Cleveland Museum's Native American Prints
Cleveland Museum of Art is showing new exhibitions featuring Native American prints, Chinese flowers & birds on silks, and restoration works. The diverse cultural programming highlights both traditional and contemporary artistic expressions from different cultures.
The Cleveland Museum of Art's exhibition of Native American prints is its first to exclusively feature prints and drawings by such artists from its collection. The show, titled "still/emerging: Native American Works on Paper," will be on view from February 1 to June 7, 2026, and is free to the public. This exhibition is a direct result of the museum's 2022 Indigenous Peoples and Land Acknowledgment, which inspired a commitment to significantly expand its holdings in this area. The exhibition's title is borrowed from a poem on Indigenous survivance by Navajo poet Kinsale Drake. It showcases around 30 works from the 1950s to the present day. Featured artists include T. C. Cannon (Kiowa-Caddo), Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke/Crow), and Kay WalkingStick (a member of the Cherokee Nation). Alongside the Native American prints, the museum presents "A Myriad of Flowers and Birds in Chinese Art." This exhibition displays about 20 items, including paintings, porcelain, and embroidery. Some of these pieces are from a private collector and have not been publicly displayed before. The bird-and-flower motifs in Chinese art are not just decorative; they often carry symbolic good wishes. The exhibition is a memorial to the late Clara T. Rankin, a museum trustee. The "restoration works" feature is an immersive digital exhibition titled "Pintoricchio Magnified: An Immersive Conservation Experience," which runs until August 23, 2026. The exhibit details the conservation of Pintoricchio's "Virgin and Child" from around 1490–1500. This specific painting was kept in storage for nearly five decades because of its complex restoration history and physical condition, with original paint layers obscured by previous restoration attempts. Using cutting-edge technology, conservators were able to reveal the original paint layers, allowing for a reexamination of the artist's work. The digital display allows visitors to virtually step into the conservation studio and explore the painting's layers and the restoration process as if under a microscope.
