Nmwa Exhibitions

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.
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Now on View: The Compelling Worlds of “Total Art: Contemporary Video” at NMWA

Posted: June 6, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Why does the moniker “total art” apply to the medium of video? What elements can be incorporated, and how does the genre blur traditional lines between “fine art” and other...
View of a gallery space. In a dark room, the title of the exhibition, "Total Art: Contemporary Video", is projected on a wall.

One is Silver and the Other’s Gold: Meret Oppenheim’s Friendships at NMWA

Posted: April 28, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Now on view at NMWA, a selection of Meret Oppenheim’s art, correspondence, and archival materials provide insight into this prolific artist. Meret Oppenheim: Tender Friendships documents friendship as a source...
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.

Controversial Representations of Sexuality in Feminist Art

Posted: April 18, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Judy Chicago’s installation The Dinner Party premiered in San Francisco on March 1979. Soon after, it received backlash from the public because the recurring “butterfly” motif in Chicago’s dinner plates...
Installation view of a gallery space with purple walls. Several colorful art pieces are hanging on the wall. On one wall, the text says: Judy Chicago, circa '75.

Lending Color to Quilts

Posted: March 14, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In Clues in the Calico: A Guide to Identifying and Dating Antique Quilts, Barbara Brackman discusses the ways in which certain characteristics of a quilt can disclose important information on...
Vintage quilt in dark reds and greens on a cream background. In the center is a large eight-point Star of Bethlehem surrounded by Victorian floral appliques. The border, edged in dark red fabric, features matching floral garland appliques.

Demystifying Amish Quilts

Posted: March 7, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Although their roots have been attributed to different cultures, Amish quilts are regarded by many as “quintessentially American.” In Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon, Janneken Smucker investigates this claim...
Vintage quilt in dark reds and greens on a cream background. In the center is a large eight-point Star of Bethlehem surrounded by Victorian floral appliques. The border, edged in dark red fabric, features matching floral garland appliques.

The Nuances of Collaboration

Posted: February 21, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Quilting has long been viewed nostalgically as a collaborative activity among women, but over time these pieces have also been created by groups or individuals with complex or dubious motivations....
Vintage quilt in dark reds and greens on a cream background. In the center is a large eight-point Star of Bethlehem surrounded by Victorian floral appliques. The border, edged in dark red fabric, features matching floral garland appliques.

Political Patchwork

Posted: February 6, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In the late 1980s, quilt-lovers and feminists Jane Benson and Nancy Olsen approached Euphrat Gallery director Jan Rindfleisch with an idea for an exhibition on political quilts. After two years...
Vintage quilt in dark reds and greens on a cream background. In the center is a large eight-point Star of Bethlehem surrounded by Victorian floral appliques. The border, edged in dark red fabric, features matching floral garland appliques.

Anita Steckel: Fighting Censorship and Double Standards

Posted: January 28, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
According to materials from the archive of artist Anita Steckel, before she revealed her solo exhibition The Sexual Politics of Feminist Art at Rockville Community College in 1973, a female...
A book is lying in a glass case. The book shows text and a black-and-white photographic portrait of a woman's face.

The Common Thread: Quilt Grids

Posted: January 24, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In Quilts as Women’s Art: A Quilt Poetics, quilter and activist Radka Donnell discusses an organizational feature of the quilt—its “grid”—which she defines as the element that is “not locking...
Vintage quilt in dark reds and greens on a cream background. In the center is a large eight-point Star of Bethlehem surrounded by Victorian floral appliques. The border, edged in dark red fabric, features matching floral garland appliques.

Judy Chicago: Boldly Going Where No Woman Has Gone Before

Posted: January 17, 2014
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Judy Chicago (née Judy Cohen) was born on July 20, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois, into a household that supported her creative and intellectual interests
Mixed media work on paper shows a large ink drawing of a sculptural plate with page-like leaves unfurling in a round, flower-like pattern. Smaller plate deisgns, collaged photographs of the author, and her written words are surrounded by pink, orange, yellow and green watercolor.