Past Exhibitions

This solo exhibition by Kevin Brisco Jr. examines how domestic spaces hold our most intimate experiences while shaping our understanding of self.

Rodin: Toward Modernity presents 40 of the artist’s most celebrated bronze sculptures, including The Burghers of Calais, The Kiss, Saint John the Baptist, figure studies for The Gates of Hell,…

Tides, Time, and Terrain: Floyd Sonnier and the Evolving Cultural Landscape marks the Hilliard Art Museum’s first permanent collection exhibition in over a decade.

This intimate exhibition showcases 19 works from Picasso’s final creative surge, revealing how the master reimagined printmaking through his innovative linocut technique.

An intergenerational artistic conversation on the beauty and fragility of the Louisiana Ecosystem.

Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir’s (also known as Shoplifter) constructs entire spaces—encapsulated ecosystems in vivid, hyper-colorized installations that recall the emotional vastness of mid-twentieth-century color-field painting movement.

A solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Louisiana artist Mare Martin that explore the ephemeral and intimate cycles of nature

Robert Wiggs was an important faculty member in the history of the Department of Visual Art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He was a sculptor and educator who…

The iconic silhouette motifs of Ana Mendieta’s career represent meaningful relationships between human and land.

EVERY|WHERE: BEILI LIU is comprised of three works of art. Each explores our relationship to water in different ways that raise fundamental questions about art and how we understand each…

George Rodrigue was a dynamic storyteller, and his portraits invite you to experience the story that each painting tells. As a decedent of Acadian exiles, Rodrigue’s portraits of Cajun culture…

This body of work started on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, when Ito’s grandfather witnessed a great tragedy that destroyed nearly everything in Hiroshima.

The paintings and drawings in Sam Reveles: Solastalgia are abstract interpretations of landscapes and contours of human and animal bodies.

“Black Flesh” is a solo exhibition by Noel W. Anderson delving into the relationships between media, image making, and race. In his tapestries and works on paper, Anderson is interested…

The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts grants monetary scholarships to high school juniors and seniors through an annual visual arts competition in order to encourage individual participation in the…

“Mind Full: An Exploration of Emotions by Lafayette Parish School System” students is an exhibition by LPSS students participating in the school system’s Talented Visual Arts program. The works are…

With her distinctive and powerful visual language, Argentinian-born and Los Angeles-based Luciana Abait addresses climate change, environmental fragility and perils, and their impact on global migration and planetary survival.

South Arts 2022 Southern Prize and State Fellows is a showcase of the best of Southern visual art.

Envisioning the South is an in-depth look at Roger Houston Ogden’s evolution as an art collector.

Little Things: Drawings and Photographs by Fred Packard is a survey of works on paper by the beloved artist who founded the photography concentration in the Department of Visual Arts.

Talking to Death: An Allegory for Sculpture is a multi-media installation by the artist Trevor Gould. As Gould’s title indicates, there is a great deal at stake for sculpture in the 21st…

Picture a Portrait features students’ explorations of what a portrait can look like and mean. The depictions will vary in style and media, but the uniting factor is the excellence…

For several generations the black owned bars and lounges on St. Bernard Avenue in New Orleans’s 7th Ward were mainstays of the community. They were safe spaces for refreshment in…

Deep Look is an intimate look at some of the finest works of art in the Hilliard Art Museum’s collection. This exhibition is also an important reflection of the Hilliard’s…

This exhibition features a selection of Tom Lea’s output as an artist-correspondent for LIFE magazine during World War II. Between 1941 and 1946, Lea traveled more than 100,000 miles to document service…

Twenty Years of Marais Press is a retrospective of the creative output of visiting artists’s printmaking collaborations within the Marais Press. Located in the Department of the Visual Arts here…

Nancy Macko’s exhibition The Fragile Bee presents pollinator conservation as an environmental justice issue with roots in 1970s Ecofeminism. Macko’s bees are symbols of a movement that aims to undo the damage…

LaChaun Moore: 17845 is a contemplative exploration of the artist’s family history and relationship to agriculture. Moore’s worldview and artistic practice is informed by being a Black woman whose family inspired her…

 “The imagery I work with is largely stream of consciousness and dream based. As the individual images are cut up and re-stitched together, a nonsensical narrative often emerges focusing on…

Philip Gould’s Bridging the Mississippi: Spans across the Father of Waters is an expansive account of America’s greatest waterway. The impetus for this project, bridges, frequently do not receive their…

This exhibition takes its name from Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, a collection of historical and contemporary poems exploring African Americans’ complicatedrelationship with the American landscape. With…

This landmark exhibition celebrates and commemorates a vibrant 250 year tradition. Acadian brown cotton blankets were taken for granted by past generations; today they are cherished for their artistic merit…

The concept of sanctuary, though often idealized, is rarely acknowledged as fleeting and subjective. Sanctuary: New Works by Linda Alterwitz explores notions of refuge with an interdisciplinary approach and great psychological depth.…

Other than a fortuitous reference to water, Heraclitus of Ephesus’ aphorism, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the…

