Past exhibitions

Selected items from the Kinsey Institute Special Collections have been exhibited to the public for more than 25 years at a variety of galleries and museums around the world. See below for details on exhibitions hosted on-site at the Kinsey Institute and Indiana University or at external museums and galleries .

Online galleries of select exhibitions are also available. Please note: Online galleries may contain sexually explicit material that may be offensive to some people and not suitable for persons under the age of 18. By viewing these galleries, you certify that you are at least 18 years of age or older.

View online exhibits

On-site exhibitions

Hold That Pose: Erotic Imagery in 19th Century Photography

January 23–July 31, 2015 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Once photography was invented in the 1830s, it quickly became a popular medium for depictions of the nude figure, as well as erotic imagery.

Hold That Pose featured daguerreotypes, tintypes, albumen and gelatin silver prints, stereocards, and other examples of photographic processes that were used in the 19th century by professional photographers to produce and distribute erotic material.


Secret Impressions: The Mass Production of Erotica Prior to the Camera

January 23–July 31, 2015 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Secret Impressions presented a selection of lithographs, engravings, etchings and woodblock prints from the mid-19th century and earlier.

These artworks from France, England, Italy, Germany, Holland, and Japan illustrate the means by which pornographic and erotic images were mass produced before the invention of the camera. Wealthy collectors could commission paintings, but others could purchase prints at a lower cost.


2015 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 15–July 11, 2015 | Grunwald Gallery, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts

The 2015 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show included artworks addressing gender issues, sexuality, reproduction, sexual politics, romantic relationships, and the human figure.


Undress Me: A Peek at 19th and 20th Century Undergarments

September 19–December 23, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Undress Me presented a selection of vintage photographs of women in lingerie from the Kinsey Institute art collection paired with corsets, slips, brassieres, and other articles of clothing on loan from the Sage Collection at Indiana University. Ranging in date from the late 19th century through the 1920s, the clothing on display illustrated the dramatic shift in desired body shape from the hourglass, to the S-curve, to the straight boyish lines of the Roaring Twenties.


The Taste of Seduction

September 19–December 23, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

The Taste of Seduction examined the rich tradition of linking the enjoyment of food and drink with sex and arousal, through works of art and cultural artifacts in the Kinsey Institute collections. The exhibit included approximately fifty artworks, artifacts, and print materials from The Kinsey Institute’s research collections that relate to the consumption of food and drink and its association with sexual desire, romantic love and seduction. 

Featured artists included: Patti Beadles, Lynn Bianchi, Gili Chen, Debranne Cingari, David Deaubrey, Anthony Droege, Beryl Fine, Gene Greger, Bill Haigwood, Naomi Harris, Danielle Kaltz, Maureen Kaveney, Flounder Lee, R. Leftwick, Henri Monnier, April Renae, Mark Sawrie, Sam Steward, and Marie Weichman.


Robert Mapplethorpe: Photographs from The Kinsey Institute

October 10–November 22, 2014 | Grunwald Gallery, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts

Beyond Mapplethorpe: Selections from The Kinsey Institute featured prints by photographers who either influenced Robert Mapplethorpe's work or were his contemporaries in the 1970s and 1980s. The show contained more than twenty photographs by George Platt Lynes, Herb Ritts, Len Prince, Arthur Tress, Tom Bianchi, and Bettina Rheims. Although these images were not as overtly sexual as some of Mapplethorpe's photographs, they revealed the same interest in exploring and expanding the artistic possibilities of the human figure.

The Mapplethorpe exhibition was made possible by The College Arts and Humanities Institute in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Grunwald Gallery of Art, the Department of Sociology, the Center for Integrative Photographic Studies, and The Kinsey Institute, all at Indiana University; the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York; Michael E. Rudder of California; and other private donors.

The exhibited photographs resulted from a 2011 donation from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Malcolm Daniel, photography curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Claude Cookman, professor emeritus of the School of Journalism at IU, were instrumental in acquiring these gifts to The Kinsey Institute from the Mapplethorpe Foundation.

