Incubator Gallery

Located within The Collection Galleries the Incubator Gallery is often used for student- and faculty-curated exhibitions. Exhibitions in this 600-square-foot gallery are organized in collaboration with staff in the Nasher’s Academic Initiatives and Curatorial Departments and are installed for approximately three months at a time. Applications are accepted and evaluated on a rolling basis and should include 1) a brief written proposal including the exhibition’s objectives, main themes, and connection to faculty’s research and/or teaching, 2) a checklist of desired artworks, and 3) a budget including potential outside funding sources. We prioritize proposals that utilize the collection of the Nasher Museum, that can serve as excellent teaching opportunities, and that we receive two years or more before the intended opening date. Please keep in mind that scheduling is dependent on the availability of the gallery.

Please contact Julia K. McHugh, Ph.D., Trent A. Carmichael Curator of Academic Initiatives, at julia.mchugh@duke.edu to discuss an idea for an exhibition or to submit an application.

Helen Frankenthaler: Un Poco Más (A Little More), on view through August 28, 2022, champions the significance of printmaking within Frankenthaler’s artistic practice. Most known for her bold colorful abstract paintings, Frankenthaler was one of the few women artists within the male-dominated post-World War II New York art scene who became especially renowned for her drive for experimentation throughout the six decades of her career. In the 1960s, alongside painting she began to pursue printmaking, a medium that similarly allowed for great experimentation and one in which she continued to work for the next fifty years.

Each print in this exhibition was made at a different studio with a distinct technique, chronicling Frankenthaler’s varied methods and the numerous printmakers with whom she collaborated. Co-organized by four undergraduate students in the Curatorial Practicum: Exhibition Development and Design course in the Museum Theory & Practice Concentration, the exhibition explores the cooperative, exploratory process through which the artist worked and highlights the six proofs (test prints) and final edition print of Un Poco Más (1987), completed during a period of time the artist spent in Barcelona, Spain. Un Poco Más, as both work and exhibition, invites viewers to imagine the lively and dynamic conversations between Frankenthaler and the printmakers with whom she partnered as they shared techniques and encouraged themselves to give ‘ a little more’ to reach their artistic visions.

These are the first works by Frankenthaler to enter the Nasher Museum’s collection and were a recent gift from the artist’s foundation.