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Past Exhibitions

Closed in 2024

what if
June 29 – October 13, 2024

Soft Power
October 14, 2023 – September 1, 2024

Momentum: New Work in the Collection
December 9, 2023- May 26, 2024

Impressionism at TAM
February 18, 2024- April 14, 2024

Places to Call Home: Settlements in the West
February 18, 2018- February 18, 2024

Native Portraiture: Power and Perception
February 18, 2018- February 18 2024

Winter in the West
February 18, 2018- February 4, 2024

Animals: Wild and Captured in Bronze
January 27, 2018- January 14, 2024

On Native Land: Landscapes from the Haub Family Collection
November 6, 2021- January 14, 2024

Closed in 2023

The Current: Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud
April 15, 2023 – October 15, 2023

El Noroeste
September 23, 2023 – October 1, 2023

Camille Patha: Passion Pleasure Power
March  4, 2023 – September 3, 2023

Luces y Sombras: Images of Mexico | Photographs from the Bank of America Collection
October 15, 2022 – February 5, 2023

Rayos: Cine en México
October, 2022 – February, 2023


Closed in 2022

GATHER: 27 Years of Hilltop Artists
March 26 – September 4, 2022

Departures and Divisions: Variation in American Styles, 1900 – 1950
January 22 – September 4, 2022


Closed in 2021

The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection
July 30 – December 5, 2021

Immigrant Artists and the American West
February 3, 2018 – October 10, 2021

Mary Van Cline: Selections from the Documenta Project
January 19, 2019 – May 30, 2021

South Sound Selects: Community Choices from the Collection
November 21, 2020 – May 30, 2021


Closed in 2020

Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Their Circle: French Impressionism and the Northwest
September 28, 2019 – January 19, 2020

Debora Moore: Arboria
January 19, 2019 – March 13, 2020 (closed early due to COVID-19)

The Naturalist & The Trickster: Audubon/RYAN!
February 1 – March 13, 2020 (closed early due to COVID-19)

Forgotten Stories: Northwest Public Art of the 1930s
February 22 – March 13, 2020 (closed early due to COVID-19)


Closed in 2019

Bart at TAM: Animating America’s Favorite Family
July 20, 2019 – December 31, 2019

Key to the Collection
December 22, 2018 – October 13, 2019

Familiar Faces & New Voices: Surveying Northwest Art
May 13, 2017 – August 25, 2019

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: In the Footsteps of My Ancestors
March 9, 2019-June 30, 2019

Sun, Shadows, Stone: The Photography of Terry Toedtemeier
October 20, 2018 – February 17, 2019


Closed in 2018

To Sing of Beauty: Paul Stephen Benjamin and C. Davida Ingram
July 21 – September 30, 2018

Captive Light: The Life and Photography of Ella E. McBride
March 17 – July 22, 2018

Anne Appleby: We Sit Together the Mountain and Me
March 10  – July   1, 2018

Zhi LIN: In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads
June 27, 2017 – February 18, 2018

The Dynamic American West: Highlights from the Haub Family Collection
September 2, 2017 – January 28, 2018

The Art of American Framing
September 2, 2017 –January 28, 2018

Well-Worn Narratives: The Mia McEldowney Jewelry Collection
February 6, 2016 – January 18, 2018

Two Centuries of American Still-Life Painting: The Frank and Michelle Hevrdejs Collection
September 2, 2017 – January 7, 2018


Closed in 2017

Promoting the West: Abby Williams Hill and the Railroads
June 3 – October 15, 2017

Cultural imPRINT: Northwest Coast Prints
April 22  – August 20, 2017

Artists Drawn to the West
November 21, 2015 – August 13, 2017

The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today
February 4 – May 14, 2017

The Beauty of a Shared Passion: Highlights from the Rebecca and Jack Benaroya Collection
October 9, 2016 – April 23, 2017

Coast to Cascades: C.C. McKim’s Impressionist Vision
November 12, 2016 – March 26, 2017

30 Americans
September 24, 2016 – January 15, 2017


Closed in 2016

(Re)Presenting Native Americans
November 21, 2015 – October 30, 2016

Northwest Cowboys in Art
October 31, 2015 – October 30, 2016

What’s New at TAM? Recent Gifts to the Collection
February 6 – September 18, 2016

NW Art Now @ TAM
May 14  – September 4, 2016

Edvard Munch and the Sea
April 9  – July 17, 2016

Saddles, Spurs, and Quirts: The Art of Leatherworking
October 31, 2015  –July 3, 2016

Painted Journeys: The Art of John Mix Stanley
January 30  – May 1, 2016

Celebrating 80 Years: People’s Choice
January 30  – March 27, 2016

Art AIDS America
October 03, 2015 – January 10, 2016

Northwest in the West: Exploring Our Roots
May 10, 2014 – January 10, 2016


Closed in 2015

Art of the American West: The Haub Family Collection Inaugural Exhibition
November 15, 2014  – October 18, 2015

