Northern Illinois University
Art Museum
College of Visual and Performing Arts

Schedule Your Timed Entry

Winter 2021
January 12 – February 26, 2021

Narrative Art Exhibition Suite

From the Mind of Ellen Roth Deutsch
North Gallery

From the Mind of Ellen Roth Deutsch features Deutsch's work from several decades in which she revisits various complex themes through symbolic characters and metaphorical imagery. Deutsch tackles experiences of sexual abuse, depression, illness and death through imagery that caricatures, digs in and dramatizes. Notable museums and galleries including the Newberry Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, State of Illinois Gallery in Chicago and the National Museum of Women in the Arts have exhibited Deutsch's work.

Mirth and Mayhem: Landis Blair Selections of Drawings and Books
Hall case Gallery

Mirth and Mayhem: Landis Blair Selections of Drawings and Books contains illustrations from books by Landis Blair, whose stories contain elements of taboo, nihilism and whimsy. Blair's black and white imagery evokes inspiration from Edward Gorey and often includes dark and absurd humor, lulling the reader through rhyming descriptions of vignette scenes. On view are illustrations from The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes; The Progressive Problem and The Regressive Solution; A Toasted Passion; and Whetting Engines.

Storied References
Rotunda and South Galleries

Storied References is a group exhibition curated by invitation and from a national call for entry featuring artwork that grapples with the harsh truths of contemporary reality while employing familiar narrative motifs found in oral traditions, fairy tales, fables, myths and legends. As humans we have always sought to understand ourselves and the world around us through the stories we tell each other. Artists translate verbal and literary narratives into visual language, sometimes retelling stories from a new perspective: mashing them up, stripping them down or retelling them through the lens of feminism, cultural or personal experience.

Storied References features artists: Kamal Al Mansour, Aodan, Michael Barnes, Brandin Barón, Sarah Bielski, K. Johnson Bowles, Kathy Bruce, Patricia Constantine, Ross Everett, Richard Gessert, Ronald Gonzalez, Heidi Jensen, Andrew Ellis Johnson, B. Lynch, Firoz Mahmud, Sarah Martin, Joseph Miller, Kel Mur, B. Quinn, Amy Schissel, Aaron Sizemore, Jason Tannen, Rhonda Urdang, Lauren Woods.

Spring 2021
March 25 – May 14, 2021

"Very Well, Thank You": The Arts as a Means to Well Being

Exhibition and accompanying programming explore the unique way the visual and performing arts assist in maintaining social, psychological and physical health and happiness.

Fall 2021
August 24 - November 12, 2021

"The Art of Surviving: The Journey of the Karen Refugees in Illinois

Exhibition organized by the Center for Burma Studies at NIU with financial support from a Luce Grant to conduct oral histories with recently resettled community members.

Refuge and Refugee

Contemporary artists explore global humanitarian crises as displaced persons forced to flee their home country attempt to find refuge elsewhere.