MUSEUM OF FINE ART HOUSTON MFAH
Line Into Space Gallery
Houston, Texas, United States
Wild Fibers Tapestry
Museum’s permanent collection wing for modern and contemporary art
In 2023, the MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts Houston made the acquisition of the Wild Fibers Tapestry for its permanent Art Collection, a new monumental hanging tapestry piece.
Visitors will be able to admire on 360º the wild interweaving of rattan like a drape of textile. This single art piece requires 80 000 nails to hold the vines together.
In 2024 The Wild Fibers Tapestry is installed in the new Kinder building, the Museum’s permanent collection wing for modern and contemporary art. The atrium where the piece will be cited has high sculptural ceilings that will beautifully echo the curves of the work. The area is tied to a thematic gallery Line Into Space, an installation that explores artists’ and designers various sculptural and volumetric approaches to line. Works by Gego, Ruth Asawa, Joris Laarman, Jean Tinguely and Brice Marden are among the selections.
https://mfah.org/exhibitions/galleries/inaugural-installations-kinder-building
The MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States, with an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 works of art, created throughout the world, from antiquity to the present.
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, devoted to the Museum′s international collections of modern and contemporary art, opened November 21, 2020. Designed by Steven Holl Architects as the third MFAH gallery building, it is the final component in the eight-year project to expand and enhance Museum’s Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus. The Kinder Building stands in complementary contrast to the existing gallery buildings—the Caroline Wiess Law Building and Audrey Jones Beck Building—and in dialogue with the adjacent Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden.
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.
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, Jean Tinguely, Georg Dobler, Naum Gabo, Joris Laarman, Agnes Martin, and Tone Vigeland.
Art Highlights
The Kinder Building is dedicated to presenting works from the Museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art.
The building opens with the first comprehensive installation of these works, drawn from the collections of Latin American and Latino art; photography; prints and drawings; decorative arts, craft, and design; and modern and contemporary art.
A flexible black-box gallery at the street-level entry is devoted to immersive installations, with inaugural presentations of the work of Gyula Kosice and James Turrell.
A windowed street-level gallery features work by artists including Jean Tinguely and Pablo Picasso, and an installation of suspended lights by Spencer Finch hangs in the café space.
The second-floor galleries are organized by curatorial department, with each gallery highlighting collection strengths.
The third-floor galleries feature Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—five thematic installations that present art from the 1960s onward.
Site-Specific Commissioned Artworks
Major, site-specific commissioned artworks serve as portals that connect the Kinder Building with the other components of the Sarofim Campus. Located at strategic points, the works are designed to mark moments of transition on the campus and to activate public spaces. These works of art have been commissioned from a roster of renowned, international artists such as El Anatsui, Byung Hoon Choi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Ólafur Elíasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Cristina Iglesias, Jason Salavon and Ai Weiwei.
Architecture Highlights
The Kinder Building comprises two floors and more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space circling a three-level atrium space, with the distinctive roof allowing natural light to flood the central spaces.
Gathered under a “luminous canopy” roof, the concave curves reference the billowing clouds that fill the “big sky” of Texas.
Vertical, translucent-glass tubes clad the facades.
The galleries increases overall MFAH exhibition space by nearly 75 percent.
New destinations include the 215-seat Lynn Wyatt Theater, a restaurant, and a café.
Seven gardens and six reflecting pools are inset along the building’s perimeter.
- INFOS
-
Wild Fibers Tapestry
Museum’s permanent collection wing for modern and contemporary art
In 2023, the MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts Houston made the acquisition of the Wild Fibers Tapestry for its permanent Art Collection, a new monumental hanging tapestry piece.
Visitors will be able to admire on 360º the wild interweaving of rattan like a drape of textile. This single art piece requires 80 000 nails to hold the vines together.
In 2024 The Wild Fibers Tapestry is installed in the new Kinder building, the Museum’s permanent collection wing for modern and contemporary art. The atrium where the piece will be cited has high sculptural ceilings that will beautifully echo the curves of the work. The area is tied to a thematic gallery Line Into Space, an installation that explores artists’ and designers various sculptural and volumetric approaches to line. Works by Gego, Ruth Asawa, Joris Laarman, Jean Tinguely and Brice Marden are among the selections.
https://mfah.org/exhibitions/galleries/inaugural-installations-kinder-building
- ABOUT
-
The MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States, with an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 works of art, created throughout the world, from antiquity to the present.
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, devoted to the Museum′s international collections of modern and contemporary art, opened November 21, 2020. Designed by Steven Holl Architects as the third MFAH gallery building, it is the final component in the eight-year project to expand and enhance Museum’s Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus. The Kinder Building stands in complementary contrast to the existing gallery buildings—the Caroline Wiess Law Building and Audrey Jones Beck Building—and in dialogue with the adjacent Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden.
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.
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, Jean Tinguely, Georg Dobler, Naum Gabo, Joris Laarman, Agnes Martin, and Tone Vigeland.
Art Highlights
The Kinder Building is dedicated to presenting works from the Museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art.
The building opens with the first comprehensive installation of these works, drawn from the collections of Latin American and Latino art; photography; prints and drawings; decorative arts, craft, and design; and modern and contemporary art.
A flexible black-box gallery at the street-level entry is devoted to immersive installations, with inaugural presentations of the work of Gyula Kosice and James Turrell.
A windowed street-level gallery features work by artists including Jean Tinguely and Pablo Picasso, and an installation of suspended lights by Spencer Finch hangs in the café space.
The second-floor galleries are organized by curatorial department, with each gallery highlighting collection strengths.
The third-floor galleries feature Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—five thematic installations that present art from the 1960s onward.
Site-Specific Commissioned Artworks
Major, site-specific commissioned artworks serve as portals that connect the Kinder Building with the other components of the Sarofim Campus. Located at strategic points, the works are designed to mark moments of transition on the campus and to activate public spaces. These works of art have been commissioned from a roster of renowned, international artists such as El Anatsui, Byung Hoon Choi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Ólafur Elíasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Cristina Iglesias, Jason Salavon and Ai Weiwei.
Architecture Highlights
The Kinder Building comprises two floors and more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space circling a three-level atrium space, with the distinctive roof allowing natural light to flood the central spaces.
Gathered under a “luminous canopy” roof, the concave curves reference the billowing clouds that fill the “big sky” of Texas.
Vertical, translucent-glass tubes clad the facades.
The galleries increases overall MFAH exhibition space by nearly 75 percent.
New destinations include the 215-seat Lynn Wyatt Theater, a restaurant, and a café.
Seven gardens and six reflecting pools are inset along the building’s perimeter.