Exhibitions

The Tang Museum and the Laguna Art Museum have co-organized the first retrospective exhibition of Richard Pettibone’s artwork in over twenty years. The show presents the full range of the artist’s career, from his early shadow-box assemblages to his more recent sculptures and paintings. Pettibone’s earliest works... See more 

Pamela Z is a San Francisco-based composer and performer. For the Tang Museum, she will create a commissioned multi-channel audio installation for the Elevator Music series and combine segments of her new piece with previous works in a scintillating live performance kicking off the Tang's Fifth Anniversary Fall... See more 

During their decade-long collaboration (1985-1995), Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler produced some of the most profound and influential conceptual art projects of the time, ranging from important public projects and site-specific installations to drawings and mixed media sculptures. Ericson and Ziegler redefined public... See more 

Kathy Butterly makes colorful porcelain and earthenware objects that push quirky forms, cartoonish actions and surprising textures into pint-sized packages. Each of Butterly’s cup-like vessels begins as a cylindrical form cast in wet clay; she then manipulates these simple, symmetrical shapes into curvaceous,... See more 

The two world wars waged during the first half of the twentieth century were “total wars”—wars in which whole nations, not just professional armies, were engaged in combat. Public support was crucial to ensure victory, so governments and private organizations commissioned posters and other items to evoke the deep... See more 

Fusing the roles of librarian, archaeologist, taxonomist and artist, Michael Oatman makes intricately detailed collages and exhaustively researched installations focused on what he calls the “poetic interpretation of documents.” Archives, photographs and records both inspire Oatman’s invented worlds and figure... See more 

The eighth installment of the Opener series featured seven large-scale works by Brooklyn-based artist Lee Boroson. Since 1995, Boroson has been known for his room-filling, inflated sculptures made of sewn-nylon and kept aloft by electric blowers. These colorful enclosures find inspiration in both natural and man-made... See more 

In his 1644 Principles of Philosophy, René Descartes described the earth as surrounded on all sides by “a very liquid heaven.” Although later discoveries discredited this idea, in a sense Descartes was on target. Modern astronomy reveals stars not as hard, fixed objects, but as pulsing plasma, and interstellar space... See more 

By the fourteenth century, Tibetan artists were very much aware of Chinese painting traditions and motifs. Over the course of several centuries, there were regular exchanges between the courts at the imperial capitals of China and the religious centers of Tibet. Integrating the gnarled landscapes, fantastic fauna,... See more 

From a hirsute Beasty Girl to a lock of George Washington’s hair, this project explored the significance of facial, head, and body hair in western society from the Renaissance to the present. Though primarily focused on paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures, the exhibition also included objects made from... See more