Upcoming Exhibitions
Opening in 2025
Haunted
Opens October 11
The exhibition explores cinema as spectral memory; illusory palinopsia, temporal disruption, and the protean meaning of being haunted. Engaging the interplay between cultural memory and lost futures, Haunted crosses sensory thresholds, dissolving the borders between past and present, real and imaginary. Organized by Tacoma Art Museum and curated by Ellen Ito.
Elements: Material and Process in the Moving Image is a monthly TAM Cinema series (November, January – May 2026) of moving-image works presented in conversation with the exhibition, Haunted. Curated by David Dinnell and Jay Kuehner.
Cable Griffith: Uncanny Twilight
Opens October 11
Cable Griffith’s solo exhibition, Uncanny Twilight, explores the mysterious in-between state or place that his paintings seem to straddle. Between real and imagined, tangible and ethereal, interior and exterior, or digital and analog, Griffith’s work speaks to the enigmatic spaces that exist in our perception and reality.
As Griffith explains, “As a kid growing up through the early 1980s, my sensibility of landscape space was heavily influenced by early video games and cartoons, long before I became exposed to painting as a history and practice. Now, landscape space is as much a mental space, as it is an illusionistic one. The idea of a wilderness feels inherently expansive and mysterious.”
Studio Art Glass
Ongoing
Explore the new installation featuring visitor favorites alongside recent acquisitions and lesser-seen works from the museum’s Studio Art Glass collection. This exhibition showcases the beauty and innovation of studio art glass, highlighting the diverse and captivating pieces that have become beloved by our visitors.
The One-Two Punch: 100 Years of Robert Colescott
Opens December 5
“But when I get my work up in a gallery, you see this room full of big, sensuous paintings. It’s the first impact that people get. They walk in and say, “Oh wow!” And then, “Oh shit!” when they see what they have to deal with in subject matter. It’s an integrated ‘one-two punch’; it gets them every time.”
—Robert Colescott
This year marks the centennial of the birth of esteemed artist Robert Colescott. In 2025, TAM also celebrates the opening of the permanent space for The Current, An Artist Award. With this convergence, The Current presents The One-Two Punch: 100 Years of Robert Colescott. This monographic exhibition celebrates the timeless work of Colescott, examining his deeply critical art practice and the stylistic transformations across his career. The One-Two Punch: 100 Years of Robert Colescott delves into Colescott’s approach to the figure, looking at the developments of his artistic evolution with a special focus on a provocative and satirical cartoon style he described as “cartoonist-exaggeration.” Significantly, the exhibition explores Colescott’s complicated relationship with race over the course of his lifetime and how it influenced his one-two punch strategy and the works shown. With this presentation, The Current, An Artist Award celebrates Colescott’s lasting impact on Black visual culture as he continues to influence new generations of Black artists to pave their own ways forward. Organized by Tacoma Art Museum and curated by Victoria Miles.