News & Updates

Object Lesson: WATER by Edward Burtynsky

To create the works in his project WATER, Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, born 1955) travelled around the globe, from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of the Ganges, weaving together an ambitious representation of water’s increasingly fragmented lifecycle. In enormous, color, aerial images, many bordering on the edge of complete abstraction, Burtynsky traces the various roles that water plays in modern life—as a source of healthy ecosystems and energy, as a key element in cultural and religious rituals, and as a rapidly depleting resource. Read More

NOMA Reset: Ensō Painting Workshop

In Zen, ensō is a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. The ensō symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and mu (the void). It is characterized by a minimalism born of Japanese aesthetics. Read More

Virtual Tour: Arte Sacra: Roman Catholic Art from Portuguese India

We invite you to join Dr. Robert J. Del Bontà, guest curator of Arte Sacra: Roman Catholic Art from Portuguese India, for a virtual tour of the exhibition currently on view at NOMA. Dr. Del Bontà is an independent scholar of Indian art, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1978. Since that time he has published numerous articles, contributed to many scholarly publications, and curated major exhibitions for the Berkeley Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, among others.  Read More

Object Lesson: To guna Post

The to guna literally translates to “house of words”—it is a men’s meeting house and considered to be the center of the community. A to guna is often sited in a high place overlooking the village. The roofs of the structures are constructed of layers of millet stalks, which can be over six feet deep and supported by wooden beams. Read More