News release: Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition to open in October at IU's Grunwald Gallery


2014 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 16–July 12, 2014 | Grunwald Gallery, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts

The 2014 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show included artworks addressing gender issues, sexuality, reproduction, sexual politics, romantic relationships, and the human figure.


Creative Minds

April 11–September 12, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Creative Minds featured work produced by artists whose primary professions were as sex researchers, physicians, or scientists. Works incldued drawings, glass art, photographs, sculpture, and video by Robert Latou Dickinson, Rachel Liebert, John Money, Jeffrey Rothenberg, Andreas Schneider, Jill Bolte Taylor, David Teplica, Leonore Tiefer, Michael P. Wenzler, and Martin Weinberg.


Artistic Types: Text in Visual Art

April 11–September 12, 2014 | Grunwald Gallery, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts

Artistic Types: Text in Visual Art offered a selection of artworks in which words or the alphabet play a significant role in the composition. The exhibition featured a wide range of media, from vintage photographs to contemporary pieces by Herbert Ascherman, Heather Ault, Michael Bennett, Filiz Cicek, Gatis Cirulis, David Deaubrey, Joe De Hoyos, John Gutoskey, Linda Hesh, Tom Hill, Steven Driscoll Hixson, Paul McCormick, James Murray, elin o’Hara, slavick, and Mark Addison Smith.


The Right to Read: Censorship and the Books of Grove Press

February 3–28, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

The Right to Read was included in "The Burroughs Century," a 5-day festival in Bloomington that examined and celebrated the legacy of William S. Burroughs, one of the principal figures of the Beat Generation and a ground-breaking American writer and artist.

The show examined the pivotal role that Grove Press, which published Burroughs' Naked Lunch and many other controversial books, played in the censorship battles of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Kinsey Institute Library houses hundreds of books and serials issued by Grove Press, an independent publishing house in New York. In addition to the work of Burroughs, Grove Press was the first to legally publish Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, as well as the works of Henry Miller, Jean Genet, and anonymous Victorian authors of erotic literature.


Flora

January 24–April 4, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Flora presented a selection of photographs, prints, paintings, sculptures, and books from the permanent collection that featured plant or landscape imagery. Artists included Grace Benedict, Micah Beree, Jeff Crisman, JD Dragan, Leanne Ellis, Tim Forcade, Laura Hartford, Václav Jirásek, Hugh Jones, Dave Levingston, Carolyn Quan, Jennifer Ray, Janna Stern, Jordan Tate, Arthur Tress, Linda Troeller, and Sam Wang.


Beauty and the Beast: The Erotic Art of Ian Hornak

January 24–April 4, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Beauty and the Beast: The Erotic Art of Ian Hornak showcased a major gift of drawings and paintings from the estate of 20th century American artist Ian Hornak. Hornak (1944–2002) lived and worked in New York, where he was one of the founding artists of the Photorealist and the Hyperrealist movements. He is now recognized as one of the preeminent representational artists of his generation. Although best known for his landscapes, Hornak’s early work from the late 1960s often focused on the nude figure, at times combining human and animal anatomy.


Past/Present

September 6, 2013 - January 15, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Past/Present brought together older artworks from the Kinsey Institute Collection and recent acquisitions to explore the connection between the work of contemporary artists and artwork and imagery from past eras. The exhibit was a contribution to the Fall 2013 Themester: “Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World."


La Vida Sexual

September 6, 2013–January 15, 2014 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

La Vida Sexual presented artwork from Latin America or produced by artists originally from Latin American countries. Included in this show were drawings and watercolors by Cuban-born artist Emilio Sanchez, works by Argentinian artists Leonor Fini and Leandro Natale, and a selection of Spanish language publications from the Kinsey Institute Library.

This exhibition was offered in celebration of the 40th anniversary of La Casa, the Latino Cultural Center at Indiana University. 


