Past Exhibitions

Alma W. Thomas:
Everything Is Beautiful

Feb 25–Jun 5, 2022
Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful provides a fresh perspective on the artist’s long, dynamic life (1891–1978) and multifaceted career that was defined by constant creativity. This major retrospective traces her journey from semirural Georgia to Washington, DC, to becoming the first Black woman to have a solo show at the… Read More

2022 Mayor's Art Show

Apr 7–May 12, 2022
Created as an opportunity to recognize the artistic accomplishments of Davidson County students, the Mayor’s Art Show was launched by Phil Bredesen during the 1990s. The Frist Art Museum began hosting this annual art show in 2004 during Bill Purcell’s term and is continuing the tradition with John Cooper. Art… Read More

On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Pérez Art Museum Miami

Jan 28–May 1, 2022
On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Pérez Art Museum Miami features approximately seventy works by fifty Cuban artists of multiple generations, including María Magdalena Campos-Pons (currently a professor at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University), Yoan Capote, Los Carpinteros, Teresita Fernández, and Zilia Sánchez. Through paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, and installations… Read More

LeXander Bryant: Forget Me Nots

Jan 28–May 1, 2022
Nashville-based artist LeXander Bryant’s debut solo museum exhibition Forget Me Nots addresses themes of perseverance amid adversity, family struc­tures and bonds, economic inequality, community activism, and more. The centerpiece of this multimedia exhibition is a suspended cracked concrete slab out of which blue forget-me-not flowers bloom. The installation references the… Read More

Murfreesboro City Schools Art Show

Mar 19–Apr 3, 2022
The 2022 Murfreesboro City Schools (MCS) Art Show features some of the finest artwork created by students in the school district. Over one hundred fifty young artists from kindergarten through sixth grade are included in this exhibition. Art teachers selected two works per grade level. Twelve MCS schools are represented… Read More

Williamson County Schools Art Show

Feb 26–Mar 13, 2022
The 2022 Williamson County Art Show features some of the finest artwork created by students in the school district. More than four hundred young artists from kindergarten through twelfth grade are included in this exhibition. Elementary and middle school art teachers selected two works per grade level, and high school… Read More

A Landmark Repurposed: From Post Office to Art Museum

Jan 8, 2021–Feb 27, 2022
Celebrating the Frist Art Museum’s 20th anniversary, this reimagined exhibition highlights the landmark building’s role as a civic institution, from its creation as Nashville’s main post office in 1934 to its reopening as a museum on April 8, 2001. Read More

Multi-District School Art Show

Jan 22–Feb 6, 2022
The 2022 Multi-District School Art Show features artwork created by students at over thirty schools in four Tennessee school districts. More than three hundred young artists from kindergarten through twelfth grade are included in this exhibition. Elementary and middle school art teachers selected two works per grade level, and high… Read More

Medieval Bologna:
Art for a University City

Nov 5, 2021–Jan 30, 2022
This is the first museum exhibition in the United States to focus on medieval art made in the northern Italian city of Bologna. Home to the oldest university in Europe, Bologna fostered a unique artistic culture at the end of the Middle Ages. With its large population of sophisticated readers,… Read More

American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918–1939

Oct 8, 2021–Jan 2, 2022
Appropriately presented within the Frist’s own art deco interior during the museum’s 20th-anniversary year, this exhibition offers an overview of an international style that manifested stateside in decorative arts, fine arts, architecture, and design during the 1920s and 1930s. Read More