For information on exhibitions that opened before January 2017, please contact the
public relations office.
About the Exhibitions
Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass
March 3–May 12, 2019 MAG is pleased to announce the world premiere of Lessons of the Hour, a ten-screen installation by artist Isaac Julien. The work is inspired by episodes in the life of Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the visionary African American abolitionist and freed slave, and by the issues of social justice that shaped his life’s work.Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglassis the second exhibition in MAG’s “Reflections on Place” series of media art commissions informed by the history, culture, and politics of the City of Rochester, New York. learn more
shown: Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour, 2019. Courtesy the Artist, Metro Pictures New York, and Victoria Miro London/Venice
Sarah C. Rutherford
Through April 14, 2019 New work by Sarah C. Rutherford, Her Voice Carries | Prelude is now on view in the Hurlbut Gallery. This work is part of her #HerVoiceCarries series, an art project on view throughout Rochester, featuring Rochester women who are changing their individual and collective worlds. learn more
Modern Czech Photography: A Portfolio
December 13, 2018–March 31, 2019
The portfolio Modern Czech Photography (Moderní česká fotografie) is a rare and powerful body of work by some of the most important mid-century Czech photographers. Featuring such masters as Jaromír Funke and Josef Sudek, giants in the history of modernism, the portfolio holds special historic importance because it was published in 1943, during World War II and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The portfolio is a recent gift to MAG by the museum’s director, Jonathan Binstock, and his wife, Ann.
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shown: Jaromír Funke (Czech, 1896-1945)
Untitled, from the series ‘Time Persists’ (detail)
1932, printed no later than 1943.
Gift of L. Ann and Jonathan P. Binstock in honor of Marisol and Moreton Binn.
Monet’s Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process
October 7, 2018–January 6, 2019
This small but powerful focus exhibition of Claude Monet’s “Waterloo Bridge” series includes the stellar example from MAG’s collection along with seven others borrowed from North American sister institutions. Monet saw the paintings both individually and as an ensemble that, collectively, expressed his sense of the essential subject—the atmosphere and colors of the fog-bound landscape of the Thames. The concurrent experience of viewing several of the series will create a special dialogue between the visitor and the works of art.
An exciting aspect of this exhibition is the opportunity to work closely with conservation lab at Buffalo State University. Newly-developed photographic technologies that allow close examination of the surface of the picture will make it possible to decipher more about how Monet altered his canvases from their initial rendering in London to his obsessive reworking of the canvases upon his return to France.
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shown: Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Veiled Sun (detail) 1903
Seeing in Color and Black-and-White
October 7, 2018–January 6, 2019
Developed as a companion to Monet’s Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process, this exhibition features artists such as Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely, and Jesús Rafael Soto, who chose abstraction over representation to reveal the mechanics of human vision and make viewers aware of how they see.
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shown: Roy Lichtenstein, Cathedral #2 (detail) 1969
Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz
August 17–December 2, 2018
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz was 12 in 1939 when the Nazis came to her Polish village. She remembers every detail through a series of exquisitely embroidered fabric collages. Her art is an eyewitness account of tragedy and healing. Listen in to the Rochester Jewish Film Festival interview on Connections with WXXI’s Evan Dawson.
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Shown: Passover Matzos, (detail) Embroidery and fabric collage, 1998.
July 15–September 9, 2018
Josephine Tota was a first-generation Italian immigrant who spent much of her adult life working as a seamstress in Rochester. In her early seventies, she discovered painting as a means to transform a difficult past into harrowing, self-referential images. Channeling the world around and within her through the legacy of religious art and the language of Surrealism, she produced a decade’s worth of visionary images in the privacy of her home before succumbing to dementia. Fourteen tempera paintings from Memorial Art Gallery’s permanent collection form the core of the exhibition, augmented by approximately 70 from private lenders.
A full-color catalog documents Tota’s contribution to the realm of authentic outsider art and is available for sale in THE STORE @ MAG.