This exhibition is presented in collaboration between the Lafayette Parish School System Talented Visual Arts Program and the Hilliard Art Museum. Using the  exhibitions on view in Spring , students…

Khara Woods uses materials, pattern, and abstraction to great effect in her studio practice. Her gridded hard-edge compositions incorporate warm wood grain with a bold, personable palette of saturated colors.…

In the broadest sense, John Gargano’s installation Le Détroit In Dust Ree honors working people and the tools they use. While Gargano’s ceramic objects projecting from the wall in the…

Master Shen-Long is a multidisciplinary artist who is a contemporary master of classical Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy, and seal carving. He merges these genres with contemporary art-making practices to create…

This intimate project explores Dickie Landry’s connection to the World Trade Center during his time living in New York City and how the site changed after the attacks on September…

The tone of Shell’s portraits and political aims are carefully calculated. Time and again, he portrays his sitters as self-possessed, questioning individuals whose humanity shines. Those depicted dominate the foreground…

The Hilliard University Art Museum is pleased to be the exclusive venue for the exhibition The Art of Sir Winston Churchill. History has painted a portrait of Winston Churchill as…

The playful and exploratory studio practices of Woody and Steina Vasulka bring to light the material qualities of video. Breaking from the narrative traditions of film-making and television, the Vasulkas…

The exhibition Robert C. Tannen|BOX-CITY is an interactive exhibition using cardboard boxes as to-scale models that allow museum visitors to explore urban design concepts as they relate to collaboration and…

Notes from the Schoolyard is a mail art exhibition organized in collaboration with Talented Visual Art in the Lafayette Parish School System. Typically, mail art is sent like correspondence to…

Malaika Favorite’s found object paintings seem to burst with an energy that conveys a sense of a life lived so well it verges on the mythical or magical. Somehow, seeing…

Tripping Over Cypress is an examination of how the artist Cliff Tresner places himself within the literal and cultural landscape of Louisiana. Originally a Hoosier, he is an adoptive Louisianan…

William Moreland was an educator who touched the lives of thousands of artists during his tenure at the University of Southwestern Louisiana from 1955 to 1986. He is best known…

Henry Botkin (1896–1983) was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied art at the Massachusetts College of Art before moving to New York to continue his studies at the…

Through the media of visual art and poetry, artist Melissa Bonin explores ancient and universal themes. She uses nature as metaphor to create a personal symbolic language. Her work examines…

Curated by Susan H. Edwards, PhD, Director & Katie Delmez, Curator Slavery, the Prison Industrial Complex reveals how a New Orleans husband-and-wife team uses their cameras as tools for social…

Sharon Kopriva’s art is larger than life. This is not a result of her tendency towards large-scale work, rather it is connected to how she depicts and selects her subject…

Richard Landry’s 1973 video Quad Suite explores the performative nature of both video and music. As a musician and composer, Landry pushes the boundaries of music, exploring new ways to…

John F. Simon, Jr., a native of Louisiana, is a noted software art pioneer. Paths and Loops acknowledges this status, and explores the nature of his creative process with a…

Past the Frame: Abstraction and Its Environs in the Work of Allan Jones, 1968-2018, honors five decades of ambitious painting, from groundbreaking works of the late 1960s and 1970s defined…

Kota Ezawa is one of the world’s preeminent appropriation artists. His source materials, video footage in the case of Kota Ezawa: Two Views, are pulled from films that have achieved…

An interactive public art project by Emily Stergar Part of being from a place, or living in a community is knowing the landscape. Oftentimes, the earth under your feet feels…

This exhibition features the work of Gisela Colon, and American contemporary artist who has developed a unique vocabulary of organic minimalism, breathing life into reductive forms. Upon entering the gallery,…

The Hilliard University Art Museum is excited to present Faculty Miniatures: Toward the Condensed and Not-Yet-Known. Curated by Chris Bennett, Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Visual…

The fluid and fragile nature of memory is extremely important to Daniel Canogar. Within his studio practice Canogar frequently posits technology as reflective of society’s shared consciousness in that technology…

The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts grants monetary scholarships to high school juniors and seniors through an annual visual arts competition in order to encourage individual participation in the…

Denise Gallagher is passionate about creating. An internationally published author and illustrator, Denise is deeply inspired by rare animals, ancient folklore and her Louisiana home. Always ready for an idea…

In 1968 Acadiana celebrated the opening of its first dedicated art museum – the Art Center for Southwestern Louisiana designed by architect, A. Hays Town. The construction of the Art…

Artist Spaces originated in 2014 at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and also in book form, published by UL Press and co-authored by Tina Freeman and Morgan Molthrop. Tina…

The work of Lafayette native Francis X. Pavy (b. 1954) encompasses a wide range of practices and techniques. Since earning his B.F.A. in 1976 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana…

Shirin Neshat creates art with a cosmopolitan feel that is as moving as it is relatable. Born in Iran, she was pursuing her education in the United States during the…

The Hilliard Museum is excited to serve as the inaugural venue for the exhibition Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven, showcasing over 140 works by the prolific artist. This exhibition uniquely…