2013 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 17–July 13, 2013 | Grunwald Gallery, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts

The 2013 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show addressed gender issues, sexuality, reproduction, sexual politics, romantic relationships, and the human figure.


Face Value: Portraits from The Kinsey Institute

April 12–August 30, 2013 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Face Value: Portraits from The Kinsey Institute explored the various ways artists utilize the portrait. This exhibition included contemporary and vintage photographs, as well as painting, prints, and sculpture.

Featured artists included Boris Artzybasheff, Herbert Ascherman, Andrey Avinoff, John Bentham, Niki Berg, Richard A. Davis, František Drtikol, Niki Grangruth & James Kinser, Michael Grecco, Chas Ray Krider, George Platt Lynes, Kristin Lyseggen, Chloé Meynier, Michael Miksche, Arnold Newman, Dianora Niccolini, Erwin Olaf, Irving Penn, Pierre et Gilles, Ivan Pinkava, Len Prince, Herb Ritts, Gavin Laurence Rouille, Michael Shindler, Sarah Sudhoff, Ryudai Takano, J.D. Talasek, Eric Trefelner, Doris Ulmann, Shen Wei, Joel-Peter Witkin, and Frank Yamrus.


Casual Encounters

April 12–August 30, 2013 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Casual Encounters looked at intimate yet anonymous sexual interactions, as depicted by European and American artists from the 18th century to the present day.

In addition to many anonymous works, the exhibition included photographs by Evan Baden, Nelson Bakerman, George Booth, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vincent Cianni, Bill Haigwood, Jennifer Ray, Mark Addison Smith, Pam Spaulding, Cammie Toloui, and VATO, drawings by Marc DeBauch, Michael Miksche, and Christopher Troutman, prints by Paul Cadmus, Dominique Vivant Denon, and Michel Fingesten, and mixed media collages by Robb Stone.


Naked Spaces: Architecture in Art from the Kinsey Institute Collection

January 18–April 5, 2013 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Naked Spaces investigated the ways artists manipulate architectural representation to communicate ideas about sex, gender, and the erotic.

The exhibition featured works by Herbert Ascherman, Bruce Barnes, Franz von Bayros, David Bekker, Tom Bianchi, Edouard Chimot, Ralph Nicholas Chubb, Vincent Cianni, Dominque Vivant Denon, Michael Fingesten, Edie Fake, D. Keith Furon, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Suzuki Harunobu, Walter Sigmund Hempel, Clifford Raven Ingram, Toby Kaufmann, Max Kislinger, Rita Koehler, Clarence John Laughlin, Lehnert & Landrock, Richard Lux, Michael Miksche, Marcantonio Raimondi, Anne Roecklein, Félicien Rops, Emilio Sanchez, Ronald Searle, Carl Streller, Arthur Tress, Spencer Tunick, and Dirk Vellert.

The guest curator was Susan Johnson-Roehr, Ph.D., an architectural historian at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.


A Place Aside: Artists and Their Partners

September 28–December 20, 2012 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

A Place Aside explored the relatonships between photographers and their loved ones. The photographs not only documented couple&#8217s' lives together. They also revealed the trust and respect that each partner has for the other.

Organized by guest curator Garrett Hansen, this exhibit presented images from nine contemporary photographers: Jeff Moerchen, Alexis Culver, Audim Culver, Gustavo Gomes, Yuhki Touyama, Fabien Seguin, Julie Barnofski, Garrett Hansen, and Tanya Bezreh.


Gender Expressions

September 28–December 20, 2012 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Gender Expressions used contemporary photographs, fine art prints, and other materials to illustrate the various ways people express their gender identity or challenge societal expectations about gender roles. A selection of magazines, books, newspaper clippings, and other materials also looked at transgender history in the United States.