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shown: Josephine Tota, Untitled (Self-portrait), 1987
shown: Nancy Jurs, Artist Statement (My Life Has Gotten So Busy, It Now Takes Up All of My Time), 2008
My Life Has Gotten So Busy That It Now Takes Up All of My Time
July 15–September 9, 2018My Life Has Gotten So Busy that It Now Takes Up All of My Time is an exhibition of sculptural installations and photographs by Rochester-based artist Nancy Jurs that focuses on self-portraiture, autobiography, and personal narrative. Jurs is well known as a potter who trained at Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Craftsmen. Less known are her sculptures and installations that employ found, unaltered objects, which evoke personages or anthropomorphic visions, and her manipulated photographs. These works of art represent a surprising and compelling conceptual thread throughout Jurs’ career.
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shown: Larry Merrill, Untitled
Wards of Time: Photographs of Antiquities by Larry Merrill
April 20–August 5, 2018Wards of Time: Photographs of Antiquities by Larry Merrill includes a selection of images from an ongoing series by Rochester photographer Larry Merrill. In this work, Merrill directs our gaze, magnifying and abstracting the texture and tonal variations of ancient sculptures that signify the accrual of time. As part of the series, Merrill visited the Memorial Art Gallery’s collection and photographed 3rd century BCE miniature sculpted Egyptian heads, which will be on view adjacent to their photographs. Merrill’s photographs offer a reflection on time and decay, on the museum artifact, on history, and on our own mortality. Learn more
Media Arts Watch
Bill Viola: Martyrs–Earth, Air, Fire, and Water
October 11, 2017–July 22, 2018
Martyrs is overtly rooted in art historical and religious iconography. Viola said: “The Greek word for martyr originally meant ‘witness.’ In today’s world, the mass media turns us all into witnesses to the suffering of others. The martyrs’ past lives of action can help illuminate our modern lives of inaction. They also exemplify the human capacity to bear pain, hardship, and even death in order to remain faithful to their values, beliefs, and principles. This piece represents ideas of action, fortitude, perseverance, endurance, and sacrifice.” learn more
shown:
Bill Viola
Earth Martyr, 2014; Wind Martyr, 2014; Fire Martyr, 2014; Water Martyr, 2014
Color high-definition video on a flat-panel display mounted vertically on wall
42 3/8 x 24 1/2 x 2 5/8 in. (107.6 x 62.1 x 6.8 cm)
7:10 minutes
Photos: Kira Perov
NOSFERATU (The Undead)
April 22–June 17, 2018NOSFERATU (The Undead) is the first of three exhibitions to be presented as part of “Reflections on Place,” a series of media art commissions inspired by the City of Rochester and curated by world-renowned authority on the moving image John G. Hanhardt. Experience Javier Téllez’ new installation, which explores the history of cinema and the medium of film itself to address the subject of mental illness. Learn more
Rosalyn Engelman: Beauty is Everywhere
December 21, 2017 – April 8, 2018
Rosalyn Engelman (American, born 1938) is a painter, sculptor, and installation artist. She works with a variety of materials and produces art with a striking range of expressive content. In all of her work, Engelman is searching for beauty, hope, and transcendence. This exhibition features five works from Engelman’s 2003–04 “Echo Sonata” series, which she created following numerous trips to Japan with her husband between 1975 and 1999. Engelman is a University of Rochester alumna, and currently lives and works in New York, NY. Learn more
Wendell Castle Remastered
October 8–December 31, 2017extended by popular demand to January 7, 2018
This exhibition is the first to showcase the digitally crafted works of Wendell Castle, acclaimed figure of the American art furniture movement. It will feature approximately 40 works of art, including several historically important examples that inspired his latest achievements.
learn moreBoth films featured in this exhibition are open-captioned.
shown: Wendell Castle Remastered, Long Night (detail), 2011, photo by Adrien Millot
Courtesy of Friedman Benda Gallery and Wendell Castle.
Wendell Castle Remastered at the Memorial Art Gallery is an adaptation of the exhibition originally presented at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, in 2015.
Kiyochika & Japan, Transformed: Prints from the Arthur R. Miller Collection
August 24–December 10, 2017
The exhibition Kiyochika and Japan, Transformed showcases over 30 color woodblock prints by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915), who witnessed firsthand the transformation of Japan when it opened to the West after centuries of isolation. These prints, drawn from the extraordinary collections of University of Rochester alumnus Arthur R. Miller, emphasize the complexities of modern and traditional life in late-19th century Japan. Kiyochika’s work is characterized by his innovative use of light and shadow as well as his juxtapositions of subject matter, both old and new, in his rapidly changing world.