The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts grants monetary scholarships to high school juniors and seniors through an annual visual arts competition in order to encourage individual participation in the…

As part of a continuing series of exhibitions focused on historically significant film and video artists, the museum will feature Zurkow’s 2012 generative animation Mesocosm (Wink, TX). This work comes…

This exhibition highlights Frese’s early gelatin silver photograms and experiments made in California thirty years ago – while also tracing a steady trajectory of her continued interest in human and…

The Hilliard University Art Museum is pleased to once again be partnering with Festivals Acadiens et Créoles on an exhibition celebrating life and culture in Louisiana. Louisiana French : Myths…

The Raft by Bill Viola is part of a special exhibition series on the museum’s second floor that is focused on historically significant film and video artists. Offering an opportunity…

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the original Art Center of Southwestern Louisiana, the Hilliard Museum is pleased to present an exhibition that marks the legacy…

Yun-Fei Ji is a Chinese-American painter based in Ohio and New York. Growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, Ji spent some of his earliest years on a collective…

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, William Kentridge (b. 1955) works across a variety of media and disciplines—from sculpture to the performing arts, printmaking, books and film. Among the greatest artists…

The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation grants monetary scholarships to high school juniors and seniors through an annual visual arts competition…

This exhibition features three large-scale works by the Opelousas-based artist: Bud Sport (2008), Nadir (2011) and Vestige (2001). Major earned a BFA in painting in 1991 from the University of…

An encyclopedic survey of vernacular Southern art, this exhibition comes to the Hilliard from the Collins’ New Iberia home, where they have amassed over 2,000 objects. The exhibition is organized…

Lee’s installations incorporate sculptural, photographic, and drawing traditions to consider ways in which place is created among changing urban and environmental conditions. The sculptures and installations she constructs are informed…

This solo exhibition marks the artist’s first in Louisiana and is guest curated by Véronique Serrano, director of the Musée Bonnard in France. Pierre Bonnard: Landscapes from Le Cannet features…

This exhibition focuses on the longstanding innovative practice of New Orleans based artist Lin Emery. It features more than a dozen examples of her work and includes eight wind-powered kinetic…

There is a long tradition in south Louisiana of people making musical instruments. In the early days it was done out of necessity. Music was all around, but ready-made instruments…

Over a prolific career, compelled by a “curiosity to engage contradiction” and an impulse to disrupt “assumptions about spatial relations,” Joan Tanner’s art has developed across disciplines to encompasses many…

Spotlight on the Collection: Portraiture juxtaposes academic and vernacular art practices, while foregrounding a visual conversation on the museum’s collection – particularly as a vehicle that illuminates the unique narratives…

A solo exhibition showcasing the works of upstate New York based artist Oliver Wasow, who has been widely recognized for his pioneering use of digital compositing to create sublime imaginary…

Clark uses the centuries-old technique of taxidermy to sculpt human-like facial features with wild animal hides. Her hybridized sculptures are at once familiar yet strange, insinuating primal similarities between humans…

Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso are among the most renowned 20th century European-born artists in the museum’s collection. This exhibition of the artists’ print portfolios–Dali’s La Conquête du Cosmos II…

Guest Curated Jane Hart A solo exhibition showcasing the works of Francie Bishop Good. This series utilizes digital media and originates from scans taken from both her own and her…

Guest Curated Jane Hart Featuring Willie Birch, Douglas Bourgeois, George Dureau, Elizabeth Kleinveld & Epaul Julien, Aubrey Edwards, Deborah Luster, Rashaad Newsome, Tameka Norris, Gina Phillips, Jennifer Shaw, Jonathan Traviesa,…

New Orleans is known for its distinctive Creole heritage—evident in its food, architecture, and people—but it is part of an entire family of Latin Caribbean cities that forged new identities…

The stewardship of a museum’s permanent collection ensures a strong foundation for cultural research and scholarship. This exhibition offers a behind the scenes look at the daily preservation practices at…

Cajun Dance Halls and Zydeco Clubs: Then and Now is photographic portrayal, past and present, of south Louisiana Dance Halls. It combines the research of two ongoing projects about the subject:…

Courtney Egan’s botanical art is comprised of projection-based sculptural installations and the works create a surprising association with myth, fairy tale, and modern technology. Her botanical videos present a beautiful…

Expulsion of the Acadians, The Epic Journey from Acadie to Louisiana showcases a selection of paintings by one of the most prolific and successful American muralists working today. The exhibition brings…

Celebrated the 40 year anniversary of Festival Acadians et Créoles with an exhibition of photographs and ephemera in our A. Hays Town house. The exhibition documented the region’s rich heritage,…

Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust, an exhibition of photographs by the most important Soviet photojournalists, included work by Evgenii Khaldei, George Zelma, and Dmitrii Baltermants. The…

Design featured a survey of exceptional American chair design from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Curated by Ben Thompson, the exhibit presented for the viewer a selection…

Featured the work of artists from 17 countries. The exhibition showcased 25 pieces of tapestry which illuminated myriad themes of culture, nature, the figure, and history.