The Allen presents changing exhibitions along with engaging guest speakers and public programs.
Learn MoreThe Allen's collection is particularly strong in 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting, Japanese prints, early modern art, African art, and more.
Learn MoreExplore the full range of museum programs through free events, guided and self-guided tours, and resources for professors and PreK-12 teachers.
Learn MoreResources
Find podcasts, activities, and information for all age groups.
Support for the museum continues our tradition of bringing art to the people.
Learn MoreJune 14 - December 23, 2025
In Ellen Johnson Gallery
June 14 - December 23, 2025
In Ellen Johnson Gallery
The Pattern and Decoration movement (P&D) spanned the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, making decorative motifs a primary subject matter and offering an alternative to the austerity of minimalism and conceptualism.
Emerging from the feminist art movement, P&D artists across the United States embraced non-Western cultures, elevated the applied arts, and altered notions of “good taste.” Although P&D initially garnered positive attention, critics failed to appreciate that its visual promiscuity was a rejection of heteropatriarchy and Western hegemony. Drawn from the Allen’s collection, this exhibition stages a dialogue between historical P&D artists and those working today. This juxtaposition offers a precedent for the contemporary craft revival and traces the evolution of artistic positions on feminism, queerness, and global art.
During the Cold War, art theorists used the term “kitsch” to denigrate Soviet-style socialist realism and differentiate it from abstraction in the West. Decades later, as that bias subsides, we can appreciate how artists also deploy kitsch to disarm viewers and elicit an emotional response.
Riffing on architect Mies van der Rohe’s proclamation “less is more,” Robert Venturi, who designed the gallery that houses this exhibition, retorted, “less is a bore.” Underlying Venturi’s quip is a progressive politics of inclusivity and a rebuke of modernism’s fixation on “purity.” This exhibition celebrates art that is cute, camp, crafty, and decorative, while illuminating the critical implications of those strategies.
The exhibition includes works by P&D artists such as Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Kim MacConnel, Judy Pfaff, Miriam Schapiro, Lucas Samaras, and Frank Stella; and contemporary artists Tom Burr, Edie Fake, Sanaa Gateja, Sahar Khoury, Ellen Lesperance, Takashi Murakami, Maria Nepomuceno, Zak Ové, Mickalene Thomas, Xiyadie, and others.
Images:
Miriam Schapiro (American, born in Canada, 1923–2015), Children of Paradise, 1984. Color lithograph and collage.Gift of Katie Brown, 2023.28.1.
Sahar Khoury (American, b. 1973), Untitled (red with belts), 2022. Glazed ceramic, powder-coated steel, and belts. Purchased with funds from Carl Read Gerber (OC 1958) in honor of Driek (OC 1965) and Michael Zirinsky (OC 1964), 2023.59.
Edie Fake (American, b. 1980), Two Stories, 2018. Screenprint. Gift of the Oberlin College Art Department, RC2018.6.
Ellen Johnson ’33 Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
September 25, 2025 at 12:15 p.m.
Looking for a way to relax and enjoy art? Libni López, a clinical therapist with Authentically You Therapy, and Ellis Lane ...
October 9, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.
Artist Edie Fake will explore the visual “codes” that exist within queer and trans life and art, examining how these f...
October 14, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
Two visionary entrepreneurs who have advanced the fiber arts in Oberlin will discuss their work in the community and respond to th...
October 16, 2025 at 12:15 p.m.
Looking for a way to relax and enjoy art? Libni López, a clinical therapist with Authentically You Therapy, and Ellis Lane ...
Visit - Tours
Enjoy the intimacy of one of the nation's best academic art museums. Free admission since 1917.
Newsletter
Sign up for our e-newsletter to get information about our free events and latest exhibitions.
Join & Support
Your support makes a difference. Become a museum member, donor, or volunteer.