The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) is an independent organization that exhibits, collects, and preserves modern and contemporary art to provide transformative experiences that educate, reflect, and inspire us as individuals and a community.
MMoCA fosters the exchange of ideas and creates experiences to inspire a wide audience. It is a nexus for the work of emerging and established regional, national, and international artists, serving as a catalyst for the continued development of a vigorous community of artists and provides a forum encouraging people to be challenged by, reflect on, and make connections between art and the world around them.
Designed by world-renowned architect César Pelli, the Museum offers 51,500 sq. ft. of interior space, as well as the 7,100 sq. ft. Rooftop Sculpture Garden. Public amenities include spacious galleries that host rotating exhibitions, a 230-seat lecture hall, and a study center for drawings, prints, and photographs.
MMoCA presents lectures, discussions, tours, and educational programming free of charge at the Museum. Additionally, MMoCA partners with regional artists for the bi-annual Gallery Night, provides a mobile art classroom to the region, and transforms downtown Madison for the annual Art Fair on the Square.
Always admission-free. Museum exhibitions and most education programs at MMoCA are also free to the public.
Image Courtesy of Sharon Vanorny
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Taking its title from one of the artist’s signature works in MMoCA’s collection, Vertical Amnesia will center this often overlooked and at times forgotten artist within the Chicago Imagist group. Gaining visibility in this contemporary moment, Christina Ramberg utilized a dizzying amalgam of “found” visual materials—a singular cartoon cel, sewing patterns, fabric grains and textures, girdles and cinchers, wisps of hair and fur—to create works that center on the forgotten, concealed, or overlooked. Even her preferred substrate of Masonite allowed Ramberg to render her brushstrokes nearly invisible. Providing a unique perspective on the world of women and their clothing, her delicate works have garnered great attention in recent years for opening a gateway to discussing femininity, femme, and the gaze. Often read as fetishistic representations, the artist described her work as stemming from her own interest in clothing and how it can be used to talk about the female body.
Image: Christina Ramberg, Vertical Amnesia, 1980. Acrylic on Masonite, 49 1/4 x 37 1/4 inches. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Museum Purchase, through funds from George and Sally Johnson and the Rudolph and Louise Langer Fund. © The Estate of Christina Ramberg
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The French term mise-en-scène translates to “put into the scene” and describes everything included on a stage or movie set: the props, costumes, scenery, lighting, and other details that characterize a space. In real life these elements are not merely a backdrop; instead, they are a visible manifestation of distinct and unique individuals. Each object within our personal space reflects how we shape our world and present ourselves to others.
Organized by the 2022-2023 Teen Forum, MISE-EN-SCÈNElooks outward and considers the intersection of art and one’s environment. Exploring how inspiration can come from anywhere—looking out a bedroom window, laughing with friends, the changing seasons, or simply waiting at a bus stop–the eleven featured teen artists from Dane County reflect on how chance encounters with their surroundings influence and inform their creativity.
Image: Eva H., Consumption, 2022. Collage, 9.5 x 12 inches. Courtesy of the Artist.
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After a hiatus due to the pandemic, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is excited to announce the return of Young at Art.
As part of a long-standing collaboration with the Fine Arts Department of the Madison Metropolitan School District, works of art created by students are displayed in the museum, offering student artists from kindergarten through 12th grade the opportunity to see their work in the galleries.
Each of Madison’s public school art teachers is invited to submit up to three works of art for the exhibition; a wide array of techniques, subject matter, and mediums are represented, including drawing, painting, photography, collage, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics, fiber, found objects, and multi-media art.
Not only is Young at Art a showcase to the creative potential and possibilities of youth, but the exhibition also highlights the high caliber of art instruction in Madison’s public schools and the dedication of Madison’s school teachers.
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In her first solo museum exhibition, Chicago-based new media and performance artist Ava Wanbli brings her video game-based work Sertraline Dolls (2021–22) to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. On view in the Imprint Gallery from April 1–October 8, 2023, the exhibition will invite visitor engagement with the game.
