Roger Shimomura—An American Knockoff
June 20 – September 13, 2015Roger Shimomura—An American Knockoff includes 53 paintings and prints dating from 1973, with most dating from 2004-2014. Shimomura’s style combines his childhood interest in comic books with his interest in pop art and Japanese woodblock prints. Rendered in lively pop art style, his paintings pack a punch with messages about racism and stereotypes to spur dialogue about Asian American identities and experiences.Two major life events have strongly influenced his work: his family’s incarceration at Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho during World War II, and his move from the culturally diverse hub of New York to the more homogenous Midwest where he faces daily race-related questions and stereotypes. As he states in the exhibition catalogue,“The need to address my identity was genuinely born out of the need to mediate and reconcile my yellow presence in the Midwest.”An American Knockoff continues to explore Shimomura’s experience of being seen an outsider in his own (American) culture. He has created several series related to the Japanese internment experience, including Minidoka in the late 1970s and Diary in the early 1980s (inspired by his grandmother’s diaries). For decades, Shimomura has attended the annual reunion at Minidoka.Organized and distributed by the Museum of Art/Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.
Partners in NW Art: Selections from the Aloha Club Collection at TAM
June 27 – September 13, 2015The Aloha Club is a Tacoma community group, originally organized as a women’s study club in 1892. Its focus is promoting the cultural life of the community and fostering the development of Northwest artists.In 1948, the Club began purchasing original works by both promising and prominent Northwest artists. In 1971, to enable public access to the art, the Club gifted their collection to Tacoma Art Museum. Their collection aligns with and enriches TAM’s focus on the art and artists of the Northwest. Working closely with TAM’s curators, the Aloha Club continues to add to this collection, currently numbering 54 works. The Aloha Club has always supported a variety of Northwest artists, from traditional to avant-garde and historical to contemporary. They often have selected works by emerging artists, in new media, or by important but under-appreciated Northwest artists—smart choices that support an inclusive history of Northwest art.This exhibition introduces visitors to the Aloha Club’s work and its impact, presents an opportunity to take pride in their contributions, and shares insight into how museum collections are shaped. Visitors will see a selection of works that illustrate the rich artistic identity of the Northwest and convey the varied ways in which the Aloha Club has helped enhance TAM’s permanent collection.Bring friends and family to experience a diverse group of Northwest artists’ expressions in a wide range of media, including collection favorites as well as others that have not recently been on view at TAM.Organized by Tacoma Art Museum.On view in the Jane and George Russell Gallery.
Art of the American West: The Haub Family Collection Inaugural Exhibition
November 15, 2014 – October 18, 2015See how concepts of the West—both real and imagined—have continually changed and evolved and still influence us today.From the shores of Puget Sound, to the tallest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, to the banks of the Missouri River, the artwork of the American West informs our perceptions of this varied region. This inaugural exhibition of the Haub Family Collection at Tacoma Art Museum spans more than 200 years of work by historic and contemporary artists. The artworks examine ideas of American identity over time, delve into storytelling and mythmaking, and explore the vast American landscape.Organized by Tacoma Art Museum.This exhibition is presented by The Boeing Company.It is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and KeyBank.Additional media support provided by the following partners: The News Tribune, KPLU, and Click! Cable TV, Tacoma Power.
Art AIDS America
October 3, 2015 - January 10, 2016This groundbreaking exhibition underscores the deep and unforgettable presence of HIV in American art. It introduces and explores the whole spectrum of artistic responses to AIDS, from the politically outspoken to the quietly mournful, surveying works from the early 1980s to the present.
Northwest in the West: Exploring Our Roots
May 10, 2014 – January 10, 2016What characterizes the Northwest’s distinct cultural and artistic identity? How has that identity been shaped by the broader story of the American West? Tacoma Art Museum delves into these questions through Northwest in the West: Exploring Our Roots. This exhibition looks at how the complex and ever-evolving character of the West has shaped, and continues to inspire, regional artistic responses.Featuring approximately 70 works in all media drawn from the museum’s collection, Northwest in the West provides a visual framework for discussing themes such as the significance of the land, cultural and environmental impacts, movement and restlessness, our regional identity, and the psychological constructs involved in our complicated relationship with our place in the West. The exhibition also includes a sneak peek at two works from the Haub Family Collection of Western American Art. This exhibition views the West from the Northwest and inspires visitors to make connections. The artwork will change from time to time, reflecting different themes and sparking fresh discussions.The Northwest contributed significantly to the early dramatic story of the West: the lure of its lush landscapes and abundant resources; the new life it symbolized as the Eden at the endpoint of every migrant trail; and as the last piece of the puzzle that tied the United States together from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The definitions of “West” and “Northwest” shifted dramatically as westward expansion stretched geographic boundaries through the Plains states, into the Southwest, across the Rocky Mountains, and over the Cascades. Today, the 12 states defined as the western region encompass a wide variety of landscapes and lifestyles that share a history shaped by exploration, immigration, displacement, settlement, tradition, resources extraction, and rapid change, all of which has influenced artistic expressions in the West and Northwest.The gift of the Haub Family Collection enables Tacoma Art Museum to continue to explore the relationship of Northwest regional art to the broader context of art of the American West. Northwest in the West is the first of many opportunities to look at this complex interweaving of influences and how the Northwest’s artists have adopted, adapted, or reacted against them.
