Art Exhibitions Coming & Going in December 2024
Ten Art Exhibitions to see this December
With December approaching and the holiday season in full swing, many of us find ourselves with a bit more free time. What better way to spend those days off than exploring a museum? From blockbuster exhibitions at renowned institutions to hidden gems in more intimate settings, this month has something for every art enthusiast. Whether you’re drawn to thought-provoking installations or looking for a cultural escape, here are 10 exhibitions opening or closing in December that are well worth your time.
1. Landscape and Labor: Dutch Works on Paper in Van Gogh’s Time at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA.
Opens December 21, 2024 – June 22, 2025
“Landscape and Labor: Dutch Works on Paper in Van Gogh’s Time” presents the Hague School at its best. Visitors can see watercolors, prints, and drawings by artists such as Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch (1824–1903), Anton van Rappard (1858–1892), and Anton Mauve (1838–1888). Though they are not now household names in the United States, these figures had a profound impact on the artists of their time and future generations. Mauve, in particular, played a key role in Van Gogh’s early life and career. Van Gogh himself is also represented here, with two early works. (Follow on Instagram)
Anton Mauve, Digging up a Tree (detail), about 1860s–80s. Transparent and opaque watercolor. Bequest of Elizabeth A. Cotton.
2. Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation at Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA.
Closes December 7, 2024
They Teach Love presents a sweeping survey of over 35 objects across a span of fifteen years. Beginning with examples of the artist’s earliest engagements with printmaking, the exhibition additionally includes photography, painting, and sculpture, as well as recent forms that express Gibson's foray into performance, installation, and video, as well as contemporary adornment in fashion. The latter direction is reflective of intertribal powwows as well as the dance clubs where Gibson found safe spaces as a teenager. The exhibition’s centerpiece is an expansive and immersive work titled To Name An Other which is comprised of 51 screen printed elk hide drums and 50 wearable garments. Originally commissioned as a performance by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, in 2019, To Name An Other marks a turning point in the artist’s career whereby Gibson has increasingly sought out collective-based projects and performances to activate the communities he works within. (Follow on Instagram)
Image credit: Jeffrey Gibson (Native American, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee), Round Dancing, edition 3/4, 2021. Screenprint on handmade elk hide drum.
Image by Aaron Wessling Photography, Courtesy of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.
3. Gabriel Mills: Aunechei at Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS.
Closes December 8, 2024
Gabriel Mills’s paintings are, in many ways, personal responses — responses to life events, to language, to music, and to one another. Viktor Frankl famously noted that, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Beginning with a larger idea, based on his own life experience and personal belief system, Mills simultaneously converses with the viewer while creating a dialogue within the work itself. His paintings are often paired (or grouped) together as if in conversation, one responding to the other or creating a tension which the other reflects. Taking advantage of the natural tendency for the viewer to attempt to come to terms with the presented relationship, the artist has ingeniously devised an antidote to modern society’s shortening attention span. We are forced to slow down, look carefully, and seek the meaning in the union of the arranged picture planes. Once discovered, our responses will be unique depending on our individual reference points as well as our own necessary paths for personal growth. (Follow on Instagram)
Installation view courtesy of Museum
4. Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) at Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN.
Closes December 29, 2024
Weisman Art Museum is proud to present the exhibition, Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated). Kara Walker, born in 1969, is one of the most intellectually provocative and creatively productive artists of her generation. Her groundbreaking work revisits archival material to challenge dominant narratives of American history, exploring race, gender, sexuality, violence, identity, and social justice. Throughout her work in installation, film, drawing, and printmaking, Walker calls up historical imagery and—through redrawing, adding, and complicating existing narratives—creates startling tableaus meant to prompt thought and reconsideration in her diverse audiences. A California-born, African-American woman who relocated with her family to Georgia as a young adult, Walker’s work delves deeply into the experience of being Black in the United States, exposing a rich cartography of perception, misperception, and devastating prejudice that is dynamically determined by place, time, and personal perspective. Her visceral artworks have garnered outstanding merit and spurred tremendous controversy from a variety of constituencies. (Follow on Instagram)
Image courtesy of artist and museum
5. Sheldon in Focus: Jacob Lawrence at Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE.
Closes December 29, 2024
Educated in the vibrant arts community of the Harlem Renaissance, Jacob Lawrence employed a modern visual style influenced by African and European art that combined bright colors and angular figures with a tight narrative structure to illustrate the histories and heroes of Black culture. For this iteration of Sheldon in Focus, the museum presents two significant works by Lawrence—the painting Paper Boats (1948) and the eight-print series Eight Studies for The Book of Genesis(1990). (Follow on Instagram)
Jacob Lawrence, Paper Boats.
