Black Lives as subject Matter III

February 1-May 17, 2026

Curated by Willis “Bing” Davis

Building upon the award-winning exhibition presented five years ago, Black Life as Subject Matter III brings together exceptional works by over twenty state and regional Black artists. Curated by Willis “Bing” Davis and organized by the Springfield Museum of Art, the exhibition centers Black life as both subject and framework, examining contemporary lived experience through diverse artistic practices and perspectives. 

Exhibiting artists: Delora Buchanon, Karen Brame, Breanna Cole, Abner Cope, Nathan Conner, DonCee Coulter, Dwayne Daniel, Bing Davis, Clifford Darrett, Gregory DeGroat, Horace Dozier, Sr., Erin Smith Glenn, Morris Howard, Thomas Hudson, Jimi Jones, Wendy Kendrick, James Pate, Craig Screven, Taliaferro Sebastian, Frances Turner, and Joshua Whitaker.

This exhibition was developed by Willis “Bing” Davis in partnership with Shango: Center for the Study of African American Art and Culture. The curator acknowledges AES Ohio Foundation for support of the project’s curatorial development, with additional support from Black Palette Art Gallery and EbonNia Gallery.

The Springfield Museum of Art gratefully acknowledges its partnership with Willis “Bing” Davis and participating artists in presenting Black Life as Subject Matter III.

Image: Joshua Whitaker, Sanctum, Mixed media assemblage with photo transfer on wood, 58″ x 35.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Check back soon for Upcoming Exhibition information

Land of Opportunity: Landscape, Labor, and the American Dream

As the nation approaches 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Land of Opportunity reflects on the promises and contradictions that shape the American landscape. Drawn from SMoA’s permanent collection, this exhibition explores how artists have portrayed land and labor as central to our national identity—symbols of freedom, prosperity, and progress, but also of inequity and struggle. From pastoral farms to industrial scenes, these works invite us to consider how the ideals of liberty and equality are reflected in the American landscape—and for whom they are truly possible

Imprinting: Charley Harper, Edie McKee Harper, and Brett Harper

Imprinting celebrates the joyful artistic legacy of the Harper family: Charley Harper, Edie McKee Harper, and their son Brett Harper.

Their playful minimalist-modernist prints have shaped generations in how we see, feel, and relate with the natural world. By making fauna and flora approachable, even lovable, the artists invite us to look a little longer, to care deeper, and ultimately, to understand that these beings are not other— they are kin.

The exhibition draws its name from the biological phenomenon of imprinting: the instinctive way animals form deep, lasting bonds with those they spend time with early in life. In much the same way, the Harpers’ artwork imprints upon us by fostering feelings of connection to wild beings.

The Harpers’ prints offer more than observation— they invite humor and empathy. Through geometry, line, color and pattern, animals and plants are reduced to their most basic shapes yet radiate emotional clarity.

Despite their simplicity, these artworks speak to viewers of all ages. Full of playful puns, flattened forms, and joyous geometry, the Harpers’ way of seeing the world bridges the gap between scientific observation and artistic imagination. Their playful puns and visual vocabulary delight, but the result is quietly transformative.

Imprinting reminds us that the bonds we form to people, places, and the living world shape who we are. These artworks invite us to reconnect: to feel wonder, to laugh, to care, and to feel at home in nature.

The Ohio Watercolor Society | North Gallery

September 20 - November 16, 2025

As Ohio’s only Smithsonian Affiliate art museum, SMoA is proud to partner with the Ohio Watercolor Society to present the 48th annual juried exhibition before it travels across the state. Juried by acclaimed American Watercolor Society artist Paul Jackson, MFA, the show reflects the best of contemporary watercolor in Ohio. Exhibition runs from September 20 – November 16, 2025.

The 79th Juried Members’ Exhibition | McGregor Gallery

August 15—December 28, 2025

SMoA’s annual “love letter” to Museum members and community opened to a record-breaking crowd! Plan a visit. Experience the range of creative expression evident in the nearly 150 works on exhibition. Cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award and purchase artworks. Juried by Rodney Veal, this year’s winners include: Jefferson Glover-Best in Show, Jimi Jones-2nd Place, Cynthia Bornhorst Winslow-3rd Place, and Elisha Frontz-Honorable Mention.

Unearthing: Searching Through Strata

May 24, 2025 - March 1, 2026

Opening May 24, 2025, the Springfield Museum of Art presents Unearthing: Searching through Strata, a survey of work by artist Anita Cooke. This exhibition traces a 20-year creative journey beginning when Hurricane Katrina buried her clay studio in the Louisiana mud.

