Sunlight filtered through the cloud-inspired ceiling, and the harsh Texas glare softened into something like a beneficent aura.
Friends from Paris and New York couldn’t understand how they could move to such a cultural desert.
John responded with a biblical joke: “It’s in the desert that miracles happen.”
From left: The lobby of the MFAH’s new Kinder Building; A painting by Joan Miró and a mobile by Alexander Calder at the Menil Collection.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
What would it take to wake people up to all that diverse, sophisticated Houston has to offer?
The answer might be something like the Kinder.
“It’s the great reveal.”
From left: The stainless-steel exterior of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; a mural at Sawyer Yards.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
What would it take to wake people up to all that diverse, sophisticated Houston has to offer?
The discovery transformed this part of Texas into an economic powerhouse.
(The mellow park alongside the museum is also the best spot in the city for a picnic.
Artwork by Jasmine Zelaya at Project Row Houses.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
This idea of cross-cultural pollination is crucial to the imprint that the de Menils left on Houston.
The Kinder Building showcases how far the city and the museum have come.
The Kinder also does a laudable job of contextualizing other key Houston artists within the broader art world.
From left: The Kinder Building; Travis Whitfield’s Shotgun House Kitchen, an installation at the Station Museum.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
Sometimes, the artists will even be at work inside, ready to discuss their installations.
PRH works can be moving, inspiring, and often biting in their interventions and critiques of social problems.
Sometimes, the artists will even be at work inside, ready to discuss their installations.
Gyula Kosice’s La Ciudad Hidroespecial, an installation at the Kinder Building.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
Screw’s impact on Houston’s creative culture can’t be overstated.
Halfwaythrough my visit, I moved to thePost Oak Hotel.
What does it feel like to stand inside a miracle?
James Turrell’s The Light Inside, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
Houston seems to me to specialize in this punch in of artwork.
“HAM is one of the last ones that is still truly free.”
What does it feel like to stand inside a miracle?
The Hiram Butler Gallery.Kate Zimmerman Turpin
Houston seems to me to specialize in this bang out of artwork.
Sitting for my allotted half-hour with the paintings, I was quickly and unexpectedly moved to tears.
Both are born of a bold yet sensitive vision of Houston as a place where miracles can happen.
Doubles from $249.
Doubles from $477.
Where to Eat
Bludorn: Chef Aaron Bludorn arrives via Manhattan’s Michelin starred Cafe Boulud.
Each dish is a work of art.
Entrees $30$50.
Don’t miss out on the corn bread and rawbar, either.
Entrees $18$35.
Entrees $14$26.
Try the oxtail ragout over crispy gnocchi before it’s all gone.
Entrees $18$32.
Entrees $11$35.
Menil Collection: A world-class private collection that blends smoothly into the Montrose neighborhood.
Station Museum of Contemporary Art: Art and activism mix at this museum in the Third Ward.
A version of this story first appeared in the July 2021 issue ofTravel + Leisureunder the headlineA Bigger Canvas.
