Archives

“I was a photographer. I have pictures. I have proof.” Faye Schulman was a Jewish photographer and partisan during World War II. Born in 1919 to Rayzel Migdalovich and Yakov Lazebnik in Lenin, Eastern Poland (now part of Belarus), Faye was one of seven children. At the age of 10, Faye began assisting her older brother in his photography studio in Lenin. Neither of them knew that her skills as a photographer would later save her life. By 1941, the Nazi party occupied eastern Poland, and Faye was forced to work for them as an ID photographer and film developer.  

On August 14, 1942, Faye lost the majority of her family to a ‘liquidation’ of the Lenin ghetto. Her skills as a photographer saved her life as only six ‘helpful’ Jewish people – a tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, blacksmith, printer, and a photographer – and their families (a total of 27 people) were spared. Shortly afterwards, Faye and the other remaining Jewish people fled Lenin after being informed by a Jewish partisan (resistance fighter) that they were to be executed. They fled to the nearby forests, and Faye joined the Molotava Brigade, where she worked as a partisan, photographer, and nurse until the summer of 1944. 

This exhibition contains 29 photographs and informative panels detailing Faye Schulman’s life during the war as a partisan photographer. 

Please note that these photographs and panels contain sensitive topics such as wartime violence, death, and weaponry. This exhibition is not recommended for children under the age of 16. 

Spanning the artist’s career from 1929 to 1985, Louise Nevelson: Dawn to Dusk traces Nevelson’s formative years to her emergence as a sculptor of international renown. Featuring 40 works from the Farnsworth Art Museum collection, the exhibition includes early paintings and figurative sculptures in terracotta, cast stone, and bronze, as well as later painted wood reliefs, collages, and handcrafted jewelry. These selections highlight themes central to her development: her immigrant experience, her resilience in the face of cultural odds, and her pioneering, experimental approach to materials and installation.

Born Leah Berliawsky in 1899 in Tsarist Russia, near Kyiv in Ukraine, Nevelson immigrated to Rockland, Maine, with her family in 1905 to escape the persecution of Jews under the Imperialist regime. Before she died in 1988, Nevelson donated 56 examples of her art to the Farnsworth Art Museum in her hometown, making the Farnsworth collection the second largest holding of her work after the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Louise Nevelson: Dawn to Dusk addresses themes central to Nevelson’s artistic development: her immigrant experience; her determination to pursue an art career against great personal and cultural odds; her innovative, experimental use of materials; and her pioneering approach to installation and sculpture. 

An Abantu Cultural Expose by Abaddon “Apollo” Ben Yakongo

Step into Vuzumazulu: The Black Solarium, a mystical journey through time and heritage that awakens the soul. This exhibition unveils the hidden stories of Africa’s past, reconnecting us to the profound depth of Abantu culture. “Vuzumazula” translates to “awaken heaven,” representing the radiant truths that illuminate the forgotten corners of our shared history. The term “Black Solarium” reflects the transformative power of light and how the rich essence of Black identity absorbs and refracts it into something extraordinary.

This exhibition is a portal into the forgotten narratives of our African ancestors. Through the lens of mysticism, tradition, and spirituality, Apollo’s work bridges the gap between the African continent and Black America, offering proof that the descendants of the transatlantic slave trade, including those from the Clotilda, trace their lineage to the Abantu people of Ouidah, present-day Benin.

The exhibition calls us to challenge the Western and Eurocentric narratives of African history for over 2,500 years. It is a reclamation of identity, a declaration that Black America is deeply connected to the ancient and mystical roots of Africa. With every brushstroke, Apollo channels the voices of Sangoma healers, Zulu prophets, and Xhosa storytellers who preserved centuries of sacred knowledge.

By weaving together theology, spirituality, and cultural traditions. Vuzumazulu reminds us that understanding is essential to knowing our future. This art is not only a reflection of our past but a spark for Black consciousness, an awakening of the collective memory that sleeps within us.  The Abantu’s enduring legacy whispers of great civilizations, sacred covenants, and the resilience of a people determined to preserve their truth.

