Dread Scott in Crosscurrents: Works from the Contemporary Collection

In 2025, all Contemporary Wing galleries will be reinstalled according to themes that range from the environment and ecology to social protest, cohabitation, and migration.

Artworks include a new commission by Abigail Lucien, collection cornerstones such as Robert Motherwell’s Elegy to the Spanish Republic CII (1965) situated in dialogue with Nari Ward’s Peace Keeper (1995/2020), as well as recent acquisitions on view for the first time, such as Justen Leroy’s Lay Me Down in Praise (2022) and Shahzia Sikander’s Touchstone (2021).

Spanning mosaic, sound sculpture, everyday objects repurposed into installations, video, ceramics, painting, and furniture, the works on view invite close attention to the artist’s materials. 

Presented as part of the Turn Again to the Earth environmental initiative. Co-curated by Jessica Bell Brown, former BMA Curator of Contemporary Art; Cecilia Wichmann, Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art; and Leila Grothe, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art; with Antoinette Roberts, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; Dylan Kaleikaumaka Hill, Meyerhoff-Becker Curatorial Fellow; Oscar Flores-Montero, Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art; and Maura Callahan, University of Maryland Fellow.