Exhibition Status: Fully Booked

Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe

Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe

International Arts & Artists is extremely pleased and honored to announce the touring exhibition, Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe. Originally curated by Nora S. Lambert at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art under the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry, the exhibition brings together approximately 45 paintings, prints, sculptures, and ceramics from over fifteen collections and institutions throughout the United States. Passion, violence, and virtue emerge as fundamental, intertwined elements in the art of Renaissance Europe. The objects on view—created for enjoyment and edification in private homes—offer glimpses into the lives of artists and their audiences. 

Many of the works featured in Lust, Love, and Loss attest to the centuries-long popularity of certain narratives and themes throughout the European continent, while others represent more localized cultural traditions. Fifteenth-century Italy saw an explosion of artworks tied to familial rites of passage, including marriage and childbirth, yet their painted narratives were often not overtly festive. Meanwhile, the Northern European interplay between virtue and vice manifested in innumerable engravings and woodcuts showing even happy and passionate couples faced with the inexorable progression of time. Artists working and traveling north and south of the Alps produced vibrant canvases and complex print series that echoed these ideas in grander formats, purposefully highlighting the consequences of moral trespass or opportunities for redemption.

While this new version of the exhibition continues these same themes, it also offers a more explicit focus on women's experiences as makers, viewers, and owners of artworks. In addition to featuring objects created by female artists, Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe explores the experiences of female audiences through their engagement with the kinds of artworks on display, as well as with one another, through gift-giving and patronage.

Nora S. Lambert is the 2022-2024 Kress Foundation History of Art Institutional Fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome and a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago, where she specializes in late medieval and early modern Italy. From 2021 - 2022, she was a Fullbright Fellow affiliated with the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities in Naples, Italy. She is also a member of the 2020 cohort of the Center for Curatorial Leadership's Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Seminar in Curatorial Practice.

IA&A is extremely pleased to bring this exhibition and its artworks to our partners. Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe will begin touring in early 2027 and is now open for bookings.

 

Please contact Nicole Byers for more information and bookings.

 

Tools as Art: Work and Play

Tools as Art: Work and Play

“It’s not just an understanding of the humor and artistry of a particular piece but an appreciation of how the collection fits the general theme of tools in the workplace, tools in life, and tools as art.”

– John Hechinger

Tools transcend: their essential purpose crosses boundaries of all types; their essential forms and functions enduring across eras, geographies, and cultures. The universality and timelessness of tools have won them a special place in the human psyche as both icon and symbol, embedding them firmly in the foundation of human creativity.

The renowned art collection of the late hardware magnate John Hechinger exemplifies this practical and artistic universality. Over his long career, Hechinger devoted much of his energy, playfulness, and passion to this collection, seeking out works from numerous genres and artists of many backgrounds, all of them bound by a common theme: the democracy of the tool.

In Work and Play, curator Sarah Tanguy explores interlocking principles: tools as icons of labor; labor as a component of creativity; creativity as a form of play; and the art of tools as the most incisive expression of their interrelatedness. This exhibition celebrates the virtues inherent in the art of the tool and highlights the astounding breadth of the Hechinger Collection by illuminating this unique, but ubiquitous, idiom.

 

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.

The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art

The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art

The Triumph of Nature brings together approximately 120 of the finest Art Nouveau treasures from the rich holdings of the Chrysler Museum of Art, drawing primarily from the collection of Walter P. and Jean Chrysler.

Designing for a range of clients and settings including domestic interiors, innovative artists such as de Feure, Majorelle, and Gallé fashioned their eclectic works to play off each other in harmonious visual arrangements, conceiving of Art Nouveau as an enveloping style. To fully illustrate this concept, this comprehensive exhibition gathers a profusion of Art Nouveau works and accessories— furniture, paintings, sculpture, mosaics, books, posters, prints, lamps, glass from one of the country’s finest and largest collections, and other stunning objets d’art— all of them originally designed and coordinated to complement each other in elaborate ensembles.

The Triumph of Nature celebrates the florid, languorous curves, natural motifs, and refined elegance of Art Nouveau furniture, glass, and other works that have entranced generations of collectors and museum-goers since the apex of this brief but intense movement around the turn of the twentieth century.

 

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.

Mystery and Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art

Mystery and Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art

Curious and captivating, the over eighty carvings, sculptures, textiles, and regalia revealed in Mystery and Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art bring to light the histories, symbolism, and values of the Freemasons and the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows—two fraternal brotherhoods with deep roots in American history. Through arcane and alluring artifacts such as grave markers, serpent-headed staffs, richly embroidered textiles, and ceremonial regalia, Mystery and Benevolence transports us to  the “golden age” of American secret societies, when folk art and decorative art were brought together to confer a sense of legacy, status, and belonging in a newly established country.

Although we may know the mission and values of the Freemasons and Odd Fellows, we still find ourselves asking, “Why were they created, and why do they endure?” The enigmatic objects on view assume a profound and affecting sincerity, even as their highly-charged imagery fascinates, puzzles, and compels.

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.

Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper

Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper

“These nine contemporary Japanese artists are revisiting their nation’s traditional material and elevating it into a medium for expressive and often spectacular works of art.”
– Meher McArthur, Curator

Washi Transformed presents over thirty-five highly textured two-dimensional works, expressive sculptures, and dramatic installations that explore the astonishing potential of this traditional medium. In this exhibition, nine Japanese artists embrace the seemingly infinite possibilities of washi, underscoring the unique stature this ancient art form has earned in the realm of international contemporary art. The breathtaking creativity of these artistic visionaries deepens our understanding of how the past informs the present, and how it can build lasting cultural bridges out of something as seemingly simple and ephemeral as paper.

Washi Transformed features work by nine contemporary Japanese artists: Hina Aoyama, Eriko Horiki, Kyoko Ibe, Yoshio Ikezaki, Kakuko Ishii, Yuko Kimura, Yuko Nishimura, Takaaki Tanaka, and Ayomi Yoshida.

IA&A is proud to collaborate for a fourth time with Los Angeles-based historian of Japanese art Meher McArthur, curator of successful IA&A traveling exhibitions Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami (2012-2016) and Above the Fold: New Expressions in Contemporary Origami Art (2015-2020); and co-curator of Nature, Tradition and Innovation: Japanese Ceramics from the Gordon Brodfuehrer Collection (2016-2019).

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.

Front Row Center: Icons of Rock, Blues and Soul

Front Row Center: Icons of Rock, Blues, and Soul

“The job, as I see it, is to create a final image that portrays equally the public spectacle of the show and the private style and passion of the musician.”

-Larry Hulst

Front Row Center charts photographer Larry Hulst’s extraordinary path through the pulsing heart of the most exciting live music of the twentieth century, showcasing a unique visual anthology of rock, blues and soul music from 1970-1999. From Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to David Bowie and Lauryn Hill, this exhibition brings together over 70 images of legendary musicians, many of which have been featured on album art and Rolling Stone spreads. Front Row Center grants viewers an all-access pass to some of the most memorable performances in popular music history.

This traveling exhibition is an adaptation of Thirty Years of Rock & Roll: Photography by Larry Hulst, curated by the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and later presented at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center as Front Row Center: Icons of Rock, Blues and Soul.

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.

Global Language of Headwear: Cultural Identity, Rites of Passage, and Spirituality

The Global Language of Headwear: Cultural Identity, Rites of Passage, and Spirituality

The Global Language of Headwear: Cultural Identity, Rites of Passage, and Spirituality explores the vital role of ceremonial headwear throughout diverse cultural customs, beliefs, and rituals. Featuring approximately 89 hats and headdresses from 43 different countries spanning five continents, and organized into five distinct categories—Cultural Identity; Power, Prestige, and Status; Ceremonies and Celebrations; Spiritual Beliefs; and Protection—this exhibition showcases these mutual themes amid a range of traditions.

Each section draws compelling parallels across a global spectrum of regions and ethnicities represented in the exhibition. The beliefs and rituals of these many cultures, and the ceremonial objects that accompany them, ultimately unite an international community. Comparatively, both the Plains Indian feathered war bonnet and the Congolese Misango MaPende crown—though from vastly different regions and civilizations—represent a position of leadership and status, and only those who have earned the right to wear one may do so. The Global Language of Headwear colorfully demonstrates that each distinct society can be viewed through a similar lens of rites of passage, heritage, and identity.

 

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.

Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art

Memories and Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art

“Our goal is to preserve cultural memories and provide the community with a source of inspiration.”

– Kerry Davis, Collector

“In their rapture of appreciating the courageous acts of visual artists, Kerry and C. Betty Davis have created a cultural oasis in which their community can recognize, inform and celebrate themselves.”

– Tina Dunkley, former Clark Atlanta University museum director

Memories and Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art presents sixty-seven selected works from a body of art amassed over thirty-five years. Kerry, a retired mailman, and Betty, a former television news producer, have foregone many comforts to live with drawings, paintings, prints, and sculpture as their principal luxuries.  Their collection includes works by Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Ernest T. Crichlow, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, and Alma Thomas, but Kerry and Betty do not search exclusively for well-known and/or documented artists. Rather, they focus on “the importance of gathering and preserving a spectrum of approaches to the black image in order to console the psyche and contribute to a more authentic articulation of the self.”

The result is an eclectic gathering of works crossing different mediums, subjects, and styles by a group of artists of the African Diaspora who—in terms of training, experience, and expression—are strikingly diverse but unified in their use of cultural and historical narratives.  As their collection has grown, so has the Davises’ storehouse of memories of discovering new works of art, building friendships with artists, and conversing with museum professionals and other collectors in their home. They have also continued to expose their collection to family, friends, and church members who, while receptive to the fine arts, are unlikely to visit such local institutions as the High Museum of Art in Atlanta—prompting the artist Leon Nathaniel Hicks to refer to their residence as “a museum in a home.” Memories and Inspiration brings together an awe-inspiring selection of works, but it is their personal resonance—their connection to the Davises’ hopes, passions, and everyday lives—that gives the collection its unique power.

This show is fully booked, for general inquiries please contact travelingexhibitions@artsandartists.org.