Represented artists included Mariette Pathy Allen, Jess Anthony, Herbert Ascherman, Mia Beach, Heather Christoffer, Jess T. Dugan, Leonor Fini, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Danielle C. Head, Hans van der Kamp, Vivienne Maricevic, Ohm Phanphiroj, Len Prince, Carson Rader, Sarah Taavola, Cara Lee Wade, Martin Weinberg, Jessica Anthony, Dennis Chamberlin, Michael Grecco, Linda Hesh, and Herb Ritts.


Ephemeral Ink: Selections of Tattoo Art from The Kinsey Institute Collections

July 9–September 21, 2012 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Ephemeral Ink featured depictions of tattoos and tattooing that provide a glimpse into the evolution of tattooing style and technique over the course of a hundred years.

Materials included flash art, images of tattoos by notable artists Les Skuse and Bert Grimm, artwork by Utagawa Kunisada, Alberto Martini, Kirk Richard Smith, and Samuel Steward, and a selection of text materials and ephemera from the Kinsey Institute library. There were also works by anonymous and known fine art photographers, including Herbert Ascherman, Jeff Crisman, Jess T. Dugan, Michael Grecco, Chas Ray Krider, June Yong Lee, George Platt Lynes, Dianora Niccolini, Len Prince, Rahul A. Saha, Michele Serchuk, Tom Stio, and Michael Wenzler.

The exhibition was curated by Amy Tims, a historian and librarian who recently graduated from the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science. A version of this show was on exhibit at Marian University, February 20–March 23, 2012.


2012 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 18–July 21, 2012,  | Grunwald Gallery, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts

The 2012 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show included artworks addressing gender issues, sexuality, reproduction, sexual politics, romantic relationships, and the human figure.


Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze

April 13–June 29, 2012 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Man as Object examined the visibility of men and masculinity from female/feminist/transgender perspectives.

The show was organized by Karen Gutfreund, Priscilla Otani, and Brenda Oelbaum for the Women’s Caucus for Art with Tanya Augsburg, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University, as Juror. Prior to coming to Bloomington, it was shown at the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco.


Love and War

January 20–April 6, 2012 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Love and War featured visual material from the American Civil War to the 21st century. Many of the items represented popular culture in America during World War II as Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues traveled the country collecting research material and data for their study of human sexual behavior.

The show featured cartoons, propaganda leaflets, postcards, photographs, magazines, pin-up calendars, drawings, prints, and a variety of novelty objects, as well as a selection of contemporary images by Garrie Maguire, Len Prince, Herbert Ascherman, and other photographers whose work addresses war in the modern age.

See also: When Sex and War Meet (produced by Indiana Public Media).


The Photographs of Len Prince

October 21–December 21, 2011 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Len Prince is a New York-based photographer whose work spans more than four decades. The Photographs of Len Prince represented a selection of prints from a major gift of more than 225 Len Prince photographs from his long-time patron William Zewadski.


2011 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 20–July 30, 2011 | Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts


Storytellers

April 8–July 29 and August 8–September 2, 2011 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Storytellers provided a rare opportunity for visitors to view a wide range of material pulled from The Kinsey Institute’s extensive library collection. The selection included pulp fiction paperbacks from the 1960s, illustrated erotic novels, underground comic books, Japanese pillow books, and other narrative texts. Story-driven artworks were also included. They ranged from vintage photographs, prints, watercolors, and drawings by anonymous and known artists to a series of Judy Chicago lithographs and other contemporary pieces.


As We See Them: Exotic and Erotic Images from Modern Alternative Process Photographers

January 21–April 1, 2011 | | Kinsey Institute Gallery

As We See Them presented the work of eleven artists who used some of the earliest photographic processes to create contemporary images dealing with sexuality and the human figure. Featured works included cyanotypes by Patrick Alt and Charles West, platinum-palladium prints by Herbert Ascherman Jr. and Jeannette Palsa, gum bichromate prints by Laurent Benaïm, photogravures by Constantine Gedal, tintypes by Cynthia Greig, ambrotypes by Ed Ross, daguerreotypes by Charlie Schreiner, and aluminum-types by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi.

