Matthew Day Jackson — Yesterday’s Tomorrow

Jackson’s exhibition brings tangible domestic pieces together within a house with no walls—an open steel frame that visitors can walk through, exposing what is typically private. Here, the house becomes more than a physical structure; it is a vessel for memory, aspiration, and belief. It reveals not only the objects we surround ourselves with, but also the ideals that shape how we imagine the future.

For Jackson, those aspirations extend well beyond the domestic sphere. The same postwar optimism that promised a better life through modern architecture, design, and consumer culture also fueled America’s pursuit of the Space Age. Throughout the exhibition, Jackson draws on imagery from LIFE magazine, the Moon landing, the American frontier, and the Atomic Age to examine a culture driven by exploration, invention, and progress. By reconstructing these familiar images alongside flowers, furniture, and architectural forms, he transforms them into artifacts that feel simultaneously historical and futuristic, inviting viewers to reconsider the stories they tell about American identity.

Yesterday’s Tomorrow ultimately suggests that history is not a linear progression but a cycle of recurring ambitions, contradictions, and reinventions. The exhibition asks not only what our visions of the future have produced, but also what values those visions continue to carry forward. In doing so, it invites us to reflect on the legacies we inherit, the futures we imagine, and the homes—both literal and cultural—we leave for those who follow.