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shown: Kobayashi Kiyochika, Three Geisha: Kayo of Kyoto, Hitotsuru of Osaka, and Kokichi of Tokyo c. 1878. Collection of Arthur R. Miller.
May 19–August 13, 2017
In honor of New York Women’s Suffrage Centennial in 2017, this exhibition explores the power of the female gaze in creating potent and complex images of mothers, thinkers, vixens, heroes, creators, warriors, and agitators.
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shown: Elizabeth Catlett, Harriet, 1975
Reflections on Place & Culture: Downey, Gower, Kluge
April 7–June 18, 2017
The Media Arts Watch gallery will be transformed into a screening room with works projected onto the walls by Terence Gower, Juan Downey, and Alexander Kluge. learn more
shown: Juan Downey, Hard Times and Culture (still)
Meleko Mokgosi: Pax Kaffraria
RoCo: February 3–March 19, 2017MAG: February 19–May 7, 2017
See six Pax Kaffraria “chapters” at MAG; one chapter at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo). Mural-sized narratives of southern African culture.
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shown: Fully Belly II, 2014 (detail)
January 13-March 26, 2017
As Gibson’s and Recoder’s work suggests, film is not only about images, storytelling and entertainment, but also possesses mechanical, and sculptural dimensions.
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M. C. Escher: Reality and Illusion
November 13, 2016–January 29, 2017
in the Grand Gallery
Includes early figure drawings, lesser-known book illustrations, detailed Italian landscapes, the “tessellations” for which he became famous, and several examples of his signature
architectural fantasies in which stairways seem to go nowhere or to mysteriously circle back upon themselves.
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Bodies In Space
October 7-December 31, 2016Bodies in Space was the inaugural art exhibition of MAG’s Media Arts Initiative.
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Courtly Pleasures: Indian Miniatures from the Permanent Collection
September 9-December 31, 2016
in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Indian, Priests Worshipping the Image of Shri Nathaji, ca. 1820. Opaque watercolor, ink, gold, silver paint.
Afghan War Rugs:
The Modern Art of Central Asia
August 21–October 16, 2016
in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Western Afghanistan, War Rug. Knotted wool.
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War Memoranda: Photography, Walt Whitman, and Renewal by Binh Danh and Robert Schultz
August 21–October 16, 2016
in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Binh Danh and Robert Schultz, detail of Unidentified African American soldier with cannon backdrop. Chlorophyll print, resin. Courtesy of the artists.
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Keith Haring: Apocalypse
June 10–August 28, 2016 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured:Keith Haring, Apocalypse , 1988. Serigraph. Gift of Sharon and Neil Norry, and Lewis Norry and Jill Katz Norry.
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Robert Polidori: Chronophagia
May 22–July 24, 2016 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Robert Polidori, 2732 Orleans Ave., New Orleans, LA (2005). Collection of the artist.
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#MAGcaptionthis
#MAGcaptionthis
April 29–May 29, 2016 in the Lockhart Gallery
Pictured: Reginald Marsh, Ice Cream Cones (1938). Gift of a Friend of the Gallery.Back to top
Inspiring Beauty:
50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair
January 31–April 24, 2016
in the Grand Gallery & Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Tilmann Grawe (France), cocktail dress, 2003-04. Photo courtesy Johnson Publishing Company, LLC.
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Marcel Dzama: Une Danse des Bouffons (A Jester’s Dance)
December 10, 2015–January 24, 2016
in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Video still courtesy David Zwirner, NY/London.
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Art for the People: Carl W. Peters and the Rochester WPA Murals
October 18, 2015–January 3, 2016 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Carl W. Peters, Study of Hands (ca. 1940).
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Rick Hock: Codices
November 11–January 3 in the Hurlbut Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Detail of Duchamp Codex (1980s). Polaroid transfer print. Private collection, courtesy Visual Studies Workshop.
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Jacob Lawrence: The Legend of John Brown Portfolio
August 28–November 29, 2015 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Jacob Lawrence, After John Brown’s capture, he was put to trial for his life in Charles Town,Virginia (now West Virginia).Back to top
65th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition
July 26–September 13, 2015 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Spring Flowers, Jellybeans by Kate Timm
of Sterling, Cayuga Co.
