The art world has been slow to recognize the dynamic work of Carmen Herrera, who at the age of 101 finally got a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016. Now a presentation of the Cuban–American artist’s large-scale sculptures—based on the geometric shapes in her paintings and which she designed five decades ago but never realized—has arrived in Houston as part of the five-year anniversary celebration for Buffalo Bayou Park. Standing seven feet in height and twelve feet wide on the Fondren Foundation Meadow, the monumental sculptures feature interconnected abstract forms, contrasting their bold colors with the green space and the skyline. buffalobayou.org

The twelve earthen mounds in Spiro, Oklahoma, are among the most significant sites of early civilization in the United States. This first major exhibition to examine the Spiro Mounds brings together around 200 objects, from engraved shells and effigy pipes to pearl bead necklaces and embossed copper sheets, to survey Spiro’s role in one of the most advanced prehistoric cultures. Excavated—or looted—in the early twentieth century, the reunited works reveal the daily life, ceremonies, and beliefs of the Mississippian people, who established themselves in Oklahoma more than one thousand years ago. Contemporary indigenous art reflects on this past, including the possibility that Spiro was abandoned due to ecological change, and how that history can resonate with the present. nationalcowboymuseum.org

When the Rothko Chapel opened in February 1971, it was a sacred space like none that had come before, with fourteen huge paintings in varying shades of black arranged in an octagonal room illuminated by a skylight. It was one of the last works completed by artist Mark Rothko, who considered how abstraction combined with careful attention to architecture could instill a meditative calm without a humanistic focus. This year the Moody Center for the Arts is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by re-staging 1975 Marden, Novros, Rothko: Painting in the Age of Actuality, originally supported by Dominique de Menil, who commissioned the chapel. The new show also presents contemporary art reflecting on the groundbreaking non-denominational chapel and its immersive encounter with art. moody.rice.edu

In the 1960s and 1970s, artists used geometric forms and motion to create surprising and disorienting effects. The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has a strong representation of op (optical) and kinetic art in its permanent collection and now unites those holdings with major loans to explore how these two art movements challenged perception through real and perceived motion. An accompanying catalogue further explores this work, like paintings by Richard Anuszkiewicz (who employed contrasting intense colors for shimmering effects) the pioneering mobiles and kinetic sculptures of Alexander Calder, and the hallucinatory optical illusions painted by Victor Vasarely. okcmoa.com

Before his death in 2019, Okwui Enwezor envisioned this exhibition on Black grief. To honor the global curator and critic, Enwezor’s friends and colleagues worked to posthumously realize his most political project yet: a timely recognition of the crisis and pain in the United States over systemic racism. The thirty-seven artists working across media in this exhibition represent some of the country’s major contemporary voices, including Mark Bradford, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Theaster Gates, Arthur Jafa, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Hank Willis Thomas, Nari Ward, and Carrie Mae Weems, all grappling with the emotional and intergenerational toll of historic and contemporary oppression. newmuseum.org

The San Francisco Ballet was one performance into its production of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream before it closed last March during the pandemic lockdown. Now the performance is available to stream as part of the company’s entirely virtual 2021 season. Complementing archival versions of classics like artistic director Helgi Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet and Balanchine’s Jewels is a new film version of Swan Lake, as well as world premieres of work by Cathy Marston, Danielle Rowe, and Myles Thatcher, all staged specifically for both the screen and social distancing. Audiences will also have an inside look at the dancers’ process through behind-the-scenes material and interviews. sfballet.org