; Limitless (opens Saturday, January 15) explores themes of identity, acculturation and belonging through the versatile clay works of three recipients of the ClayHouston Award for Texas BIPOC Ceramic Artists; Rings! 1968-2021 (opens Saturday, January 22) chronicles the avant-garde twists of contemporary jewelry that have allowed for the limitless creative potential of the wearable piece; and Nothing Goes to Waste (opens Saturday, January 29) shows how an artist can utilize found materials, scraps and discarded remnants to explore how industrial and artistic process have had impacts on the ecology of the planet.
• The Bryan Museum in Galveston – The Galveston history museum prepares for Fat Tuesday with Mardi Gras: Pageantry & Revelry (opens Friday, January 21), which digs into the history of Mardi Gras and the Galveston Krewes that make up the colorful, joyous displays that parade through the city each year. Included with general admission, $14; $5 for ages 6 to 12; free for ages under 6.
• Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University | FREE – Re-opening after a month-long installation process, the Rice University arts gallery presents Soundwaves: Experimental Strategies in Art & Music (opens Friday, January 21), bringing together the works of artists like Jamal Cyrus, Anri Sala, Christine Sun Kim, Jorinde Voigt and others to examine the connections between visual and acoustic art and provide a space for sensory exploration.

Check out more ongoing installations and exhibitions in museums around Greater Houston.

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Last Chance: Closing Exhibitions in Houston This Month

• Lone Star Flight Museum at Ellington Field – The museum of space and aviation history closes its exhibition, Never Forget: Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 (ends Sunday, January 2), which offers visitors an opportunity to memorialize the nearly 3,000 people that perished in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as leave their sentiments and reflections in a guest book that will be donated to the National 9/11 Museum & Memorial in New York City. $15; $13 for ages 12 to 17 and 65+; $10 for ages 4 to 11; free for ages 3 and under.
• Archway Gallery in Montrose | FREE – Juxtaposing the pieces from two artists, Amalgamation: New Works by Veronica Dyer and Jim Adams (ends Thursday, January 6), this exhibition contrasts the positive energy found in Veronica Dyer’s paintings and sculptures created during lockdown, and the darker aspects of human experience found in sculptor Jim Adams’ recent body of work, “Personal Demons.”
• Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Museum District | FREE – Two exhibitions close at the Main Street craft museum; Later, Longer, Fewer: The Work of Jennifer Ling Datchuk (ends Saturday, January 8) showcases the traditional blue-and-white-porcelain sculptures and large-scale multimedia installations from the Chinese American artist that seeks to critique the realities of women’s access and liberation; and Copy Culture: Zines Made and Shared (ends Saturday, January 8) highlights zines and ephemera from Texas and beyond, exploring the community, history and practice of self-described “zinesters,” who utilize collage and reappropriated content to deliver a wide spectrum of style and platforms.
• Houston Center for Photography in Montrose | FREE – The West Alabama workshop and photography gallery closes two exhibitions; Learning Curve 14 (ends Sunday, January 9), which features the work of more than 30 artists from HCP’s various workshops and programs, merges the unique voices and perspectives of students across all levels and photographic experience; and the 2021 Fellowship Exhibition (ends Sunday, January 9) that showcases the work of Arkansas-based photographer Aaron Turner and Houston-based artist and filmmaker, Yue Nakayama.
• Asia Society Texas Center in Museum District – Japanese artist Kana Harada’s exhibition, Divine Spark (ends Sunday, January 9), brings several new works produced during the global pandemic that blend messages of hope and positivity through an innovative approach to sculpture, installation and painting. $8; free for ages 12 and under.
• Blaffer Art Museum at University of Houston | FREE – The work of Maryam Jafri is on display in A Broad and Narrow Point (ends Sunday, January 9), which offers multiples series that examine relationships between identity, authenticity and commerce, as well as the ways therapy has become imbued with convenience and celebrity aesthetics.
• Houston Museum of African American Culture in Museum District | FREE – Born in Houston and based in New York, the works of Justin Sterling in Windows of Opportunity (ends Saturday, January 15) illustrate how small habits of social neglect can have profound consequences for community through the use of found objects that represent or symbolize social and environmental problems.

• Lawndale Art Center in Museum District | FREE – Three exhibitions wrap up this month; David McGee’s work for The Sankofa Project (ends Saturday, January 15) in the Main Street–facing windows examines historical events that have led to our current moment of social unrest and racial reckoning; Emily Peacock: Die Laughing (ends Saturday, January 15) utilizes the artist’s brand of humor and levity as a means of coping with tragedy in photography, video, sculpture, performance and installation works; and Bria Lauren: Gold Was Made Fa’ Her (ends Saturday, January 15) is a photography project from the Third Ward–native artist that celebrates the women of South Side Houston, amplifying their voices and the voices of Black women across generations who have been impacted by structural inequity, generational narratives and respectability politics.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Museum District – The fine arts institution closes three exhibitions in January; Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer (ends Monday, January 17) takes a new look at the Southwestern artist by considering her approach to photography in the context of her extensive career; Afro-Atlantic Histories (ends Monday, January 17) explores the history and legacy of the transatlantic slave trade in more than 130 artworks that span five centuries and include contemporary artists like Glenn Ligon, Ibrahim Mahama and Kara Walker; and Calder-Picasso (ends Sunday, January 30), which examines the relationship and parallel developments of American artist Alexander Calder and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (this exhibition is $23; $18 for ages 13 to 18 and 65+; free for ages 12 and under).
• The Cistern at Buffalo Bayou Park – The third art project at the cistern, Anri Sala’s Time No Longer (ends Monday, January 17) creates an other-wordly environment set to an aching, haunting saxophone soundtrack and the surreal film images aboard an abandoned space station. Viewings are available in 30-minute segments. $12 for ages 9 and up; $8 for students and ages 62+; free on Thursdays.
• Menil Collection in Montrose | FREE – Closing this month, Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1960s (ends Sunday, January 23) explores the pivotal 10-year period of the French American artist’s career and brings numerous works from European collections that make their US debut in this exhibition.
• The Printing Museum in Montrose – The culmination of the museum’s new artist residency program, New Directions: 2020-21 Artists-in-Residence (ends Sunday, January 30) features the work of seven artists who each have arrived at diverse artistic outcomes through the disciplines of bookbinding, letterpress, printmaking and papermaking. $10; $5 for ages 6 to 18; free for ages 5 and under.

Check out more ongoing installation and exhibitions in museums around Greater Houston.

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