Special Exhibits
Main Gallery
Tattoo: Identity Through Ink
Exhibit Opening, Friday, Aug. 18, 6 p.m.
Exhibit Closes on Sunday, Nov. 26
From the Vesterheim Museum, this exhibit tells the story of why people have adorned their bodies with tattoos. It explores the global history of tattooing, from Otzi the Iceman to Indigenous tattoo rituals still in practice today. This global perspective then moves to Scandinavia, home to the world’s oldest continually operating tattoo shop and explores the rise of Neo-Nordic tattoos.
Bonader
Exhibit Opens, Friday, Dec. 9, 10 a.m.
Exhibit Closes on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024
One of the most remarkable examples of Scandinavian folk art is the painted picture indigenous to the Swedish peasant home. The commonly used name for these peasant paintings is bonader, and their provenance was to decorate the walls and ceilings of the homes at Christmas time and on feast days, thus adding a note of color and gaiety to the otherwise dark interiors. Between festivities, these canvas or paper panels were taken down and carefully kept, to become a part of the family inheritance. The collection of bonader at the Museum is a collection of extraordinary works on linen and paper, with vegetable and mineral pigments that achieve arrays of color. They were sized for specific wall spaces and hung unframed. Several of the artists were identified, and more than 100 may have practiced the craft. Donated to the Museum in 2000 by the Art Institute of Chicago, the 29 Bonader represent the eighth largest known collection. They originated in 1931 among acquisitions from world traveler Florence Dibell Bartlett of Chicago. Inspired by what she viewed as a decline in creation of folk art, Bartlett acquired pieces she found in 37 countries. She was the founder in 1953 of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Raoul Wallenberg Gallery
The Spirit of Place: Earth is Home
Lithography by Kurt Seaberg
Exhibit Opening, Friday, June 23, 6 p.m.
Exhibit Closes on Sunday, Oct. 15
Kurt Seaberg is a Sami-American artist currently residing in Minnesota. He was born in Chicago, IL, and studied intaglio and lithography at the University of Minnesota. Nature has always been a theme and source of inspiration in his work and the particular spiritual qualities he finds there. He believes one of the tasks of an artist is to remind us where our strength and power lies – in beauty, community, and sense of place. Seaberg uses his art to connect with his Sami heritage and his father, who was an artist as well. This exhibit showcases Seaberg’s lithographs which connect you to natural, beautiful landscapes.
Some of My Own
By Jenny Mörtsell
Exhibit Opening, Friday, Oct. 27, 6 p.m.
Exhibit Closes on Sunday, March 3, 2024
Some of my own is a series of pencil drawings about being a Swede raising kids in America and being an American raising kids in Sweden. It is also about finding happiness in small everyday moments of beauty when things don’t go as planned.
Jenny Mörtsell is a Swedish illustrator. After several years studying art and earning a MA in Graphic Design and Illustration at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in she relocated to New York working with clients as New York Times Magazine, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Roberto Cavalli, Harry’s, Wealthsimple, Wallpaper, Whyred, Refinery 29, Outdoor Voices, Aritzia, Urban Outfitters, ELLE, Vogue, Lula, Grey Magazine, The Last Magazine, NYLON, Target, Fossil, The Swedish Post, The California Sunday Magazine, Twin Shadow, Aziz Ansari, Martin Rev. She is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden
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