May 8–August 16, 2015 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Luciano Guarnieri, Lesser Town Square (1969). Estates of Maurice R. and Maxine B. Forman.
The Human Touch: Selections from the RBC Wealth Management Art Collection
April 26–June 28, 2015 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Luis Gispert, Living Room (from Urban Myths, PT 1) (2003). C-print.
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Infinite Place:
The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby
January 25–March 29, 2015 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Stone Gate (2007). Collection of the artist.
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Robert Kirschbaum’s
The 42-Letter Name
December 12, 2014–April 26, 2015 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Robert Kirschbaum, letterpress and relief print from The 42-Letter Name (2009). Gift of the artist.
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October 19, 2014–January 4, 2015
in the Grand Gallery and exhibition gallerieslearn more
Pictured: Matt Elson, Infinity Box No. 2: You and Me Together (2012). Courtesy of the artist.
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New Ghosts for A New Age:
Yoshitoshi’s New Forms of 36 Ghosts
Japanese Prints from the Arthur R. Miller CollectionAugust 29–November 30, 2014 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Kiyohime Changing into a Serpent at Hidaka River (1890).
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January 31–May 4, 2014 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Eduardo Paolozzi, Llalla Pallooza… Image fades but memory lingers on.
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Redefining the Multiple:
13 Contemporary Japanese Printmakers
January 19– March 16, 2014 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Shunsuke Kano, B&B_06 (2008). Courtesy Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture.
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New Beginnings
Japanese Prints of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s
January 19– March 16, 2014 in the Grand Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Shiro Takagi, Japanese Form (Tomoe) (1964).
Marion Stratton Gould Fund.
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Connoisseurs Around the Corner:
Gifts of Art from MAG’s Founding Family
September 6, 2013–January 19, 2014 in the Lockhart Gallerylearn more
Pictured: Charles Demuth, Zinnias (1915). Gift of Gertrude Herdle Moore and Isabel C. Herdle in memory of their father, George L. Herdle.
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Memory Theatre 2013
October 9–December 29, 2013 in the Grand Gallery learn more
Pictured: Emily Miah Stewart, Memory Map of Joe’s Pond (2004). Private collection.
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Creative Workshop Living Memory Alumni Show: Part II
September 24–October 24, 2013 in the Lucy Burne Gallery (Creative Workshop)Learn more
Pictured: Works by Creative Workshop alumnus Daniel Lempert and former head of ceramics Alex Hazlett.
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May 24–August 18, 2013 in the Lockhart GalleryLearn more
Pictured: Kiki Smith, woodcut from the portfolio Mortal (2007). Gift of the Gallery Council.
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It Came From the Vault: Rarely Seen Works from MAGs Collection
March 17-June 9, 2013 in the Grand GalleryLearn more
Pictured: Eugen Bracht Morning Star, ca. 1900
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Creative Workshop Living Memory Alumni Show: Part I
April 15–May 9, 2013 in the Lucy Burne Gallery (Creative Workshop)Learn more
Pictured: In Transition is by Richmond Futch Jr., who got his start as a Creative Workshop student.
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Art Reflected: The Inspiration of 100 Years
February 10–April 21, 2013 throughout the galleries
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Pictured: Winslow Homer, The Artist’s Studio in an Afternoon Fog (1894) and the new work it inspired, a bracelet by Loraine Cooley, Webster, NY.
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shown: Nancy Jurs, Artist Statement (My Life Has Gotten So Busy, It Now Takes Up All of My Time), 2008
shown: Larry Merrill, Untitled
Martyrs is overtly rooted in art historical and religious iconography. Viola said: “The Greek word for martyr originally meant ‘witness.’ In today’s world, the mass media turns us all into witnesses to the suffering of others. The martyrs’ past lives of action can help illuminate our modern lives of inaction. They also exemplify the human capacity to bear pain, hardship, and even death in order to remain faithful to their values, beliefs, and principles. This piece represents ideas of action, fortitude, perseverance, endurance, and sacrifice.” learn more
shown:
Bill Viola
Earth Martyr, 2014; Wind Martyr, 2014; Fire Martyr, 2014; Water Martyr, 2014
Color high-definition video on a flat-panel display mounted vertically on wall
42 3/8 x 24 1/2 x 2 5/8 in. (107.6 x 62.1 x 6.8 cm)
7:10 minutes
Photos: Kira Perov
June 30 – September 17, 2017
This single-channel video installation features Lady Bunny, an iconic drag performer. She speaks on politics and current events, dances and lip-syncs. She is a vivid presence, especially considering the wall-size scale of the video.