Sertraline Dolls is a first-person, single-player game merging multiple formats of the artist’s body. It provides a meditation on self-production through sexual expression and consumption of the body. The viewer, who themselves become an active participant in the work, encounters multiple representations of the artist’s body, each taken from 3D scans over a period of six years that include various poses, guises, and personas.
Set in a cyberpunk-inspired futuristic wasteland, the player must navigate the disorienting landscape, encountering body after body, each reflective of various stages of the artist’s transition and experience as a trans woman. The player encounters these renderings of the artist as they attempt to complete each task of the game and collect various objects needed to move on to the next level. The work reflects on the complexities of what it means to be a trans woman in sex work and in the world against a neo-gothic background that is both psychedelic and comforting to viewers who have spent time in open-world games.
Says Wanbli, “A glitch is not the broken aspect of a system but instead is exposing the innards of the system that is in itself broken. In this, the trans body is a glitch to a broken system of gender and sex that is in need of reworking.”
The fourth level of the game, designed to be attainable to audiences during a visit to the gallery, is set in a soothing, meditative space. The player is rewarded for their interactive efforts with the culmination of the game—a video work. The video piece, depicting animated women with angel wings dancing against a pastel backdrop, is a reflection on rebirth and death that revolves around the temporalities of trans bodies. The video, in the words of the artist, is a “heavenly strange party space for the girls to dance.”
Nix Campbell is a lighting designer and installation artist based in Chicago. As a queer, transgender individual, crafting environments that provide grounding moments between the mind and the body through the relationship of sound, light, and movement has been a lifelong study.
Music
Special Interest
Song: ” A Depravity Such As This…”
Jocelyn Bade
Soundtrack Composition
ashanti Owusu-Brafi
Soundtrack Composition
Large-print exhibition labels are available in English and Spanish. There is a brief strobe-like effect within the artwork featured in Imprint Gallery.
Image: Ava Wanbli, Sertraline Dolls, 2021–22. Screenshot.
On view: Main Galleries (Second Floor)
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) will present Floyd Newsum’s first large-scale retrospective, which will reflect on the Memphis-born artist’s entire practice, including his paintings, printmaking, and public art commissions. With a career spanning nearly 50 years, Newsum invites viewers to look closely at his works in order to provoke them into further consideration of the personalized signs and imagery that he utilizes. Each work captures the deeply personal history of the artist with family photographs and symbols veiled by richly layered color and textures that create tactile surfaces. As Newsum explains, “My career covers 50-plus years of creating works of art that are exploring color, marks, and surfaces in various mediums. I call my evolution in creativity a problem-solving event of expression of the soul.”
The exhibition will be organized by two guest curators, Dr. Lauren Cross and Mark Cervenka, who will collectively engage in a dialogue that reflects on the depth and extent of the artist’s production. Rather than curating a traditional retrospective, Cervenka will look back to Newsum’s foundational pieces and Cross will bring attention to work made in the last few unprecedented years. This collaboration will result in a nesting exhibition of early works in conversation with the artist’s most recent series.
Floyd Newsum graduated from Memphis College of Art, Tennessee, with a BFA in 1973 and from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an MFA in 1975. His public art projects in Texas include the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, two Houston Metro Light Rail Station art designs, seven sculptures for Houston’s Main Street Square Station, four paintings in the Commerce Building of the University of Houston-Downtown, a suspended sculpture for the lobby of the Acres Home Multi-Service Center in Houston, and five suspended sculptures for the lobby of the Hazel Harvey Peace Building in Fort Worth, Texas. His paintings and prints are in private collections, public museums, universities, and other public institutions, including: University of Maryland, College Park; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas; Xavier University, New Orleans, Louisiana; and Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others. He was one of ten artists to receive the 2008 Artadia Artist Grant from New York. He is the former coordinator of the art studio sections in the Department of Arts and Communication at the University of Houston-Downtown and teaches courses in drawing, painting, and art appreciation.
Image: Floyd Newsum, Sirigu Janie’s Journey, 2018. Acrylic and oil on paper with collage elements, 55 x 95 inches. Courtesy of the Artist.
