The best art shows in October might also be the best explorations into scientific realms Houstonians will see all year. Nature, time, and the secret connective patterns of the universe seem to be major themes of artists and exhibitions this month. Art lovers can journey into orbital space habitats, dive into quantum landscapes, speed amid stars, and question the meaning of time.

Head back to Earth for Menil television, a look at a Jewish family’s evolution, and a massive art show in Memorial Park. Finally, Anya Tish Gallery says goodbye with an era-ending show.

“Spectral Field” presented by Diverseworks (now through November 8)
Explore the nature of everything with this plasma art installation from Austin-based, Iranian-American artist Anahita (Ani) Bradberry in the art gallery at MATCH. These large sculptural pieces attempt to imagine unfathomable vastness, or at least put the viewer in the contemplative space to explore the cosmic scales of stars, time, particles, displacement, loss, and interconnectedness. In keeping with the interconnectedness of Texas art and science, the installation will include aspects of Bradberry’s collaboration with scientist and Rice physics and astronomy professor, Christopher M. Johns-Krull, as part of the Open Interval Cohort — a collaborative program for artists, scientists, and art organizations — awarded by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society and Culture division.

“Fractal Worlds” at Artechouse (now through November)
This Artechouse collaboration with cutting edge Dutch artist Julius Horsthuis takes guests on an adventure into the world of fractals, those complex patterns that repeat at every scale in nature from the branching of trees to our lungs, from the spiral of galaxies to sea shells. Along with this immersive cinematic journey, the exhibition will feature a Fractal Lab, with nine interactive works, an Infinity Room offering Horsthuis’ kaleidoscopic loops built from fractal formulas, and the meditative installation “Nascense,” Horsthius’ exploration of how nature is able to give rise to complexity.

“Growing Up Jewish – Art & Storytelling” at Holocaust Museum Houston (now through December)
This exhibition of acclaimed contemporary artist Jacquelline Kott-Wolle’s figurative paintings will chronicle one North American Jewish family’s story through five generations from 1925 to the present. Kott-Wolle’s parents and grandparents arrived in Canada in 1949 after the Holocaust, and their history has influenced the artist’s own identity and creative enterprises. The exhibition includes Kott-Wolle’s spoken stories about her family, as well as artwork depicting scenes of Jewish holidays, moments at Hebrew school, family vacations, and other milestone celebrations. Together they depict a rich mosaic of a family starting over in a new land, living, and thriving after surviving one of modern history’s darkest chapters.

CraftTexas 2025 at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (now through January 31, 2026)
The 12th edition of this series will feature 50 works from 49 Texas craft artists. The craftwork in this year’s show will touch on a diversity of themes, like caregiving, expanded approaches to quilting, and landscape exploration.

“The artists featured in CraftTexas 2025 demonstrate that craft remains a vital and relevant means of cultural expression, addressing contemporary concerns while honoring deep material traditions. These selected works collectively highlight that Texas continues to nurture some of the most compelling voices in contemporary craft,” juror Abraham Thomas, Curator of Modern Architecture, Design, and Decorative Arts at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art said in a statement.

“Lines of Resolution: Drawing at the Advent of Television and Video” at Menil Drawing Institute (now through February 8, 2026)
This extraordinary showcase at the Menil Drawing Institute will examine how artists responded to television’s invasion into individual households from the 1950s into the height of the “network era” during the 80s. During this dawn and zenith of network programming power, the nature of people’s responses to recorded imagery changed. Artists chronicled, were inspired, and sometimes rejected those changes.

With a special focus on drawing, the exhibition features 50 works on paper, video, mixed media sculpture, and an immersive installation, created by 25 artists from 10 countries. Look for several works that have never been exhibited in the U.S., including the groundbreaking “raster pictures” of German artist Karl Otto Götz, and the room-sized installation “4 mensajes [4 messages],” by Peruvian artist Teresa Burga.

