Previous Exhibitions

Artrain USA does not own a permanent art collection. Artrain USA borrows artworks from institutions and private collectors to create unique, world-class art exhibitions. Exhibitions change approximately every three to four years. Exhibition artists have included many of the world’s most recognized and reputed artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Dale Chihuly, Willem de Kooning, Robert Indiana, Jacob Lawrence, Dan Namingha, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and James Wyeth among many others. Exhibitions over the years have covered a range of themes. Below is a chronological listing.

Man Creates: A Vision of Art and the Innovators: 1971-1975: This exhibition featured the creative partnership which exists between the creative person and their cultural environment. It opened with a panorama of work that unveiled the creative attempts of individuals in past cultures to enrich their world through art. Also exhibited were “innovators,” such as Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Matisse, to name a few, who struggled to have their work accepted on standards that they were establishing. Man Creates featured approximately 49 artworks by such artists as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, William Baziotes, George Segal and Franz Kline.
A Celebration of the Creative American Spirit: 1976-1977: A Celebration of the Creative American Spirit was divided into many sections and featured work from the earliest “folk” artists to the most contemporary. Michigan at the Turn of the Century consisted of large transparencies of photographs representing changes in technology and life-style. The Folk Art Gallery featured “everyday” objects crafted with the greatest care and, in many instances, through by-gone processes. The Eye of the Camera placed four screens flanked by mirrors in front of the visitor for a retrospective of American culture as seen by our most distinguished photographers. Contemporary music accompanied this journey from the Industrial Age to the present. The American Land featured a selection of paintings, photographs and sculpture depicting the movement from realistic to pop-art images. Included was a gallery comprised of paintings from primitive to contemporary expressions. Made in the USA contrasted useful objects of the past with their contemporary counterparts. Objects included light fixtures and lunch boxes.
MICHIGAN ARTRAIN/MICHIGAN ART: 1978: To exhibit the vast and diverse talent of Michigan’s artists, MICHIGAN ARTRAIN/MICHIGAN ART, a statewide competitive exhibition, was launched. Thirty-three works were selected form juried shows at six museums and galleries by a panel of Artrain jurors: Senator Jack Faxon, Joseph Ishikawa, director of The Kresge Art Center and Roy Slade, president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. The exhibition was slated to travel to 10 Michigan communities, from March to July 1978. The purpose of the exhibition was to increase people’s awareness of the current art scene in Michigan. The competition also represented Artrain’s initial attempt to acquire works of art for a permanent onboard collection.
FULLSPECTRUM: 1978: FULLSPECTRUM embraced the entire range of the painter’s art, from the free and unselfconscious realizations of the self-taught folk artist to the art-aware creations of the trained painter. It was the intention of the exhibition to encourage fresh comparisons between folk art and fine art, and between the ideas generated by the two groups of artists working from two very different traditions, co-existing in a single culture. FULLSPECTRUM was comprised of “Michigan Moderns” and “Contemporary American Folk Painters.”
Traveling with FULLSPECTRUM was an exhibition displaying the wood-carving sculpture of Fred Alten. Alten worked in obscurity and was not “discovered” until 30 years after his death, when 156 wood-carved sculptures were found in his garage. It was Artrain’s good fortune that the work was discovered and made available for exhibition.
The Changing Canvas: 1980: The Changing Canvas made a statewide tour of Michigan onboard Artrain from April to July 1980 before being exhibited at the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum during September and October 1980. Guest curated by Julie Hall, the intention of this exhibition was to chart the evolution of American painting from the post World War II period up to the present. The Changing Canvas featured approximately 56 artworks by such well-known artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder and Helen Frankenthaler.
Also featured onboard Artrain at this time was Public Sculpture / Michigan and The Innovators. Public Sculpture / Michigan presented images of public sculpture through large-scale transparencies; Balthazar Korab photographed many of the monuments. The Innovators was a small exhibition, featuring the works of Picasso and Matisse, legendary artists who have shaped so much of what we see.
Traditions: The Region / The World: 1981: This exhibition examined the folk arts of selected immigrant groups that settled in the American heartland. These groups, in pursuit of opportunity in a new land, retained their particular folk identities in a challenging new cultural environment. Artworks chosen for this exhibition expressed the interpersonal and emotional aspects of artistic development. The works spoke specifically of the regions where the artists lived, experienced the daily history of their people and the changing beauty of the land. Traditions contained approximately 93 artworks by artists such as George Inness, Odilon Redon, Willem de Kooning, Kathe Kollwitz and Amedeo Modigliani. Guest curated by Thomas M. Elliot, Traditions traveled from April to November 1981 through Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
Uniquely American: 1982-1983: This exhibition included both traditional and contemporary art forms, which were truly American. The first section examined the integration of art within the Pacific Coast and Artic Native American cultures. It highlighted artists who delved into their traditional Native American roots and assimilated the fundamental spirit of those traditions. Some of the Native American artists chose to employ traditional art making methods, while others used elements of their heritage with contemporary innovations. The second part of this exhibition featured the birth of Abstract Expressionism, the beginning of the “new” American definition of Modern Art. Artists included Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell.
The Creative Impulse: 1984: Guest curated by Pat O’Connor, The Creative Impulse featured approximately 17 artworks. This exhibition showed how the primary sources of inspiration – the spiritual realm, the physical world and the perceptions and personality of human nature – represent a common thread that binds the rich tapestry of art and its history together. Understanding and appreciating the intrinsic values of art lies in understanding its universal and timeless elements. The Creative Impulse featured work by Grant Wood, Paul Manship, Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist.