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Image: Sam Gilliam, Butterfly Days, 1986. Printed acetate and painted wood on printed, handmade couched paper with string embedded, 43 x 53 1/2 inches. Gift of Sue Steinmann and Bill Weege, Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Metamorphosis features the Colombian-born, Miami-based artist Federico Uribe’s magical, colorful, and sculptural menagerie of animals made of everyday materials. Colorful shotgun casings and golden varying caliber bullets are brought together to form a lion; leather sneakers are arranged into a leaping puma; and an army helmet becomes a turtle’s shell. In an interview, Uribe underlines the irony inherent in his choice of materials: “People kill animals to make shoes; I make animals out of shoes.” One might then think that the artist intends to alert viewers to the senseless killing of animals. But, instead, Uribe aims to use ordinary and sometimes provocative materials to challenge associations; the goal is against the grain and utopian — or, as he says, to “make people happy” — in spite of preconceived connotations. Uribe shape-shifts feelings of sorrow, rage, and despair to create positive, immersive environments.
Image: Federico Uribe, Panda Bear, 2018. Bullet Shells, 60 x 52 x 48 inches. Courtesy of the Artist.
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Together, art, math, and science explore and seek out unknown worlds and concepts projecting future and undiscovered realities. Artists utilizing mathematical iterative processes, such as Charles Gaines, those exploring modeling the infinite, such as Bruce Conner, and Erika Blumenfeld, who reflects the scientific realm, reveal new ways of looking that open dialogues on potentialities.
Pairing works from the MMoCA collection with contemporary artists engaged in similar pursuits, the exhibition postulates that science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), have coalesced within the collection for the last half-century. Further research into the history of donors and the relationship with the University of Wisconsin-Madison infers an inherent interest in seeking out the mathematical and scientific in art. For example, renowned mathematician and professor at UW-Madison Rudolph Langer provided the founding gift of artwork that established MMoCA’s collection.
Complemented by humanities-based programming, collaboration with K-12 educators, and onsite activities for families in the Learning and Activity Centers, the exhibition will utilize data visualization techniques to develop conversations around the vital role of the arts and humanities in conjunction with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Image: Michelle Grabner, Untitled, c. 2005. Painting, 44 x 45 inches. Gift of Nancy Mladenoff and J.J. Murphy, Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Staffs guide the Teen Forum members as they organize the exhibition; from developing an exhibition concept, conducting research, selecting works, and considering the install layout, to writing explanatory labels and creating educational programming.
The Teen Forum exhibition is on view in the Henry Street Gallery from March 21–July 21, 2024.
Image: David R. Harper, Rhopos V, 2012. giclée print on canvas, cotton embroidery floss, 34 x 28 inches. Gift from the Kohler Foundation, Inc.
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Known for his imaginative approach towards combining various genres with sensuous materials, the artist reimagines historical narratives and myths to underscore the erasure of the Black and immigrant experience. In his early depictions of a mythical, hot-house world filled with an almost all-female cast, (Rhombus, 2010) the artist turns to the art historical canon to wryly comment on the struggle for artistic acceptance and reassess African-American artistic histories.
More recently, Villalongo utilizes myth and history to expand our understanding of Black culture and its layered past throughout the millennia. Villalongo’s large-scale mixed-media series of a single Black male protagonist enveloped within a swirling mix of cultural artifacts and natural elements emphasizes transformation, resilience, and beauty (Black Metamorphosis 1452, 2020). Metaphorically suggesting a Black subject who continually modifies and redefines one’s identity while navigating the world through time and space, Villalongo’s compositions call attention to the fraught condition of Black life as they simultaneously honor the transformative powers of the human spirit.
This exhibition is organized by the Grinnell College Museum of Art.
Image: William Villalongo, Black Metamorphosis 1452, 2020. Acrylic, cut velour paper, and pigment print collage, 80 x 40 inches. Courtesy of Eileen and Richard Ekstract.
