Selected Curatorial Work
In Collaboration: Roger Shimomura & The Lawrence Lithography Workshop
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
February 2 - March 25, 2018
Roger Shimomura (b. 1939) uses art to explore his Japanese American identity in a style that combines his childhood interest in comic books, American Pop art, and traditional Japanese woodblock prints. His work addresses socio-political issues of ethnicity and has often been inspired by the diaries kept by his late immigrant grandmother. Born in Seattle, Shimomura spent two years of his childhood at Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho where his family was interned during World War II along with other Americans of Japanese descent. This exhibition surveys over 25 years of lithographs which are collaborations between Shimomura and master printer Michael Sims.
Light & Shadow: Paintings & Drawings by Philip Koch from Edward Hopper's Studio
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute INFebruary 2 - March 25, 2017
As a graduate painting student at Indiana University, Philip Koch was working abstractly until he rediscovered the “glowing light and dramatic shadows” of Edward Hopper, which inspired the young artist to begin painting realistically. Since 1983, Philip Koch has completed 16 residencies in Hopper’s home and studio in Truro, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Spending time in the spaces inhabited by Hopper, seeing the same views, and experiencing the play of light and shadow in the rooms has provided Koch with a unique understanding of Hopper’s work and process. The exhibition provided new perspectives on Hopper’s 1941 painting of a house in Cape Cod titled Route 6, Eastham from the Swope’s founding permanent collection.
15 Minutes of Fame: Works by Andy Warhol
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
March 3 - Apri 1, 2017
In February 1968 Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) exhibited his first international retrospective exhibition at the Moderna Museet gallery in Stockholm. The exhibition brochure contained the quote: "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes." This exhibition explores Warhol’s preoccupation with fame and features ten screenprints of actress Marilyn Monroe from the Swope’s permanent collection. Monroe, a commercial commodity known to millions around the world, was an ideal subject for the mass reproduction techniques that were at the foundation of Warhol’s art from the 1960s. The Marilyn Monroe series of ten screenprints is based on Gene Korman’s publicity photograph for the 1953 film Niagara. This project was the first portfolio published by Factory Additions and the first containing ten prints of the same subject. The exhibition also includes work on loan from the permanent collection of Indiana State University.
In February 1968 Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) exhibited his first international retrospective exhibition at the Moderna Museet gallery in Stockholm. The exhibition brochure contained the quote: "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes." This exhibition explores Warhol’s preoccupation with fame and features ten screenprints of actress Marilyn Monroe from the Swope’s permanent collection. Monroe, a commercial commodity known to millions around the world, was an ideal subject for the mass reproduction techniques that were at the foundation of Warhol’s art from the 1960s. The Marilyn Monroe series of ten screenprints is based on Gene Korman’s publicity photograph for the 1953 film Niagara. This project was the first portfolio published by Factory Additions and the first containing ten prints of the same subject. The exhibition also includes work on loan from the permanent collection of Indiana State University.
Freezing a Moment of Time: Architectural Drawings of Miller & Yeager
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
November 3 - December 31, 2017
This exhibition features architectural drawings and historical photographs from the Terre Haute architectural firm of Miller and Yeager, who designed the Swope Block's second floor when the Museum was founded in 1942 as the Sheldon Swope Art Gallery. From the 1910s through the 1970s, the firm designed some of Terre Haute's most prominent civic, commercial, educational, and residential buildings. In addition to its civic commissions, the firm designed a number of homes along Terre Haute’s Ohio Boulevard and several Revival-style houses in the Edgewood Grove neighborhood. Freezing a Moment of Time is presented in partnership with Indiana Landmarks and Ball State University's Drawings & Documents Archive.
Painting in the Peaceful Valley: The Hoosier Group & Indiana Impressionism
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
January 22 – March 19, 2016
The Swope celebrates the Indiana Bicentennial with this exhibition of work by the Hoosier Group—a colony of Indiana Impressionist painters who worked in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The group first received their name in 1894 by Chicago art critic Hamlin Garland during an exhibition at the Denison Hotel in Indianapolis. The Hoosier Group (comprised of artists T.C. Steele, William Forsyth, John Ottis Adams, Otto Stark, and Richard Gruelle) is primarily known for their depictions of the Indiana landscape.
Perfection, Space & Contemplation: Leroy Lamis
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
April 1 – June 4, 2016
Leroy Lamis (1925 - 2010) was an American sculptor, digital artist and art educator known for his work in Plexiglas. Lamis taught at Indiana State University from 1961 - 1988, where he influenced many young sculptors. Geometry formed the basis of his sculptures from the 1960s, as he cut colored Plexiglas into cubes, stacked it in layers, and glued it together. In 1965, Lamis described his artistic process by saying, “My work has something to do with perfection, space, and contemplation.” In addition to work from the Swope's collection, the exhibition includes work from the permanent collection of Indiana State University.
Good Intentions: Two Unrealized Projects by Gilbert Brown Wilson
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
July 1 - August 27, 2016
Terre Haute native Gilbert Brown Wilson (1907 – 1991) was known for his large-scale murals. This exhibition featured two of Wilson's visionary projects: 1954 drawings for an animated film titled "Old Mister World and the Hue-Mans: A Fable of the Earth and the Atom" and mural studies painted in the mid-1970s for a public library in Frankfort, Kentucky. Unfortunately, neither project came to fruition. Wilson's concern about atomic energy is a common theme in the projects. The murals were based on Wilson's favorite book—Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which Wilson interpreted as a guide for humanity's future in the atomic age. This exhibition is an official Indiana Bicentennial Legacy Project.
Robert Indiana: Decade Portfolio
Swope Art Museum | Terre Haute IN
December 4, 2015 – February 20, 2016
The Decade portfolio features Robert Indiana’s signature style, defined by bold, geometric shapes along with words, numbers, and names of people and places that held a special meaning for him. Each of the ten prints in the portfolio recreates an important painting Indiana made during the 1960s, recounting Indiana’s artistic output from the transformative decade year by year. The artist, who was born Robert Clark (1928 - 2018) in New Castle, IN, changed his last name in 1958 to correspond to his home state. This exhibition includes an illustrated timeline of the decade and object labels with QR codes, allowing visitors to find out more about each of Indiana's serigraphs.