Celebrating 80 Years: People's Choice
January 30 - March 27, 2016This exhibition was organized as part of Tacoma Art Museum’s 80th birthday celebrations and specifically to highlight the early legacy gifts on which the museum’s rich collection was built. The works on view in this gallery are from the museum’s collections of European and American art. They were selected through voting online and in person by our members and visitors. Artworks from these collections are favorites whenever they’re shown and often requested when not on view.Over 500 people cast their votes as to which artworks they most wanted to see from these collections, with the most popular work winning the coveted spot on the front title wall. We also asked those who voted to tell us why this work was a favorite or what they would like to know about the artwork or the artist. A selection of their quotes and questions are included on the object labels.To all those who voted, thank you! We hope you enjoy your show.Celebrating 80 Years: People’s Choice is organized by Tacoma Art Museum.
Painted Journeys: The Art of John Mix Stanley
January 30 - May 1, 2016Don’t miss the final stop of this unstoppable artist-explorer that brilliantly captured the West!Adventure and art! Stanley traveled more than 8,000 miles crisscrossing the western territories in the mid-1800s, venturing as far as the kingdom of Hawaii. This prolific painter lost most of his works to a series of disasters including a fire at the Smithsonian where more than 200 of his Indian Gallery works burned. As the official artist with Isaac Stevens' railroad survey expedition in 1853, Stanley’s sketches helped chart the course for the Northern Pacific Railway—which connected Tacoma to the Great Lakes and greatly contributed to the development of our region. See 60 of Stanley’s key surviving works in this first-ever retrospective.Painted Journeys: The Art of John Mix Stanley is organized by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming. Funding support generously provided by private donations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Wyoming Arts Council. Painted Journeys: The Art of John Mix Stanley is generously supported by ArtsFund, the Tacoma Arts Commission, and Patriot Fire Protection, Inc.
Saddles, Spurs, and Quirts: The Art of Leatherworking
October 31, 2015 - July 3, 2016In a display of highly decorated saddles, bridles, quirts, and spurs, this exhibition demonstrates how everyday items of cowboy culture become an impetus for complex design, ornamentation, and collaboration between artists. With this selection of embellished equestrian objects borrowed from a regional private collection, makers from Mexico to Oregon bridge the divide between art and function, showcasing the creativity of contemporary cowboy culture in North America.
NW Art Now @ TAM
May 14 - September 4, 2016In this exhibition, TAM seeks to feature artists who highlight this particular moment in the Northwest visual arts and the intersection of identity, social justice, and the environment. NW Art Now @ TAM will focus on how artists resolve the tensions arising from these issues and propel our shared identity as inhabitants of the great Pacific Northwest. We rely on artists to help us understand these urgent issues and guide us to a shared future.The exhibition is co-curated by Rock Hushka, Tacoma Art Museum’s Chief Curator, and Juan Roselione-Valadez, Director of the Rubell Family Collection, Contemporary Arts Foundation.
What’s New at TAM? Recent Gifts to the Collection
February 6 - September 18, 2016What's New at TAM? Recent Gifts to the Collection highlights the growth of TAM’s collection with a selection of works that have been acquired over the last five years.From 2010–2015, TAM has added more than 1,000 works of art, most notably the transformative gifts of the Haub Family Collection of Western American Art, and the Paul Marioni and Anne Gould Hauberg glass collections that trace the history of the Pilchuck Glass School. TAM also has been the recipient of donations and bequests that have allowed us to purchase and commission works of art. We have added works to all areas of the Northwest collection: painting, sculpture, prints, photography, jewelry, glass, digital media, and installation. Select works by national and international artists that help strengthen the meaning, value, and historical perspectives on the Northwest Collection, have also been added.The growth of TAM’s collection is guided by our focus on the art and art history of the Northwest and broader western region, and by a collection plan designed to ensure our collection grows toward being fully representative of the rich artistic identity of the Northwest. Celebrate TAM’s 80th year by seeing What’s New at TAM, on view through Fall 2016.
