Past Exhibitions

A surreal painting set inside a grand cathedral-like space with high vaulted ceilings and tall stone pillars. In the foreground, a flowing pink fabric or garment swirls dramatically, with a golden pitcher suspended in mid-air. The floor is a red and white checkerboard pattern, reflecting the soft, ethereal light from stained glass windows in the background. The composition is dynamic, with the flowing fabric leading the eye into the distant, shadowy interior, where religious statues and an altar can be seen

Visual Magic An Oregon Invitational

Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery

-

This collaboration between the JSMA and the George D. Green Art Institute celebrates recent work by over forty artists who began their creative careers in Oregon during the 1960s and ’70s.

An open book with French handwritten text on the left page and an illustration of a woman in a striped dress riding a bicycle on the right page. The background of the illustration is bright yellow.

Fernand Léger’s Cirque and the livre d’artiste

John and Ethel MacKinnon Gallery

-

Published in Paris in 1950, Cirque was a collaboration between French modernist painter Fernand Léger and book publisher Tériade. It is one in a series of twenty-seven such projects conceived by the publisher between 1943 and 1975. Known as livres d’artiste, these finely printed, large-format books pair handwritten text with original artwork from some of the 20th century’s most prominent artists.

A detailed painting of a woman resting her head on a table filled with books and vases. The intricate patterns and vibrant colors create a rich and ornate composition.

Graceful Fortitude The Spirit of Korean Women

Wan Koo and Young Ja Huh Wing and Jin Joo Gallery of Korean Art

-

This installation introduces art created by, for, and/or about Korean women and features paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, lacquer, furniture, and personal adornments dating from the twelfth through the twenty-first centuries. It also includes recently acquired works by contemporary Korean women artists AHN Seongmin, NA Suyeon, and PARK So Eun, among others.

A set of copper kitchenware, including a kettle and two smaller pots, with wooden handles and decorative finials. The polished surfaces reflect light, highlighting their craftsmanship.

Expressions of Design

John and Ethel MacKinnon Gallery

-

The fall 2018 rotation of the Margo Grant Walsh collection explores the principles of design with a broad range of metalwork selections, including tableware. Co-curated by Tom Bonamici, instructor in Product Design, and new JSMA extern Caroline Phillips, the installation supports several courses in the College of Design’s Product Design area.

Painting of a woman in an Oregon basketball jersey holding a basketball

Art of the Athlete VII

Education Corridor

-

Comprised of works of art created by UO student-athletes enrolled in AAD 408, as well as works from the GEO study abroad program and outreach to the Seattle Boys and Girls club, Art of the Athlete features self-portraits and collaborative pieces inspired by Jackson Pollock’s action paintings.

Painting of trees and a red house in a field with red flowers

Exploring Identity and Place through the Arts

Education Corridor

-

Through travel as well as artistic appreciation and creation, our UO students, with little to no background in art, experienced a similar oasis in which they could artistically and historically reflect on autonomy, social construction, and power relations in their personal lives. Selections of their work will be featured in the exhibition.

Woman in a white dress created with cheap plastic toys

Plastic Entanglements Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials

Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery

-

Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials features 58 works by 30 artists from 13 countries that investigate the complex material nexus that is “Plastic.” Organized around the oncept of entanglement, the exhibition explores the unique materiality of plastic, as an artistic material and symbol of Western modernity, and considers the environmental consequences of its widespread use.

Small, circular photographs spread out over a red and black surface, overlaid with several layers of uneven, intricate blue, red, and brown grid lines

Matthew Picton Cultural Mapping

Artist Project Space

-

To call Matthew Picton’s sculptural works “maps,” is both accurate and a misnomer. His three-dimensional aerial cartographies are each based in a particular city and feature layers of cultural references and historical text. Each work documents and invites us to explore particular times of societal and cultural change, specific to that area of the world.

Rainbow pixelation over an image of a light-skinned person wearing a red shirt. Most of the underlying image is obscured by the pixels.

Reframing the Fragments The Best We Could Do

-

The JSMA presents its third annual Common Seeing, Reframing the Fragments: The Best We Could Do. Works made since 2000 by such artists from the Vietnamese diaspora as Binh Danh, Dinh Q. Le, and Ann Le embody the complex sensations related to remembering and forgetting, tradition and innovation, and trying to make sense of fragments of memory and history.

An intricate paper sculpture resembling abstract, cloud-like formations against a black background.

Paper Weight Works in Paper by Elsa Mora

Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery

-

Paper Weight is Elsa Mora’s latest exhibition of painstaking works made solely of paper and glue. Mora’s 2D and 3D pieces, presented in this exhibition, are inspired by the five cognitive faculties that form the mind: consciousness, perception, thinking, judgment, and memory.

A traditional Japanese print depicting a woman in elaborate clothing, performing a dance. The vibrant colors and detailed patterns highlight the elegance of the attire and movement.

Vibrance and Serenity Art of Japanese Nō Traditional Theatre

Fay Boyer Preble and Virginia Cooke Murphy Wing

-

This installation introduces the history and performance of Nō theater using selected prints by TSUKIOKA Kōgyo (1869-1927) recently donated to the museum by Elizabeth Moyer and Michael Powanda. Established in the fourteenth century, Nō (sometimes spelled Noh) is one of Japan’s oldest and most revered theatrical forms.

A Decade of Collecting

Coeta and Donald Barker Changing Exhibitions Gallery

-

With the appointment of Jill Hartz as executive director of the museum, nearly ten years ago, the JSMA’s collections have grown in breadth and quantity in support of its mission to serve as both a teaching museum and a cultural center for our larger community.

Orange tapestry with an elderly man in a dark blue robe riding a deer-like animal with a pagoda, cranes, and mountains in the background

Reflections of the Cosmic Web Intricate Patterns in Daoist Art

Betty and John Soreng Gallery

-

JSMA founder Gertrude Bass Warner lived in China for many years, amassing a collection with special interest in art of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). She bequeathed enviable riches to the museum, among them some with fine Daoist iconography. Next to the teachings of Confucius, Daoism is one of the two indigenous philosophical traditions of China that have evolved over more than 2,000 years.

Oil painting of a young child with wavy hair, depicted in a colorful, swirling style against a green background.

Glenn Brown / Transmutations: What’s Old is New Again

John and Ethel MacKinnon Gallery

-

The JSMA will exhibit eight works by Glenn Brown, selected by new and longtime masterworks collectors. Distinctive in Britain’s contemporary art market, Brown revives the art historical past through delicate acts of appropriation that build upon the legacy of Renaissance and Romantic masters. Seven of the works exemplify the paintings and drawings that comprise the majority of Brown’s oeuvre.