2023 Past Exhibitions
Surge: Mapping Transition, Displacement, and Agency in Times of Climate Change
October 14, 2023 - January 21, 2024
Re Building, from the Latin in re: "in the matter of" or "regarding"
On the occasion of completing upgrades to the museum’s HVAC system and building’s roof, the exhibition Re Building celebrates the Museum of Northwest Art’s Permanent Collection and its role writ large in building up and cementing the reputation of the institution as a remarkable repository of the modern and contemporary trajectory of Northwest art.
Image: Jack McLarty, Breakfast at Clearcut, 1975, oil on canvas, 24” x 24”, MoNA Permanent Collection, gift of Manuel Izquierdo Trust
Margaret Davidson: Leading with Drawing
August 5 - October 1, 2023
Margaret Davidson: Leading with Drawing, offers a double take on drawing, by featuring a selection of the artist’s works in conversation with drawings from the museum Permanent Collection, specially hand-picked by Davidson herself. Many of these pieces have never been seen before.
Image: Margaret Davidson, “Indian Corn,” n.d, Colored pencil on paper
In partnership with the Skagit Climate Science Consortium, MoNA is bringing back Surge: Mapping Transition, Displacement, and Agency in Times of Climate Change, an exhibition drawing attention to climate change and its tangible effects on the Northwest’s Coastal communities.
As in the previous editions, Surge: Mapping Transition, Displacement, and Agency in Times of Climate Change will engage artists to work with environmental researchers and educators to present the public with new perspectives on issues such as flooding, storm surge, coastal erosion, glacier retreat, through exhibits, lectures and education programs as well as participatory art activities.
Image: Melinda Hurst Frye, Regeneration I, 2023, Photograph (archival digital print), 40" x 50"
Solid Foundation / Permeable Walls
Outside In Gallery
August 5 - October 1, 2023
This exhibition Illustrates the myriad ways the Museum's mission is built and strengthened through creative collaborations within our community. Visitors can explore how MoNA's Education and Outreach programs draw upon the solid foundations of the Museum's service to the community to dissolve barriers and invite the community to actively participate in building MoNA's educational programs.
Permanent Immigrant: Italo Scanga in the Dale and Leslie Chihuly Collection
February 18 - May 14, 2023
Curated by Matthew Kangas
Permanent Immigrant: Italo Scanga in the Dale and Leslie Chihuly Collection draws extensively from the private collection of the artist’s long-time friend to demonstrate the wide range of subjects accompanied by recurrent autobiographical themes such as the cypress tree, the hills of Calabria, food, animals and architecture. Italo Scanga’s art is a link to post-war Italian art known as “poor” art or Arte Povera: the use of humble found materials in undemonstrative installation sites. In addition, his painted wooden figures made at Pilchuck Glass School at the invitation of Dale Chihuly are key examples of the rise of Neo-Expressionism in American art of the 1980s. They re-introduce personal content such as consumerism, alcoholism, inclement weather, and the primacy of food. Kangas combines the tall sculptures with other assemblages treating aspects of the Roman Catholic Church.
Italo Scanga, Potato Famine (with Madonna), 1979, Wood, potatoes, cloth, plaster, and acrylic, 41” x 10” x 8”
Geppetto’s Children: Italo Scanga at Pilchuck Glass School
February 18 - May 14, 2023
Curated by Matthew Kangas
Geppetto’s Children: Italo Scanga at Pilchuck Glass School mixes more examples of the artist’s work executed during many summer residencies at Pilchuck with those of well-known artists invited to join him as Artists-in-Residence. They include Lynda Benglis, Donald Lipski, Deborah Butterfield, Buster Simpson, Laddie John Dill and Judy Pfaff.
Their works on paper and experiments with glass are accompanied by pioneer Pilchuck glass artists including the first Italian glass artists to visit the US (Francesco Ongaro, Lino Tagliapietra, Fabio Fornasier, Pino Signoretto, Dino Rosin) and established glass artists such as Benjamin Moore, William Morris, Mary Shaffer, Charles Parriott, Therman Statom, Walter Lieberman, Stanislav Libenský and Vera Brychtová. Together, working with Scanga and Chihuly, glass was introduced into the mainstream of contemporary American art.
Learning the Language of Art: MoNA Link Student Art Exhibition
February 18 - May 14, 2023
Curated by Nicolette Harrington
This exhibition of student art is much more than wonderful pictures on the wall; it is a celebration of the learning and accomplishments of the K-12 students and teachers that participated in the MoNA Link program in 2022 working to integrate art into classroom curriculum using many different art media.
For 20 years, MoNA Link has provided meaningful art experiences for students by reaching out to the community that surrounds every classroom. The eloquent evidence in this student exhibition speaks volumes about growing minds and their ability to make meaningful work using the language of art.