Northwest Cowboys in Art
October 31, 2015 - October 30, 2016From Ellensburg to Puyallup to Pendleton, cowboys, ranching, and rodeos have been part of the Pacific Northwest’s culture for over 100 years. This exhibition celebrates the cowboys, cattle, horses, and landscapes of our region. See how Northwestern cowboy culture has inspired artists, from Alexander Phimister Proctor’s sculptures to William Cumming’s paintings and creations by working cowboys such as beloved local artist Fred Oldfield. Round up your friends and family to explore artistic connections between the Northwest and the wider American West at TAM.
30 Americans
September 24, 2016 - January 15, 2017The critically acclaimed and unforgettable exhibition 30 Americans will make its West Coast debut at Tacoma Art Museum. 30 Americans showcases an influential group of prominent African American artists who have emerged as leading contributors to the contemporary art scene in the U.S and beyond. The exhibition covers important topics in contemporary America including race, history, and gender. This exhibition will feature more than 50 works of paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and videos from artists including, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, and Kehinde Wiley.30 Americans is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami.
C.C. McKim’s Impressionist Vision
Coast to Cascades: C.C. McKimNovember 12, 2016 - March 26, 2017C.C. McKim’s artistic career as an impressionist painter flourished in Portland, Oregon, during the early 20th century. McKim’s light-filled, evocative images of Oregon landscapes capture the unique beauty and character of the Northwest. As both artist and mentor, he was influential in popularizing impressionist painting in this region. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue offer a survey of McKim’s career and explore his impact on the Northwest art scene.This exhibition is co-curated by Tacoma Art Museum’s Curator of Collections and Special Exhibitions, Margaret Bullock, and Portland art historian and gallerist, Mark Humpal.
The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today
February 4 - May 14, 2017Every three years, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery invites artists to participate in the most prestigious portrait contest in the country: the juried Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. In 2016, its fourth iteration, jurors selected 43 winning works from more than 2,500 entries. The resulting exhibition has become a pivotal marker because, for the first time ever, the Portrait Gallery is sending it on tour. Tacoma Art Museum is honored to be the first museum to host The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today, and will be the only West Coast venue.The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today is organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. The competition and exhibition have been made possible by generous support from the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment. Local seasonal support for this exhibition provided by ArtsFund.
The Beauty of a Shared Passion: Highlights from the Rebecca and Jack Benaroya Collection
October 9, 2016 – April 23, 2017This preview exhibition features a selection of major works from the generous gift of Rebecca and Jack Benaroya. The exhibition will include about 60 works of paintings, sculpture, and glass art. The Benaroya Collection includes iconic examples of works by world-renowned artists including Dale Chihuly, Dan Dailey, Kyohei Fujita, Ginny Ruffner, Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, Lino Tagliapietra, Cappy Thompson, and Ulrica Hydman Vallien. With the gift of the Benaroya Collection, TAM will have one of the top five studio art glass collections in the United States.The Beauty of a Shared Passion: Highlights from the Rebecca and Jack Benaroya Collection is organized by Tacoma Art Museum. Support for this project generously provided by Rebecca Benaroya.
Cultural imPRINT: Northwest Coast Prints
April 22 - August 20, 2017Tacoma Art Museum’s Haub Curator of Western American Art, Faith Brower, has partnered with guest curator and Haub Fellow, India Young, from Victoria, B.C., to present this selection of approximately 50 prints.This exhibition provides a survey of Indigenous artists who have defined six decades of printmaking in the Pacific Northwest. Through their prints, these artists share knowledge about the diverse cultures in the region, while sustaining their art and history. Some of this artwork focuses on culturally specific design motifs that can identify a nation or tribe within the region. Others affirm how artists have used the print medium to reexamine the role of women’s histories within Northwest Coast communities. Still other works illuminate the passing of knowledge between generations.Much of the printmaking from the Northwest Coast can be immediately recognized by high-contrast, black and red graphics. Despite some assumptions that Northwest Coast art is limited to this kind of imagery, Indigenous printmaking in the region has always been exploratory and innovative. Through the print medium artists expand on their visual languages to create works that broaden the scope of Northwest Coast art.
