Past Exhibitions

June 3 – August 27, 2017
Innovative and bold sculptural forms by more than forty contemporary Japanese ceramists, inspired by the natural world, depict mountains, waterfalls, ocean shores, and bamboo groves. More than sixty ceramic works – from exquisite flower vases and serene tea bowls to whimsical sake cups and robust platters – reveal the earthly beauty of Japanese ceramics. Select pieces are paired with digital photographs, taken by photographer Taijiro Ito, highlighting their poetic connection to nature. The featured ceramists are closely associated with many of Japan’s traditional pottery centers and are supporters of the mingei movement, in which objects of unsurpassed beauty are made for everyday use. Nature, Tradition, & Innovation: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Gordon Brodfuehrer Collection was developed by Mingei International Museum in San Diego, California, and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.

February 25 through July 30, 2017
A selection of Birds in Art Master Artist Andrea Rich’s woodcuts – printed only with black ink and utilizing only one woodblock – is intended to complement M.C. Escher’s black-and-white artworks in M.C. Escher: Reality and Illusion.

December 3, 2016 through July 30, 2017

American art glass was greatly influenced by the tenets of Art Nouveau. Between 1890-1910, artists eschewed the elaborate Victorian decoration and repetitious designs of the industrial revolution. Instead, favoring form following function, they used sinuous asymmetrical lines, floral- and plant-inspired decorations, and deep vibrant colors highlighted with metallic iridescence – favrile. Louis Comfort Tiffany, Emil Galle, the Daum Brothers, and others pushed the boundaries, creating beautiful decorative and utilitarian glassware for all to use and enjoy. Enduring Beauty is a survey of works from the collection produced during this nature-inspired era.

March 4 – May 28, 2017
Meticulous graphite pencil drawings by Wisconsin artist Robin Lauersdorf, long interested in M.C. Escher’s work, are featured in an exhibition organized by Woodson Art Museum curator Andy McGivern and on view concurrent with the M.C. Escher: Reality and Illusion exhibition.

March 4 – May 28, 2017
The most iconic works by Dutch artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972), including a pair of hands drawing themselves and fish morphing into birds, are familiar to many. This exhibition of 120 woodcuts, lithographs, mezzotints, and drawings delves deeper into both the literal and impossible worlds Escher created over a career spanning five decades. Drawn from a large private collection of M.C. Escher’s work, Reality and Illusion includes early figure drawings, lesser-known book illustrations, detailed Italian landscapes, the tessellations for which he became famous, and examples of his signature architectural fantasies in which stairways seem to go both up and down. From the collection of Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece, www.herakleidon-art.gr
M.C. Escher images © 2017 The M.C. Escher Company, The Netherlands. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

On view through May 21, 2017

This dazzling, historic array of bird imagery in artworks spanning the early-nineteenth through late-twentieth centuries includes work by John James Audubon, Martin Johnson Heade, Jasper Cropsey, Albert Bierstadt, Frank W. Benson, N.C. Wyeth, and Andrew Wyeth.

February 25 – March 26, 2017
This 40th annual exhibition at the Woodson Art Museum celebrates Youth Art Month and the artistic endeavors of north central Wisconsin students in grades 5-8.

December 3, 2016 – February 26, 2017
Tiffany Studios leaded-glass lampshades and windows, designed with colorfully luminous opalescent glass, shine as some of the twentieth century’s most striking, iconic decorative objects.
As a painter, Louis C. Tiffany – son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of luxury retailer Tiffany & Company – was captivated by the interplay of color and light. As his artistic and business interests expanded, Louis Tiffany directed hundreds of Tiffany Studios artists and artisans who created an array of decorative art objects. The use of opalescent glass and innovative techniques, marking a departure from the centuries-old stained glass tradition of painting on the surface of glass, achieved impressionistic effects in Tiffany’s signature leaded-glass work.
Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light was organized by The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York.