6. Brilliance: The Stanford Lipsey Art Glass Collection at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY.
Closes December 31, 2024
Brilliance: The Stanford Lipsey Art Glass Collection, is both worldwide in origin and world-class in quality. It features 50 works of art glass by 45 artistsfrom 11 countries including works by internationally celebrated glass artists Harvey Littleton, Greg Fidler, John Healey, Lino Tagliapietra, Michael Taylor, and many other of the most prominent artists in the field.
Collected over three decades, The Stanford Lipsey Art Glass Collection is a gift from Judith C. Lipsey and her late husband, Stan, the former publisher of The Buffalo News. The Lipseys made their gift in honor of Burchfield Penney Director Emeritus Dr. Anthony Bannon in recognition of his and the Burchfield Penney’s contribution to the arts and cultural life of Western New York. (Follow on Instagram)
Installation view
7. Ugo Rondinone: The Rainbow Body at The Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO.
Opens December 12, 2024 - March 30, 2025
The Aspen Art Museum is pleased to present ugo rondinone: the rainbow body, the artist’s (b. 1964, Brunnen, Switzerland) first major institutional show in the Western United States in a career spanning over three decades. The Museum’s second-floor gallery is recast as a prismatic arena where fluorescent, lifelike sculptures of dancers sit at rest and in waiting. In his practice at large, Rondinone is celebrated for expansive installations, working with photography, painting, poetry, outdoor sculpture, and neon rainbow signage. His visual vocabulary often incorporates the natural and primordial world, wherein rocks, clouds, trees, and the sun are recurrent motifs. Language and systems of communication such as lyrics or slogans mark other modes of exploring human subjectivity and experience.(Follow on Instagram)
Ugo Rondinone, nude (xxxxxxxxxxx) (rainbow), 2021. Courtesy Studio Rondinone and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Kukje Gallery, Seoul; Esther Schipper, Berlin; Gladstone, New York; Mennour, Paris; and Sadie Coles HQ, London, © The artist. Photo: Stefan Altenburger
8. VANESSA BAIRD: GO DOWN WITH ME at The Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Closes December 31, 2024
The exhibition alludes to the repetitive nature of our lives, as well as the way significant events from one day to another can completely change our daily existence. At at time when you can always decide to look away, Baird insists on confronting the uncomfortable truths right before your eyes. Go Down with Me demonstrates how Baird's art evolves through repetitions and variations of the same themes, but also how they are influenced by private and political events. In her early works on gigantic canvases, we see Baird representing herself as young, thoughtful and yearning. Many of the images refer to male artistic geniuses – from Rodin to Munch – highlighting the underlying feminist perspective of the exhibition.
Vanessa Baird: Sommeren kom etter tyve år (Summer came after 20 years), 2005, pastel on paper. © Vanessa Baird / BONO. Photo: Jørn Hagen / Lillehammer Kunstmuseum
9. Lichtenstein100 at The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA.
Closes December 29, 2024
A key figure in the Pop art movement, Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) grounded his profoundly inventive paintings around the imitation and reinvention of everyday imagery, starting with comic books and advertisements in the 1960s and expanding to encompass a broader range of subjects. Lichtenstein100, held in commemoration of the artist’s centennial, showcases works in the museum’s permanent collection, including Lichtenstein’s iconic 1962 painting, Forget It! Forget Me!, alongside ephemera, photography, and other source material, shedding light on Lichtenstein’s lasting impact on art history and popular culture. (Follow on Instagram)
Installation view. Julia Featheringill Photography
10. DANNY SIMMONS | The Journey to Everything at Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD.
Closes December 15, 2024
The Reginald F. Lewis Museum in partnership with WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC is pleased to announce a solo exhibition for artist Danny Simmons.“The Journey to Everything” will feature recent works from 2021-2024. As Simmons finds himself constantly drawn to and inspired by his personal collection of African cultural objects, a curated selection of these tribal objects will also be on view–allowing visitors to experience the spiritual potency latent within the visual elements that encompass the artist’s inspiration. The title of the exhibition and its accompanying poem represent the cultural history and symbolism in Simmons work: “through loose woven lace & hanging trails & patterned veils.” (Follow on Instagram)
Don’t Miss The Opening or Closing of these Exhibitions!
December is the perfect time to connect with the transformative power of art. Whether it’s a large-scale installation that takes your breath away or a quiet piece that invites deeper reflection, these exhibitions offer a chance to slow down and see the world through a different lens. This month’s lineup is full of inspiration, proving that creativity thrives no matter the season. So, take a moment to step inside, explore, and let these shows spark your imagination as the year winds down.