Exhibitions

This exhibition presents site-specific sculptures, each constructed with the artist’s established technique of easing and entwining together thousands of thin, ceramic forms she calls curves. In her California studio, Finneran handmakes hundreds-of-thousands of curves by rolling clay coils, then shaping, smoothing, firing, glazing, and firing them again. When gently positioned and layered directly on the floor, they create large, nest-like structures the artist terms floor cones and floral rings.

Here We Have Idaho: Material Matters is the first exhibition within a new Boise Art Museum program that showcases Idaho-based artists whose artworks broaden the boundaries of contemporary art. This program reimagines how the Boise Art Museum engages with artists and artists engage with our community, while highlighting the role of art and artists in reflecting important ideas of our times.

Boise Art Museum is thrilled to announce that we have been invited, among only ten art museums nationwide, to participate in the National Gallery of Art’s “Across the Nation” program, to share the nation’s collection with museums across the country. We welcome you to take advantage of this rare opportunity to experience four noteworthy and beloved artworks presented at the Boise Art Museum.

Thomas Eakins | Berthe Morisot | Mark Rothko

The Last Supper features nearly 1,000 hand-painted ceramic plates, illustrating the final-meal choices of people on death row in the U.S.  Artist Julie Green (1961-2021) spent twenty-two years creating this large-scale art installation by painting images of the final meals on found ceramic plates with cobalt blue mineral paint and then re-firing them in a kiln.  Boise Art Museum is the first to showcase all available plates created by the artist.

For thousands of years, the rainbow has been a cross-cultural symbol of hope, positivity, and a bit of magic. Dedicated to the celebration of rainbows, Spectrum showcases interactives inspired by the rich and numerous colors of our world. Participatory stations throughout the ARTexperience Gallery encourage visitors of all ages to create a rainbow block print, match colored fiber to emotions, build a colorful town, and more.

Visual Language: The Art of Abstraction presents a selection of abstract, non-representational artworks from Boise Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. A cross-section of abstract artwork, created by the most significant American abstract artists working from the 1980s through the early 2000s, features Color Field paintings, lyrical abstraction, and minimalism.

Myths, Fables, and Fortunes is a journey of discovery focused on the natural environment of the Northwest. Drawn from the Museum’s Permanent Collection and spanning over six decades, the exhibition highlights our shifting perspectives and connection with the land during a period of dramatic change and development.