Guest curators: Herbert Ascherman Jr. and Jeannette Palsa


Nature & Nurture: Exploring Human Reproduction from Pregnancy through Early Childhood

September 10–December 22, 2010 and January 30–March 2, 2012 | IUPUI Cultural Arts Gallery

Nature & Nurture was the first Kinsey Institute exhibition to highlight its collection of fine art, books, and other materials on the subject of human reproduction. The exhibition used fine art photographs, paintings, prints, sculptures, and books to illustrate pregnancy, birth, child rearing, development of gender identity, and parent/child relationships.

Featured artists included Deena des Rioux, David Teplica, Yara Ferreira Clüver, Matthew Weir, Osamu James Nakagawa, Tom Stio, Michael Wenzler, Les Sattinger, Jeffrey Rothenberg, George Platt Lynes, Leonor Fini, Julie James, Grace Benedict, Brad Miller, Kim Murak, Herbert Ascherman, Cara Judea Alhadeff, Niki Grangruth, Michael Rosen, Ani Garrick, Angela N. Hunt, Arkady Tzykun, Garry Trudeau, Dovrat Amsily-Barak, Karl Gustav Kroeppler, Mariette Pathy Allen, Judy Dater, Mia Beach, JeongMee Yoon, Shen Wei, John Lucas, R. Gopakumar, and video artists Adam Trowbridge and Jessica Westbrook.


A Collector's Vision

April 9–September 3, 2010 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

In 2002, an anonymous American collector generously donated more than six hundred original artworks to The Kinsey Institute. This exhibition features more than 50 pieces from this significant collection, including paintings, prints, and drawings by known and anonymous European artists working in the late eighteenth through mid-twentieth century.

Unlike most Kinsey Institute exhibitions that display artworks acquired from a wide variety of sources, this show provides visitors with the opportunity to view a unique collection that reflects the connoisseurship of a single individual. Featured artists include Suzanne Ballivet, Franz von Bayros, Louis-André Berthommé de Saint-André, Charles Chaplin, Édouard Chimot, Jean Cocteau, Dominique Vivant Denon, Jules Pascin, and Fédor Rojankovsky (aka Rojan).


2010 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 28–July 30, 2010, School of Fine Arts Gallery

The 2010 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show featured 100 artworks chosen from among 685 submissions. It included photographs, paintings, sculpture, and mixed media explorations of topics of sexuality, gender identity, romantic relationships, and sexual politics.


Private Eyes:

January 22–April 2, 2010 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Private Eyes: Amateur Art from The Kinsey Institute Collection explored the unique characteristics of homemade erotic artifacts. These one-of-a-kind items include drawings, paintings, carved figures, handmade cards, scrapbooks, and altered coins from The Kinsey Institute’s permanent collection of art.

Guest curators: Betsy Stirratt, Director, School of Fine Arts Gallery, and Blaise Cronin, Dean and Rudy Professor of Information Science, IU School of Library and Information Science


The Shape of Us

September 25–December 24, 2009 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

The Shape of Us explored diversity and the human body through a display of artistic representations from various cultures and time periods.


Contemporary Art at The Kinsey Institute

July 13–September 18, 2009 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

This exhibition featured works from the collections of The Kinsey Institute by modern artists exploring a wide range of media, including photography, painting, printmaking, and ceramics.


2009 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

May 29–July 30, 2009 | IU School of Fine Arts Gallery

The 2009 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show featured more than 100 artworks in a wide range of media created by contemporary artists from across the US and the world.


Eros in Asia: Erotic Art from Iran to Japan

February 20–July 2, 2009 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Eros in Asia was the first Kinsey Institute exhibition to highlight its extensive collection of erotic artwork from across Asian.

It featured paintings, prints, illustrated books, sculptures, and art objects from China, India, Iran, Japan, Turkey, Mongolia, and Myanmar (formerly Burma).


