Present Tension: Contemporary Art from the Speed Art Museum Collection
Present Tension brings together an intergenerational mix of collection icons, major new acquisitions, and key loans from private collections to illuminate how artists confront, question, and reshape the world around us. Across Galleries 1–5, over 100 works created since 1960 address the most pressing issues of our time: the meaning of home and belonging, the politics of the body, the realities of conflict and care, the struggles over visibility, and the evolving languages of figuration and abstraction. Beloved touchstones from the Speed’s holdings appear alongside bold recent additions and rarely seen privately held works, creating moments of friction, resonance, and discovery that speak to who we are and who we are becoming.
The Speed’s contemporary collection reflects a belief that art is inseparable from the social and political forces that define our lives. These works—shaped by local, national, and global perspectives—invite visitors to look closely, think deeply, and recognize their own place within these unfolding narratives. Warm, challenging, and alive to the present, Present Tension affirms the museum as a site where artists help us imagine not only the world as it is, but the one we must build together.
Selected artists include: John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, Igshaan Adams, Anthony Akinbola, Janine Antoni, Bruce Davidson, Friedel Dzubas, Helen Frankenthaler, vanessa german, Sam Gilliam, Jeffrey Gibson, Philip Guston, Ken Gun Min, Chase Hall, Ed Hamilton, Hugh Hayden and Frank Benson, Yan Hsia, Richard Hunt, Barbara Kruger, Young Joon Kwak, Carolyn Lazard, Simone Leigh, Eugene Leroy, Amani Lewis, Danielle McKinney, Rodney McMillian, Joan Mitchell, Rebecca Morris, Juan Muñoz, Elizbeth Murray, Matt Mullican, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, Philip Pearlstein, Naudline Pierre, Richard Pousette-Dart, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Sam Richards, Fritz Scholder, Kiki Smith, Joyce J. Scott, Joan Snyder, Gio Swaby, Pat Steir, Salman Toor, Bob Thompson, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Carrie Mae Weems, Andy Warhol.
Galleries 1-5 currently also feature the special exhibitions Vian Sora: Outerworlds (through January 18, 2026) and LaVon Van Williams Jr.: Everything Must Change (through March 8, 2026).
Present Tension and contemporary art collection installations are curated by Tyler Blackwell, Curator of Contemporary Art at Speed Art Museum.