Current Exhibitions

Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books

January 11 – July 27, 2025 | The Corbin Foundation Gallery

What if crayons refused to color? Can you know everything about the Earth? What’s the best way to get a kite out of a tree? All these questions can be answered through the pictures and books of artist, author, and illustrator Oliver Jeffers. In Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books, visitors will encounter original artworks from Jeffers’s beloved titles: The Day the Crayons Quit, Stuck, Here We Are, and more.

William Richards. Untitled, 1980s. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of MUUS Collection

William Richards: The Vastness Beyond Vision

January 11 – July 27, 2025 | Judith Bear Isroff Gallery

William Richards (1917–2004) created dazzling arrays of abstract photographs, though his highly successful career was predominantly commercial rather than artistic. Richards learned photography and industrial design as a young student in New York City. After serving in World War II and moving to Cleveland, Ohio in the late 1940s, he founded Richards Studios as a firm specializing in advertising and visual communications. Through his work, he became one of the first adopters of color photography, which he used to create imagery that introduced consumers to other new technologies in manufacturing, transportation, electronics, and more.

Cameron Welch. Fugue State, 2022. Marble, glass, ceramic, stone, spray enamel, oil, and acrylic on three panels. On loan from Avi Gitler

A Growing Conversation: Artworks From Our Collection

Ongoing | The Haslinger Family Foundation Galleries

The Haslinger Family Foundation Galleries feature artworks selected from the Museum’s collection of over 7000 objects. The works are arranged by theme, rather than by historical period, resulting in new, unexpected, and exciting connections. Recently, these galleries have been reinstalled under the title A Growing Conversation: Artworks from Our Collection— a truly fitting description. Contemporary art is always expanding, and the Museum’s collection is always growing with it. This new presentation draws inspiration from a variety of recent acquisitions, and a small number of loans from outside the collection are also on view, helping to enrich the groupings.

GLOW: Neon and Light

September 21, 2024 - February 9, 2025 | Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries

GLOW: Neon & Light opens in the Akron Art Museum’s Arnstein Galleries on September 21. Showcasing artists who use analog materials like glass, mirrors, light bulbs, and neon tubes, the galleries will be filled with spectacular and immersive works. Rather than the text-based artworks typically associated with neon, this exhibition will instead feature sculptural installations, brightening the walls, floor, and ceiling with three dimensional explorations of light.