What's new at the Johnson Museum?

Exhibitions of "Recent Acquisitions" now through Sept. 30 feature dozens of works acquired by the museum over the past five years -- in contemporary art and specialized collections of wearable African art and Southeast Asian textile art. Many of the artworks have never before been on public display at the museum.

The contemporary art, curated by Andrea Inselmann, fills two galleries with a survey of challenging works addressing such issues as globalization, racism, cyberspace and the cult of celebrity, while blurring traditional separations between categories of art -- painting and sculpture, representation and abstraction. Their materials include pipe cleaners, doughnut bags and plastic bottles.

The Asian textiles collection has grown considerably in the past five years, and the exhibition curated by Ellen Avril includes festival garments worn by the Miao people of southern China; ceremonial textiles made by various Chin communities in Burma, India and Bangladesh; and a selection of embroidered story cloths from the Balinese villages of Negara and Buleleng.

The museum's African art collection is showcased with a focus on items of bodily adornment -- garments made from fabric and leather, beadwork bracelets, a group of crocheted and feathered hats, and pendants and amulets in silver and other metals.

History of art doctoral candidate Amanda Gilvin, whose research interests encompass several forms of West African adornment, selected the items for this display as a co-curator with assistant curator Andrew C. Weislogel.

"Another area of interest to me is the representation of African art, especially that related to the human body, within the museum space," Gilvin said. "This exhibition was an interesting exercise in making the kinds of curatorial decisions that I frequently analyze."

The experience also aided in her pre-dissertation research over the summer in Paris at the Musée du quai Branly, Galvin said.

Other recent acquisitions are on display throughout the museum, including specially marked selections in the exhibition "Looking Homeward: A Century of American Art," showing through Sept. 23 and organized by curator Nancy Green. Museum visitors can also look on the labels accompanying artworks for the accession number, which begins with the year that the item was acquired.

For more information on exhibitions at the Johnson Museum, visit http://www.museum.cornell.edu/.