News - Page 1 | Colby College Museum of Art

These 18 Artists Are Dominating U.S. Museums Right Now

The Many Islands of “America”

Two large, colorful textiles hang side-by-side from the ceiling above a low white platform in a gallery with light wood floors. Each textile features a white center bordered by dark trim and holds a bold circular emblem incorporating island imagery, including the Guam seal on the left and the Puerto Rican flag on the right.

Alex Katz: Out of Sight

An abstract ink wash painting in reddish-orange on white paper, featuring thick, vertical strokes and gestural blotches that suggest a dense thicket of trees.

2026–27 FELLOWSHIPS AT COLBY MUSEUM’S LUNDER INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN ART

A graphic featuring square headshots of five fellows arranged in two rows against a light beige background. Top row: Matthew Villar Miranda, Jerome Reyes and Ruby Sky Stiler. Bottom row: Alana Dao and meg willing, both labeled "A CLEARING," alongside Gwyneth Shanks.

Painter Alex Katz reflects on his career and artistry ahead of 100th birthday

Two men sit facing each other in chairs inside a brightly lit art studio, conversing. The man on the left, Jeffrey Brown, wears a blue shirt and teal pants, smiling as he speaks. The man on the right, Alex Katz, wears an orange baseball cap, a white t-shirt, and dark pants.

Colby College acquires rare Henri Matisse screenprint

A large, horizontally oriented artwork by Henri Matisse installed on a white gallery wall. The piece features a muted tan or beige background filled with white silk-screened cutouts of stylized marine life, birds, coral, and organic shapes. The artwork is enclosed in a simple, thin gold frame.

Colby College acquires rare Matisse

A large, horizontally oriented artwork by Henri Matisse installed on a white gallery wall. The piece features a muted tan or beige background filled with white silk-screened cutouts of stylized marine life, birds, coral, and organic shapes. The artwork is enclosed in a simple, thin gold frame.

Colby Museum show asks how U.S. became an empire as country marks 250 years

wo large, side-by-side textile quilts are suspended vertically in a bright art gallery space. The left quilt features a concentric circular design centered around the Seal of Guam with bright yellow, green, and blue bands against a white background. The right quilt displays a similar circular format incorporating the Puerto Rican flag and additional colorful patterns framed in black. Other artworks hang on the white walls in the background atop light-wood gallery flooring.

How The United States Became America

A vertical portrait of a person whose face and neck are covered in white pigment. Their head and face are tightly bound in a grid-like "trap" or cage made of pink and black braided fabric. The subject looks directly at the camera with a neutral expression against a plain white background.

Colby College Museum of Art Acquires Rare Matisse Cut-Out Textile, Océanie, le ciel

A large, horizontally oriented artwork by Henri Matisse installed on a white gallery wall. The piece features a muted tan or beige background filled with white silk-screened cutouts of stylized marine life, birds, coral, and organic shapes. The artwork is enclosed in a simple, thin gold frame.

The Woman Who Made Andrew Wyeth’s World

A realist painting depicts a large, two-story white house perched atop a grassy hill overlooking calm, glassy water that clearly reflects the building below. On the far left, a small sailboat with a prominent white sail glides near the shoreline under a heavy, overcast sky. The composition features a highly muted, desaturated palette of grays, whites, and earthy greens, creating a quiet and serene atmosphere.

Giddily Toward Oblivion: Gladys Nilsson Paints the Human Comedy

A circular multimedia artwork framed inside a wooden embroidery hoop depicts an abstract, stylized landscape with dense, interlocking organic shapes. Two main orange and ochre figures with finger-like extensions sit in the center, surrounded by pale blue and grey tubular plant forms and a patterned ground texture. The composition uses flat colors, fine stippling, and bold black outlines to separate the interlocking elements.

July Book Bag: from a selection of US folk art to a closer look at the work of YBA Gary Hume

A graphic poster or book cover design features a textured, granular background with a split color scheme: a weathered teal-blue on top and a deep ocean blue below. Peach-colored typography overlays the image. The text reads "Imagining an" at the top, "Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico," across the middle, "Archipelago" in large letters near the bottom, and "and Their Diasporas" along the lower edge.

New Exhibitions Unveil the Worlds of Betsy Wyeth

An elevated landscape photograph capturing a cluster of weathered wooden houses on a grassy, rocky island. A dark, calm pond sits in the foreground, reflecting a soft blue sky filled with white clouds. In the background, the rolling green land meets a calm ocean cove dotted with distant islands.

Gertrude Abercrombie: Good Witch of the American Absurd

A surrealist painting depicts a woman from behind in a black dress, wide-brimmed hat, and white gloves walking down a dirt path toward a tiny white church. The surrounding landscape features a large, leafless white tree, dark clouds hanging in a gray sky, and barren tree stumps scattered across fields. Her hand holds a twig as she tilts her head toward the distant horizon.

Beyond Boston: Eleven Summer Exhibitions Worth the Drive

A vertical photograph taken from a high angle, showing a headless, nude person with tanned skin lying in a fetal position on a woven tan mat. The person is adorned with intricate orange shell jewelry across their torso and hip. Surrounding them on the mat is a symmetrical and extensive collection of Indigenous jewelry, including necklaces, earrings, and bracelets made of shells, bone, and dark wood, arranged like a museum display or an anatomical study.

Whistler and Colby—Together in London

Who Are the Next Great Maine Artists?

A high-contrast black and white photograph capturing an outdoor courtyard area of a modern building with clean architectural lines. Multiple people are scattered throughout the space, some standing in small groups conversing and others sitting at round tables. The foreground features dramatic, long diagonal shadows cast across the light-colored pavement by an unseen structure or trellis.

With Deep Colby Connections, a Whistler Retrospective is a ‘Luscious, Seductive Blockbuster’

An oil painting on canvas rendered in a muted, atmospheric palette of greys, soft blues, and ochres. It depicts a misty river landscape under a hazy, overcast sky. In the upper right, a small dark steamboat plies the water, emitting a plume of pale smoke. The background shows a dark, silhouetted shoreline with industrial chimneys rising on the left. In the foreground, a path or bank is populated by simplified, silhouetted figures—including a couple standing near bare, slender trees on the right and a small group near the left.

Jacqueline Terrassa to Conclude Museum Directorship in 2026

The exterior of the Colby College Museum of Art