Past Exhibitions
The Tiger Cat
Thornton Dial
In 2021, the Hood Museum of Art acquired ten artworks from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, including the three by Thornton Dial that form Thornton Dial: The Tiger Cat. This exhibition celebrates this acquisition, asking us to look closely at Dial’s work and consider the ways in which it broadens our understanding of American art.
Undocumented Immigrants and the American Dream
A DREAM DeferredA DREAM Deferred: Undocumented Immigrants and the American Dream explores works of art that call attention to undocumented immigrants, whose livelihoods are in constant danger as they continue to live in the United States in hopes of better opportunities and to achieve the so-called American Dream. This exhibition focuses primarily on poster prints, which have become a popular and effective tool for spreading the word on injustices and reaching mass audiences.
A Space for Dialogue is a student-curated exhibition program that began in 2001. Hood Museum of Art interns create an installation drawn from the museum’s permanent collection by engaging with every aspect of curation, from doing research and selecting objects, to choosing frames and a wall color, to planning a layout and writing labels and a brochure, to giving a public talk. There have been over 100 A Space for Dialogue exhibitions on a wide variety of themes.
The John Kobal Foundation Collection
Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden EraComprising some 6,000 prints, the recently acquired John Kobal Foundation Collection represents the full range of Hollywood studio photographs taken from the 1920s through the 1960s. This installation offers a glimpse into this renowned collection, highlighting a small selection of portraits and photographs from film sets.
Abstracting Nature
Transcendent LandscapesTranscendent Landscapes: Abstracting Nature explores the environment as a subject in abstract art. Focusing on five monumental works by female painters, this exhibition studies the spiritual role landscapes play in painting and considers the way these works evoke metaphysical experiences for both the artist and the viewer.
A Space for Dialogue is a student-curated exhibition program that began in 2001. Hood Museum of Art interns create an installation drawn from the museum’s permanent collection by engaging with every aspect of curation, from doing research and selecting objects, to choosing frames and a wall color, to planning a layout and writing labels and a brochure, to giving a public talk. There have been over 100 A Space for Dialogue exhibitions on a wide variety of themes.
Southern Gothic
The melodrama of Southern Gothic literature has captivated many with its enthralling treatment of the grotesque. The exhibition Southern Gothic explores the complex and often macabre world of the Southeastern United States. This niche genre deals with racial tensions, Reconstruction, the Great Depression, and the ghostly remains of the Antebellum era. This exhibition explores works from artists who have captured the spirit of Southern Gothic in all its darkness—and light.
A Space for Dialogue is a student-curated exhibition program that began in 2001. Hood Museum of Art interns create an installation drawn from the museum’s permanent collection by engaging with every aspect of curation, from doing research and selecting objects, to choosing frames and a wall color, to planning a layout and writing labels and a brochure, to giving a public talk. There have been over 100 A Space for Dialogue exhibitions on a wide variety of themes.
The Jane and Raphael Bernstein Collection
A Legacy for LearningA Legacy for Learning: The Jane and Raphael Bernstein Collection comprises a series of exhibitions that individually and collectively celebrate the Bernstein family's gifts to the collection of the Hood Museum of Art over four decades. These shows present photography, paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture by European, Japanese, and North American artists.
In spring and summer 2021, the museum features the Bernstein Collection installations Pinpricks and Pomposity: The Inventiveness of English Visual Satire, Landscape(d): Modern Photography and the Environment, and Lyrical Journey: Toko Shinoda.
In August 2021, the installations change over to Inuit Art | Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, Both Sides of the Lens: Portrait Photography, and Mystic Peak: Selections from the Bernstein Collection of Japanese Art, through January 2022.