Fort Wayne Museum of Art is one of our favorite downtown institutions.

FWMoA strives to present a colorful spectrum from the refinement of fine art across to pop art with works everybody can appreciate. It’s not a stuffy place of static works gathering dust; it’s constantly changing as fresh exhibitions rotate in and out of its spacious galleries. 

Every few weeks there’s a room of things you have not seen before. 

In addition, they host several monthly events to serve different audiences. It’s a great place to go by yourself, on a date night, or with your kids. 

This May is a time where a lot of things are changing over, so here’s a brief overview. 

Fantastic exhibit

To learn more about what you can see now and through the summer, we spoke with Jenna Gilley, associate curator of exhibitions. 

Hailing from New Albany, she came to the FWMoA in January 2021 after graduating Rhodes College with a degree in art history. 

“I manage all of our traveling exhibitions,” she said. “I also help with logistics, all the contracts, checklists, and all the moving parts of our exhibitions here.”

I asked Gilley about Fantastic Realms: Myth, Magic, and Folklore, a collection that lovers of fantasy literature, anime, and video games will enjoy through July 7.

“As a curator, I’m always thinking of what are the threads that we have in our collection and what are the themes that we haven’t quite explored yet,” she said. “I noticed that we have a really wonderful variety of so-called fantastic art.

“As a lover of fantasy myself, I was thinking, ‘Well, we have so many pieces that talk about storybooks and fairies and dragons and monsters and things like that.’ But as I got more into fantasy, I started trying, sort of, expanding the show from just a purely Western idea of fantasy … toward a more global aspect of fantasy and myth.

“It’s fun. Kids will love it. They’ll see things they recognize, but you’ll also have other things that might be a little more unusual that we invite people to just come in with an open mind, like you do for fantasy, and explore different kinds of art that they might not be used to.”

In addition to paintings from major artists from around the world, including William Forsyth (1854-1935), and a massive print from living artist Kirsty Mitchell, the exhibit features a small cabinet of whimsical figurines designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, made by the Kaiyodo toy company. 

“His art is all about flattening the divide between high art and low art,” Gilley said. “He really wanted to make art that everybody could own and everybody could start an art collection with.”

I’m amazed at the amount of behind-the-scenes work the museum staff does to bring these exhibitions into the light. 

Many works are in the museum’s permanent collection, but with some exhibitions, large, delicate, and precious works are loaned from other museums and private collections across the country and assembled here to celebrate a particular living artist or theme.

Worth a look

The Paintings of Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso: A Retrospective, whichopened April 20 and runs through July 14, was a massive undertaking. Huge oil paintings from 15 different collections around the country were brought in for display. 

Gonzalez Dellosso, an American whose parents are from Ecuador and Cuba, visited the museum last month. Her portraits, at turns whimsical and sentimental, are executed with tremendous skill. Many depict great women artists through history and across cultures. The ingenious conceit, though, is that Gonzalez Dellosso herself is the model and plays the role of these different ladies, painting herself in elaborate period costumes and makeup. 

In the narrative realism style, the clean, classical technique of her paintings are easy for the layperson to appreciate.

Running through May 19, Lucky Monster: Works by Jiha Moon comprises paintings, collages, and sculpture from this Korean-American artist that explore what it means to be an American while having a foreign heritage, and does so with a lot of good humor.

On the horizon, Rowland Ricketts: Invisible Forces opens May 18 and will run through Sept. 1. 

“He is a professor at (Indiana University) and lives in Bloomington,” Gilley said of Ricketts. “He creates fiber pieces. His wife, Chinami, is a weaver. She spins the yarn for his work.” 

His pieces are in a style called ikat, an Indonesian technique of tie-dying natural yarns with indigo. 

“ ‘Zurashi/Slipped’ is a large installation that was originally created for the Seattle Art Museum,” Gilley said of one of Ricketts’ pieces. 

“It’s a beautiful floor-to-ceiling fiber installation that guests will be able to walk through. There are thousands of little knots that will be tied at the top, so there’s thousands of strings hanging down.”

Other exhibitions through the summer include Bill Smith: Jewelry’s Maverick (May 25-Aug. 4), From Their Indiana Home: Artists of the Hoosier Salon from the Permanent Collection (July 13-Oct. 6), and Sam Gilliam: His Art of Printmaking (July 20-Oct. 27).

The permanent exhibition that is nonetheless always new is the Glass Wing, featuring stunning works cast in colorful glass, from tiny, incredibly detailed paperweights to massive sculptures that weigh tons, from artists all over the world. 

FWMoA has a collection so large that they display only about one-fifth of it at a time; every few weeks they put new pieces on display. Chief among them is the Glass Kimono, installed last year by artists Eric Markow and Thom Norris, a realistic piece that looks like a life-sized Japanese dress but that was woven from molten glass, colored in vivid detail.

Something special

Go to fwmoa.org to learn about all these exhibitions, plus special monthly events, including the Second Saturday Family Tour on May 11 at 10:30 a.m. Perfect for children and guided by an art educator, the tour is limited in size, so you need reservations.

Meet Me at the FWMoA is Tuesday, May 21, at 2 p.m., for seniors with memory loss and their caregivers. The tour guide focuses on one or two evocative pieces of art, and everybody discusses what it means to them. Gilley describes it as a wonderful and inspiring time.

At 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 13, the museum will host its Second Thursday, where admission is free. These gatherings may feature tours, appetizers and a cash bar; Gilley says it makes a great date night.

We can try to describe all these things, and you can find photos from the museum on social media, but you won’t understand the experience unless you actually go. 

With all these exhibitions in one place, you are sure to find something that fascinates you. If you have not visited the FWMoA before, we think you will be glad you did.