Current Exhibitions

Installation view, "re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum," Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 2021.

Installation view, re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, June 25, 2021–June 16, 2024. Photo by Isometric Studio, Brooklyn, New York.

The Rose Art Museum has been dedicated to the exhibition of modern and contemporary art since 1961. Its curatorial mission has included major thematic exhibitions, surveys of leading contemporary artists, and new commissions. In addition, the museum has served as a launchpad for emerging artists providing first-ever solo museum shows.

A unique assemblage of Ghanaian cloth and two-dye sublimation prints.

Lyle Ashton Harris: Our first and last love

Lois Foster Wing

February 9, 2023 - July 2, 2023

Drawing together photographs and installations from his celebrated and lesser-known series, "Lyle Ashton Harris: Our first and last love" charts new connections across the artistic practice of Lyle Ashton Harris.

Lyle Ashton Harris, Succession, 2020. Ghanaian cloth, dye sublimation prints, and artist’s ephemera. Private collection. © Lyle Ashton Harris. Courtesy the artist and LGDR, New York.

Beauford Delaney, "Abstraction (Greene Street)," 1950.

re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum

Gerald S. and Sandra Fineberg, Lower Rose Galleries, and the Lois Foster Wing

Organized in celebration of the Rose’s 60th anniversary, "re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum" casts a critical eye in two directions: highlighting the radical roots from which the museum grew, while showcasing the potential for future transformations.

Beauford Delaney, Abstraction (Greene Street), 1950 [detail]. Oil on canvas. Gift of Mr. Maurice Geller, -.1050. © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Attorney, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY.

1938 self-portrait of Frida Kahlo seated in a straw chair wearing a huipil (or tunic) smoking a cannabis cigarette, with a hairless dog at her feet.

Frida Kahlo at the Rose Art Museum

Lois Foster Wing

February 10, 2022 - July 2, 2023

"Frida Kahlo at the Rose Art Museum" presents an intimate display of two self-portraits by the iconic Mexican artist, along with photographs highlighting Kahlo's devotion to her native Mexico, unique sartorial flair, modes of hiding and exposing her disabled body, her queer, gender-fluid identity, and her bold and transgressive ways of being.

Frida Kahlo, Itzcuintli Dog and Me, 1938. Oil on canvas. Private collection. © 2021 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Mel Taing, 2021.

Mark Dion, The Undisciplined Collector, 2015

Mark Dion: The Undisciplined Collector

Permanent Installation

Wood paneled and furnished with the trappings of a 1961 collector's den, "The Undisciplined Collector" evokes the year of the Rose Art Museum's founding and serves as an introduction to the rich history of collecting at Brandeis University.

Mark Dion, The Undisciplined Collector, 2015. Rose Art Museum Special Fund, 2015.6. Charles Mayer Photography.

A student sits on a concrete bench a part of the Chris Burden's sculpture Light of Reason, which consists of antique Victorian lampposts and three concrete benches.

Chris Burden: Light of Reason

Permanent installation

An integral part of the image of the Rose Art Museum, the antique Victorian lampposts and concrete benches of Chris Burden's sculpture "Light of Reason" serves as an inviting gateway to the museum and a dynamic outdoor space for the Brandeis community.

Chris Burden, Light of Reason, 2014. 24 restored cast-iron street lamps. Rose Art Museum Acquisition Fund, Gift of Monroe and Edith Geller and Russian Sale Gift, 2014.3. © Chris Burden. Charles Mayer Photography.