Exhibitions

Unsettled Pieces

August 20 – November 5, 2023
Reception: August 20, 2023, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Three artists have chosen mosaic as the common language to explore issues affecting the planet, each in her own style.

Debora Aldo uses her signature material—pebbles—along with up-cycled contemporary materials, to infuse her lines with meaning. Nikki Sullivan and Anabella Wewer both use classical andamento to form their lines, but Nikki often uses a large found object as her focal point, while Anabella breaks down uncommon materials into regularly sized tesserae.

Each artist has embraced one or more topics within our changing world, and brought to it the unusual and uncommon set of skills that it takes to create a mosaic.

50/50: Fifty Years of Collecting Art

September 17, 2023 – January 14, 2024
Reception: November 12, 2023, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

In continued celebration of the Art Complex Museum’s fiftieth anniversary, this exhibit examines the museum’s expanding permanent collection, amassed since its founding in 1971. Assembled after the museum opened, these art works reflect the collecting interests of founders Carl and Edith Weyerhaeuser, along with museum directors and curators as the ACM builds for the future.

Shown: Prilla Smith Brackett, Touchstone: Glimpses of Noon #2, 2004, acrylic and oil on canvas

50/50: Collecting the Boston Printmakers

September 17, 2023 – January 14, 2024
Reception: November 12, 2023, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

The Art Complex Museum has collected work by members of the Boston Printmakers since the early 1970s. This exhibit features winners of the Ture Bengtz Memorial Prize, selected from the group’s Biennial exhibition, which are part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Bengtz was the Director of the Art Complex Museum from 1971-73, and began a tradition of hosting exhibits of work by members of the Boston Printmakers at the museum. He remained at his post for three years, until his sudden death in 1973. A memorial award in his honor, the Ture Bengtz Memorial Prize began shortly afterward.

Established in 1947, the Boston Printmakers was formed by a group of students assisted by Ture Bengtz (then Director of the Graphics Department at the Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Otis Philbrick (instructor for the Massachusetts College of Art), and Arthur Heintzelman (printmaker and curator of Wiggin Gallery at the Boston Public Library). The students included Bengtz’ pupil, Richard Bartlett (president), Shirley Thompson Hadley (vice president), and Gladys Wilcock (secretary/treasurer). Initially a regional group, the Boston Printmakers soon expanded its reach to include the national and international art world.

Shown: Mark Sisson, Portrait of Daniel King: Scouting for Men and Boys, 2016
linocut, wood cut, lithograph

Nora Valdez: Passage

September 17, 2023 – September, 2025
Reception: November 12, 2023, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

A new installation on the museum grounds, “Passage” includes four pieces depicting crucial moments in a journey.

Originally from Argentina, Valdez trained in both Italy and Spain before settling in Boston. Her sculptures represent the nature of change, life of the individual, and the forces that wear upon the human soul. Her immigrant-themed work describes the challenge of those caught within unfamiliar systems who seek the security of home.

Shown: Nora Valdez, Voiceless #1, (Detail),  2019, Indiana limestone