Renwick Craft Invitational 2011

March 25, 2011 - July 31, 2011
1st Floor, Special Exhibitions Gallery
This exhibition will feature works by the following four extraordinary artists, who create works of superior craftsmanship that address the classic craft notion of function without sacrificing a contemporary aesthetic:

• Cliff Lee (b. 1951), a former neurosurgeon who works in Stevens, Pennsylvania, creates elegant porcelain vessels with the exactitude of a doctor, often using his knowledge of chemistry to re-create medieval Chinese glazes long thought lost to history.
• Matthias Pliessnig (b. 1978), a furniture maker in Philadelphia, uses boat-building techniques in new ways to create graceful forms with curved wood strips that may have up to 5,000 points of contact without the aid of hardware.
• Judith Schaechter (b. 1961), a glass artist based in Philadelphia, brings a wealth of knowledge about traditional stained-glass practice to her moody windows.
• Ubaldo Vitali (b. 1944), a fourth-generation silversmith and master conservator of historic silver working in Maplewood, New Jersey, uses classical techniques he learned in Rome to create luminous works for popes, kings, and presidents.

A Revolution in Wood: The Bresler Collection

September 24, 2010 - January 30, 2011
North Special Exhibitions Gallery, 1st Floor
This exhibition features 66 objects from the 1980s and 1990s from the Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection to highlight contemporary wood turning's growing sophistication. The Bresler collection -- which was recently donated to the museum -- has a distinct aesthetic that emphasizes sculptural qualities and decorative motifs integrated into the whole form, with exquisite and finely detailed craftsmanship.

The collection includes works by some of the best-known wood artists in the United States, including David Ellsworth, Michelle Holzapfel, Mark and Melvin Lindquist, Edward Moulthrop, and Mark Sfirri. A number of the artworks are on public display for the first time.

5-minute video featuring interviews with Fleur Bresler; artists David Ellsworth and Mark Sfirri; and Kenneth R. Trapp, former curator-in-charge at the Renwick Gallery (runs continuously)

Catalogue: $45 (cloth)

The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946

March 5, 2010 - January 30, 2011
South and West Special Exhibitions Galleries, 1st Floor
More than 120 arts-and-crafts objects made by Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps during World War II, along with photographs, are used to explore the internment experience. While incarcerated, the internees tried to gaman, a Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience. Housed in tar-paper covered barracks furnished with nothing more than metal cots, the internees used scraps and found materials to create furniture, toys and games, musical instruments, pendants and pins, purses, and ornamental displays. These objects became essential both for simple creature comforts and emotional survival. Many are on loan from former internees or their families.

Two 20-minute documentaries: Voices Long Silent (2010) and Art of Gaman: The Story Behind the Objects (2010) run continuously in sequence

Related book: $35

Grand Salon Installation: Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

June 6, 2009 - Permanent
2nd Floor, Grand Salon
On view are 70 paintings from the 1840s to the 1930s -- landscapes, portraits, and allegorical works -- by 51 American artists, including Edward Mitchell Bannister, Romaine Brooks, Elliott Daingerfield, Daniel Garber, William Morris Hunt, George Inness, Homer Dodge Martin, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Abbott Handerson Thayer, John Henry Twachtman, and Irving R. Wiles. The room is installed salon style, with paintings hung one-atop-another and side by side.

Visitor Guide featuring short biographies of the artists: $16.95

Sales Exhibitions

- Indefinitely
1st Floor, Museum Store
Sales of fine crafts and exhibition-related products.

Octagon Room

- Permanent
2nd Floor, South
The Octagon Room is furnished with paintings from SAAM's collection, including impressionism and the Gilded Age period.

Permanent Collection

- Permanent
Craft Galleries, 2nd Floor
The permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, features contemporary American crafts in glass, ceramics, metal, wood, and fiber. Highlights include:

• Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery (2009) by Karen LaMonte (b. 1967) (Octagon Room)
• Portal Gates (1974) by Albert Paley (b. 1944)
• Game Fish (1988) by Larry Fuente (b. 1947)
• Bureau of Bureaucracy by Kim Schmahmann (a cabinet sculpture described by the artist as a "contemporary cabinet of curiosities")
• Ghost Clock by Wendell Castle
• Bancketje (Banquet) by Beth Lipman
• The Renwick 30th Anniversary Plate by Irma Starr