if wp_query taxonomy term have posts

Having formulated my $query for a custom taxonomy on a page template, how would I ask if a specific term has posts?

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'exhibitions',
    'tax_query' => array(
        array(
            'taxonomy' => 'exhibition',
            'field'    => 'slug'
        ),
    )
);
$query = new WP_Query($args);

Assuming I’m on the right track, a verbal description of the sort of conditional statements I’m looking for would be:

if the $query taxonomy term ‘current’ have posts, do something;

elseif the $query taxonomy term ‘upcoming’ have posts, do something else;

Answers:

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Method 1

I’m not sure what you exactly need, but normally, by default, get_terms returns only terms that actually have posts assigned to them

$terms = get_terms( 'exhibition' );
var_dump( $terms );

Apart from this, I really do not know what you exactly need

Method 2

It sounds like you want has_term(). Something like:
Feed your query an array of terms:

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'exhibitions',
    'tax_query' => array(
        array(
            'taxonomy' => 'exhibition',
            'field'    => 'slug',
            'terms' => array(
              'current',
              'upcoming',
            ),
        ),
    )
);
$query = new WP_Query($args);

Then loop over it multiple times:

if ($query->have_posts()) {
  while ($query->have_posts()) {
    $query->the_post();
    if (has_term('current','exhibition')) {
      // stuff
    }
  }
}
$query->rewind_posts();
if ($query->have_posts()) {
  while ($query->have_posts()) {
    $query->the_post();
    if (has_term('upcoming','exhibition')) {
      // stuff
    }
  }
}
$query->rewind_posts();

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