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Rare and Wondrous: Birds in Art and Culture 1620-1820
Apr. 24, 2021 — Jul. 25, 2021The exhibition will showcase the Museum’s recent acquisition of the important six-volume Ornithologie written by Mathurin-Jacques Brisson and illustrated by François-Nicolas Martinet, published 1760. It will also feature paintings, prints, and decorative arts from TMA’s collection, as well as select loans of significant prints and illustrated books.
Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art
Jun. 12, 2021 — Sep. 5, 2021Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art is the first museum exhibition to broadly examine the relationship between American artists and the supernatural.
Out of the Dark: A Historic Journey
Jun. 19, 2021 — Jul. 31, 2022Out of the Dark: A Historic Journey, is a digital exhibition in recognition of Juneteenth, an observance acknowledging the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Juneteenth (a combination of the words June and nineteenth) is recognized in most states and the District of Columbia as a local holiday or ceremonial observance and was designated a federal holiday in 2021. TMA invited eight members of the Toledo Black Artist Coalition (TBAC) to curate an online exhibition featuring works by influential Black artists from the Museum’s collection, including sculptor Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) and photographer Gordon Parks (1912-2006) among others. TBAC guest curators are noted local artists James Dickerson, Dustin Hostetler, Audrey Johnson, Imani Lateef, Yusuf Lateef, Lydia Myrick, Simone Spruce, and Paul Verdell. The online exhibition launches on TMA’s website on June 19, 2021.
Stan Douglas: Doppelgänger
Oct. 16, 2021 — May. 15, 2022The science fiction-inspired film Doppelgänger (2019) by prominent artist Stan Douglas will be on view Oct. 16, 2021-May 15, 2022, at Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), its first North American museum presentation. The film centers around an astronaut named Alice who embarks on a solitary outer space mission. When Alice’s ship unexpectedly turns around, she presumes she has returned to Earth, but instead she arrives at another realm, the exact reverse of her true home. In one version, Alice is welcomed and provided support upon her return, while in another narrative, Alice is received as a potential hostile threat. The work comprises two translucent screens, which can be viewed from either side and display parallel narratives that unfold simultaneously.
The Age of Armor: Treasures from the Higgins Armory Collection at the Worcester Art Museum
Nov. 6, 2021 — Feb. 27, 2022Suits of armor, and the warriors who wore them, have fueled the human imagination since they first appeared in the ancient world. The Age of Armor: Treasures from the Higgins Armory Collection at the Worcester Art Museum, explores how these compelling exoskeletons have been used in various forms around the globe, from antiquity to modern times. The Worcester Art Museum’s Higgins Armory Collection is the one of the largest collections of arms and armor in the United States.
Living Legacies: Art of the African American South
Jan. 15, 2022 — May. 1, 2022A landmark exhibition organized by the Toledo Museum of Art will present the museum’s recent acquisitions of major works by African American artists from the southern United States. Living Legacies: Art of the African American South features 24 works, from large-scale assemblages and mixed media sculptures to paintings, textiles and works on paper acquired from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Artists represented are Leroy Almon, Thornton Dial, Thornton Dial, Jr., Richard Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Joe Minter, John B. Murray, Royal Robertson, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Luster Willis, and several generations of women quiltmakers, including Louisiana Bendolph, Mary Elizabeth Kennedy, Jessie T. Pettway, Lola Pettway, Lucy T. Pettway, Martha Pettway, Rita Mae Pettway and Florine Smith, as well as Estelle Witherspoon, one of the founders of the Freedom Quilting Bee.
Contrary Bodies
Apr. 2, 2022 — Jul. 3, 2022"I believe in making contradictions productive, not in having to choose one side or the other side. As opposed to choosing either or, choosing both." With these words, the activist and author Angela Davis not only foregrounds the dilemma of our historical moment, but also identifies the challenge it poses to the art museum. Global diversities are becoming more difficult to ignore, and communities are voicing their objections to a centuries-old, white-washed narrative of cultural history. At the heart of these shifts in representation, museums are working to rediscover the complexities and nuances that make up our world and recuperate voices that were previously silenced. Museums such as the TMA are taking a fresh, critical look at their collections to celebrate a broader diversity.The works in Contrary Bodies, all from the TMA’s permanent collection, feature BIPOC, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community as artists and subjects. While these works represent a spectrum of social groups and cultures, bringing them together is not just about making differences visible. The human figure is depicted according to a variety of approaches – ranging from the intimate, to the erotic, to the formal – and in each case the depiction seems to question certain racialized or gendered assumptions about how such a figure should look and/or behave. In this sense, these works reject the constraints of otherness and declare something about what it means to be an active participant in the culture of global humanity.This exhibition is curated and designed by students in the University of Toledo’s Art Museum Practices and Graphic and Interactive Design Concentrations.
Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands
Apr. 23, 2022 — Jul. 17, 2022Celebrating the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Persian civilization, Bestowing Beauty: Masterpieces from Persian Lands features over 100 works from the sixth to the nineteenth century drawn from the preeminent Persian art collection of Hossein Afshar.
Momentum | Intersection
Sep. 15, 2022 — Oct. 16, 2022Momentum | Intersection celebrates the ingenuity that results when art and industry meet. Now in its fifth year, this juried exhibition brings new artwork to Toledo made in response to a call for creativity by Pilkington Glass North America, part of Nippon Sheet Glass., Ltd (NSG) and The Arts Commission of Greater Toledo.
State of The Art: Revealing Works From The Conservation Vault
Sep. 24, 2022 — Feb. 5, 2023This exhibition opens the “conservation vault” to give visitors a glimpse of works of art that largely have been out of sight in storage for, in some cases, decades. The works include paintings, sculpture, metalwork, textiles, and paper and range in date from the 1500s to the 1990s. All of them are in need of conservation—specialized treatment that will allow them to return to view in the galleries in improved condition.