Exhibition Category: Current
Shana Moulton: Meta/Physical Therapy
Shana Moulton’s Meta/Physical Therapy comprises eight synchronized video projections on walls, floors, and shaped theatrical flats. It is part of Moulton’s long-running video project Whispering Pines, which began in 2002 as a collaboration with composer Nick Hallett. At the center of both the broader project and this specific work is Cynthia, Moulton’s semi-autobiographical alter ego—an anxious homebody surrounded by New Age healing products and wellness paraphernalia who is suddenly transported to stranger, more transcendent realms.
Barbara Kasten: Threshold
Barbara Kasten: Threshold includes both new work and career-spanning selections by one of photography’s most innovative practitioners, presented across two interconnected sites at the Akron Art Museum: a sculptural installation in the Beatrice Knapp McDowell Grand Lobby and a survey of photography and video in the Fred and Laura Bidwell Gallery.
Idea Machine by CHIAOZZA
Meet CHIAOZZA, who will kick off a new era at the Museum with the first interactive installation in the new J. M. Smucker Co. Idea Machine space, opening this fall. Art museums have traditionally been places where visitors look at carefully arranged works on walls and objects on pedestals and in glass cases. But the Akron Art Museum is reimagining that experience with the Idea Machine by inviting direct physical interaction with artwork, signaling a shift in how audiences might encounter contemporary art in Akron. CHIAOZZA, the collaborative practice of Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao, approaches Idea Machine as a space where making and thinking happen simultaneously, dissolving the boundary between viewer and creator.
The Surrealist Impulse
The Surrealist Impulse will be the inaugural exhibition in the newly created Susie and Tony Paparella Galleries, on the second floor of the Akron Art Museum’s historic 1899 building. This exhibition brings together two different artistic movements from the early 1900s, Dada and Surrealism, along with closely related works by “Art Brut” (untrained or “raw”) creators working in the same time period. Dada was an international movement formed in the aftermath of World War I by artists and writers who turned their disgust at the carnage of the war into a broader, absurdist critique of the status quo in culture and society. Surrealism, another international movement that was rooted in Dada, continues to be a relevant form of expression about the very nature of reality and how it is represented, influencing the visual arts, literature, theater, film, and music for more than a hundred years.
Naudline Pierre: May the Light Reach You
Naudline Pierre conjures fantastical worlds full of movement, transformation, and emotion. Her artwork features airy figures among delicate, jewel-toned washes of color, swirling lines, and skillful application of paint or ink, as well as adventurous experimentation with metal. The content of Pierre’s work is deeply intimate, with a pantheon of female spirits conveying an impressive range of expression—from anger to resilience, tenderness, and more. She calls on viewers to imagine their way into her unfamiliar realities, and thereby to imagine how their own reality might also change and grow.
Birdsong
A flock of bird sculptures has migrated to the Museum’s lobby! Join us in celebrating Birdsong, a unique multi-faceted art installation presented by Door2 Art Studio that features over 150 bird sculptures hand painted by local artists. This installation will be on view until the end of 2024.
A Growing Conversation: Artworks From Our Collection
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.
Michelangelo Lovelace: Art Saved My Life
Michelangelo Lovelace: Art Saved My Life will provide a comprehensive survey of the artist’s career, with works spanning from 1992 to 2020, showing how the artist indeed painted all the way through.
Marilyn Stafford: A Life in Photography
Marilyn Stafford (1925–2023) was born in Northeast Ohio, acted on the stage in New York City, sang for chic clubgoers in Paris, met celebrities and politicians, and traveled the world. Amid this fascinating life, photography became her passion, leading to a career that spanned four decades, from the 1940s until 1980. Opening in February, Marilyn Stafford: A Life in Photography highlights the work, people, and issues that were important to the artist. The exhibition provides a reflective and personal look at significant events of the twentieth century through Stafford’s unique point of view.
RETOLD: African American Art and Folklore
African and African American folklore have been around as long as humankind. These stories teach about culture, the mysteries of life, and the survival of a race of people bought and sold who continue to thrive in various aspects of an unjust society.
