Past Exhibitions

Visitors looking at works of art on view in the Maria Magdalena Compos-Pons exhibition

María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold

Sep 27, 2024–Jan 5, 2025
María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold includes over three decades of the artist’s work in photography, installation, video, painting, and performance. Hauntingly beautiful and emotionally charged, Behold shows how Campos-Pons’s layered identity as a Cuban woman with ancestral roots in the Yoruba culture of West Africa as well as in Spain and China inform… Read More
Woman standing in a room filled with abstract purple and pink shapes projected on the walls

LaJuné McMillian:
The Portal’s Keeper—Origins

Sep 27, 2024–Jan 5, 2025
New York–based multidisciplinary artist LaJuné McMillian combines extended reality software and mediums including movement and sound to provide an exuberant visual critique of oppressive systems that commodify bodies and otherwise limit free expressions. Working with motion capture (witnessing) software, their work often translates the movements of Black people, seen as… Read More
People walking in a gallery

¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now

Jun 28–Sep 29, 2024
¡Printing the Revolution! examines how graphic arts have been utilized to build community, engage the public around social concerns, and wrestle with shifting notions of the term Chicano, which Mexican Americans defiantly adopted in the 1960s and 1970s as a sign of a new political and cultural identity. During this… Read More
Young man and woman looking at paintings

Black Joy, in Spite of. . .

Apr 5–Sep 2, 2024
This exhibition offers a three-dimensional picture of the Black American experience by focusing on moments of joy despite a history of pain and struggle. Guest curator Brigette Janea Jones has selected photographs made throughout Tennessee that depict the enslaved and their descendants during various time periods, including enslavement, Reconstruction, the… Read More
Man looking at garment in a case

Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous

May 30–Aug 25, 2024
Lee Alexander McQueen (1969–2010) redefined contemporary fashion with his extraordinary ability to blend exquisite craftsmanship with imaginative storytelling. Mythologized in his own lifetime, the press promoted him variously as fashion’s enfant terrible (terrible child), a troubled genius, and one of the era’s most visionary designers, yet there were few who truly… Read More
Man looking at several clay sculptures in varying shapes

Shahpour Pouyan: Winter in Paradise

May 30–Aug 25, 2024
In works of art astonishing for their beauty, sophistication, and virtuosity, Shahpour Pouyan critiques political power and expresses a poetic melancholy about the human condition. Born in Isfahan, Iran, in 1979, he now divides his time between Tehran and London, and his work is in the permanent collections of the British… Read More
Three women looking around in an elevator with the walls covered in colorful art.

Afrofuturistic Visions: Dreamscapes of Sicasso

Aug 11, 2023–Aug 12, 2024
The Frist Art Museum presents Afrofuturistic Visions: Dreamscapes of Sicasso, an installation that showcases the beauty of African American people, culture, and history. The inspired artist Sicasso encourages those who witness her work to immerse themselves in dreamscape spaces. The installation, located in the Grand Lobby elevator on the east… Read More
Close-up painting of a cicada with glowing lights in the background

Teens Take the Frist!
Focus on Nature

Jul 13–Aug 11, 2024
Prompted by our vision of inspiring people through art to look at their world in new ways, the Frist Art Museum invited teens to submit their artwork for this sixth edition of Teens Take the Frist! The resulting selection features artworks by over ninety emerging Middle Tennessee artists exploring the… Read More
Man sitting at a table working on an iPad with Apple Pen

Digital Art Making with FiftyForward

Jun 13–Jul 7, 2024
From September 2023 through May 2024, the Frist Art Museum presented a series of digital art workshops for participants ages 55 and older in partnership with FiftyForward and supported by a Vitality Arts grant from E. A. Michelson Philanthropy. FiftyForward, a key Middle Tennessee provider of programs and services for… Read More
Three women standing in front of works of art smiling.

Community Partners Art Show

May 23–Jun 9, 2024
Since 2000, the Frist Art Museum has partnered with local organizations to promote opportunities for collaboration and provide educational programs. Partners often serve as a point of access for people who might experience barriers to visiting the Frist or who are otherwise unaware of the museum’s offerings. This exhibition highlights… Read More