Texas on My Mind: Contemporary Visions of the Lone Star State: 1984: Texas was the 25th state Artrain toured, but the first state to have a thematic exhibition of its own art assembled. This contemporary exhibition was sent on a 10-city tour of Texas. Guest curated by Becky Duval Reese, Texas on My Mind showcased 36 artists whose work encompassed ideas about the land, history and people of Texas. This exhibition featured approximately 38 artworks by such artists as Luis Jimenez, Al Souza and Ed Blackburn.
State of the Art: 1984: Juried by Joseph Ishikawa, State of the Art was an exhibition, which reflected the work of an extraordinary group of Michigan artists whose skill and imagination made the environment more beautiful and compelling. Containing approximately 54 artworks, State of the Art traveled to 12 Michigan communities. This accessibility of Artrain gave this exhibition particular significance – it shared so much of Michigan’s art with so many.
The Music of Art: 1985: John J. Hohmann, executive director of Artrain, was given credit for the idea of bringing music together with art onboard Artrain. The theme of music was appropriate in 1985, which was the 300th anniversary of the birth date of three famous musicians, Bach, Handel and Scarlatti. Guest curated by Mary R. Riordan and Cynthia S. Greig, a curator of Baroque musical instruments, The Music of Art contained approximately 18 meticulous recreations of baroque instruments by contemporary artists. These pieces set the stage for the era in which Bach, Handel and Scarlatti flourished. Juxtaposed with the instruments were approximately 61 woodblock prints, engravings, paintings and three-dimensional work depicting images from 450 BCE to the present, in which man was making art and music.
Signs of the Times: Pop Art and Photo-Realism in America: 1986: Signs of the Times showcased approximately 50 artworks, by such artists as Marcel Duchamp, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, Audrey Flack and Richard Estes. Through their artworks, Signs of the Times helped to describe the artistic styles of Pop Art, photo-realism and Dadaism. Especially for this exhibition, the exteriors of Artrain's railcars were painted by thirteen artists from New York City. These train painters, or graffiti artists, whose beginning traced back to painting murals on unattended train cars, were invited to paint twelve murals on the cars over the course of four days. Many of their murals used familiar images from Pop Art. Cynthia S. Greig served as curator for this exhibition.
The Cranbrook Vision: Past and Present: 1987-1988: In celebration of Michigan’s sesquicentennial, Artrain featured artworks from Michigan’s own Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Cranbrook Museum. Cranbrook Academy was a dream for George Booth, who bought a large, overrun farm in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in early 1904. Booth wanted Cranbrook to be a place where artists lived and worked, thus promoting a creative atmosphere for the personal growth of each artist and student. Containing approximately 50 works, the exhibition highlighted past and present artists in the Cranbrook community, including Marshall Fredericks, Pipsan Saarinen Swanson, Tony Rosenthal, Charles Eames, Gerhardt Knodel and Steve Murakishi.
Treasures of Childhood: 150 Years of American Toys: 1989-1992: Approximately 292 toys from the Lawrence Scripps Wilkinson Collection of Toys traveled onboard Artrain. Collected over more than a thirty-year period, the Lawrence Scripps Wilkinson Collection of Toys illustrates various aspects of the historical progress of civilization, with an emphasis on post-Industrial Revolution development in the United States. The Collection’s toys provide a three-dimensional viewing window on American life, from horse-and-buggy days to moon landings and space travel. Treasures of Childhood was carefully assembled to show the exciting development of this great country during its formative years, as revealed through its manufactured playthings.
The Romance of Transportation: Vehicle & Voyage in North American Art: 1993-1995: This exhibition was guest curated by Nan Plummer, from the University of Michigan Museum of Art; assistant curator to Plummer was Pamela Warner. The curator intended the exhibition to reflect the range of North American artists’ responses to the universal themes of transportation and travel. This exhibition featured paintings, prints and sculpture which explored artists’ fascination with and response to technology, design and social change associated with travel and transportation. Approximately 87 artworks were on loan to Artrain from various museums, including the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University and Detroit Institute of Arts. Artists highlighted in this exhibition include: Claes Oldenburg, Thomas Hart Benton, Richard Estes and Nathaniel Currier & James Merritt Ives.
Art in Celebration!: 1996-1999: Since 1972, the Smithsonian’s Resident Associate Program has commissioned world renowned artists to create artworks celebrating and commemorating momentous events at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. For the first time, The Smithsonian Associates collection was assembled to tour nationally onboard Artrain. This exhibition included approximately 37 works by artists such as Mindy Weisel, Larry Rivers, Alexander Calder, Georgia O’Keefe and Gene Davis. The collection represented a range of artistic styles, including realism, surrealism, abstraction and expressionism in a range of media, including collage, lithography, silk-screen and mixed media. Art in Celebration! also introduced visitors to the fundamentals of art, subject matter, color, line and shape. Art in Celebration! was an opportunity to celebrate art!
Artistry of Space: The NASA Art Program: 1999-2002: Curated by guest curator Susan Lawson-Bell, Artistry of Space was an exhibition of artworks from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Air and Space Museum art collections that reflected the excitement and energy of space exploration. The exhibition included artworks of varying styles ranging from realistic to abstract, created in media as diverse as oil, acrylic, pen and ink, watercolor and pencil. It featured the artwork of over 50 American artists, including Peter Max, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and James Browning Wyeth. Artistry of Space traveled onboard Artrain USA through 2002.
Native Views: Influences of Modern Culture: 2004-2007: Native Views is a contemporary Native American art exhibition comprised of 70 artworks by 53 Native American artists. Native Views explores the influence of popular culture and the many commonalties shared by all Americans. Visitors discover the richness, complexity and breadth of contemporary Native American art while examining varying perspectives on society. Guest curator, Joanna Bigfeather (Western Cherokee and Mescalero Apache) redefines Native art by broadening the limits and confronting the stereotypes that currently define it.

Learn more about Native Views