1000 Museums

The relationship between artists and their materials lies at the core of creative production. Featuring over 65 works drawn from the permanent collection, this exhibition considers how artists have utilized traditional and nontraditional art materials—including paint, wood, paper, plastic, steel, bones, dirt, glass, sand, and cloth—to act as conduits of meaning.

Pour, Tear, Carve spotlights how the selection and manipulation of materials—whether poured, torn, carved, sewn, beaded, or glued—can enhance a viewer’s understanding of and dialogue with art. Bridging past to present, the exhibition introduces several key recent acquisitions by living artists with well-known and never-before-exhibited works, offering the opportunity for these diverse, intricate objects to be examined together in a dynamic, new way.