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A bright yellow, striped pot

Aunt Fran’s Blanket Basket, 2024, Dan Friday (Lummi, b. 1975), glass, Museum Purchase: Gift of Joseph and Marilyn Hirschhorn and Friends of Decorative Arts & Design, 2024.119, © Dan Friday 2024, Photography by Rob Deslongchamps

A long, chain-like object hangs from the ceiling

Black and Blue BS Theory, 2020, Xia Zhang (Chinese American, b. 1989), ceramic, metal, gym rope, thread, and concrete, Museum Purchase: Phyllis H. Thayer Purchase Fund, 2024.94, © Xia Zhang 2020

A glass wall piece with six colorful square segments

Wall Piece 3644, 1997, Therman Statom (American, b. 1953), window glass, silicone, paint, wood, paper, and found objects, The Nancy and David Wolf Collection, 2016.20, © Therman Statom

A basket made from spiky wooden segments

Haystack River Basket, 2011, Dorothy Gill Barnes (American, 1927–2020), wood (possibly spruce), Museum Purchase: Gloria W. Thomson Fund for Decorative Arts, 2023.137, © Dorothy Gill Barnes 2011

An image of a hillside in the dark separated into four segments

Say Goodbye, 2007, April Surgent (American, b. 1982), cameo glass, Gift of Ellen and Mark Greenberger, 2023.148, © April Surgent 2007, Photography by Rob Deslongchamps

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Modern and Contemporary Craft

February 28, 2026–Summer 2027

Galleries 222–223

Today’s global contemporary art scene is dynamic and multifaceted, valuing the use of any and all media to investigate an endless array of processes, concepts, and experiences. In the examples on view in this special feature, artists have explored interactions between physical materials, audience engagement, and less tangible qualities like light, space, time, memory, dreams, and emotion; implemented experimental techniques or contemporary applications of historical traditions; and used their works to challenge established societal norms, incorporate cross-cultural influences, and revitalize inanimate materials.

Presenting several recent acquisitions alongside selections from the collection gifted by Cincinnatians Nancy and David Wolf, this gallery highlights the contemporary creative and conceptual possibilities of materials like glass, clay, metal, and wood.