HOUSTON, TX.- Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic, a large-scale tribute to the works of the Argentine experimental sculptor, painter, poet and theorist, will open at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on October 26.

The exhibition marks the first time such a complete survey of the work of Gyula Kosice (b. Ferdinand Fallik; Kosice, Czechoslovakia, 1924−Buenos Aires, 2016) has been presented outside Argentina. Comprised of more than 70 two-dimensional works and kinetic sculptures made of acrylic materials, air pumps, water, light components and neon gas tubes, Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic will be on view October 26, 2025 to January 25, 2026.

Kosice was a prominent figure in the international avant-garde of the mid-20th century, and co-founder of both Arturo (1944) and Madí (1946), two constructive-art groups based in Buenos Aires. His practice introduced original artistic ideas, including interactive sculptures, which questioned the relationship between object and spectator, as well as cutout frames which transformed the painting into a ludic object. He also experimented with a wide range of materials, such as neon tubes and various types of plastics, many of which had rarely been used in art at the time, and was the first artist to ever incorporate water as an artistic medium. Like his contemporaries Julio Le Parc and Carlos Cruz-Diez, Kosice also incorporated light and motion into his work.

In the 1960s and 1970s plastic was seen as the material of the future, and its use in art production represented a radical transformation of the product’s function. Kosice’s pioneering use of plastic involved researching things like its durability, malleability, the use of adhesives and polishing. In line with this approach, the exhibition is grounded in extensive material research into the use of plastic conducted by María Amalia García and Mari Carmen Ramírez, the curators of the show, who worked with scientists and conservation specialists affiliated with MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) and the MFAH.

Intergalactic focuses on Kosice’s experimental production, in which material research and movement were constant and essential features. The large-scale survey includes works that the artist created between 1950 and 1980, including acrylic sculptures, kinetic reliefs and drops of water, most of which incorporated lights and were activated by aerators and motors. In exploring how art could utilize architecture and environmental science to address issues of climate change and socioeconomic inequality, Kosice’s work was especially prescient.

“Our 2009 acquisition of Gyula Kosice’s masterpiece, The Hydrospatial City, is witness to our commitment to acquire and display the extraordinary works of art that emerged in Latin America in the 20th century, by Kosice and his many contemporaries,” commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH. “We are delighted to co-organize this traveling exhibition with our partner institutions, and we welcome back The Hydrospatial City after its travels to MALBA in Buenos Aires and the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.”

“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,” commented Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham curator of Latin American art at the MFAH and director of the museum’s International Center for the Arts of the Americas. “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.”

The centerpiece of the exhibition is Kosice’s most ambitious work, The Hydrospatial City (1946–2004), from the MFAH collection. An experimental, room-size installation that was fundamental to the artist’s explorations throughout his six decades of production, The Hydrospatial City challenges the limits of earth-bound life by imagining self-contained pods for habitation in the atmosphere.

Kosice’s earliest iterations of the project, in 1946, were at first conceptual, as he sketched the work in manifestos, poems, drawings and brass maquettes that have since been lost. Kosice then began work on its current form: an ambitious installation of architectural sculpture consisting of seven lighted constellations and 19 hydrospatial habitat models. Imagining a livable, transparent utopia floating a kilometer and a half above the Earth, The Hydrospatial City is driven by hydrogen and oxygen extracted from water vapor in the clouds. Conventional divisions of the hom —with functionally dictated rooms like kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms—are replaced with new forms of modular habitats. The nomadic hydrospatial life envisioned by Kosice paves the way for a new form of coexistence wherein a playful, emotional version of mankind is encouraged. In doing so, The Hydrospatial City reinvents the experience of community living.

Other highlights of the exhibition include works made of hydraulic pumps, acrylic Plexiglas, wood, aerators, water and light.