Roger Shimomura—An American Knockoff  
June 20 – September 13, 2015

Partners in NW Art: Selections from the Aloha Club Collection at TAM
June 27 – September 13, 2015

Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico
March 1 – June 7, 2015

The Still-Life Tradition in the Northwest
March 1 – June 7, 2015

Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret
November 22, 2014 – February 8, 2015

Protective Ornament: Contemporary Amulets to Armor
October 18, 2014 – February 1, 2015


Closed in 2014

Ink This: Contemporary Print Arts in the Northwest
June 7 – October 19, 2014

Photographic Presence and Contemporary Indians: Matika Wilbur’s Project 562
May 17 – October 5, 2014

A Punch of Color: Fifty Years of Painting by Camille Patha
February 1 – May 25, 2014

Shimmering Tree: A Projection by Jennifer Steinkamp
November 9, 2013 – January 26, 2014


Closed in 2013

Austere Beauty: The Art of Z. Vanessa Helder
July 27 – October 20, 2013

Beyond Books: The Independent Art of Eric Carle
Closed June 21, 2013

Drawing Line Into Form Works on Paper by Scuptors from the Collection of BNY Mellon
February 23 – May 26, 2013

Flora and Fine Art 2013: Inspired by Drawing Line Into Form
April 18 – 21, 2013

Memories and Meditations: A Retrospective of Michael Kenna’s Photography
October 6, 2012 – January 6, 2013 (Part One)
January 11 – March 24, 2013 (Part Two)

Andy Warhol’s Flowers for Tacoma
November 3, 2012 – February 10, 2013

Best of the Northwest: Selected Paintings from the Collection
June 23, 2012 – March 17, 2013

Howard Kottler: A Retrospective Look
August 20, 2010 – January 20, 2013


Closed in 2012

Marie Watt: Lodge
June 30 – October 7, 2012

The Marioni Family’s Radical Experimentation in Glass and Jewelry
June 9 – September 23, 2012

HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture
March 17 – June 10, 2012

The 10th Northwest Biennial
January 21 – May 20, 2012

At Home Across America: Scenes from the 1930s to 1950s in Prints
November 19, 2011 – February 26, 2012

Folk Treasures of Mexico: The Nelson A. Rockefeller   Collection from the San Antonio Museum of Art
October 29, 2011 – February 19, 2012

The Eloquent Silver Curve: The Jewelry of Flora Book
July 30, 2011 – February 5, 2012

Collecting for the Future: The Safeco Gift and New Acquisitions
June 25, 2011 – January 2012


Closed in 2011

A Turbulent Lens: The Photographic Art of Virna Haffer
July 2 – November 6, 2011

Dale Chihuly’s Northwest
May 21 – October 2, 2011

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell
February 26 – May 30, 2011

It Gets Better
Closed April 21, 2011

Mighty Tacoma
October 21, 2010 – April 25, 2011

Edo to Tacoma: Japanese Woodblock Prints
September 4, 2010 – February 13, 2011

The Movement of Impressionism: Europe, America, and the Northwest
October 24, 2010 – February 6, 2011


Closed in 2010

Where Sky Meets Earth: The Luminous Landscapes of Victoria Adams
July 10 – October 3, 2010

Honoring 15 Years of Neddy Artist Fellows
June 5 – August 22, 2010

The Secret Language of Animals
January 23 – June 27, 2010

A Concise History of Northwest Art
October 3, 2009 – May 23, 2010

Speaking Parts: Conversations between Works in the Collection
Closed January 17, 2010


Closed in 2009

2009 Neddy Artist Fellowship
May 23 – October 4, 2009

Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden
June 27 – September 20, 2009

Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection
June   6 – September 13, 2009

David Macaulay: The Way He Works
January 17 – June 14, 2009

The 9th Northwest Biennial
January 31 – May 25, 2009

The Surrealist Impulse: New Acquisitions from the Tacoma Art Museum Collection
September 6, 2008 – May 10, 2009

What Is a Trade? Donald Fels and the Signboard Painters of South India
September 13, 2008 – January 18, 2009

Oasis: Western Dreams of the Ottoman Empire from the Dahesh Museum of Art
September 20, 2008 – January 4, 2009


Closed in 2008

Telling Stories: Selections from the Permanent Collection
October 14, 2006 – September 21, 2008

Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
July 12 – September 7, 2008

The Forty Part Motet, by Janet Cardiff
June 28 – September 7, 2008

2008 Neddy Artist Fellowship
May 31 – August 24, 2008

Renoir as Printmaker: The Complete Works, 1876 – 1912
January 17 – June 29, 2008

A Couple of Ways of Doing Something: Photographs by Chuck Close, Poems by Bob Holman
March 1 – June 15, 2008

Veiled Northwest: Photographs by Mary Randlett
September 1, 2007 – May 18, 2008

Threads that Bind: Works by Pacific Northwest African American Quilters
December 18, 2007 – February 17, 2008