Vuzumazula invites you to reconnect, rediscover, and reimagine your place within a legacy of brilliance that spans tens of thousands of years.  This is a celebration of heritage, a testament to the power of art, and a call to awaken the heavens within us all.

In this exhibition, Rachel Wright utilized glass, photographs, and textiles to create sculptural work about the natural world. Through her exploration of the Delta and the surrounding area, Rachel explores the relationship between the local rivers, lakes, and creeks, and the organisms that reside within and in tangent to them. This included the Delta Moth Series: a body of work about moths that reside in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and their connection to this unique ecosystem and its rich biodiversity.

This exhibition included cast glass moths, glass maps created by layering sheet glass with powdered glass and silver, enlarged patterns formed into glass panels, experimental photographs called lumen prints, as well as photographs from her excursions.

Mobile Museum of Art (MMoA) believes in the power of art to strengthen our community while unlocking new ways of seeing the world. In May 2025, MMoA opened Juan Logan’s Without Stopping, a timely exhibition that questioned, created conversation, and fostered empathy. An internationally celebrated artist currently residing in North Carolina, Logan’s works are in prominent private, corporate, and museum collections, including the Smithsonian, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among many others. This new exhibition featured selections from his far-reaching Elegies series. Traversing the “intricacies of memory,” this body of work, comprising more than 200 compositions, explores Elegies‘ pivotal contemporary themes, including the intersection of identity, race, place, and social mobility.

The narratives in Logan’s Elegies describe inherited memories, the pursuit of freedom, and the complexities of their time. Logan says, “Each painting serves as a contemplative space where the echoes of the past coalesce with the present, creating a nuanced exploration of memory’s emotional landscape.” The physical paintings are multi-layered with an intricate surface. Using symbols and mapping, he creates abstracted landscapes and a unique, personal visual language. This exhibition marked the public debut of Without Stopping, an epic commissioned painting that Logan created for the MMoA permanent collection. This monumental composition documents his learning about the people of Africatown.

Mobile Museum of Art, in partnership with Clotilda: The Exhibition at the Africatown Heritage House, a site of the History Museum of Mobile, undertook a special collaboration, which included the installation of a new composition by Juan Logan titled Threads at Africatown Heritage House. The institutions also partnered on programs and events that invited participants to consider the role that art can play in storytelling and the construction of memory.

Without Stopping was the subject of a publication featuring new scholarship by Dr. Tiffany Barber and Dr. Kern Jackson about the exhibition and Juan Logan’s Elegies series.

Logan received his M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and his awards include fellowships from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, the Carolina Postdoctoral Scholars Fellowship, and the Phillip Morris Companies.

As we march toward MMoA’s sixtieth anniversary in October, we are pleased to present the final chapter of DECADES: Looking Back, Moving Forward. This popular and innovative series of exhibitions has immersed our visitors in the art, history, and creativity of the decades leading up to the 1960s. We scheduled this trip through time in experiential exhibitions of two decades each, and the last, 1940 – 1959, will open May 17th.

The 1940s were marked by enormous uncertainty and vast transformation across all aspects of life in the United States as the nation became involved in World War II. Cities across the country including Mobile would see influxes of people as factories switched production to military goods. As U.S. citizens adapted to war-time shortages of food, fabric, and other materials, the areas of art, fashion, and design continued to adapt and evolve. The 1950s saw the United States prospering economically and socially as a sense of optimism and exploration pervaded and the country looked to the future.

The exhibition features highlights from the Museum’s collection, as well as carefully selected works that bring important historical moments to life, which will be installed alongside period dresses from the History Museum of Mobile. Masterworks of Surrealism by leading figures in the movement, including Peter Blume, Max Ernst, Kay Sage, and Yves Tanguy have been generously lent by The Museum of Modern Art, New York as part of Art Bridges’ Collection Loan Partnership program. Photographs throughout the gallery have been provided by the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

Visitors shouldn’t worry if they can’t remember their Social Studies lessons from the early twentieth century because timelines, films, and biographies will trace the monumental events of the period, as well as what was happening in the art world.

