Mar 26th 2022

Theodora Allen Saturnine: A Tale of Today

@ The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

40 E Erie St, Chicago, IL 60611

On view through Sunday, July 10th

The exhibition marks the latest iteration of the Museum’s newest initiative: A Tale of Today, which features work by leading contemporary artists to expand the immersive experience and to shape our understanding of the world through the art, architecture, design, and cultural history of the Nickerson Mansion, the Museum’s home. Curated by Stephanie Cristello, Theodora Allen: Saturnine derives its title from figure of Saturn and its historical association with melancholy, often referred to as the curse of artists. Visitors to the Museum will see Allen’s luminous and meditative compositions, filled with a lexicon of snakes, planets, moons, and plant life – motifs that draw from ancient Greek mythology, literature, fin-de-siècle Europe, and the zeitgeist of 1960s California.

Allen’s paintings will be exhibited in the second-floor galleries of the Driehaus Museum, convening a dialogue between the rich ornamentation of the Gilded Age Nickerson Mansion and the artist’s interpretation of iconic mythical, natural, and celestial symbols. Alongside its collection of Tiffany glass, pre-Raphaelite paintings, and Art Nouveau flourishes, the unique environment of the Driehaus Museum becomes an essential part of Theodora Allen: Saturnine.

Theodora Allen: Saturnine is made possible in part by loans from Kasmin and Blum & Poe and through the generous support of Gary Metzner and Scott Johnson, Jean and Eugene Stark, TBD Collection, Forrest E. and Cynthia D. Miller, Howard Rachofsky, and Josephine Fleishman.

Image credit: Theodora Allen, The Cosmic Garden I (2016). Photo: Jenalee Harmon. Courtesy of Blum & Poe (Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo), Kasmin (New York), and 12.26 (Dallas).

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