Cecilia Beaux, American Figure Painter
September 29, 2007 – January 6, 2008


Closed in 2007

Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt
September  22 – December 9, 2007

The Quiet Landscapes of William B. Post -and- 36 Views of Japanese Woodblock Prints: Selections from the Tacoma Art Museum Collection
June 23 – September 16, 2007

Sparkle Then Fade
May 17 – September 3, 2007

2007 Neddy Artist Fellowship
June 2 – August 19, 2007

Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon
February 3 – June 10, 2007

Paul Strand Southwest
January 27 – May 23, 2007

8th Northwest Biennial
February 10 – May 6, 2007

Symphonic Poem: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson
September 16, 2006 – January 28, 2007

The Art of Eric Carle
October 7, 2006 – January 21, 2007

Trimpin: Conloninpurple
September 26, 2006 – January 14, 2007


Closed in 2006

The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas
June 10 – September 17, 2006

Roy Lichtenstein: American Indian Encounters
May 13 – September 4, 2006

2006 Neddy Artist Fellowship
May 20 – August 13, 2006

The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915-1935
February 4 – May 21, 2006

Contemporary Photography and the Garden – Deceits and Fantasies
January 14 – April 30, 2006

Margaret Bourke-White: The Photography of Design, 1927 – 1936
September 24, 2005 – January 15, 2006

The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy
October 8, 2005 – January 1, 2006

A Sense of Place: Selections from the Tacoma Art Museum Collection
September 11, 2004 – January 22, 2006


Closed in 2005

Carving a Legacy: Innovation in Coast Salish Art
June 16 – September 25, 2005

Zero Karat: Jewelry in Non-Precious Materials from the Museum of Arts & Design
May 14 – September 11, 2005

A Decade of Excellence: Celebrating the Neddy Artist Fellowship
January 29 – June 5, 2005

Marsden Hartley: American Modern
January 15 – May 1, 2005

Hudson River School: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
October 2, 2004 – January 16, 2005

Scott Fife
September 18, 2004 – January 2, 2005


Closed in 2004

Look Alikes: The Decal Plates of Howard Kottler
September 4 – December 14, 2004

Andy Goldsworthy: Mountain and Coast Autumn into Winter
June 19 – September 19, 2004

Northwest Biennial: Buildingwise
April 17 – September 6, 2004

Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race, and Memory
February 12 – June 6, 2004

A Transatlantic Avant-Garde: American Artists in Paris, 1918 – 1939
December 20, 2003 – March 28, 2004

Dale Chihuly: Mille Fiori
May 3, 2003 – January 18, 2004


Closed in 2003

The Art of Nathan Oliveira
August 2 – November 30, 2003

Northwest Mythologies: The Interactions of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, Guy Anderson
May 3 – August 10, 2003

Indivisible: Stories of American Community
January 24 – April 27, 2003

12th Street Series: Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwendolyn Knight
January 14 – May 2, 2003

Snapshots: Memories and Community at Tacoma Art Museum
January 24 – May 2, 2003


Closed in 2002

Alex Katz
June 29 – September 8, 2002

Bill Viola: Something Above, Beyond, Below, Beneath
June 4 – September 15, 2002

The IBIS Project: Early Computer-Assisted Art in the Northwest
June 22 – September 15, 2002

Pressed: The Silkscreen
June 22 – September 15, 2002

12th Street Series: Jack Dollhausen: A 30 Year Start
April 19 – June 16, 2002

Artificial Intelligence in Art
April 9 – June 16, 2002

Pressed: The Lithograph
April 9 – June 16, 2002

Geometric Abstraction
March 19 – May 27, 2002

Art for the Masses: Associated American Artist Prints
December 4, 2001 – March 30, 2002

Pressed: the Woodcut
December 4, 2001 – March 30, 2002

Urban Invasion: Paintings by Chester Arnold
December 11, 2001 – March 10, 2002


Closed in 2001

Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art
July 7 – November 25, 2001

Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
April 7 – June 17, 2001

12th Street Series: Rick Bartow
March 27 – June 17, 2001

The New Frontier: Art and Television, 1960-1965
January 18 – March 18, 2001

Unseen Hurrell: Classics and Rediscovered Photographs from the Collections of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
January 9 – March 18, 2001

The Home Show: Early Television in the Puget Sound Region
January 18 – March 25, 2001

TV Sculptures by Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz
January 18 – March 25, 2001

In Style: Japanese Prints of the 18th and 19th Centuries
October 7, 2000 – January 7, 2001

Clearly Brilliant: A Decade of Pilchuck Glass School’s Emerging Artists in Residence
October 7, 2000 – January 1, 2001

Under The Influence: Contemporary Jewelry, Metalwork and Ethnography
September 19, 2000 – January 1, 2001


Closed in 2000

Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art
July 8 – September 17, 2000

Intimate Landscapes: Photographs from the Carolyn and Edward Hoffman Collection
July 8 – September 17, 2000