AU Katzen Museum: Spring Exhibits
Paper Light
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Now through May 22
AU Museum
With her inventive darkroom experiments, DC artist Claudia Smigrod takes the camera-less photogram into new realms that defy easy categorization. Organic forms from nature and inorganic man-made objects are transformed magically into abstract, incandescent, and deceptively complex images that are visually mesmerizing and conceptually compelling. This exhibition brings together several serial projects in which the artist has been immersed during the past decade: Paper Light, Under Study, Paper Patterns, Time and Space, Conversations, Opacity/Translucency, Proof Print and Every Thing.
Positive Fragmentation: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Positive Fragmentation?includes more than 150 works by 21 contemporary artists who use fragmentation both stylistically and conceptually. Through their prints, they question the status quo and suggest new perspectives. For some, the result is enough, pulling apart images and ideas exposes what lies beneath or heralds the value of each part. Other artists assemble fragments to create a new whole defined by its components. This exhibition explores these creative approaches in the work of some of the most important contemporary artists. Artists in this exhibition fragment, and often reassemble, elements including shape, color, perspective, text, idea, or stereotype. Featured artists include: Betye Saar, Wendy Red Star, Lorna Simpson, Ellen Gallagher, Jenny Holzer, Louise Bourgeois, Wangechi Mutu, Nicola López, Sarah Morris, Polly Apfelbaum, Jennifer Bartlett, Christiane Baumgartner, Cecily Brown, Judy Chicago, Nicole Eisenman, Julie Mehretu, Judy Pfaff, Swoon, Barbara Takenaga, Mickalene Thomas, and Kara Walker.
Fields and Formations
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Now through May 22
AU Museum
This exhibit brings together approximately 70 works by 12 distinguished women and non-binary artists from the Mid-Atlantic region who infuse abstract paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures with emotional and metaphorical content. The artists, who span five decades in age, share interests in luminous color, repeated forms, the power of materials, and the meditative aspects of making labor-intensive works. The exhibition celebrates artists who have developed a significant part of their careers in a region bounded by Philadelphia to the north and Washington, DC to the south. The exhibit also demonstrates that the broader Mid-Atlantic area's diverse contributions to the story of American abstraction continue to be vibrant and profound during the beginning decades of the 21st century. Featured artists include Natessa Amin, Arden Bendler Browning, Carol Brown Goldberg, Alex Ebstein, Alexis Granwell, Jesse Harrod, Maren Hassinger, Jae Ko, Linling Lu, Linn Meyers, Maggie Michael, and Jo Smail.
In Place of a Missing Place
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Now through May 22
AU Museum
This exhibition of Israeli art from the AU Museum’s permanent collection will unpack landscape depictions in a range of media. It offers a historicized consideration of mythmaking, forced migration, displacement, erasure, and trauma as showcased in the works of artists whose singular nationality envelops the entirety of land encompassing two nations – Palestine and Israel. Works include gifts of Nancy Berman and Alan Bloch and those drawn from the Rothfeld Collection of Contemporary Israeli Art.
Two Places on Earth
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Now through May 22
AU Museum
Chan Chao's photographic portrait series is based on the idea of open societies, interconnection, and the world's contraction. It features global citizens and is meant to acknowledge how beautiful the concept of an open society can be, but not in a utopian sense. This five-year project consists of multinational UN peacekeepers in Cyprus along with multinational prisoners in Peru, incarcerated for smuggling cocaine out of Lima. Chao's intention is to blur all lines that define cultural differences, emphasize each subject's dignity, and make portraits with restraint and quiet tenor. He presents the subjects as individuals that viewers can relate to.
in·position: MFA Studio Art Thesis Exhibition
Now through May 22
Now through May 22
AU Museumin·position presents the thesis work of graduating MFA candidates in AU's Studio Art program. The artists critically interrogate and contend with the inescapable implications of our respective positionalities and vulnerabilities. As we look outwards, we look inwards – aware of the plethora of identities, bodies, and materials that intimately shape the position from which our perspectives are formed. Featured artists include Anthony Frank, Hyunsuk Erickson, Katie Hartley, Kevin Michael Runyon, Ku·bar·i·ki·wa Rudd, Nicole Maloof, Patrick Burns, and Shiloah Symone Coley