Houston is a city with many identities, from Screwston, an homage to DJ Screw, and Bayou City to the simplicity of H-Town or the more commercial Energy Capital of the World. Space City, though, is more than a nickname; it speaks to a rich history of innovation and exploration entwining the city with NASA.

“He’s a wanderer by nature and upbringing,” describes Ann Dumas, consulting curator for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s fall blockbuster exhibition, Gauguin in the World, on view Nov. 3, 2024-Feb. 16, 2025.

There’s an old adage about how those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it, but histories are constructed through the perspective of those in power.