Exhibitions

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PERSPECTIVES: Modern and Contemporary Glass from the Waitzer Collection

March 10, 2023 - December 31, 2023

The Great Exhibition: Bébés at the Barry

January 27, 2023 - July 30, 2023

Mars Fest 2022: Second Annual Public Arts Festival at ODU

October 14, 2022 - October 16, 2022

This fall, the second annual Public Arts Festival at ODU is proud to present Mars: a large-scale sculpture by UK-based artist Luke Jerram. 

Rhonda Holy Bear: Artist and Story-Keeper

August 30, 2022 - December 31, 2022

This exhibition highlights the work of Rhonda Holy Bear (Cheyenne River Lakota). Renowned for her exquisite sculpture, Holy Bear engages in the indigenous tradition of dollmaking, using painstaking micro-beading and other meticulous processes to create her intricate, highly detailed works.

This Will Be for Thousands of Years

May 1, 2022 - January 1, 2023

In an intimate pop-up exhibition titled “This will be for thousands of years,” Heather Beardsley presents work from her series “Strange Plants”.

Waxing & Waning: A Companion Exhibition to Museum of the Moon

October 1, 2021 - December 1, 2021

Barry Art Museum presents a jewel box companion exhibition to Luke Jerram’s Museum of the MoonWaxing & Waning examines views of the moon from the macro and microcosmos alike. The exhibition combines artworks from our own collection alongside works graciously loaned by renowned local artists, The Chrysler Museum of Art, and scientific specimens from the Michael and Kimthanh Lê Digital Theater and Planetarium. 

Hirata Gōyō: The Birth of the Japanese Art Doll

February 10, 2022 - July 31, 2022

This exhibition, the first of its type outside of Japan, explores the evolution of traditional Japanese dolls into Gōyō’s larger vision, that of sōsaku-ningyō or “art dolls.” Using examples drawn from the Barry Art Museum collection and selected borrowings from a private Collection we trace the contours of this transition through the specific lens of the ichimatsu-style doll. Displaying works of master craftsmen in the field, we can trace the transformation of ichimatsu from craft to art, and the stimulus given to the entire genre through Gōyō’s singularly creative vision.

Raven At Odu

Augmented Reality: Art in the Wild!

May 18, 2021 - August 18, 2021

Three works of art from the Barry Art Museum collection are unleashed into the wild! Using augmented reality (AR) selected sculptures are brought to life and are accessible to anyone with a phone. Users can play with scale, read up on information about the art and artist, and view them through a camera app to take pictures and video. Read more about how you can bring these pieces out into nature, view them in your home, and enjoy the ability to enjoy works of art anywhere you are.

Motion/Emotion: Exploring Affect from Automata to Robots

February 10, 2022 - December 31, 2022

This exhibition investigates the emotional qualities of automata and robots. It will feature selections from the permanent collection as well as the work of contemporary artists and other lending institutions. By exploring the intersections between art, science, and emotion, we connect the Barry Art Museum’s historical automata to 21st-century interests and concerns.

Dance Film

Pandemic: Reflecting on a Year of Quarantine

April 1, 2021 - July 1, 2021

The Barry Art Museum presents a selection of artworks that speak to the Covid-19 era. We have all experienced the past year in our own way: isolation, uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness, confinement, illness, mourning. The role of the artist, at its best, can be to dig deep, to research, and to translate our human condition into metaphor and transcendence. Janessa Clark, Peter Eudenbach, Luke Jerram, Anne Neely, and Julia and Robin Rogers are all practiced at doing just this. Focusing on such diverse themes as microbiology, environmentalism, human connection, and macro/microcosmos, their work probes and reflects our shared experiences to make the deeply personal feel universal (and vice versa). Whether these works were made before or after the arrival of the novel coronavirus, they serve to remind us of the essential nature of the arts to recognize, uplift, and inspire our everyday life. Many of these artists have ties to Old Dominion University, and we are proud to present their pieces here as both a marker and a salve for our time under quarantine.