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Richard Hunt is best known for his large public sculptures, but this exhibition shows a different side of his work. With artworks such as Untitled, 1978 the improvisational and abstract nature of his sculptural work is manifested on paper using the language of gestural abstraction. Other artworks, such as Paper Piece I, 1978, highlight the artist’s exploration of materiality, as he built paper pulp into a layered composition. Connecting the two-dimensional works in the exhibition are a pair of sculptures that echo the free-flowing abstract forms that Hunt explored throughout his career. One of these sculptures, Untitled, 1981 is marked by bronze disease, a type of corrosion that occurs when chlorides come into contact with bronze or other copper alloys. This exhibition offers an educational discussion of the preservation and conservation practices required to maintain the artwork in MMoCA’s permanent collection and preserve the legacy of Richard Hunt.
Image: Richard Hunt, Untitled, 1978. Lithograph on paper. 16 x 11 inches. © 2024 The Richard Hunt Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Christopher A. Graf
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Members Preview • 5–6 PM • Main Galleries
MMoCA Members are invited to preview the exhibition Broken Spectre before it opens to the public. Be one of the first to explore the Main Galleries and experience the film, and photographs documenting the unseen devastation of the Amazon river basin.
Richard Mosse Artist Talk • 6–7 PM • Lecture Hall
Artist Richard Mosse will be on site to share insight and inspiration for his artistic practice including the process for filming, Broken Spectre, on view in the Main Galleries.
Reception • 7–8 PM • Museum Lobby
Grab a drink from the cash bar, listen to music by Emili Earhart, and mingle with friends and fellow art lovers. Or, explore the current exhibitions in the Museum including Line to Form: Richard Hunts Prints and Sculptures and I did not tell you what I saw, but only what I dreamt by Shilpa Gupta.
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The 20 artworks in the exhibition were collected by Madison residents Rudolph and Louise Langer which formed part of the foundational gift to the Museum’s permanent collection in 1968. This presentation of Langer Bequest prints not only prompts conversations about the history of Japanese printmaking but also is a reminder of MMoCA’s foundational strength in prints. Reengaging with these prints in a contemporary setting invites the larger discussion of how our relationship with and understanding of the collection shifts over extended periods of time and in new contexts.
Ukiyo-e: “floating world pictures,” prints from the Edo and Meiji era. The “floating world” refers to the world of entertainment and pleasure, with common subjects being courtesans, actors, mythology, and flora and fauna
Shin-hanga: “new prints,” twentieth-century prints. The term was coined in 1915 by Shozaburo Watanabe, the foremost publisher of shin-hanga. Stylistic changes include depth of field and different approaches to perspective, influenced by the wider availability of Western art in Japan.
Living Gallery: the Botany of Bird and Blossom
Saturday, February 22 • 10 AM – 6 PM
Indoor Nature Walk of Bird and Blossom
Saturday, March 8 • 2 PM
Bird and Blossom Curator Talk with Eleanor Pschirrer-West
Friday, March 14 • 12 PM
Image: Shoson Ohara, “Flycatchers in Snow,” 1929. woodblock, 14 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Gift of Louise Langer.
Images of environmental destruction dominate the news: the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, flooding caused by rising sea levels, devastating wildfires sparked by drought, oil spills destroying marine ecosystems, and extreme temperatures creating dangerous conditions for plant, animal, and human life. It is no wonder that protecting the environment is one of the most important issues for Gen Z.
Green Over Grey: The Art of Adaptation challenges us to hope in the face of dangers at the dawn of the Anthropocene, the current period in Earth’s history defined by humanity’s impact on the planet and its ecosystems. And yet, this era could also be defined by Nature’s resilience and tenacity. Through frank depictions of eco-anxiety, fantastical elements, and science-fiction embellishments, this exhibition explores how Nature can survive, adapt, and even flourish despite human influence.
Featuring artwork created by Dane County high school artists, Green Over Grey: The Art of Adaptation was organized by the Museum’s Teen Forum. The group worked together to conceive, plan, and install this exhibition and its related programming, under the guidance of the Museum’s Education department. The 2024-2025 Teen Forum consists of Carmela R., Electra C., Eli H., Luci P., Madeleine B., Natalie V., Quinn F., Shay R.L., Hugh S., and Tyler S.