Before the storm, Cooke was a ceramic sculptor and functional potter. In the wreckage of Katrina, she unearthed her Aunt Genie’s 1950s Singer Featherweight sewing machine. This discovery sparked a profound shift in her artistic medium and method. Using the sewing machine, Cooke began stitching together intricate textile constructions, embedded with evidence of her time and labor.

Cooke is a process artist. Her primary goal is in the making, and the effort of her work is visible. She paints canvases, tears them apart, pins, organizes, gathers, layers, stitches, and compresses. Cooke’s complex work evokes loss and finding, chaos and order, and searching for meaning in what remains.

Anita Cooke is a visual artist living and making work in New Orleans. Formerly from Springfield, Ohio, Cooke took her first pottery class at the Springfield Art Center (now the Springfield Museum of Art) while in high school. Cooke continued in ceramics, earning a BFA in Ceramics from Kent State University. She received an MFA in Ceramics and Sculpture from Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Aminah Robinson:  Journeys Home, A Visual Memoir

February 1, 2025-July 13, 2025

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940–2015) was an exceptionally prolific artist who used traditional and unconventional, non-traditional materials to create a staggering body of work. Her drawings, paintings, sculptures, and mixed media textiles chronicle her family’s African ancestry, her travels worldwide, and her witness to African American life.

The MacArthur Award recipient was also a researcher, historian, poet, author, illustrator, composer, and teacher who used her vast talents to draw harmony into a discordant world. When Robinson passed away, she entrusted her art, writing, personal belongings, and home studio to the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, her hometown museum.

Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, a Visual Memoir brings together some of the artist’s most profound works and words, produced over seven decades from 1948 to 2012. Drawing upon Robinson’s historical research, folklore, and personal narrative, the exhibition presents a visual memoir of the artist’s life and a compelling tableau of the African American experience.

Can’t Hold Me Down

November 8, 2024 - April 30, 2025

About the Project

In Can’t Hold Me Down, Springfield photographer Ty Fischer partners with 17 students from Cliff Park High School to bring forth stories of personal challenge and resilience through dynamic layered portraits and story. Each student reflected on their educational journey, sharing experiences of struggle and strength.

Listening to each student’s story as he photographed them, Fischer let each student’s words guide his creative
approach in making their portrait. The resulting prismatic lenticular portraits combine three different images: a black-and-white portrait, a collage of each student’s most
impactful words, and an AI-generated image embodying the student’s positive emotions about their individual path of growth and perseverance.

About the Collaborators

High School Student Collaborators include Alyssa Allen, Lisa Baum, Peyton Berner, Walter Bostic, Anahstaciya Brown, Kamren DeArmond, Bradon Ervin, Jae’lyn Ervin, Kaylese Evans, Mireya Hammett, Samiya Hammond, Peter Hill, Montye Joyce, Ka’Miyah Robinson, Taylor Smith, Tre Walker, and Madison Wells.

Ty Fischer is a photographer and Springfield native. As an artist, Fischer is interested in exploring community narratives through his “Your Story” participatory storytelling and photography projects. Through this work, Fischer hopes that his portraits encourage conversation, connection, and the possibility of viewing others through their own lens.

Cliff Park High School is a unique learning environment serving students, ages 15-21, who have experienced significant life challenges necessitating a different approach to overcome each student’s obstacles to reaching graduation. Cliff Park offers flexible learning hours, accommodation around work schedules, hands-on technical and career training, and dedicated and specialized teachers. Each student can learn at their own pace, earning credits towards graduation as quickly as they can or as slowly as needed.

The Places We Return To…

September 28, 2024 - May 11, 2025

Eric Barth | Rod Bouc | Elsie Sanchez

In The Places We Return To, three Columbus-based painters explore evocative personal landscapes that reside deeply within. Colored by nostalgia, melancholy, and longing for something perhaps just out of reach, each artist wrestles with the complexity and intimacy of memory.

Though different in style and approach, each of the artists’ works hint at a tension just beneath the surface, a dark side, an unshakable feeling. By applying heavy pigments and then scraping them off the surface— obscuring and revealing—each artist uses methods that recall the intangible qualities of place-based memories.

 

About the Artists

Eric Barth grew up near Lake Erie, in the suburbs of Cleveland, where his early involvement in the arts began in the underground music scene. He holds a BFA from The Ohio State University and founded The Barth Galleries in Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio.

Rod Bouc was raised on a farm in Nebraska. He earned a BFA from the University of Nebraska and an MFA from The Ohio State University. For over thirty years, he served as a registrar and as an administrator of the Columbus Museum of Art.

Elsie Sanchez was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States as a young child with her family. She earned her BFA and MFA from The Ohio State University. She received the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Greater Columbus Arts Council Arts Partnership Award, and was selected to participate in the XIII Havana Biennial.