Texas Institutions Announce Recent Acquisitions

Museums and galleries throughout Texas have announced new acquisitions in 2026, including institutions in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

René Treviño, “Regalia, Moscas Brillantes (Rojo),” 2025, velvet, taffeta, lace, wax, resin, half-scale dress form, sequin appliques, rhinestones, plastic flies, 53 X 36 X 40 inches. Photo: Joseph Hyde In March, the Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas announced the acquisition by the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) of a sculpture by Kingsville native René Treviño. Regalia, Moscas Brillantes (Rojo) (2025) is described in a press release as a “half-scale royal garment.” The fabric-based sculpture incorporates velvet, taffeta, lace, and rhinestone flies combining elements that reference elaborate Aztec ceremonial headdresses, the coronation robes of European monarchs, and memento mori of historical Dutch painting.

Carlos Ramirez, “Santuario de la Soñadora (Shrine of the Dreamer),” 2026, mixed media assemblage, 26 x 13.5 x 3 inches In June, Ivester Contemporary in Austin announced the acquisition of artworks by Carlos Ramirez and Emilio Villalba, now in the collection of the University of Texas at Austin Art Galleries at Black Studies. The artworks were exhibited in Redacted , a two-person show on view at Ivester from Saturday, May 23, through Saturday, July 11. Mr. Ramirez’s Santuario de la Soñadora (Shrine of the Dreamer) (2026) is an object collage of multiple elements, including a Hello Kitty keychain, bottlecaps, a depiction of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and a printed illustration of a bat within a box frame. Mr. Villalba’s Self Portrait with Cat (2026) is an impastoed image of a person and an orange cat in a blank space.

Dance troupe The Seldoms perform at Edra Soto’s public art work “Screenhouse” in Millennium Park in Chicago, 2022. Courtesy of Andrew Glatt Also in June, the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio announced the acquisition of Screenhouse (2019), an outdoor sculpture by Chicago artist Edra Soto. In a press release, the museum states that Screenhouse is the first outdoor sculpture by a Latina artist to be installed on the McNay grounds. According to a press release, the 10-foot-high painted breezebrick gazebo will function as a gathering place for visitors, surrounded by native plants that reference Ms. Soto’s native Puerto Rico.

Ms. Soto explained, “My artistic practice encourages viewers to reflect more closely on architectural motifs common in Puerto Rico’s working-class communities and to experience them beyond mere utility and aesthetics. Often, Puerto Rico’s status as an unincorporated United States territory renders its history imperceptible. Screenhouse invites visitors to an interactive encounter with Caribbean history, which is part of American history.”

Mel Casas, “Humanscape 56 (San Antonio Circus),” 1969, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 inches Ruiz-Healy Art in San Antonio announced the June purchase of a 1969 Mel Casas painting Humanscape 56 (San Antonio Circus) , by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. An El Paso native and influential Chicano artist, Mr. Casas died in 2014 as Professor Emeritus at San Antonio College, where he taught for 29 years. He began the 150-work Humanscape series in 1965 and continued through 1989. The acquisition followed the Whitney’s 100-artist survey exhibition Sixties Surreal , on view from September 2025 through January 2026, which included Mr. Casas’ painting.

Benjamin Muñoz, “The Endless Endeavor,” (right to left) “Illegal Human,” “Labor,” “The Martian,” “Seeds Through,” “LDR,” “The Attic,” 2018, woodcuts, 100 x 52 inches each Presa House in San Antonio announced several recent acquisitions, of artworks by Josue Rawmirez and Benjamin Muñoz shown in the touring Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art exhibition curated by Rigoberto Luna, Presa House co-owner, and a painting by Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz. The artworks by Mr. Rawmirez and Mr. Muñoz, both artists based in the Rio Grande Valley, were acquired by The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture (The Cheech), which recently hosted the Soy de Tejas exhibition. Last year, The Cheech purchased another artwork from the exhibition, by San Antonio artist and Presa House co-owner Jenelle Esparza.

Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz, “Antifaz: Forget The Alamo. Yellow Rose,” 2004, acrylic and oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 60 inches The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. purchased Antifaz: Forget The Alamo. Yellow Rose by Mr. Rodríguez-Díaz, a prominent San Antonio artist who died in 2023. The painting was previously exhibited in Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz: A Retrospective, 1982-2014 curated by Ruben C. Cordova, a San Antonio-based curator, scholar, and Glasstire contributing writer.

Fernand Khnopff, “Bruges of Yesteryear, Triptych with Three Drawings: “A Canal” [left panel]; “Of Yesteryear” [central panel]; “The Tomb of Mary of Burgundy” [right panel], 1905, left panel: black chalk, charcoal, and pastel on wove paper; central panel: black chalk, colored pencil, and pastel, with scraping on wove paper; right panel: black chalk and pastel on wove paper; artist’s frame On Monday, July 11, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) announced a number of recent acquisitions, including Ladies of the Court, Indian, Tamil Nadu , (circa 1635), a 22-foot panoramic textile from southern India depicting Hindu courtly life; Bruges d’Autrefois (Bruges of Yesteryear) (1905), a triptych by Belgian painter Fernand Khnopff exhibited in the 1907 Venice Biennale; and Joyful Woman (Femme Joyeuse) (circa 1911) by Art Nouveau-era painter Ferdinand Hodler.

In a press release, Gary Tinterow, Director and Margaret Alkek Williams Chair of the MFAH, described Ladies of the Court and the triptych by Mr. Khnopff as “astounding rediscoveries in their respective fields.” Other notable acquisitions by the MFAH include work by Anicka Yi, a New York-based contemporary artist, as well as artworks by Edvard Munch, Mary Cassatt, Hans Hoffmann, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Texas Institutions Announce Recent Acquisitions

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