--- .\  IN THE NEWS

EXHIBITION

Museum of Fine Arts Boston   .\  Tender Loving Care

July  22, 2023 - July 28, 2025 

BOSTON - At their core, creating and looking at works of art are acts of care, from the artist’s labor to the viewer’s contemplation and appreciation. In 2019, eighty artists participated in our 20th anniversary exhibition, which culminated in a charm bracelet including a work by each artist. This piece, now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, will be on view in Tender Loving Care through July 2025.

This exhibition invites visitors to explore how contemporary artists trace and address concepts of care through their materials, subjects, ideas, and processes. More than 100 works from the MFA’s collection—including recent acquisitions and objects that have never been on view before—define, depict, and demonstrate many forms of care through five thematic groupings: threads, thresholds, rest, vibrant matter, and adoration. Including works from Gisela Charfauros McDaniel’s portrait of her mother, Tiningo’ si Sirena (2021), moves between intimacy and an attentiveness to larger concepts that are meaningful to the artist, like cultural inheritances and ecological interconnectivity. For his Sound Suit (2008), Nick Cave extended the lifespan of discarded objects by transforming them into a surreal, otherworldly costume that asserts the value of Black life. The intensive time and labor that goes into creating textiles and fiber art is evident in examples by Sheila Hicks, Howardena Pindell, and Jane Sauer. Through these works and many others, visitors can consider how different forms of care may inspire new models for living and feeling—now and in the future.

Emily Stoehrer,  the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts wrote a lovely article for rt Jewelry Forum celebrating the acquisition. 

MELANIE BILENKER  .\  Scrubbing, 2018. Hair on paper, sterling silver, silver leaf, mineral crystal. 

THANK YOU to the artists:

Efharis Alepedis, Karin Roy Andersson, Jonathan Anzalone, Giampaolo Babetto, Suzanne Beautyman, Kristin Beeler, Jamie Bennett, Melanie Bilenker, Iris Bodemer, Kristine Bolhuis, Helen Britton, Lola Brooks, Doug Bucci, Raïssa Bump, David Chatt, Sharon Church, Liz Clark, Emily Cobb, Nikki Couppee, Erin S. Daily, Venetia Dale, Noam Elyashiv, Sandra Enterline, Pat Flynn, Warwick Freeman, Donald Friedlich, Susie Ganch, Caroline Gore, Adam Grinovich, Heather Guidero, Gésine Hackenberg, Mielle Harvey, Arthur Hash, Lauren Kalman,  Dahlia Kanner, John Kennedy, Janis Kerman, Gabriella Kiss, Anya Kivarkis, Esther Knobel, Monika Krol, Daniel Kruger, Julia Maria Künnap, Akiko Kurihara, Jacqueline I. Lillie, Märta Mattsson, Paul McClure, Bruce Metcalf, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Darcy Miro, emiko oye, Seth Papac, Tom Patti, Mary Hallam Pearse, Maria Phillips, Suzanne Pugh, Leonardo Quiles, Tina Rath, Ruta Reifen, Lucy Sarneel, Biba Schutz, Barbara Seidenath, Sondra Sherman, Carina Shoshtary, Bettina Speckner, Tracy Steepy, Lori Talcott, Amy Tavern, Lauren V. Tickle, Amelia Toelke, Julia Turner, Johan van Aswegen, Manon van Kouswijk, Jonathan Wahl, Stacey Lee Webber, Brian Weissman, Mallory Weston, Deb Todd Wheeler, and Petra Zimmermann