“The works on display in Lines of Resolution present new opportunities that artists found for drawing through its relationship to and its interactions with the small screen,” explains Kelly Montana, the exhibition’s co-curator. “Some of the artists featured used the screen as a surface, a mirror, and as an interface — prefiguring our use of screens today. Others used drawing to critique and deconstruct the power television exerts over its audience.”

Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park (October 10-12)
The festival always gives art lovers and collectors a chance to meet artists, view original works, and purchase artwork from more than 270 artists across 19 disciplines, including world-class paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures, and more at prices for everyone. Special treats this year include an interactive art portal from Meow Wolf Houston’s Radio Tave, the iconic “Be Someone” graffiti transformed in a sculpture, and art cars from Houston Art Car Klub. Also look for selfie stations, some mini-sized mini golf, a beer garden and wine bar, live entertainment throughout the day, and a food truck park.

“Temporal Estrangement: A Path to No Place” at Lawndale Art Center (October 17-November 15)
Inspired by traditions of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist art, Black queer Southern dance performance (J-Setting) and Afrofuturist soundscapes Houston-based artist Christopher Paul explores ideas of changing identities through self-portrait collages. This multidisciplinary exhibition will feature projection mapping, video, sound, and works on paper and textile. Paul’s artistic ambition is to create a space of “no-place” that is neither here nor there, where time is unraveled and the self is dissolved into the cosmic unknown.

“The House of Pikachu: Art, Anime, and Pop Culture” at Asia Society (October 17-March 15, 2026)
Japanese animation, a.k.a anime, has taken over global popular culture and our imaginations in recent years. But some of the aspects of anime – particularly the flatness, saturated colors, and stylized features – have also been an inspiration and influence on artists for decades. This new exhibition will explore that influence of Japanese animation on contemporary art, presenting the work of 25 national and international artist including creators from Japan, Brazil, China, Mexico, Côte d’Ivoire, and Texas. Highlights of the exhibition include work from animator Yoshitaka Amano, renowned for his work on Speed Racer the Final Fantasy game series, Houston-based artist Gao Hang, who creates retro-futurist pieces that mine the language of ’90s video games, and acclaimed artist Monsieur Zohore, who is creating for the exhibition the monumental painting “Houston, We Have A Problem.” Look for iconic Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s large scale sculpture “Your Dog” on special lone for the show.

“End of an Era” at Anya Tish Gallery (October 24-December 31)
After the death in 2024 of its influential founder, Anya Tish, the gallery continued to present diverse and intriguing shows, but the time has come for the gallery to close. This final group show will be a chance for the gallery and the whole Houston art community to look back with artists and artwork that still define the present and the future of contemporary art. The show will feature artists who have shaped the gallery’s program and their expansive range of works, including figurative and abstract paintings, sculptures in various mediums, video art, light installations, animations, photography, and drawings.

“Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 26-January 25, 2026)
From the opening of its doors five years ago, one of the stars of the MFAH’s Kinder Building has been international avant-garde artist Gyula Kosice’s masterpiece, “The Hydrospatial City,” the room-sized sculptural installation that depicts utopia orbital cities of the future. The mammoth installation will go on a journey this month as the centerpiece of “Intergalactic,” a traveling exhibition of the art and artistic experiments of pioneering sculptor, painter, poet, and theorist, Gyula Kosice. Co-organized by the MFAH and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, this first large-scale survey of Kosice’s art in the U.S. will feature more than 70 two-dimensional works and kinetic sculptures made of acrylic materials, air pumps, water, light components, and neon gas tubes.

“Gyula Kosice’s radical vision continues to challenge us, with novel ideas about society, the environment and art that seem as forward-thinking now as they were more than a half-century ago,” MFAH’s curator of Latin American art, Mari Carmen Ramírez, said in a statement. “Kosice’s fascination with technology, and his commitment to expressing the possibilities of a hopeful future, led to the groundbreaking works of art that we are presenting.”

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston