Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has announced its 2017 temporary exhibitions: Border Cantos: Sight & Sound Explorations from the Mexican-American Border; Chihuly: In the Forest & In the Gallery; and Stuart Davis: In Full Swing.

“Crystal Bridges roster of temporary exhibitions for 2017 celebrate a diverse group of artists and media. They offer visitors a variety of ways to embrace the American spirit in gallery and outdoor settings,” said Margi Conrads, Crystal Bridges Director of Curatorial Affairs. “Visitors can explore the complex issues surrounding the US-Mexican border; experience transformative glass installations in the museum and on our grounds; and enjoy more than 100 artworks from a preeminent figure in American Modernism.”

Border Cantos: Sight & Sound Explorations from the Mexican-American Border

Richard Misrach | Guillermo Galindo

February 18 – April 24, 2017

Migration has an impact on both people and landscape. Border Cantos, a unique collaboration between American photographer Richard Misrach and Mexican composer Guillermo Galindo, harnesses the power of art to explore, share, and humanize the complex issues surrounding the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. The artists created works of photography, sculpture, and sound that document and transform artifacts from the border. Misrach’s large-scale photographs, along with inventory-like grids of smaller photographs, highlight issues surrounding immigration and how they have affected regions and people. Responding to these photographs, Galindo fashioned sound-generating sculptures from items Misrach collected from the border, such as water bottles, Border Patrol “drag tires,” spent shotgun shells, ladders, and sections of the border wall itself. The sounds they produce give voices to people through the personal belongings they have left behind. 

Presented in English and Spanish, Border Cantos sheds light on the complexities of immigration and transforms these issues into resonant works of art, inviting us to bridge boundaries and initiate conversations. There is no ticket fee for Border Cantos.

Border Cantos premiered at San Jose Museum of Art and then travels to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, before it arrives at Crystal Bridges.

Chihuly: In the Gallery and In the Forest (June 3 – August 14, 2017)

Chihuly: In the Forest (August 16 – November 13, 2017)

Dale Chihuly, an American sculptor, has mastered the translucent and transparent qualities of ice, water, glass and neon, to create works of art that transform the everyday experience.  He is globally renowned for his ambitious site-specific installations in public spaces, as well as exhibitions presented in museums and gardens.Crystal Bridges is pleased to present extensive indoor and outdoor installations, featuring new works by the artist, as well as iconic works spanning the breadth of his career. 

Chihuly: In the Gallery will be on view in the museum’s temporary exhibition gallery from June 3 – August 14, 2017. Chihuly: In the Forest will be on view in the museum’s north forest from June 3 – November 13, 2017. A special members-only previews will take place May 27 – June 2, 2017. Ticket price: $20 In the Forest and In the Gallery; $10 In the Forest once the gallery portion closes. [Free for Members.]

Presented in the museum’s temporary exhibition space, visitors will journey through key moments of Chihuly’s impressive body of work. Immersive areas include the Northwest Room, displaying Chihuly’s slumped glass baskets together with examples from Chihuly’s own collection of Northwest Coast Native American baskets, which inspired them. The Persian Room will bathe guests in brilliant colors of Chihuly glass from above. In the newly enhanced north forest, multiple dramatic Chihuly installations will be on-view along the gently curving paths, accessible to all.

Born in 1941 in Washington State, Chihuly established the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design and co-founded Pilchuck Glass School in Washington. He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees and has works of art included in more than 250 museum collections.

This exhibition is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in cooperation with Dale Chihuly. The work displayed is protected by copyright.

The north forest enhancements are part of a multi-phased project which includes a new entrance on the northeast side of the museum, expected to open in the spring of 2017. The entrance will be accompanied by an elevator tower and a pedestrian bridge that will connect visitors to the Chihuly installation and provide better access to the north lawn and trail system from the museum. 

Stuart Davis: In Full Swing

September 16, 2017 – January 8, 2018

Stuart Davis (1892–1964) ranks as a preeminent figure in American modern art, with a career that stretched from the early twentieth century well into the early 1960s. Over the course of his sixty-year career, Davis invented an artistic vocabulary of bold colors and strong forms, informed by his enthusiasm for jazz. Born in Philadelphia, Davis began as an illustrator of the urban life around New York, and after a year in Paris become one of the first American artists to bring the lessons of French avant garde art into American painting. He combined text and image, and blurred distinctions between high and low art, and abstraction and figuration, ultimately forging a union of international Modernism and uniquely American imagery that continues to influence art being made today.

This major retrospective will focus on three phases of Davis’s work: from 1927 to 1937, in which he applied the forms of Cubism to still-lifes and landscapes; from 1938 to 1943, during which his work increased in both size and abstraction; and from 1944 to Davis’s death in 1964, in which he invented a new abstract language that merged the aesthetics of advertising and jazz with language, and an American-inspired subject matter.  Ticket price: $8. [Free for Members.]

“We are excited to welcome visitors to explore the 2017 exhibitions, both in the galleries and on the grounds,” said Conrads. “In conjunction with these exhibitions, we will offer programs that provide a deeper understanding of artworks and help create powerful new connections to the American story.”