Young at Art showcases the creativity and imagination of the next generation of artists by offering students the opportunity to see their work on display in the museum’s galleries.
Featuring drawings, paintings, photographs, collages, sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, fiber, found objects, collaborative projects, and multi-media art, the exhibition highlights the talents of students from kindergarten through grade 12.
Whether inspired by personal experiences, societal issues, experimentation with color and line, or the beauty of nature, the exhibition demonstrates young people’s ability to comprehend and address contemporary issues, including identity, environmentalism, technology, and social justice.
Each of Madison’s public school art teachers is invited to submit works of art for inclusion as part of this long-standing collaboration with the Fine Arts Department of the Madison Metropolitan School District.
Young at Art not only features the development of artistic technique and skill, but the courage of young people to experiment, innovate, and engage critically with the world around them. Most importantly, it calls attention to the inherent possibility in Gen Z, and the possibilities of creative expression for years to come.
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The title of the exhibition is a transposition of the phrase “foreign in a domestic sense,” which is how US Supreme Court Justice Henry Brown described Puerto Rico in his 1901 decision that placed the island as neither fully part of the United States nor an independent country. This contradictory statement led to years of uncertainty for Puerto Rico.
This paradoxical nature is apparent in the artist’s paintings, which feature copious amounts of paint but few brushstrokes, challenging viewers’ expectations of both painting and portraiture. His work uniquely collapses historical and autobiographical elements, creating pieces that are part art history and part personal mythology.
With a career spanning over two decades, Lerma’s return to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is particularly significant, as it was here that he had his first museum exhibition in the 1999 Wisconsin Triennial after earning his MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
José Lerma (b. 1971, Spain; lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico) received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2002. He has had over twenty solo exhibitions at galleries such as Kavi Gupta in Chicago, IL, Galerie Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York, NY, and at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. His works are represented in numerous collections, including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Saatchi Collection in London, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Lerma served as an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2009 through 2023.
Image: Jose Lerma, “Dreamer”, 2002-3. Oil, 19 3/4 x 19 1/2 inches. Gift of Nancy Mladenoff and J.J. Murphy, Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. © Jose Lerma.
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MMoCA’s curatorial staff selected new works of art by established and emerging artists through a rigorous review process beginning with an open call for entries in late September. From the over 250 applications from artists in every corner of the state, more than 30 artists were selected for additional review through an in-person studio visit. The final selection of 24 artists represents a wide range of artistic approaches and subjects. From painting to performance and figurative to formal abstraction, the exhibition reflects the rich diversity of Wisconsin’s visual arts scene.
“The process of selecting the final roster of participating artists is always a formidable yet exhilarating challenge for a major survey like the Wisconsin Triennial,” says Paul Baker Prindle, MMoCA’s Gabriele Haberland Director. “We are confident that we have curated an exceptional group of artists whose practices beautifully reflect the richness of Wisconsin’s contributions to global contemporary art.”
The 2025 Wisconsin Triennial jury is comprised of Paul Baker Prindle, the Gabriele Haberland Director; Mel Becker Solomon, Associate Research Curator at the Art Institute of Chicago; Eleanor Pschirrer-West, Assistant Curator at MMoCA; and Bob Sylvester, Director of Education and Programs at MMoCA. Together, the curators will organize an exhibition that provides audiences with a visually engaging and thought-provoking experience that highlights the creativity and innovation of Wisconsin’s artistic communities.
Baker Prindle concludes, “For nearly 125 years, MMoCA has had the great privilege of amplifying creative voices. We continue this tradition by supporting artists as they explore the ever-evolving meaning of contemporary life and inspire critical conversations within our community and beyond. This year’s Triennial is not only a celebration of artistic excellence but a testament to the power of art to connect, question, and transform.”
