Since 1961 the character of Zé Carioca has starred in a series of wildly popular Brazilian comic books, which artist Rivane Neuenschwander (b. 1967) grew up reading. This complex figure—conceived as an instrument of capitalist diplomacy but by now also a national symbol—has inspired several bodies of her work.

Born in Culiacán, Mexico, Teresa Margolles works in photography, video, sculpture, and performance. Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread expands on her exploration of violence through a new series of textiles involving the unprecedented participation of artist-embroiderers from Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread was organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY.

A Usable Past features highlights of the Museum’s extensive holdings of folk art of the United States, including many artworks from the American Heritage collection of Edith and Ellerton Jetté–one of the earliest collections to enter the Colby College Museum of Art.

Weather vanes and trade signs made by skilled artisans once added notes of whimsy to otherwise mundane streets and farms. This exhibition of outstanding American weather vanes and trade signs gives viewers a glimpse of the rich visual complexity of ordinary public spaces in the United States during the long nineteenth century.

South African artist William Kentridge produces stop-motion animations from photographs of his charcoal drawings and collages. A film fragment made for a related theatrical production, Tango for Page Turning (2012) was inspired by Kentridge’s conversations with science historian Peter Galison.

Selections from Picasso’s Vollard Suite—the artist’s most significant cycle of etchings and a hallmark of twentieth century modernist printmaking—will be on view to celebrate the recent gift of the entire suite by Peter and Paula Lunder.

This exhibition of German Expressionist prints illustrating scenes from plays by William Shakespeare is drawn from Shakespeare Visionen–a 1918 print folio published in Munich. Curated by Colby College students enrolled in Professor Laurie Osborne's course Global Shakespeares, the exhibition includes woodcuts, lithographs, and intaglio prints by Max Beckman, Oskar Kokoschka, Theodor Heine and others, and demonstrates how Shakespeare’s emotionally complex characters and theatrical situations inspire rich comparisons across cultures and historical periods.  Curated by Lev Pinkus ’17, Sophie Kaplan ’19, Lainey Curtis ’18, and Rachel Bird ’18 with support from the Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Seniors studying studio art have spent all year working on capstone projects in disciplines that include printmaking, photography, painting, and sculpture. This show serves as the culmination of their studies.

Featuring works from Dürer to Van Gogh, Master Prints from the Lunder Collection highlights four hundred years of the finest achievements in printmaking.