Past Exhibitions

September 8 – November 25, 2018

Birds enthrall us with their stunning plumage, amusing antics, and lilting song. Avian art inspires in endlessly novel ways, too, evoking the freedom of flight and the fragility of their earthbound existence. Artists from throughout the world push themselves to new heights, striving to be selected for the internationally renowned Birds in Art exhibition. The 43rd annual exhibition celebrates avian marvels through new interpretations – in an array of mediums, including oil, watercolor, the graphic arts, bronze, stone, and others – created within the last three years. Artwork for the Birds in Art exhibition is selected each year in May.

June 2 – August 26, 2018

Colombia-born, Miami-based artist Federico Uribe creates sculptures of creatures and playful installations from everyday objects. Finding beauty in books, colored pencils, wood fragments, and shoes and transforming them into animals and natural environments, Uribe creates an immersive and whimsical landscape. By using objects in surprising ways, he rethinks reality – seeing and incorporating objects as materials. Deconstructing thousands of leather shoes, for example, he creates animal sculptures and cuts apart books to make trees for a jungle-themed installation. For the Woodson Art Museum, Uribe creates a large-scale, site-specific, walk-in environment. The World According to Federico Uribe, an installation by Federico Uribe, was coordinated with assistance from Adelson Galleries, Boston, and Woodson Art Museum curator Andy McGivern.

March 3 – May 27, 2018

Experience astounding visual wonders in this National Geographic exhibition of fifty striking images shot by some of the world’s finest photographers of seldom-seen places, events, natural phenomena, and man-made heirlooms. From a glacier in Patagonia to the deepest caves of Papua New Guinea, this exhibition captures astonishing moments, natural wonders, and extraordinary objects from the far reaches of the globe. Rarely Seen is organized and traveled by the National Geographic Society.

March 3 — May 27, 2018

Award-winning artist Eric Rohmann takes center stage in this retrospective exhibition featuring artwork in various mediums — oil, watercolor, and relief printing — including Time Flies, his first book, which won a Caldecott Honor in 1995; My Friend Rabbit, which received the Caldecott Medal in 2003 for its bold relief-print illustrations; A Kitten Tale, published in 2008; and Oh, No!, his most recent book. Rohmann believes stories need illustrations that complement tone, content, and sensibility. Eric Rohmann will be at the Woodson Art Museum for the opening of his exhibition and return in April for a weeklong residency.

September 9, 2017 – May 13, 2018
Discover the beauty of birds as they flee from predators, mate, and search for food. More than seventy paintings, works on paper, and sculptures depict birds soaring, skimming, flapping, and gliding.

February 24 – March 31, 2018

Explore artworks by north central Wisconsin students in grades 9-12 via the 41st Student Art Exhibition. See the exhibition and congratulate the student artists on opening day, Saturday, February 24, 2018, Noon-2 pm. Each March, the nation promotes art education by focusing on student work. Art teachers are encouraged to submit student works in various mediums for the Museum’s Student Art Exhibition.

December 2, 2017 – February 25, 2018

Think about a favorite quilt. Warm thoughts of comfort and the loved ones who stitched and labored to sew treasured family heirlooms are all wrapped up in our favorite quilts. What’s a common thread of their appeal? Quilters and fiber arts enthusiasts share a desire to hone the skills necessary to carry on a tradition that links generations and an appreciation of the creativity and ingenuity woven throughout extraordinary quilts. Wild Fabrications comprises more than three dozen vibrant quilts featuring intriguing, whimsical depictions of animals and organized by the Studio Art Quilt Associates in Hebron, Connecticut. Throughout the twelve-week Wild Fabrications exhibition, the Museum will offer multiple programs and an artist residency in January, 2018 featuring quilter and television personality Mary Fons, discussing her work and the role of the quilt in American popular culture. The co-host of “Love of Quilting” on public television alongside her mother, Marianne Fons, Mary Fons is a passionate, vibrant speaker on the subject of quilts.

December 2, 2017 – February 25, 2018

Our dependence on – and love for – wood cannot be overstated. It’s integral to our very existence in a range of ways, encompassing our man-made environments as well as both utilitarian and decorative items. The organic qualities of wood, our ability to manipulate its shape, its abundance, and its renewable potential are among the reasons wood permeates our culture – including the art world. The more than seventy objects comprising Explorations in Wood highlight the diversity and unlimited potential of wood via this sample of the work held in the collection of Philadelphia’s Center for Art in Wood, gathered over a thirty-year period. These works stem from a love of wood and display a rich variety of wood type and processes, including wood-turned vessels as well as more sculptural forms. Many celebrate the natural beauty of wood, evident in rich warm-brown tones and assorted grain patterns, typical of materials gathered around the globe.