The San Diego Museum of Art presents 'Oceanic Art: Celebration of Form'

Oceanic Art: Celebration of Form
San Diego Museum of Art
January 31, 2009 - January 3, 2010

The San Diego Museum of Art proudly presents "Oceanic Art: Celebration of Form" curated by George Ellis, director emeritus of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. "Oceanic Art" is showing side-by-side with “Black Womanhood: Icons, Images, and Ideologies of the African Body” a traveling show ending April 26; the Oceanic show will remain on view until January 3.

Oceanic Art: A Celebration of Form features 97 three-dimensional works, primarily from Melanesia and Polynesia, but the exhibition also includes objects from Micronesia and Taiwan. Works on view come from three major California collections: the renowned personal collections of Valerie Franklin and Edward and Mina Smith Collection, as well as the extensive holdings of the Sana Art Foundation. The exhibition includes a variety of three-dimensional objects, including sculptures, traditional adornments, weapons, and objects used in everyday life. Many of these are encoded with cultural and social meanings, some of which still function within certain Oceanic cultures today. <content adapted from San Diego Art Museum website>

Learn more about the presence of Oceanic Art in museum across the US in a recently published Los Angeles Times article "The Soul of Oceania" by Suzanne Muchnic (February 22, 2009).
Continue reading below about the two current exhibtions at the San Diego Museum of Art or visit their website www.sdmart.org.