Theresa Abel (Madison)
Tom Antell (Hayward)
Lois Bielefeld (Milwaukee)
Yeonhee Cheong (Madison)
Angelica Contreras (Madison)
Cassie Marie Edwards (Oshkosh)
Nomka Enkhee (Milwaukee)
Sarah FitzSimons (Madison)
Jolene Frechette (Madison)
Gerit Grimm (Madison)
John Hitchcock (Madison)
Kelli Hoppmann (Madison)
Katie Hudnall (Madison)
Tom Jones (Prairie du Sac)
Helen Lee (Madison)
Taj Matumbi (Madison)
Guzzo Pinc (Fort Atkinson)
John Riepenhoff (Milwaukee)
Christina Ruhaak (Madison)
Lauren Semivan (Manitowoc)
Leslie Smith III (Madison)
Michael Velliquette (Madison)
Shane Walsh (Milwaukee)
Christina A. West (Madison)
A community-wide celebration of Madison’s vibrant art scene.
Gallery Night is a long-time Madison arts tradition that showcases the city’s vibrant arts community. Organized by MMoCA, Gallery Night offers art lovers and art novices alike an opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of exhibitions, opening receptions, special events, and demonstrations at venues throughout the city. During Gallery Night, dozens of venues open their doors to invite the public in to see and shop for original artwork.
Gallery Night takes place from 5–9 PM, though some participating venues set their own hours. All venues participating in Gallery Night are open free of charge.
Admission is Free
One of the Midwest’s most popular and highly regarded outdoor celebrations of the arts will return to the Capitol Square on Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13, 2025, as MMoCA presents the 67th annual Art Fair on the Square.
With its mix of music, entertainment, and outdoor dining, as well as over 500 artists exhibiting paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, jewelry, handmade clothing and accessories, and fine craft, the fair draws nearly 200,000 visitors to Madison’s Capitol Square.
2025 Art Fair Schedule
Saturday, July 12, 2025 (9 AM–6 PM)
Sunday, July 13, 2025 (10 AM–5 PM)
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The exhibition’s title is drawn from a poem in Gertrude Stein’s \"Tender Buttons\" (1914), a text that remained a pivotal source of inspiration for Ott throughout her life. Employing materials such as polystyrene and spray foam, Ott transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary, constructing works of art that are at once imaginative and dreamlike. For Ott, art offered a space of transformation, a means of turning trauma inside out and reshaping it into forms of play and wonder. This exhibition highlights the depth of her experimental practice and affirms her enduring legacy as an artist who expanded the possibilities of material and meaning.
","type":null,"state":"published","slug":"sabina-ott-all-this-and-not-ordinary","created_at":"2025-09-10 19:13:34.458","updated_at":"2025-09-10 19:13:34.458","excerpt":"","is_timeless":true,"organization_id":1207,"highlighted":true,"opening_starts_at":"2025-12-12 18:00:00","opening_ends_at":"2025-12-12 21:00:00","searchable":"'1914':56B '2018':29B '33':31B 'affirm':131B 'art':89B,99B 'artist':22B,137B 'button':55B 'career':40B 'construct':86B 'creat':33B 'death':27B 'depth':125B 'drawn':46B 'dreamlik':96B 'employ':71B 'endur':133B 'exhibit':19B,42B,122B 'expand':139B 'experiment':128B 'extraordinari':85B 'final':36B 'first':17B 'foam':78B 'form':116B 'gertrud':51B 'highlight':123B 'imagin':94B 'insid':110B 'inspir':65B 'legaci':134B 'life':70B 'materi':72B,143B 'mean':106B,145B 'offer':100B 'ordinari':7A,14B,82B 'ott':2A,9B,67B,79B,98B 'pivot':62B 'play':118B 'poem':49B 'polystyren':75B 'possibl':141B 'practic':129B 'present':30B 'remain':60B 'reshap':113B 'sabina':1A,8B 'sinc':25B 'solo':18B 'sourc':63B 'space':102B 'spray':77B 'stein':52B 'tender':54B 'text':58B 'throughout':68B 'titl':44B 'transform':80B,104B 'trauma':109B 'turn':108B 'wonder':120B 'work':24B,32B,87B 'year':37B","thumbnail":"http://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1757516377/hrurracl720mfunbrhpg.jpg","calendar":null,"carousel":false,"category_name":"Exhibitions"},{"id":27933,"title":"Recent Acquisitions","starts_at":"2026-02-04 00:00:00","ends_at":"2026-04-26 00:00:00","body":"Since 1964, The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has collected and preserved modern and contemporary art in order to exhibit it and provide transformative experiences. These objects, MMoCA holds in trust for everyone to learn from and be inspired by all for free.