Abby Williams Hill and the Railroads
June 3 - October 15, 2017Promoting the West: Abby Williams Hill and the RailroadsFrom 1903 to 1906, Tacoma artist Abby Williams Hill (1861-1943) painted the Pacific Northwest landscape and Yellowstone National Park for the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. She was the first woman artist (and one of only a few) hired by these railroad companies. Her images were used for promotional campaigns encouraging railroad travel to the West for tourism or settlement.Both artist and adventurer, the intrepid Hill spent months at a time camping and painting in the wilderness with her four children, wrestling with weather, animals, and other challenges to create her works. She asked to be paid in train tickets rather than cash so that she and her family could travel and she could pursue the social causes that she was passionate about.Through a selection of paintings, sketches, and archival materials, come explore the impact that the railroad commissions had on Hill’s work. Find out how her romanticized views of uninhabited wilderness helped the railroads to shape public opinions about the West and western expansion.Tacoma Art Museum organized this exhibition in collaboration with University of Puget Sound, who holds the works and archives from Abby Williams Hill’s estate.
The Pilchuck Legacy: Studio Art Glass at TAM
Located in the lobby's Kreielsheimer AlcoveThe studio art glass movement recently celebrated its 50th anniversary marking as its starting point two historic workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962. Northwest artists began experimenting with glass as an artistic medium shortly thereafter. Richard Marquis adapted a ceramics kiln for glass, and Dale Chihuly constructed a homemade kiln in his basement apartment. In 1966, Chihuly would continue his studies with one of the leaders of the Toledo workshops, Professor Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin. In 1971, Chihuly and Ruth Tamura organized the first summer classes near Pilchuck, near Stanwood, Washington, which would evolve into the Pilchuck Glass School with the financial support of patrons John Hauberg and Anne Gould Hauberg. Because of Pilchuck, the Northwest is now world-renowned for innovation in studio art glass.In part due to Chihuly’s influence, Tacoma Art Museum acquired its first work of studio art glass in 1971 and now the collection includes nearly 600 works. Three major gifts—the Dale Chihuly Collection (on view in the museum’s Bill and Bobby Street Gallery), the Paul Marioni Collection, and the Anne Gould Hauberg Collection—form the core of the permanent collection and illuminate the energy and innovation that spurred artists working during the early years at the Pilchuck Glass School and continues to inform its legacy.The museum’s glass collection shows how artists have embraced glass as a medium for artistic expression. Early works reveal how artists sought to manipulate glass through gravity and an understanding of the viscosity of molten glass. Later works demonstrate how artists embraced glass because of its power as metaphor and to make statements of beauty. Artists have even used glass as a tool for portraiture and for careful studies of the human condition.Because of Northwest artists and their commitment to glass, our region remains a world-leader in studio art glass.
Two Centuries of American Still-Life Painting: The Frank and Michelle Hevrdejs Collection
September 2, 2017 – January 7, 2018This exhibition traces the history of American still-life painting in the United States from the early 19th century to the present day. The majority of the works on view—which come from the private, Houston-based collection of Frank and Michelle Hevrdejs—have never before been seen by the public. The exhibition brings together 60 of the most influential American painters of the genre, including William Merritt Chase, Georgia O’Keeffe, James Peale, John F. Peto, Wayne Thiebaud, Max Weber, and Andrew Wyeth. The extraordinary range of artistic styles and subject matter illustrates the rise and development of the still-life genre in post-revolutionary America, from European-influenced realism and trompe l’oeil to Impressionism, Pop Art, and beyond.This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The Mia McEldowney Jewelry Collection
February 6, 2016 – January 18, 2018This exhibition of works from the Mia McEldowney Bequest presents, for the first time at TAM, 35 works of jewelry from the estate, highlighting works by some of our region’s most talented jewelry artists.McEldowney (1951–2013) owned and operated Mia Gallery in Seattle from 1984 to 1997. She became fascinated by Northwest jewelry because so many regional artists made work that grabbed and held her interest. In her gallery, McEldowney focused on works that attracted her attention through vibrant colors, rich textures, and personal stories. She would only exhibit works by artists she personally liked and, in most instances, collected for herself, including Ken Bova, Candace Beardslee, Laurie Hall, and Nancy Worden.McEldowney was a legendary figure in the Northwest. With her gregarious personality and kind spirit, she was respected as a gallerist, collector, patron, and leader in the Northwest arts community. She helped found Artist Trust, the Metropolitan Art Committee, and the Seattle Art Dealers Association. The Seattle Metals Guild awarded McEldowney a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. She had a long and productive relationship with TAM, including curating Under the Influence: Northwest Jewelry and Ethnographic Objects in 2000.
