Winter Arts Events in Boston: Hugh Hayden and Tony Sarg

Vote! Poster, screenprint by Shepard Fairey (American, born in 1970). / Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Power of the People: Art and Democracy

This exhibition at the MFA Boston explores the ways in which art has expressed ideas about democracy throughout history and how artists have asked citizens to contemplate democracy’s promise, participate in its practice, and call for improvements. Through 175 works of art, drawn almost entirely from the MFA’s collection and ranging in time from democracy’s origins in ancient Greece to today, visitors can compare past to present and reflect on how certain democratic struggles and concepts have echoed through the ages. With ceramics, coins, ancient marble reliefs with carved inscriptions, paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, posters, fashion, and more, “Power of the People” invites visitors to reflect on, discuss, create, and participate in the democracy we share.

Through January 16, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, 617-267-9300, mfa.org.

Wild Imagination: Art and Animals in the Gilded Age

In the late 19th century, Americans moved in large numbers from farms to cities, losing touch with a rural way of life and with the closeness to nature and animals that defined it. Nostalgia for a lost kinship with animals pervaded urban, industrial America. At the same time, many were encountering new “exotic” species through a boom in foreign travel, marine exploration, and imperial expansion. More everyday Americans enjoyed natural-history pursuits such as birdwatching. Pet keeping surged. And while captive animals thrilled spectators at zoos and circuses, which both had their heyday in the Gilded Age, activists launched the nation’s first animal-rights movement. Put on by the Preservation Society of Newport County, the exhibition brings together a menagerie of animal-themed artworks and other objects, from paintings, sculptures, photographs, and fashions to fancy dog collars and sea creatures blown in glass. Pieces reflect profound and lasting changes in human-animal relations and reveal the individual stories of wondrous creatures that continue to capture our imagination.

Through January 12, Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Ave., Newport, RI, newportmansions.org.

Hugh Hayden, Hedges, 2019. Sculpted wood, lumber, hardware, mirror, and carpet. / Hugh Hayden; Courtesy of the Shed Open Call and Lisson Gallery. Photo by Mark Waldhauser

Hugh Hayden: Home Work

This exhibition at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum is Hayden’s first in New England. It highlights the artist’s critical exploration of the “American Dream.” The artist himself has said: “All of my work is about the American dream, whether it’s a table that’s hard to sit at or a thorny school desk. It’s a dream that is seductive but difficult to inhabit.” Taking up 7,000 square feet of the museum’s gallery space, many works closely align with Freud’s concept of the unheimlich, evoking experiences that transform the domestic and quotidian into a strange, disorienting, and threatening terrain. Exemplifying this Freudian concept is Hayden’s 2019 work Hedges. This large-scale installation features a model of an archetypal suburban home. Rather than associating the domestic with safety and security, Hayden transforms the familiar abode into a menacing place where innumerable branches sprout from the structure’s walls, windows, and roof. Hedges is experienced within a mirrored chamber, creating an “infinity effect” that multiplies the viewer’s reflections amid the unsettling environment. While referencing the subconscious, the work also speaks to the social inequities that keep many from buying their own home, thus achieving a vital aspect of the “American Dream.”

Through June 1, 415 South St., Waltham, 781-736-3434, brandeis.edu/rose/.

Tony Sarg: Genius at Play

Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Nantucket Historical Association, this exhibition opened this summer at the Nantucket Whaling Museum as the first comprehensive show exploring the life, art, and adventures of Tony Sarg (1880–1942). Known as the father of modern puppetry in North America and the originator of the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, Sarg was an accomplished illustrator, animator, designer, and nimble entrepreneur who summered on—and took inspiration from—Nantucket for nearly twenty years. “Genius at Play” features original artwork, illustrations, marionettes, animations, books, commercial products, archival photographs, and ephemera from Sarg’s dynamic life and career. Highlighting Sarg’s tremendous talent and legacy within the fields of puppetry and illustration, the exhibition also reveals how Nantucket’s historic sites and colorful characters came to inspire his work and the many ways that this influential artist gave back to the island he loved so much.

Through January 31, 13 Broad St., Nantucket, 508-228-1894, nha.org.

Joseph Dunninger, Houdini’s Spirit Exposés and Dunninger’s Psychical Investigations, vol. 1, 1928. / Photo courtesy of Phillips Library Peabody Essex Museum

Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums

This enthralling exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum touches on the human desire to connect with the departed, which has given rise to a fascination with the supernatural and the magical. The exhibition takes a look at the essential role art and objects played for mediums and magicians “communicating” with the dead during the 19th- and 20th-century Spiritualism movement in the U.S. and Europe—a time when people actively debated and wondered, “Can spirits return?” See paintings, posters, photographs, stage apparatuses, costumes, film, publications, and other objects that transport visitors to the age of Harry Houdini, Margery the Medium, Howard Thurston, and the Fox Sisters, among others. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, gain a new perspective on the timeless draw of mediums, magicians, séances, and magic shows.

Through February 2, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem, 978-745-9500, pem.org.