From The Curator

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.

New Acquisition Spotlight: Hung Liu

Posted: April 12, 2021
Category: From The Curator
Two paintings by Hung Liu are exciting new additions to NMWA's collection, enabling the museum to showcase Liu’s distinguished skills as a painter and printmaker.
A painting of a light-skinned woman of Asian descent atop complementary colors of orange-red next to lime green. The shorthaired woman holds a pink handkerchief. To her right is a sad looking fish.

New Acquisition Spotlight: Rubra

Posted: July 15, 2020
Category: From The Curator
Joana Vasconcelos's Rubra, a nearly six-foot-tall glass and textile chandelier, is an exciting new addition to NMWA's collection through a gift from museum patron Christine Suppes.
A color image of a detail of a chandelier made of red, orange, and yellow Murano glass, wool yarn, polyester fabrics, and LED lighting.

From the Curator: Inside “Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits”

Posted: April 27, 2020
Category: From The Curator
Associate Curator Ginny Treanor goes behind the scenes of Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits.
A mixed-media work shows two seated figures facing each other; the first woman sits cross-legged staring confidently out at viewer while the second woman is masked and gazes elsewhere. In the background blue abstract shapes with two orange orbs fill the space between them.
When first exhibited at the 2004 Whitney Biennial, 89 Seconds at Alcázar (2004) was a runaway success. Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation, a collaborative of actors, choreographers, technicians, and...
View of a gallery space. In a dark room, the title of the exhibition, "Total Art: Contemporary Video", is projected on a wall.

Artist Spotlight: The Magical Erasure of Michal Rovner

Posted: July 22, 2014
Category: From The Curator
Learn more about artist Michal Rovner, whose work is featured in the NMWA exhibition Total Art: Contemporary Videoand in the NMWA collection.
Four long, white, cloudy-looking wisps against a cyan navy background.

Meret Oppenheim’s “Schoolgirl’s Notebook”

Posted: July 15, 2014
Category: From The Curator
On view in Meret Oppenheim: Tender Friendships, the artist’s early work Schoolgirl’s Notebook (Cahier d’une Écoliere) provides insight into her spirit and ambition as a young artist, as well as...
An open book into whose pages the shapes of hands have been cut. Gray gloves painted with red veins are visible through the cutouts. An identical pair of gloves rest next to the book.

Artist Spotlight: The Collaboration of Ingrid Mwangi and Robert Hutter

Posted: July 8, 2014
Category: From The Curator
In 2005, spouses Ingrid Mwangi (b. 1975, Nairobi, Kenya) and Robert Hutter (b. 1964, Ludwigshafen, Germany) began working as a collaborative artistic force. Today, they exhibit their joint works under...
View of a gallery space. In a dark room, the title of the exhibition, "Total Art: Contemporary Video", is projected on a wall.

Artist Spotlight: Pipilotti Rist’s Red Room and Blue Bodily Letter

Posted: July 1, 2014
Category: From The Curator
One of the nine gallery spaces in Total Art: Contemporary Video is vividly painted with an oblong white space centered on a red wall. This was not a random design...
View of a gallery space. In a dark room, the title of the exhibition, "Total Art: Contemporary Video", is projected on a wall.

Artist Spotlight: Dara Birnbaum—Video as Subject and Form

Posted: June 24, 2014
Category: From The Curator
On view in Total Art: Contemporary Video, Dara Birnbaum’s Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978–79) opens with several minutes of footage showing intense explosions, transformations, and sampled disco tunes. Just as a...
View of a gallery space. In a dark room, the title of the exhibition, "Total Art: Contemporary Video", is projected on a wall.