The Anderson Collection at Stanford University continues its yearlong celebration of its 10th anniversary with The Journey Continues, showcasing 19 works by 16 contemporary women and nonbinary artists who expand and redefine the narrative and shape of contemporary art. The exhibition runs through Aug. 31 in the Wisch Family Gallery and surrounding areas on the museum’s first floor. A companion film program curated by graduate students will be presented on April 27 in Oshman Hall at the McMurtry Building.

All featured works in The Journey Continues are loaned by Mary Patricia “Putter” Anderson Pence, continuing the Anderson family’s tradition of supporting contemporary art and artists. Pence, along with her parents, Harry W. “Hunk” and Mary Margaret “Moo” Anderson, originally built the Anderson Collection and gifted it to Stanford a decade ago. Her recent acquisitions span diverse materials, including ceramics, textiles, astroturf, and painted surfaces, fostering dialogue between contemporary artists and the museum’s core collection.

Jason Linetzky, the director of the Anderson Collection and curator of the exhibition, said he feels honored to present the vision and voices of the artists represented in the exhibition and to welcome visitors into their “vivid, welcoming world of contemplation, paradox, and play.” He notes, “The artists carry forward one of the Anderson Collection’s guiding principles, namely, the ‘head and the hands,’ by combining equally high levels of concept and craftsmanship in their artwork.

“At the same time, their work speaks to the always evolving nature of collecting and the opportunities viewers have to engage with new artwork at the Anderson Collection.”

Michaela Yearwood-Dan, “My sugah, my honey, my tenda lovah,” 2024. Oil, paper, and earthenware ceramics on canvas. | Deniz Guzel

The exhibition includes artists exhibiting at the Anderson Collection for the first time, such as Teresa Baker, Masako Miki, Arlene Shechet, and Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Returning artists include Simone Leigh, Hagar (2020), and Brie Ruais, Desiccating from Center (Salton Sea) (2019); their works previously appeared in the 2021 exhibition Formed and Fired.

Each artist in The Journey Continues treats material as a language rich with histories, cultural significance, and radical possibilities. Their varied approaches invite viewers into spaces of innovation, resilience, and discovery.

Masako Miki, “Persevering Daruma Doll (Blue and Brown),” 2024. Wool on XPS foam, wenge wood. | Philip Maisel

In conjunction with The Journey Continues, students in the graduate-led film collective Stanford Cinematheque are curating a night of short films on April 27 inspired by artists in the exhibition and, in the case of Sadie Benning, by an artist represented in the exhibition.

The seven experimental films featured in the screening event titled “Talismans of Place and Touch: Tactile Histories / Kinetic Memories” explore cultural and spiritual identities and are a testament to the visceral power of film to evoke tactile modes of remembrance.

Members of Stanford Cinematheque were thrilled when the Anderson Collection team proposed a programming collaboration. “Immediately, we were struck by the ways materials used by the artists featured in The Journey Continues spurred a kind of haptic imagination: whether that’s the cascading glazed stoneware of Brie Ruais, the lush indigo curls emanating from Simone Leigh’s Hagar, or the luminescent glitter that coats the crunched soda cans of Sadie Barnette’s Untitled (Wicker Chair and Cans),” said Kyéra Jasmin Sterling, doctoral student in the Department of Art and Art History in the School of Humanities and Sciences. “We knew then that we wanted to offer a program of filmmakers who were similarly invested in material itself, guided by an almost synesthetic infatuation that underscores the ways looking expresses its own relationship to touch.”