Current Exhibitions
- Posted on
Anything but Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic
through January 26, 2025
The Shakers, often celebrated for their minimalist approach to design, will be showcased in a new light with the exhibition Anything but Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic. Made by women in the mid-19th century and believed to represent divine messages, the "gift" drawings on display represent a departure from the simplicity typically associated with Shaker material culture.
Opening during the 250th year of Shakerism in the United States, the exhibition features drawings widely considered to be among the finest surviving examples of this rare type. These symbols of love and nature were often given as “tokens” to other Shakers during meetings. Brightly colored and replete with intricate ornamentation, they represent a stunning world of celestial imagery. Compared to examples of Shaker clothing and furniture that will also be included in the exhibition, the vibrancy of the drawings will mark a distinct contrast with the clean lines typically associated with Shaker design.
Divided into several sections, the exhibition will open with an in-depth look at the Shakers themselves, as well as delve into the “Shaker aesthetic,” the Era of Manifestations, and more. The drawings will be accompanied by biographical information on the women who made them, enriching visitors’ experience of these stunning objects with contextual understanding of their historical and spiritual meanings.
Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art and Culture
through January 26, 2025
Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art, and Culture, features over 100 handmade gameboards from the exuberant collection of Bruce and Doranna Wendel.
The exhibition includes early examples of classic games of Parcheesi, checkers, and chess, as well as hand-painted iterations of Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders made in the United States between the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Playing with Design is divided into thematic sections that explore ideas of history, culture, design, and craftsmanship within American game-playing. Some examples will evoke the familiarity of contemporary games, while others will give material shape to historical ideals, including morality, religion, patriotism, entrepreneurship and imagination. The gameboards on view will speak to underlying concepts of adventure and risk-taking as fundamental to American life, as seen through games organized around the themes of a train journey, a whaling expedition, or a trip around the world.
The exhibition will also explore the shift toward modernism at the turn of the twentieth century, relating the bold, geometric colors of hand-painted boards to the work of celebrated painters such as Piet Mondrian, Ellsworth Kelly and Jasper Johns.
Somewhere to Roost
through May 25, 2025
Featuring over 60 works including paintings, textiles, photographs, and sculptures, Somewhere to Roost will explore the ways that artists evoke and construct ideas of “home.”
The exhibition’s title is drawn from an artwork by Thornton Dial, Sr. (1928–2016), “Birds Got to Have Somewhere to Roost,” which will be among the works on view. Reflecting on this statement, the exhibition will explore the importance of rest, comfort, and safety, while considering the poetic and unspecified nature of the word “somewhere.” Taken both literally and metaphorically, Somewhere to Roost represents spaces where artists live and work, as well as places remembered, imagined, or dreamed. The exhibition will highlight experiences of immigration, incarceration, and housing insecurity, as well as visions of home that are playful, inventive, and unexpected.