Zhi LIN: In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads
June 27, 2017 – February 18, 2018Internationally acclaimed Seattle artist Zhi LIN has refocused attention on the overlooked yet vital history of the Chinese laborers of the 19th century. Thousands of men migrated from China to seek fortunes in the gold mines of California but, instead, mainly found work building the transcontinental railroads. Celebrated as a technical marvel in its day, the first transcontinental railroad was constructed from 1863 to 1869, due largely to the contributions of Chinese workers who cut through the mountains and deserts of the American West. The absence of Chinese laborers from American history books is an animating force in Lin’s work.Lin’s paintings resonate in our region. Their content is amplified by the legacy of historical racism exacerbated by contentious labor relations during the construction of the railroads, and the ensuing Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The law forbade ethnic Chinese from migrating to the United States; it was not repealed until 1943. Such laws encouraged acts of violence and vigilantism against the Chinese migrants already living here, including the forced expulsion of Chinese people from Tacoma in 1885.Tacoma Art Museum is proud to bring Lin’s solo exhibition to our community. This exhibition is organized by Tacoma Art Museum and continues the museum’s Northwest Perspective Series. This exhibition is generously supported by Propel Insurance and the National Endowment for the Arts. Seasonal support provided by ArtsFund.
Photographic Presence and Contemporary Indians: Matika Wilbur’s Project 562
May 17 – October 5, 2014Washington photographer Matika Wilbur, a member of the Swinomish and Tulalip tribes, is on a journey to build cultural bridges, abandon stereotypes, and renew and inspire our national legacy by documenting people from every federally recognized indigenous nation in the United States. Photographic Presence and Contemporary Indians: Matika Wilbur’s Project 562 showcases her first installation of Project 562, a new collection of images of contemporary American Indians. This artistic and spiritual journey has already taken Wilbur on a 1,000-mile adventure across the country. She began her project in the Northwest and has traveled extensively through California and the Southwest. Her work on Project 562 has been featured in Seattle Magazine, The Stranger, NBC.com, and Indian Country Today.
Ink This: Contemporary Print Arts in the Northwest
June 7 – October 19, 2014Block, stone, monotype, chine collé: learn the meaning of these printmaking terms and more at Ink This! featuring approximately 85 works of art and dozens of talented Northwest print artists. Works in the exhibition showcase a wide variety of printmaking techniques, from time-honored processes such as etching and lithography through installation and digital media. It includes letterpress artists (those that use hand-set type and block-cut imagery to create a variety of works) and artists who hand make books that are in essence small sculptures built to showcase images and artistic techniques. Artists in the exhibition are at all stages in their careers and work in varied environments from fine art presses to collaborative print shops and individual studios. Reflecting this surprising variation of creative technique and tools, the exhibition seeks to question the definition of “print” in contemporary art practice, and how that definition is challenged as artists push the boundaries of the medium.
Eloquent Objects: Georgia O'Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico
March 1 – June 7, 2015Featuring more than 60 paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe and her contemporaries.Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico features more than 60 paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe and her contemporaries. Their art records their changing impressions of the harsh landscape of the Southwest and the region’s evocative objects at a time when these artists were seeking to refine their individual versions of modern art through this uniquely American place. In addition to O’Keeffe and the iconic modernists Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley, artists from each of the major art centers in the Southwest—Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Roswell—will be highlighted. These artists include, among others, Gustave Baumann, Catherine Critcher, and Eliseo Rodriguez.Organized by Joseph S. Czestochowski.Produced by International Arts ®.Curated by Charles C. Eldredge.Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico is presented by Propel Insurance. Generous support provided by Nordstrom, ArtsFund, and Tacoma Arts Commission.
The Still-Life Tradition in the Northwest
March 1 – June 7, 2015Still-life painting is a time-honored tradition. Works of art depicting an object or group of objects possess a universal appeal that extends across cultures and styles. Though still lifes were originally considered a less important subject for artworks because of their mundane focus, they became a particularly popular form of expression in the 19th and 20th centuries.This exhibition has been drawn from Tacoma Art Museum’s collection of Northwest art in conjunction with the exhibition Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico. That exhibition explores a specific regional expression of still-life painting during the first half of the 20th century. Still life also is a common theme among Northwest artists and TAM’s collection holds a wide variety from historical to contemporary, a selection of which is on view here.A number of these Northwest artists depict common subjects such as flowers, arrangements of fruit and vegetables, and groupings of objects in domestic and studio settings. There are also some unusual choices.It is possible to trace a shift in the intent of these images across time. Artists working in the early 20th century reference classic still-life composition: a harmonious group of traditional objects (fruit, vessels, fabrics) lovingly painted. Mid-century artists were influenced by modernist ideas about art. Their works play with space, color, and shape using the objects in a still life as the basis for re-examining artistic traditions. For many of the contemporary artists, symbolism and encoded messages are important components of their images, as the titles of some of the works attest.Organized by Tacoma Art Museum.