This DECADES installation, as well as the two that preceded it (all leading up to the extravaganza of the 60th anniversary!), will recreate what it was like to be alive then, not only experiencing political and historical events, but navigating the personal lives of work, home, family, and leisure as well.

MMoA is up to something big! Mobile Museum of Art celebrates 60 years of creativity at our 60^th anniversary in October. To celebrate, MMoA will host a blockbuster exhibition of paintings and sculpture in tribute to a cutting-edge exhibition called The Responsive Eye. Shortly after the date when MMoA first opened its doors, this exhibition created a sensation as visitors flocked to the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) in early 1965 and media outlets buzzed about the phenomenon.

See for yourself what made these eye-dazzling artworks compelling, confounding, and sensational 60 years ago, and how they continue to dazzle our perception and literally move us even today. We are proud to be hosting masterworks on loan from major collections across the country by such art-world luminaries as Frank Stella, Josef Albers, Julian Stanczak, Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and many more.

These stunning compositions, some of which take up entire walls in our largest gallery, were intended to be seen in person as they activate our eyes and senses in their size and optical effects. We hope you join us in celebrating and responding to a turning point in the history of Mobile and in the history of art.

From natural wonders to the open road, the landscape has long been a muse in American art. Through objects from the colonial era to the present, (Un)Settled explores the rich, complicated, and evolving topic of the landscape in American art. The variety of media and makers helps to redefine whose view is considered, ultimately revealing the many ways artists turn to their surroundings to reflect on larger topics such as national identity, land preservation, the complexity of cultural landscapes, and how location shapes our sense of self.

Building upon noted Hudson River School paintings, (Un)Settled features works by artists including Fidelia Bridges, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Benny Andrews, William Christenberry, Ana Mendieta, Ed Ruscha, Jeffrey Gibson, and Jacqueline Bishop. Through more than 40 artworks—including examples of material culture such as furniture, glass, ceramics, and baskets—the exhibition highlights ongoing conversations around the landscape and its relationship to establishing cultural and national identity over the last two centuries.

Supported by the Art Bridges Cohort Program, (Un)Settled is a collaborative exhibition presented by the American South Consortium. Led by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT), the cohort includes three partners: the Columbia Museum of Art (Columbia, SC), the Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile, AL), and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (AL). This innovative cross-regional partnership explores new ways of interpreting art and the American experience through dynamic exhibitions and an array of complementary public programs.

This is one in a series of American art exhibitions created through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership formed by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art as part of the Art Bridges Cohort Program. 

As we look forward to celebrating MMoA’s sixtieth anniversary in October 2024, we are launching an innovative series of exhibitions that will immerse our members and visitors in the art, history, and innovations of the decades leading up to the sixties. This trip through time is scheduled in experiential exhibitions of two decades each, and the second, 1920 – 1939, will open on December 15^th.

The 1920s and 30s were a time of explosive change. The population of the United States increased significantly, and urban cities grew. The methods and means of transportation changed, and cars zoomed along the streets. Manufacturing helped make everyday items — like washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and cars — affordable for households. Women’s role in society, as well as fashion, changed dramatically, and cultural and artistic movements flourished. It was a time of boom and bust.

Visitors shouldn’t worry if they can’t remember their history lessons from the early twentieth century because we will have timelines on our walls tracing monumental events and what was happening in the art world at the same time.

The exhibition features artists such as Lamar Baker, Saul Berman, Fred Emanuel Shane, and Grant Wood along with historic dresses and accessories from the History Museum of Mobile’s collection. Historic photographs throughout the gallery have been generously provided by the Historic Mobile Preservation Society (HMPS) and the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

This Decades installation, as well as the exhibitions that precede and follow this iteration (all leading up to the extravaganza of the 60^th anniversary!), will recreate what it was like to be alive then, not only experiencing political and historical events but navigating the personal lives of work, home, family, and leisure as well.