Pre-Revolutionary Queer: Gay Art and Culture Before Stonewall

October 24, 2008–February 14, 2009 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

brought together a diverse collection of artwork, photographs, newsletters, magazines, and other materials documenting the existence of a vibrant but largely underground gay culture prior to the start of the modern gay rights movement in the late 1960s.


Sex and Presidential Politics

September 26, 2008 - January 23, 2009 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Sex and Presidential Politics offered a glimpse of presidential politics viewed by adult and underground media sources. The exhibit featured magazines, tabloids, newspapers and newsletters from the later half of the 20th century that revealed a different perspective on the elections.

Sex and Presidential Politics was part of the Indiana University Libraries’ “Politics and Presidents: A Month-Long Celebration of Archives and Special Collections.”


Infinitely variable: Nude and Erotic Photographs by Herbert Ascherman Jr.

August 15–October 17, 2008 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Infinitely variable was sourced from a body of personal work by Ascherman previously known only to a small group of friends and collectors. Selected from more than 400 original prints in the Kinsey Institute’s permanent collection, these photographs represented Ascherman’s four decades of exploring human sexuality in all its fascinating variety.

Guest curator: Claude Cookman, historian of photography and a professor in the School of Journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington


2008 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

April 11–July 25, 2008 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

The 2008 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show featured photographs, sculptures, paintings, textiles, and mixed media pieces submitted by artists from across the United States, Canada, and England. The nearly eighty contemporary artworks explored a range of topics including eroticism, body image, motherhood, gender, and the human figure.


Women of Pleasure

January 18–April 4, 2008 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Women of Pleasure examined the depiction of women in 18th and 19th century European erotic art and literature via paintings, engravings, etchings, photographs, artifacts, books, and other materials from the Kinsey Institute's collections.


iGuy (HeLovesMeHeLovesMeNot.com)

January 8-15, 2008 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

iGuy (HeLovesMeHeLovesMeNot.com) was a short-term exhibition by artist Robb Stone that featured a collection of photo and text-based collages exploring explore the erotic world of online social networking. All artworks were made specifically for the show and included actual images from websites such as Manhunt and Craigslist, where gay men can post profiles and look for potential partners.


August 27 - December 21, 2007 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Kinsey Confidential was inspired by the Kinsey Institute's syndicated newspaper column titled of the same name. The exhibit looked at commonly asked questions about sexual health and behavior with questions are answered and illustrated using artworks, photographs, objects, and print materials from the Kinsey Institute's extensive art and library collections.

Featured items included 19th century fine art, photographs, and thought-provoking works by contemporary artists such as Deena des Rioux, Betsy Stirratt, Judy Dater, Michael Rosen, Belle Wether, Naomi Harris, Carolyn Weltman, Gene Greger, Angela Hunt, J.D. Talasek, Molly Springfield, Joe De Hoyos, Bradley Wicklund, and Candace Nicol.


2007 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

April 13–July 20, 2007 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

The 2007 Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show featured 80 works of exciting contemporary art in a wide range of media: photographs, collages, paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and textile art.


Queer Projections

January 22–April 6, 2007 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Queer Projections celebrated the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals to the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera. The exhibition also explores the representation of GLBT characters in Hollywood and independent films. Assembled by guest curator Dr. Brian J. Woodman, the exhibit features a variety of film posters, photographs, movie stills, and other cinema-related ephemera.


Expressive Bodies: Contemporary Art Photography from The Kinsey Institute

January 9-27, 2007 | IU School of Fine Arts Gallery

Expressive Bodies surveyed the use of photography by contemporary artists to express ideas about sexuality and gender or to explore the visual impact of the human figure. This exhibition featured photographs by established artists such as Laura Aguilar, Erwin Olaf, Pierre et Gilles, Joel-Peter Witkin, Herb Ritts, Arthur Tress, Michael Macku, Ivan Pinkava, Mariette Pathy Allen, and Frank Yamrus, as well as talented photographers at the start of their artistic careers.


