Unconventional: Self-Taught Artists of the Permanent Collection

Dec 18, 2021 – Nov 13, 2022

Unconventional presents several works in the Springfield Museum of Art’s permanent collection created by self-taught artists, many of whom were from Ohio. Comprising both two- and three-dimensional objects, this exhibition explores the wide variety of techniques, styles, themes, and materials that make up self-taught art. Artists on display include William Hawkins, Levent Isik, Mary Frances Merrill, and Elijah Pierce.

Universe

Emily Sullivan Smith
Sep 25, 2021 – Apr 2022

Emily Sullivan Smith replicates the natural world with a new multidisciplinary installation. Following the events of 2020, Smith intimately observes what happens when there is an abrupt stillness of human activity and a quiet continuation of the ecosystem. Exploring ideas of permanence, change, and authenticity, these works memorialize a place and time both precedented and unprecedented in Earth’s history. They present hope in darkness and a path toward a future worth working toward.

Emily Sullivan Smith is an Associate Professor and Foundations Coordinator at the University of Dayton. Her studio practice is interdisciplinary including sculpture and printmaking, focusing on the effects of human behavior on the natural world. Sullivan Smith received her BFA and MFA from Kent State University. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States, and currently has work on display at the Akron Art Museum.

BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II

Oct 23, 2021 – Feb 27, 2022

Curated by Willis Bing Davis, BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II views all aspects of the Black experience as valid subject matter for creative expression. The visual voices presented in this exhibition are like griots – reflecting on the joy, pain, sorrow, visions, and hopes for today and tomorrow. BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II features over 25 artists from around the state, including many from Dayton and Springfield.

Davis is a world-renowned artist and curator having exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Renwick Gallery, the National Museum of Art of Senegal West Africa, and the United States Embassy Accra, Ghana. For over 40 years, Davis has dedicated himself to teaching art in a range of environments. He’s received numerous awards including Ohio Art Educator of the Year, and the highest art award in the state of Ohio, the Ohio Governor’s Irma Lazarus Lifetime Achievement Award.

BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II has been made possible with generous funding from the Ohio Humanities Council and Arts Midwest.

75th Annual Juried Members’ Exhibition

Jul 31-Oct 3, 2021

SMoA is thrilled to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Juried Members’ Exhibition this coming summer. Since 1946, this exhibition has highlighted the talents of member artists, both professional and emerging alike providing an outlet for all skillsets. Nearly 90 members from our region will be showcased in the exhibition, which has been juried this year by Joann Moser, Senior Curator Emerita at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Opening Reception Saturday, Jul 31, 5-7 pm

Honor the work of our community of talented artists with an opening reception including local food trucks, cash bar, live music, and art! Festivities start at 5pm, galleries open at 5:30pm.

Members Free | Non-members $5.

Enter the Cosmos: An Exploration of Art and Space

Jun 26, 2021 – Jan 2022

Enter the Cosmos: An Exploration of Art and Space celebrates the Springfield Museum of Art’s Smithsonian Affiliation which includes working with Smithsonian and NASA related space research sites. The exhibition anticipates the Oct 2021 launch of the new James-Webb telescope by focusing on artworks that relate to images collected by telescopes. Artworks from the permanent collection are joined by photographs and objects from Wittenberg University’s Weaver Observatory.

Discarded/Sourced

Through Aug 28, 2022

Highlighting objects from the permanent collection, this exhibition explores how artists use discarded and sourced materials to make art. Artists in this gallery include Purvis Young, Barbara Chavous, Angelo Ippolito, and Gus Lobenwein. Also, among the works in this exhibition is the large-scale Red Painting by Mark Bradford, on generous loan from the collection of Angela and Scott Crabill.

Mark Bradford’s Red Painting

Through Aug 29, 2021

The Springfield Museum of Art is thrilled to present Red Painting by renowned mixed media artist, Mark Bradford. On loan from the collection of Angela and Scott Crabill, Red Painting will be on display through the end of August as part of the exhibition, Discarded/Sourced.

Widely considered one of today’s most influential artists, Bradford is known for his large-scale paintings of printed materials and mixed media. Through his practice, Bradford explores the complexities of urban life including socio-economic, racial, gender, and political structures.

UnNatural History: Photographs by Diane Fox (McGregor Gallery)

Mar 20-Jul 11, 2021

Tennessee artist Diane Fox captures the perceived reality posed by dioramas in this series of photographs taken in natural history museums around the country and abroad. Traditionally, dioramas allow museum visitors to experience wildlife firsthand using staged animals and painted backgrounds to create realistic fabrications. Fox’s photographs, however, work to break the illusion of these constructed scenes and ask the viewer to reexamine their relationship with nature.

Fox is a Distinguished Lecturer Emerita in the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she taught photography and graphic design for over 20 years. She has a Master of Fine Arts from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Middle Tennessee State University. Her work has been shown in dozens of exhibitions both nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art in California and Santa Reparata Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Who Tells Your Story? (Chakeres Gallery)

Feb 3–June 6, 2021

Who Tells Your Story? is the guiding question for a new exhibition in the Chakeres interactive gallery at the Springfield Museum of Art. Many people in our community, and across the nation, are asking questions about whose stories get told and who does the telling. Also, at this time of year many school children are studying early American History and current events. The gallery provides a thinking space for all ages to reflect on history, images, and personal stories by asking, Who Tells Your Story? The exhibition showcases 23 objects from the Permanent Collection, several of which are making their public debut.