EXHIBITIONS

Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration

JUN 24 – OCT 15, 2017

This exhibition was not only a celebration of artistic practice in the Tampa Bay area, but also an exercise in collaboration as it was shared among three institutions: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; and the Tampa Museum of Art. Working together, curators from these institutions provided context for the diversity of art being made in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota Counties. Works in the exhibition were selected from an open call by museum curators and a visiting juror.

Extraordinary Animals

SEP 22, 2017 – JAN 14, 2018

Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads

JUN 9, 2017 – JUN 1, 2018

Sculptor, photographer, installation artist, architect, and social activist, Ai Weiwei is one of the most renowned artists working today. This installation on the grounds of The Ringling featured 12 bronze Zodiac Heads arranged in an arc at the western edge of the Museum of Art. Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads was inspired by the fabled fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan, an 18th-century imperial retreat just outside Beijing. In 1860, the Yuanming Yuan was ransacked by French and British troops, and the heads were pillaged. In re-interpreting these objects on an oversized scale, Ai Weiwei focuses attention on questions of looting and repatriation, while extending his ongoing exploration of the ‘fake’ and the copy in relation to the original. He states that each piece is “a copy of an original, but not an exact copy—something that has its own sensitive layer of languages, which are different, and that bear the mark of our time.” Organized by The Ringling together with the AW Asia Foundation, New York.

Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Minneapolis Institute of Art

JUN 9 – SEP 10, 2017

Demonstrating The Ringling’s continuing commitment to the study of Asian art, Eternal Offerings showcased nearly 100 Chinese bronze objects from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The exhibition highlights the manner in which bronze objects were employed to conduct religious rituals, record significant events, and represent elite status from the Shang through Han dynasties (1600 BCE to 220 CE). Several of the works in the exhibition pointed to the various types of rituals—including ancestral, funereal, and musical—found in early Chinese dynasties. Eternal Offerings also demonstrates the significant role of inscriptions on bronzes, especially in the later Western Zhou dynasty (1046 – 771 BCE). Organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Although not as highly advertised as their exotic counterparts, domesticated animals including dogs, cats, and birds are popular performers in the circus ring. Horses, pigs, and goats also have been trained to perform astonishing displays of intelligence and feats of skill. These animal acts rely on the combination of the familiar with the unexpected to entertain. Posters celebrating the remarkable intelligence and highly developed skills of these four-legged performers once covered walls and fences across America.

Aftermath: The Fallout of War in the Middle East

OCT 15, 2017 – JAN 21, 2018

Active in the US and Middle East, the artists in this exhibition depict the conditions and people caught in the crossfire of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, and Israel from a variety of perspectives. The artists included in Aftermath are Lynsey Addario, Jananne Al-Ani, Jennifer Karady, Gloriann Liu, Rania Matar, Eman Mohammed, Farah Nosh, Suzanne Opton, Michal Rovner, Stephen Dupont, Ben Lowy, and Simon Norfolk. Aftermath was organized by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida.

Approaching the Border

NOV 5, 2017 – JAN 21, 2018

Approaching the Border presented five international artists who explore the complicated facets of the US-Mexico border, a zone where the political is intensely palpable. Their works meditate on the social and political phenomena of the border and the significance of borders in an era when migration and the reemergence of nationalism are key global issues. Some of these artists stage their work in the physical space of the borderlands, in México or the US, and expose the sociopolitical realities that manifest on each side of the boundary. Other projects meditate on the power of borders as powerful signifiers and means of division as they construct national identity.