Free Houston Art Show Turns Torn and Stitched Paper Into Art
A free Houston show of paper that has been cut, stitched and punctured, where the repairs become the artwork.
📄 Paper That Was Put Back Together
✂️ How The Cuts Come Back
It opened September 10, 2026 and closes January 24, 2027; more than twenty artists share one material. Lee Krasner destroyed drawings she had judged failures and rebuilt them as collage. Ann Hamilton stitched wool between sheets of handmade paper for poche, 2014, a work about the pocket as protection for the body. Zarina punctured paper with a needle until the holes formed her composition. Stand close enough to see the stitching and the punctures, and the show stops reading as a survey of drawings.
✏️ What The Room Lets You Do
Bring a pencil and a sketchbook, both are allowed inside. Ink, paint and easels stay outside, and visitors keep their hands off the art. Photography and video are strictly prohibited inside the galleries; only entryways allow a quick snapshot. Free gallery guides in English and Spanish wait at the entrance, and wall text is deliberately absent, with the guide doing that work. Take one work, sketch the way the paper was joined back together, then carry that habit into the next room.
🚪 Arriving Without A Ticket
Admission is always free, and nobody needs to book. The campus opens Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and closes Mondays and Tuesdays. The exhibition sits in the Menil Drawing Institute at 1412 West Main Street, a separate building five minutes from the main collection at 1533 Sul Ross. Parking is at 1515 West Alabama Street and beside Richmond Hall. Groups over fifteen are advised to reserve ahead. Official info, menil.org exhibition and visit pages, checked 2026-11-01.
