Jordan Eagles: Red Giant

September 21, 2013 - January 5, 2014

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death and rebirth. Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title,RED GIANT,refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution — what our Sun will become in five billion years — while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions. 

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest andWired.

The Art of Video Games

October 26, 2013 - January 19, 2014

Part of a ten-city national tour, The Art of Video Games is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

The Art of Video Games focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable games—Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flower—show how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including “The Art of Video Games Anthem” recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Sponsored by Cannon Pools and Carrier Corporation.

Media Sponsorship provided by CNY Central, Syracuse New Times, WCNY and WRVO.

The Art of Video Gamesis organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from the Entertainment Software Association Foundation; Sheila Duignan and Mike Wilkins; Shelby and Frederick Gans; Mark Lamia; Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk; Rose Family Foundation; Betty and Lloyd Schermer; and Neil Young. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, “Treasures to Go.”

Image: Sonic Adventure, Yuki Naka, Keith Palmer, producers; Takasi Iizuka, director; Kazuyuki Hoshino, art director, SEGA Dreamcast, 1999, © SEGA. All Rights Reserved.

Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums

April 19, 2014 - July 13, 2014

Part of a six-city international tour, with 41 works by some of the greatest names in European art—including Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, Domenichino, Francesco Guardi, Salvator Rosa, and Titian—“Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums”will examine the evolution of thematic and stylistic trends in Italian art from religious paintings of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance to secular neoclassical and genre paintings of the nineteenth century. The remarkable regional and historical breadth of the exhibition will also showcase the outstanding quality of Glasgow Museums’ collection.

The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts and Glasgow Museums. In-kind support is provided by Barbara and Richard S. Lane. Major funding is provided by M&T Bank.

Image: Sandro Botticelli, The Annunciation, ca. 1490–95. Tempera on panel. Glasgow Museums; Bequeathed by Archibald McLellan, 1854.

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond

October 18, 2014 - January 4, 2015

The exhibition presents 100 paintings, sculpture, and photographs by 43 African American artists from the premier collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, more than half of which are being shown for the first time. The exhibition features artists who came to prominence during the period bracketed by the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement. Some trained in this country's most prestigious art schools, others in the ateliers of Paris. Many were teachers; others worked at whatever jobs allowed them time to create. All participated in multivalent dialogues about art, black identity, and the rights of the individual that engaged American society throughout the 20th century. The exhibition includes works by James Van der Zee, Robert McNeill, Richmond Barthe, Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Thornton Dial, Sargent Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Charles Searles, Romare Bearden, James Porter and Alma Thomas.

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from Alston & Bird, Amherst Holdings, LLC, Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation, Larry Irving and Leslie Wiley, William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowment Fund, Clarence Otis and Jacqui Bradley, PEPCO. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the Smithsonian American Art Museum's traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.

Image: Romare Bearden, In the Garden from the Prevalence of Ritual Suite, 1974, screenprint, gift of Byron Lewis.