Recent Exhibitions
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To celebrate the opening of our new building, MMAC featured a rotating selection of masterworks on display in our second story gallery. This exhibition included works of art by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Donatello, Peter Voulkos, Rudy and Lela Autio, Ben Steele, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Barbara Morgan, Nancy Erickson, and many others as well as a variety of anonymous cornerstone works on display, such as a full samurai suit, a tempera panel from a lost Catholic altar, a Chinese Imperial throne screen, and two Japanese temple lanterns.
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This Batts Gallery exhibition celebrated the life and work of Penelope Loucas, one of Montana and the Northwest's most influential gallery owners and advocates for modern art who gifted her personal collection of over 200 works of art collected over 50 years to the MMAC. This curated selection from her collection featured artwork from the early career stages of artists such as Beth Lo, Frances Senska, Jessie Wilber, and Robert and Gennie De Weese. .
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Gates of Friendship shone a spotlight on a diverse array of Asian and Asian-American artwork. Many of the objects on exhibit came from a recent transfer from the Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collection's holdings of Senator Mike and Maureen Mansfield's collected art objects. Showstopper pieces included three Buddha statues donated by collector Kern Mattei, a kimono decorated with embroidered moths and chrysanthemums, and a series of Noh masks.
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"Rising from the Ashes: Selections from the Three Chiefs Cultural Center" was our first exhibition in the Batts Gallery at our new museum building. An arson fire in September of 2020 harmed or destroyed much of the TCCC's collection of important historic pieces from the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille tribes. Following the fire, TCCC director Marie Torosian and her crew dedicated a great deal of time, labor, and research to restoring these objects. "Rising from the Ashes" featured a small selection of these restored pieces on display.
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"Focus on the Figure: The Pattee Canyon Ladies Salon, 1989-2022" presented the works of Montana’s oldest active group of contemporary women artists. For over three decades, the group has met regularly in the home and studio of recently deceased artist Nancy Erickson to draw the female model. The show recorded the history of the PCLS and focused on the varied works of its current and past members.
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"Fiesta de Santos: Latin American Festival and Devotional Arts" featured inspired folk and fine art from Mexico to Peru. The works included festival masks, sculpted saints, and brightly colored textiles and graphic arts that revealed the popular piety and aesthetic sensibilities of diverse communities across Latin America. In this show, we welcomed the Hoyt family back to MMAC as they continue to share their remarkable collections with our community.
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For over 60 years, Montana architect Phil Korell has created buildings of exceptional beauty and integrity of design. Raised on a ranch outside Utica and educated at the University of Washington in traditional methods of design, Korell learned how to shape buildings in harmony with Montana’s distinctive Western landscapes and traditional culture. Korell created some of the state’s most distinctive buildings in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. "An Authentic Voice" featured photographs, drawings and plans for Korell’s signature buildings, as well as examples of his fine art drawings and paintings.
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The MMAC received a significant art collection of 125 Western works of art from Stan and Donna Goodbar in 2021. This collection reveals how artists interpreted the west during the 20th century. "Imagining the West" featured a selection of these works by artists who made a living primarily as illustrators, both shaping and reinforcing quintessential myths about the West’s important archetypes, its settlers, cowboys and Indigenous inhabitants.