February 7 - May 8, 2020

In a grand hall bedecked with flags and murals, costumed revelers perform a choreographed skit around a giant papier-mâché bird. Pioneering modern artists ride hobbyhorses, practice silly dances, wear clown makeup, party on the deck of a ship, and lounge together by a Maine lake. They draw and paint together, and they buy and sell one another’s art at festive auctions. This spirited social scene was an important but often-forgotten feature of the New York art world of the 1910s, ’20s, and ’30s. In the Fleming Museum exhibition, Let’s Have a Ball! Wood Gaylor and the New York Art Scene, 1913–1936, viewers can discover these events as they were lovingly documented in the vibrant paintings of Wood Gaylor (1883–1957).

Explore the exhibition: Let’s Have a Ball! Wood Gaylor and the New York Art Scene, 1913–1936

Image: Samuel Wood Gaylor (American, 1883-1957), K.H.M.’s Birthday Party, 1933. Oil on canvas. Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Gift from the Estate of Roy R. Neuberger

February 7 - May 8, 2020

Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and continuing today, traditional Afghan rug weavers have incorporated stylized representations of political figures, Kalashnikovs, flags, maps, architectural landmarks, tanks, drones, and ammunition amid colorful floral and geometric patterns—designs reflecting a reality familiar to multiple generations in this war-torn region. In 1971, the Italian conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) began commissioning Afghan weavers to produce his now-famous series of map textiles originally inspired by his collected newspaper illustrations of the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. Years later, during the Soviet invasion and rise of the US-backed Mujahideen, numerous war rug artists began to reuse Boetti’s visual mode in order to portray political maps of Afghanistan and neighboring regions overlain with representations of munitions, soldiers, fighter jets, and historical people and events. Designs from the 2000s feature the collapsing World Trade Center Towers behind peace doves and conjoined US and Afghan national flags. This exhibition presents a selection of rugs that simultaneously document the history of a region while standing as a complicated testament to a still viable expressive and contemporary artistic tradition impacted by unusually diverse economic and political pressures.

Explore the exhibition: WARP: War Rugs of Afghanistan

Image: Reaper and Predator Drone Imagery on Blue Abrash Ground, 2016. Wool rug. 36 x 58 inches. Collection of Kevin Sudeith. Courtesy of the Gund Gallery.

January 21 - May 8, 2020

Animal Transformations displays an array of animal-related objects from the Fleming’s extensive collections. Led by Professor Jennifer Dickinson and Manager of Collections and Exhibitions Margaret Tamulonis, UVM’s Spring 2019 Museum Anthropology class (ANTH 250) took on the topic of human/animal relations while working with the Museum’s collections. The students worked closely with objects from the Fleming’s collections, deciding which would best represent the spectrum of ways cultural meanings come alive through animal objects. The pieces in this collection were made to fulfill a variety of purposes, from the utilitarian to symbolic, everyday to extraordinary. Through this exhibition, the curators hope to give visitors a window into the many ways humans have transformed animal materials and imagery, from the installation itself to new labels in some of the Museum’s galleries that invite visitors to find animal transformations around them.

Explore the exhibition: Animal Transformations

Image: Japan, Rats, early 20th century. Ivory. Gift of Katherine Wolcott 1939.1.21

September 10, 2019 – May 8, 2020

The New England Gallery, located on the Marble Court balcony, features paintings by renowned Vermont artists from the Fleming Museum’s collection. The Contemporary Voices of Vermont series provides an opportunity to view the work of current Vermont artists within the historical context of their predecessors. This year’s Contemporary Voices artists are Wylie Garcia and Misoo.

In her painting and collage series The Giant Asian Girls, Shelburne-based artist Misoo combats cultural perceptions that Asian women ought to be considered meek, weak, small, and submissive. By painting her portrait subjects as giants indifferent to the frenzied cartoon figures that surround them, she presents women as monumental and self-possessed.

Wylie Garcia’s paintings embrace markers of femininity and domesticity, such as pastel color palettes, marks that evoke embroidery stitches, lace-like veils, and flowing curves. Painting is a meditative and cathartic act for Garcia, who processes her emotional state and reactions to current events through her work.

Image: Misoo, The Giant Asian Girl-Misoo 4, 2019. Acrylic paint and collage on panel. Courtesy of the Artist