CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Art Within Art: The Everson at 50 commemorates the 50th anniversary of architect I.M. Pei’s landmark Everson Museum of Art. The exhibition and associated programming explore Pei’s radical notion that the structure of a museum is as important as the art it contains, a belief that directly impacts curatorial choices in both art and programs. Including never before seen plans, photographs, models, ephemera, and archival materials alongside selected artworks from the Everson’s collection, Art Within Art examines the aesthetic and conceptual similarities between Pei’s building and the art it houses, revealing the lasting impact of great architecture.

(Re) Generation: Women Artists After 60 explores the creative and transformative power of age for women artists working and thriving in the contemporary art world. This exhibition is presented through the Everson’s Community exhibitions programs.

Showcasing the depth of the Everson’s collection, Highlights from the Permanent Collection presents 150 years of American art, from early nineteenth century portraiture to the Pop Art of the 1960s. This exhibition features many visitor favorites, including work by Albert Bierstadt, Eastman Johnson, Lee Krasner, Grandma Moses, Jackson Pollock, and Gilbert Stuart.

In celebration of the Everson’s 50th anniversary, the museum commissioned Thomas Spoerndle to create a site-specific wall drawing. Spoerndle was selected because of his interest in scale, geometric abstraction, and the ways his work creates a dialogue with artworks in the Museum’s Collection as well as architect I.M. Pei’s museum design.

In celebration of the Everson’s 50th anniversary, the Museum commissioned Elliott Katz to create site-specific installations for the spaces that architect I.M. Pei designed as planters. Katz was selected for the commission because of how his work engages with the significance of materials and questions how we form relationships to those materials, as well as his interest in contrasting the Modernist belief in controlling nature against the Wabi sabi belief in the fundamental uncontrollability of nature. Using natural and synthetic materials, photography, scale, and illusion, Katz’s serious and playful installations transform familiar objects into curious mysteries that defy simple categorization and ignite our imagination.

Since 2015, the Everson has acquired nearly 400 works for its collection, ranging from monumental installation pieces to small ceramic sculptures. This exhibition features a selection of these recent acquisitions, including work that has never before been on view. Acquired through generous gifts from donors and artists or purchased using the Museum’s acquisition funds, these works represent the Everson’s long-standing commitment to collecting and exhibiting the best of modern and contemporary art.

Founded in 1875, the Social Art Club is a women’s club dedicated to the study of art in a group setting. The Club has an extensive history of supporting the Everson, including financial support for the acquisition of some of the Museum’s most iconic pieces, such as Adrian Saxe’s Untitled vessel from 1980, which graces the cover of the Museum’s American Ceramics catalog. Over the past decade, the Social Art Club’s gifts have strengthened the Everson’s connections to Central New York through donations of work by indigenous and regional artists.