Last Call! See Houston's Top 5 Art Exhibits from 2016
Picasso: The Line
Menil Collection | Thru Jan 8

Pablo Picasso, Self Portrait (Autoportrait), 1918. Musee national Picasso, Paris. © 2016 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: RMN-Grand Palasi/Art Resource, NY
Image: Courtesy of Menil Collection
This exhibition showcases Picasso’s exploration of form through line drawing—or, as guest curator Carmen Giménez calls it, “linealism.” View close to 90 works by the famous Cubist who used a wide range of mediums, including pen, pencil, charcoal and collage.
Free. Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross St. 713-525-9400. menil.org
CraftTexas 2016
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft | Thru Jan 8

Image: Courtesy of crafthouston.org
Showcasing the best crafters in the Lone Star State, this exhibition offers up 53 artworks by 38 artists and includes sculpture, jewelry, even installations. Appreciate the depth and breadth of Texas crafters before the exhibition ends the second week of January.
Free. 4848 Main St. 713-529-4848. crafthouston.org
Degas: A New Vision
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston | Thru Jan 16

Edgar Degas, The Dance Class, c. 1873, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection).
IMAGE: COURTESY OF MFAH
Brush up on one of the world’s favorite impressionist painters with this international survey—and only American stop for this landmark exhibition!—which includes 230 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and photographs, including never-before-seen works.
Regular admission: $7.50–15; free for children and members. Exhibit: $18–23; free for children and members. 1001 Bissonnet St. 713-639-7300. mfah.org
The Surface of Things
Houston Center for Photography | Thru Jan 15

Farrah Karapetian (Los Angeles, CA) Call Her Craft, 2015, from the series Relief, chromogenic photogram, 40 X 155 inches, courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery (Los Angeles, CA)
A collection of photograms—a silhouette created by preventing light from reaching light-sensitive paper—are on exhibit until January 15. “The works gesture past the image surface toward bigger concepts and questions,” says curator Keliy Anderson-Staley. “The photographs invite us to examine how objects carry meaning and cultural and political weight and the ways in which they become metaphors for other things. In this sense a thing, or its surface, is never all there is.”
Free. 1441 W. Alabama St. 713-529-4755. hcponline.org
A Traveling Show
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston | Thru Jan 15

Kay Rosen, "I'm Going, I'm Going," 1996. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
Over eight years, Matt Keegan and Kay Rosen sent artwork, photos, clippings and other items to each other through the mail in dozens of packages. Now, they showcase their unique correspondence along with paintings, sculptures and drawings.
Free. 5216 Montrose Blvd. 713-284-8250. camh.org