Ansel Adams
A Legacy
June 7 - October 13

Curated by William Sherman, Founding Director, OpenGrounds, and William Wylie, Adjunct Curator of Photography and Associate Chair for Studio Art, McIntire Department of Art

The photographs of the Meredith Collection are original works of legendary American photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984). Documenting the arc of his prolific career between the late 1920s and the early 1980s, the collection includes early works as Adams first explored his medium, and masterworks from his most productive period dating from the late 1930s through the 1950s. More >

Ansel Adams, American, 1902–1984. Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1940. Gelatin silver print, 15 5/8 x 19 in, 14.29 x 48.26 cm. Collection of Lynn and Tom Meredith, 1.78.024. Photograph courtesy of Center for Creative Photography. © 2013 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Looking at the New West
Contemporary Landscape Photography
June 7 - December 15

Curated by William Wylie, Adjunct Curator of Photography and Associate Chair for Studio Art, McIntire Department of Art

This exhibition will feature six contemporary photographers—Robert Adams, Lois Conner, Michael Lundgren, Mike Osborne, Mark Ruwedel, and Joni Sternbach—who engage the landscape of the American West as their subject. More >

Mike Osborne, American. Vertellus (Peak), 2012. Archival inkjet print, 28 x 35 in, 71.12 x 88.9 cm. Courtesy of the artist. © Mike Osborne

Frenemies
Animals in Art
June 7 - August 4

Curated by Stephen Margulies, Volunteer Curator

Are animals our friends or our enemies? Are we ourselves animals or are animals alien to us? Although humans have defined themselves through their "superiority" to animals, we admire them, love them, and have often turned them into myth, allegory, or even divinity. More >

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. Rhinoceros, 1515. Woodcut, Meder third edition, 10 x 12 in, 25.4 x 30.48 cm (sheet). Gift of the Honorable Hugh S. Cumming, 1982.30.5

From Alaska to the Mountain Peaks of Central Mexico
Depicting Native American Life in the Late Nineteenth Century
June 7 - August 4

Curated by Mary Jo Ayers, Adjunct Curator of Native American Art, and Diane Boucher, Guest Curator

This exhibition considers the ways in which photographers and artists represented Native American life in the late nineteenth century, a period in which the culture of these indigenous peoples was rapidly disappearing. Photographers documented what they believed to be a "dying" culture, while painters and sculptors romanticized the American Indian in a desire to portray an essential part of American history. More >

Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American, 1866–1947. The Sun Vow, 1899, cast 1919. Bronze, 33 x 21 x 23 in, 83.8 x 53.3 x 58.4 cm. Courtesy of Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk VA, Gift of The Norfolk Society of the Arts, 32.6.1

Becoming the Butterfly
Landscapes of James McNeill Whistler
January 25 - April 28

Portraits of James McNeill Whistler
April 30 - August 4

Curated by Emilie Johnson, Luzak-Lindner Graduate Fellow

Best known for his painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, the famous portrait of his mother, and his well-publicized legal battle with the English art critic John Ruskin, the American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) often garners as much attention for his flamboyant personality as for his artistic production. More >

James McNeill Whistler, American, 1834-1903. Seymour Haden, Jr, Seated, 1857-1858. Etching, 5 3⁄8 x 3 3⁄4 in, 13.65 x 9.53 cm (image). Gift of John Barton Payne, 1920.2.69

Jean Arp
Oriforme

Jean Arp’s Oriforme, on long-term loan from the National Gallery of Art, exemplifies the approach to abstraction with which the artist is most closely associated; the sculpture will be on view on The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Entrance Plaza in front of The Fralin beginning March 25, 2013. More >

Jean Arp, French, b. Germany (Alsace), 1886–1966. Oriforme, model 1962, fabricated 1977. Stainless steel, 89 3/4 x 84 1/2 x 23 5/8 in, 227.9 x 214.6 x 60 cm. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, To the American People in Gratitude—Leon Chalette, Arthur Lejwa, and Madeleine Chalette Lejwa, 1978.22.1.

Object Study Gallery

The Object Study Gallery has approximately 140 objects on view, including Chinese bronzes, ceramics and sculpture; ancient Mediterranean coins, glass and marble sculpture; pre-Columbian ceramics; and African masks and figures. More >

UVaM's new Object Study Gallery