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shown: Here she is…v1 (detail) 2015. © Charles Atlas; Courtesy of the artist
September 7–Sunday, September 10, 2017
Opening Performance 6 pm on Thursday, September 7
Rainforest IV is an immersive audio installation created by the Eastman Audio Research Studio (EARS) at the Eastman School of Music, under the direction of Oliver Schneller, with assistance from Allen Topolski, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Rochester. Rainforest is a sonic environment made of handmade, uniquely designed sculptural objects suspended in space and fitted with electric transducers, turning them into resonant sound objects.
At this special opening event, Missy Pfohl Smith, Director of the University of Rochester’s Dance and Movement Program, Anne Harris Wilcox, and Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp will improvise a performance to which the musicians will sonically respond.
Originally conceived by sound artist and pianist David Tudor in 1973, Rainforest IV is a sonic environment made of handmade, uniquely designed sculptural objects suspended in space and fitted with electric transducers, turning them into resonant sound objects.
shown: Installation of Rainforest IV (1973), L’Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, 1976. Photograph by Ralph Jones (American, b. 1951) © 1976 Ralph Jones. All rights reserved. Image courtesy of Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
Materials generously donated by Metalico Rochester.
May 19–August 13, 2017
In honor of New York Women’s Suffrage Centennial in 2017, this exhibition explores the power of the female gaze in creating potent and complex images of mothers, thinkers, vixens, heroes, creators, warriors, and agitators.
learn more
shown: Elizabeth Catlett, Harriet, 1975
April 7–June 18, 2017
The Media Arts Watch gallery will be transformed into a screening room with works projected onto the walls by Terence Gower, Juan Downey, and Alexander Kluge. learn more
shown: Juan Downey, Hard Times and Culture (still)
RoCo: February 3–March 19, 2017
MAG: February 19–May 7, 2017
See six Pax Kaffraria “chapters” at MAG; one chapter at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo). Mural-sized narratives of southern African culture.
learn more
shown: Fully Belly II, 2014 (detail)
January 30 – April 30, 2017
Rauschenberg responded to the rise of mass-media culture during the 1950s and 1960s, by actually making mass media his artistic medium.
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shown: Surface Series #53 (from Currents), 1970. ©Estate of Robert Rauschenberg / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
January 13-March 26, 2017
As Gibson’s and Recoder’s work suggests, film is not only about images, storytelling and entertainment, but also possesses mechanical, and sculptural dimensions.
learn more
November 13, 2016–January 29, 2017
in the Grand Gallery
Includes early figure drawings, lesser-known book illustrations, detailed Italian landscapes, the “tessellations” for which he became famous, and several examples of his signature
architectural fantasies in which stairways seem to go nowhere or to mysteriously circle back upon themselves.
learn more
Back to top
October 7-December 31, 2016
Bodies in Space was the inaugural art exhibition of MAG’s Media Arts Initiative.
learn more
September 9-December 31, 2016
in the Lockhart Gallery
learn more
Pictured: Indian, Priests Worshipping the Image of Shri Nathaji, ca. 1820. Opaque watercolor, ink, gold, silver paint.
August 21–October 16, 2016
in the Grand Gallery
learn more
Pictured: Western Afghanistan, War Rug. Knotted wool.
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June 10–August 28, 2016 in the Lockhart Gallery
learn more
Pictured:Keith Haring, Apocalypse , 1988. Serigraph. Gift of Sharon and Neil Norry, and Lewis Norry and Jill Katz Norry.
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May 22–July 24, 2016 in the Grand Gallery
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Pictured: Robert Polidori, 2732 Orleans Ave., New Orleans, LA (2005). Collection of the artist.
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January 31–April 24, 2016
in the Grand Gallery & Lockhart Gallery
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Pictured: Tilmann Grawe (France), cocktail dress, 2003-04. Photo courtesy Johnson Publishing Company, LLC.
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December 10, 2015–January 24, 2016
in the Lockhart Gallery
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Pictured: Video still courtesy David Zwirner, NY/London.
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