DALLAS, TX.- From centuries-old Southeast Asian textile traditions and contemporary Japanese bamboo sculpture to New Deal-era works and immersive installations, the Crow Museum of Asian Art’s fall exhibition season explores history, material culture, and storytelling across generations and geographies.

Headlining the season are two major exhibitions opening at the Crow Museum’s Dallas Arts District and UT Dallas locations. Both drawn from significant private collections, Unseen Worlds: Southeast Asian Textiles from the Spancake Collection (Aug. 22, 2026–June 20, 2027) debuts at the UT Dallas campus location, featuring approximately 150 objects from Houston-based collectors Jenny and Steve Spancake. Unseen Worlds marks the first solo exhibition dedicated to the Spancake Collection.

Opening at the Dallas Arts District location, Twisted, Plaited, Sculpted: Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation (Nov. 7, 2026–Oct. 31, 2027) showcases the intricate craftsmanship and artistic innovation of Japanese bamboo art through nearly two dozen works, including those by Living National Treasures Fujinuma Noboru and Fujitsuka Shosei. This is the museum’s first collaboration with the Dallas-based Thoma Foundation. Accompanying the exhibition is a large-scale woven-cane sculpture and video installation by Mumbai-based artist Shakuntala Kulkarni. Making her U.S. debut, the presentation complements the bamboo works through shared explorations of nature and transformation.

Other fall exhibition highlights include a floor-to-ceiling multimedia experience at the UT Dallas campus that examines the cultural and political history of salt through reimagined storytelling. Additionally, the campus museum will showcase the third collaboration between UT Dallas and the Dallas Museum of Art displaying many never-before-seen Texas works created during the New Deal era.





Below are the exhibitions opening at the Crow Museum’s Dallas Arts District location and its newest UT Dallas campus site at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum in Richardson. Both museums are free and open to the public.

DALLAS ARTS DISTRICT LOCATION:

Twisted, Plaited, Sculpted: Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation
Nov. 7, 2026–Oct. 31, 2027
Crow Museum of Asian Art – Dallas Arts District

Highlighting one of the four major collecting areas of the Thoma Foundation, Twisted, Plaited, Sculpted illustrates the vast breadth and expressive possibilities of woven bamboo as an artistic medium. The exhibition features 22 works by 17 artists, including Living National Treasures Fujinuma Noboru and Fujitsuka Shosei. Derived from plants, bamboo art is continually reshaped and manipulated to push the boundaries of natural form. Ranging from human figures and abstract forms to dream-like basketry, the exhibition interrogates everyday plant materials more routinely seen in gardens, crop fields and local landscapes to reorient perceptions of how nature and art are intertwined.

A contemporary companion installation by Mumbai-based artist Shakuntala Kulkarni will also be on view along with video and three photographic works, extending the exhibition's exploration of plant-based materials from Japan to India. Known for her life-sized armor-like sculptures woven from cane, Kulkarni explores biological forms in relation to contemporary urban life. Her work has gained international attention, including a series of commissions for Dior's 2024 ready-to-wear collection.

UT DALLAS CAMPUS LOCATION:

Unseen Worlds: Southeast Asian Textiles from the Spancake Collection
Aug. 22, 2026–June 20, 2027
Crow Museum of Asian Art – UT Dallas campus

Drawn from the Houston-based collection of Steve and Jenny Spancake, this exhibition features approximately 150 Southeast Asian textiles, objects, jewelry and ephemera. Representing cultures across Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, the works reflect the remarkable cultural diversity of the region. At the heart of the exhibition are textiles that reveal complex relationships among humans, plants, animals, spirits and other entities across space and time.

The naga, or divine sea serpent, serves as a visual and thematic thread throughout the exhibition, interweaving themes of Buddhism, shamanism, the celestial realm and animism while exploring transformation in the afterlife.

The Hedge of Halomancy
Aug. 29, 2026–Feb. 7, 2027
Crow Museum of Asian Art – UT Dallas campus

The Hedge of Halomancy is an immersive multimedia experience by artist duo Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser, known professionally as hylozoic/desires. The exhibition explores the history of the British Inland Customs Line through the reimagined narrative of a fictional halomancer, or salt reader, named Mayalee. With moving image, sound and sculptural elements inspired by salt, the installation examines colonial power, trade and the enduring cultural significance of one of history's most valuable commodities.

New Deal Texas and the West
Sept. 12, 2026–July 18, 2027
Crow Museum of Asian Art – UT Dallas campus

Marking the third exhibition partnership between UT Dallas and the Dallas Museum of Art, New Deal Texas and the West is curated by UT Dallas professor of art history Dr. Erika Doss and features approximately 75 paintings, prints, sculptures and textiles created during the New Deal era (1933–1943). Drawn from the DMA’s permanent collection and additional loans, many of the works will be on public display for the first time.