EXHIBITIONS NOW
Agustina Woodgate’s work asks us to consider a world without maps and borders.
On view through February 23, 2025
Encounter Ballroom, an installation that invites you to interact with and navigate your way through a field of geographic globes on the gallery floor. Each globe has been meticulously sanded to remove nations and human-made boundaries. Is the artist’s erasure a utopian gesture in recognition of our common humanity? Or is it a dystopian premonition of the world being destroyed by human greed and human-made catastrophes?
For its premiere installation at PEM, Ballroom is installed with a group of historical navigation instruments drawn from the museum’s collection, many of which have long been outmoded by digital navigation tools. Accompanying the installation in the intimate Jeffrey P. Beale Gallery is a video in which the artist uses artificial intelligence to reconstruct images from an erased atlas.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1981, Woodgate lives and works between Amsterdam and Buenos Aires. She is best known for her public installations that address social issues by investigating the relationships between people and institutions. Her projects have been commissioned by the Bienal de las Américas, Denver; ArtPort, Tel Aviv; PlayPublik, Poland; DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Washington, DC; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Kulturpark.
Explore a major presentation of exquisite Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculptures and decorative arts created between the 15th and 17th centuries in the Southern Netherlands.
On view through May 4, 2025
During the Renaissance, the region known today as Flanders in Belgium was home to visionary artists who developed radically new ways to depict reality, portray humanity and tell stories that continue to resonate with viewers today. This exhibition, co-organized by the Denver Art Museum and The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp, features rarely exhibited masterpieces by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Hans Memling, Jan Gossaert, Jan Brueghel, Clara Peeters, Jacob Jordaens, Frans Francken II and Michaelina Wautier, among many others.
PEM’s presentation of this exhibition also recreates a 17th century cabinet of curiosities — or wünderkammer — filled with precious porcelain and lacquer, seashells, stuffed specimens of animals (including an ostrich) and rare antiquities.
Follow along on social media using #SaintsSinnersatPEM
Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks is co-organized by the Denver Art Museum and The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp, Belgium. This exhibition at PEM is made possible by the Richard C. von Hess Foundation, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum.
Often called the unicorns of the sea, narwhals have fascinated people across cultures for centuries.
On view through June 15, 2025
These highly recognizable creatures spend their lives in the Arctic waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia. Dive deeper into the world of these unique ocean dwellers and learn about their changing arctic ecosystem through firsthand accounts of scientists and Inuit community members. Hear soundscapes of the Arctic and narwhal vocalizations and touch an 8-foot-long cast of a real narwhal tusk. This family-friendly exhibition in The Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center is part of PEM’s Climate + Environment Initiative.
Follow along on social media using #NarwhalsatPEM
Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. This exhibition at PEM is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum and the support and guidance of the Art & Nature Center Visiting Committee.