JOURNEYS EAST
Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia
February 21 – May 31, 2009

Journeys East considered Isabella Gardner’s continuing dialogue with Asia, from her trips to the Near and Far East, to the formation of a personal museum where Asian art played a significant role. Later in life, her close friendship with Okakura Kakuzo initiated a new phase of collecting Asian art and led to a rearrangement of the museum. The exhibition explored the complex interaction of travel, collecting, and museum formation. On display were Gardner’s travel albums and Asian objects ranging from Japanese screens to a monumental bronze Buddha, Indian jewelry to Chinese snuff bottles.

The exhibition was made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support was provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Preview the fully illustrated exhibition catalogue.

Su-Mei Tse: Floating Memories
July 16 – October 18, 2009

The perception of space is a function of what we see as well as what we hear. Created by Gardner Museum Artist-in-Residence Su-Mei Tse (b. 1973) specifically for the museum’s Special Exhibition gallery, Floating Memories merges sound, image, and object into a single poetic form, encouraging viewers to reflect on the passing of time, distant memory, absence, and longing.

Purchase Su-Mei Tse: Notes Exhibition Catalogue

The Artist-in-Residence Program is made possible, in part, by the Nimoy Foundation, the Thomas A. Pappas Charitable Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and generous individuals. The Gardner Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The art of Taro Shinoda engages themes of science, philosophy, and desire, and investigates our place in the universe. During his month-long residency in Boston in the spring of 2007, Shinoda was inspired by the moonlight in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum courtyard to develop his project, Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique.