Fables, Myths and the Stories We Tell

March 5 – May 10, 2026

This exhibition celebrates storytelling, an art universally shared between cultures across time and geography. Stories in the form of fables, myths, legends, epics and the like have served as symbolic vehicles to explain essential truths and contradictions about human behavior, to impart wisdom or history lessons, or to warn and advise humanity about the perils and pitfalls in life. While there are important formal distinctions between the different types of stories featured in the exhibition, scholars tend to characterize them all as fundamentally etiologic in nature because they address primary causes or attempt to make sense of why a particular phenomenon is the way it is, whether natural or cosmological. For example, creation myths provide origin stories of how the universe or humanity was formed. Such a story underlies the work titled Nunaup Manninga or “Earth’s Egg” by Inuit artist Ningiukulu (Ning) Teevee. This delicate drawing references the cosmic egg that embodies the Inuit belief in transformation and renewal as well as the cycles of life describing how light and life itself can emerge from darkness and chaos.

Certain myths are built around heroic figures or magical beings meant to exemplify standards of behavior, invoke caution, or, in some cases, invoke fear and foreboding. Kiki Smith’s work Banshee Pearls alludes to the supernatural female figures from Gaelic folklore who were known to foretell the death of a family member through high-pitched screeches. While a Banshee is not intrinsically evil, they are feared since their presence signals impending death. Keith BraveHeart’s work Stone Boy or “Inyan Hoksila” in Lakota language, on the other hand, is a prominent and reoccurring legend in Sioux mythology. Portrayed as a young boy with supernatural abilities, Stone Boy personifies resiliency and is an inspiring figure for his people.

Many stories deploy animals as central protagonists to highlight a particular moral or lesson. Typically, these types of stories do not dictate morality, rather they expose the flaws or foibles of human behavior by anthropomorphizing animal characters. Sudanese artist Salah Elmur, for example, often excavates childhood memories of people, sites, and customs from his native Khartoum. His two drawings featured in the exhibition stage scenes with people and animals common in Sudanese stories. The hyena is a figure invoked in tales about greed and deception. Here, however, the animal is prostrate and humbled before the human figures. Elmur’s drawing Blue Horse shows the animal surrounded by children. The horse is a symbol of prestige and loyalty in Sudanese culture; it is also a central figure in the tale The Stallion Houssan about a young Prince who is protected by the horse from the evil antics of his mother-in-law. Currently, living in exile from his war-torn country, Elmur isn’t attempting to illustrate these stories in a literal fashion, rather he reimagines tales through the lens of displacement and fragmented memories of more peaceful times in his nation’s history. Similarly, artist Steven Yazzie’s work often features coyotes, a recurring figure in Navajo/Diné mythology. He began incorporating this animal in his artwork around the time of the financial crisis of 2008, explaining that the coyote’s actions “often serve as a form of chaos to find balance. They are complex entities echoing a potent symbol of transgressive power, embodying a duality that both challenges and mirrors human morality.”

Several artists featured in the exhibition have mined familiar stories to challenge their point of view or explore alternative contexts to reveal new meanings. Eurydice’s Song by William Borden and illustrated by Douglas Kinsey retools a classic Greek Myth about Orpheus’s doomed attempt to rescue his love Eurydice from eternal death. Traditionally, this tragic story is told only from the male protagonist’s point of view and Eurydice functions as an empty vessel without agency, but in this retold version, the narrative unfurls from her point of view thereby upending assumptions embedded in the original myth. Similarly, Ross Rolshoven puts a new spin on the formulaic story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears by alluding to a more haunting “nightmarish” version. A disheveled Goldilocks is ashen and appears bruised while a menacing silhouette of a bear looms behind her as if to warn viewers of the consequences of disrespecting boundaries and property that belongs to others.

All works in this exhibition come from the permanent collection of the Museum and provide an overview of the depth and range of artists in the collection.