Sex Objects

August 1–December 22, 2006 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Sex Objects exhibited sculpture and other three-dimensional items from the Kinsey Institute collection.


Kinsey Institute Juried Erotic Art Show

April 14–June 30, 2006 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Kinsey Institute Juried Erotic Art Show featured photography, sculpture, painting, textiles, and wearable art submitted by artists from across the United States.


Sex in the Cinema

January 17–April 7, 2006 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Sex in the Cinema used posters, press kits, photographs, and other materials to examine the use of sex as a marketing tool by Hollywood studios and independent film companies. Selected posters represented a number of genres, from the exploitation pictures of the 1930s through the first mainstream X-rated films of the 1970s.


Passionate Creatures: Animal Imagery in Art

August 22–December 23, 2005 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Passionate Creatures featured paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and artifacts depicting real and mythological creatures. Exhibited objects and artworks spanned more than two thousand years of cultural history.


Identity—Sexuality—Gender: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Thomas Robertello

April 15 - August 5, 2005 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Identity—Sexuality—Gender was a loaned exhibition that presented a collection of recent work by an international group of artists, including Amy Cutler, Peregrine Honig, Robert Horvath, Nikki S. Lee, Conor McGrady, Kim Murak, Sergei Pachomow, Ed Paschke, and Anne Wilson.


Out of Russia: The Art of Chagall, Tchelitchew, and Avinoff

February 16 - April 11, 2005 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Out of Russia presented artworks by three Russian émigrés--Marc Chagall, Pavel Tchelitchew, and Andrey Avinoff. Also on view was an original portrait of Alfred Kinsey by Boris Artzybasheff, produced for the cover of TIME magazine in 1953.


Sex Ed

October 20, 2005 - February 11, 2006 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Sex Ed looked at the dissemination of information about sex, reproduction, and health over the past several centuries. Materials included film posters, fetal development models, novelty condoms, birth control devices from previous eras including an 18th century condom, educational films, fertility statues, Japanese pillow books, and copies of the Kama Sutra, marriage manuals, and other sexual education materials.


Sex in America: Art & Artifacts from the Kinsey Institute Collection, 1900-1968

July 1–October 15, 2005 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Sex in America featured photographs, prints, drawings, and watercolors by American artists, including Thomas Hart Benton, Paul Cadmus, Maynard Dixon, Harry Engle, Jared French, Rockwell Kent, Douglas Kirkland, George Platt Lynes, Irving Penn, and Clara Tice. Also on display were movie posters, cartoons, and a variety of artifacts and novelty items.


Eroticism and Music

February 6–March 2, 2004 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

Eroticism and Music featured a selection of artwork illustrating the connection between eroticism and music. The exhibit included engravings, lithographs, etchings, and photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries.


George Balanchine and his Dancers: The Ballet Photographs of George Platt Lynes

January 28–February 8, 2003 | Kinsey Institute Gallery

George Balanchine and his Dancers exhibited photographs from the Kinsey Institute's important collection of work by the 20th century American photographer George Platt Lynes. Images included portraits of George Balanchine, the Russian-born choreographer who co-founded the New York City Ballet, and the dancers with whom he worked.

Off-site exhibitions

Shows: 2015–present

Bring Your Own Body: transgender between archives and aesthetics

October 13–November 14, 2015 | The Cooper Union (New York City)

December 10, 2015–February 13, 2016 | Glass Curtain Gallery (Chicago)

Bring Your Own Body presented the work of transgender artists and archives, from the institutional and sexological to the personal and liminal. Taking its title from an unpublished manuscript by intersex pioneer Lynn Harris, the exhibit historicized the sexological and cultural imaginary of transgender through a curatorial exploration of the Kinsey Archives and the burgeoning movements for transgender expression from the turn of the 20th century.

Curator: Jeanne Vaccaro, Ph.D.


