New Exhibitions at the Addison Gallery this Spring

This spring, the Addison, located on the campus of Phillips Academy, in Andover will present June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart, the most comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in more than thirty years, featuring over 150 works representing every decade of Leaf’s career, from the 1940s through 2023.

Also on view will be three exhibitions highlighting different aspects the Addison’s own collection. Comprised of works of various time periods, artists, and subject matter, these exhibitions explore the American experience—past, present, and future.

Save the date for the Spring Opening Reception: Saturday, March 29, 4:00–6:00 pm! Free and open to the public.

June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart (March 15–July 31, 2025)
Across a 75-year career, the artist, storyteller, dancer, and engineer June Leaf (1929–2024) produced an extraordinary body of work that revels in the human experience in all its banality and sublimity. Playfully navigating the planes of the real and the imagined, Leaf’s piercing eye and art powerfully hold a mirror up to essential human truths, reminding us of our shared humanity.

The most comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in more than three decades, this retrospective considers the breadth of Leaf’s career with more than 150 sculptures, paintings, and works on paper placed in dynamic conversations across media and time to reveal the artist’s sustained engagement with such motifs and themes as the human drama, theater, dance, performance, motion, gender, and interpersonal relationships.

Playing to Our Strengths: Highlights from the Permanent Collection (on view through July 31, 2025)
Playing to Our Strengths is the first in a series of exhibitions that will explore particular strengths of the Addison’s renowned collection of art of the United States from the 17th century to the present day. This inaugural iteration unfolds over three galleries, each with a different focus. The first contains masterworks by American realists Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer, the second gallery is comprised of American modernist paintings, and the third features works by post-WWII color field painters. Taken together, these three galleries offer no coherent narrative of American art. Instead, they propose frameworks through which to engage with the Addison’s unparalleled holdings.

On and Off Stage: Performance and Persona (on view through July 31, 2025)
This exhibition brings together over 100 works from the Addison’s collection to explore performance both as visual spectacle and as a way of investigating identity. The first galleries capture the dynamic energy of circus performers and dancers through paintings, photographs, prints, and drawings, including works by George Bellows, Harold Edgerton, and Barbara Morgan. Moving from public stages to private ones, the exhibition then explores how artists like Charles Atlas, Nick Cave, Cara Romero, and Cindy Sherman use roleplay, performance, costumes, and personas to challenge notions of identity and the self. Through this selection of 20th- and 21st-century works, On and Off Stage reveals the rich relationship between performance and visual art and invites viewers to reflect on the roles we perform in everyday life.

Dynamic Duos (on view through July 31, 2025)
Featuring works from the Addison’s extensive photography collection by artists such as Diane Arbus, Dawoud Bey, Walker Evans, and Sally Mann, this exhibition considers the dynamics of two beings sharing space. Whether they be romantic partners, family members, close friends, rivals, or strangers, the joining of two creates an inevitable charge. Captured in a flash, photographs of these moments of intersection encapsulate the essence of these meetings while prompting questions about the relationship, the context of the encounter, and the emotions at play. They remind us that behind every interaction—whether planned and momentous or seemingly random and negligible—lie myriad stories waiting to be explored.

An exciting array of public programs related to these exhibitions and the museum’s collection are planned for the season—please visit the Addison’s Calendar of Events for details.

The Addison Gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am– 5:00 pm, and Sunday, 1:00–5:00 pm (closed on Mondays and national holidays). addisongallery.org