In 2025, MMoCA added over 80 artworks to the permanent collection, including works on paper, large-scale paintings, and sculptures from both local and international artists.
Recent Acquisitions displays some of these art objects, showcasing the breadth of contemporary art practice and connecting Madison to the global dialogue through visual art.
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The exhibition unfolds across two connected spaces. In the MMoCA Icon, Harper creates a suspended environment centered on a lightweight mid-century couch upholstered in handwoven tones of pink, sherbet, melon, and honey. Embedded with domestic cleaning products, the couch becomes a floating “memory bank”—a meditation on home, care, and repose—surrounded by a mobile featuring a summer patio umbrella and garlands of cast-ceramic Froot Loops.
In the State Street Gallery, the exhibition pivots around She Drank the Water That Was Meant for the Orchids (2019), a recent addition to MMoCA’s collection. New large-scale embroideries, stuffed horses with embedded objects, shelves of ceramic vases covered in cast cicadas, and ceramic flower bouquets extend the exhibition’s domestic and emotional terrain.
Across both spaces, memory functions as a material. Objects act as containers of experience—holding care, pleasure, grief, desire, and loss. Rather than telling a single story, Harper creates environments where meaning emerges through movement and attention. Looking becomes an active process, shaped by proximity, perspective, and the viewer’s own lived experience.
About the Artist
David R. Harper (b. Toronto, Canada / Lives and Works in the American Midwest), received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies. He currently teaches in the Painting and Drawing department at the Art Institute of Chicago and the New Studio Practice department at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
Harper’s work employs both traditional and non-traditional materials such as embroidery, ceramic, and casting materials such as salt and charcoal in a cross-disciplinary manner to create objects installations that grapple with notions of loss, love, feelings of belonging and how we use objects to inform our notions of self.
Harper has been included in group shows at museums in the US and Canada, including MASS MoCA, National Gallery of Canada and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and has participated in numerous solo exhibitions including My Own Personal Ghost (The John Michael Kohler Art Center), Plateau (South Bend Museum of Art) Skin and Bone (Textile Museum of Canada), A solo touring exhibition of Harper’s work titled Entre Le Chien et Le Loup was organized by the University of Toronto in 2013
He has participated in several residencies, including the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency (2016), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (2014), and the Kohler Arts Industry (2012/2014)
His work can be found in a number of notable collections, including The Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), The John Michael Kohler Art Center, The Museum of Wisconsin Art, The National Gallery of Canada, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
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Throughout her work, Verna often challenged familiar cultural icons. In one series, she reimagined Martin Luther King Jr. with different hairstyles, patterns, and even Mickey Mouse ears. In another, she portrayed Marilyn Monroe with brown skin. With wit, courage, and imagination, these works invite viewers to question how identity, history, and power are constructed.
Mother, Father, Please Help Me was drawn and redrawn over several years in collaboration with artist and frequent collaborator David Dunlap. Built through many layers of images and marks, it functions as a palimpsest—a surface that holds traces of earlier versions beneath what we see now. The work embodies Verna’s belief that images and symbols change over time, and that new meanings emerge through revision, proximity, and combination.
This artwork has both a front and a back, and both are essential to fully experiencing the piece. To allow visitors to encounter the complete work, the reverse side has been carefully reproduced and printed for display.
Recently acquired by MMoCA from the artist’s estate, Mother, Father, Please Help Me is among the last major works available from Verna’s studio. Verna died suddenly in 2008 at just 46, leaving behind a rich artistic legacy that her sister, Mahalia Verna now works to preserve.