The Wunderkammer: Curiosities in Indiana University Collections

October 23–November 18, 2015 | Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University

The Wunderkammer highlighted the practice of private and institutional collecting of art, artifacts, specimens, and objects through the special collections on Indiana University’s campus not typically seen by the average visitor. The exhibit was displayed as a cabinet of curiosities similar to the traditional collections amassed by individuals in the sixteenth century and included a collection of animal penis bones and a 1955 Relax-A-Cizor device from the Kinsey Institute Collections.


The Institute of Sexology

November 20, 2014–September 20, 2015 | Wellcome Collection (London)

The Institute of Sexology exhibition featured more than 50 items from the Kinsey Institute art, artifacts, and archival collections showcasing the pioneers of the study of sex.


Undercover: Selections from The Kinsey Institute

March 20–April 17, 2015 | Wabash College

Undercover presented a selection of photographs, prints, paintings, and sculptures from the Kinsey Institute that explored the stories we tell one another about sex and stories that seek to obfuscate, glorify, mystify, boast, or jest about sex.

Shows prior to 2015

2014

  • The Man Naked: Dimensions of Masculinity from 1800 | Museo Nacional de Arte (Mexico City)

2013

  • Masculine / Masculine: The Nude Man in Art from 1800 to the Present Day | Musée d'Orsay (Paris)
  • Touchy Subjects: Art, Sex and Humor: Selections from the Kinsey Institute | Indianapolis Art Center
  • Interludes | Fine Arts Center, Southwestern University

2012

  • Ephemeral Ink | Fisher Hall, Marian University
  • Out in Chicago | Chicago History Museum, Chicago
  • Obscene Diary | Museum of Sex, New York City

2011

  • Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
  • Andrey Avinoff: In Pursuit of Beauty | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

2010

  • RUBBERS: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom | Museum of Sex, New York City
  • Revealed: The Tradition of Male Homoerotic Art | Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York City
  • Skin & Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor | Independance Seaport Museum, Philadelphia

2008

  • Kinsey's Women | The Wild Project Gallery, New York City
  • Darkside: Photographic Desire and Sexuality Photographed | Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zurich
  • Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now | Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK

2005

  • The Art of Sex: Selections from The Kinsey Institute | The Gallery, West Hollywood
  • The Allure of Clothing: Function, Fantasy, Fetish, Fashion | Mathers Museum of World Cultures, Indiana University
  • Sex among the Lotus: 2,500 years of Chinese Erotic Obsession | Museum of Sex, New York City

2003

  • "Phantom der Lust" or "Phantom of Desire: Visions of Masochism in Art" |
  • George Balanchine and his Dancers: The Ballet Photographs of George Platt Lynes |
  • Feminine Persuasion |
  • "Oh! Dr. Kinsey:" Media Reaction to the Kinsey Report on Women Exhibition |

2002

  • NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex in America |
  • Sex and Humor: Selections from The Kinsey Institute |
  • The Power of Seduction |
  • Sex—Facts and Fantasies | Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden

2001

  • Interwoven Lives: George Platt Lynes and his friends | DC Moore Gallery, New York City

1999

  • The American Century | Gerald R. Ford Museum, Grand Rapids
  • Watching from the Wings: Warhol and Dance | Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
  • Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture | Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; The Jewish Museum, New York City
  • Invisible Light: Photography and Classification | Inverleith House, Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm

1998

  • The Kiss: Selections from The Kinsey Institute | Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University

1997

  • The Art of Desire: Erotic Treasures from The Kinsey Institute | Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University
  • Goodbye to Berlin: 100 Years of Gay Liberation | Akademie der Künste, Berlin
  • Rrose Is a Rrose Is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City; Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh

1996

  • Gender Affects | Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University

1995

  • The Erotic Art of Ukiyo-e: Selections from the Collection | Indiana University Art Museum

1994

  • George Platt Lynes Exhibition | The Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University; Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy; Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University

1991

  • Selections from the Collections | The Kinsey Institute
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