The exhibition marks the latest iteration of the Museum’s newest initiative: A Tale of Today, which features work by leading contemporary artists to expand the immersive experience and to shape our understanding of the world through the art, architecture, design, and cultural history of the Nickerson Mansion, the Museum’s home. Curated by Stephanie Cristello, Theodora Allen: Saturnine derives its title from figure of Saturn and its historical association with melancholy, often referred to as the curse of artists. Visitors to the Museum will see Allen’s luminous and meditative compositions, filled with a lexicon of snakes, planets, moons, and plant life – motifs that draw from ancient Greek mythology, literature, fin-de-siècle Europe, and the zeitgeist of 1960s California.
Allen’s paintings are exhibited in the second-floor galleries of the Driehaus Museum, convening a dialogue between the rich ornamentation of the Gilded Age Nickerson Mansion and the artist’s interpretation of iconic mythical, natural, and celestial symbols. Alongside its collection of Tiffany glass, pre-Raphaelite paintings, and Art Nouveau flourishes, the unique environment of the Driehaus Museum becomes an essential part of Theodora Allen: Saturnine.
This exhibition is made possible by:
Gary Metzner and Scott Johnson
Jean and Eugene Stark
The Richard H. Driehaus Annual Exhibition Fund
Additional support is provided by:
Johnson Yang and Sophie Wang
Forrest and Cynthia Miller
Howard Rachofsky
Josephine Fleishman
Thank you to Blum & Poe (Los Angeles / New York / Tokyo), Kasmin (New York), and 12.26 (Dallas).