For almost 25 years, South Texas businessman Joe A. Diaz has collected contemporary art created by American artists with roots in Hispanic culture. This exhibition brought together more than 70 paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures that are primarily narrative in content and address a wide range of political, social, and autobiographical issues. Among the artists in the exhibition: Connie Arismendi, Alejandro Díaz, Ana Laura de la Garza, Ester Hernández, John Hernández, Benito Huerta, Luis Jiménez, Cesar Martínez, Chuck Ramirez, Alex Rubio, John Valadez, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas.

Known for her intricate abstract paintings, five years ago Bay Area–artist Sollins began making charcoal drawings of her possessions. Reverting to a medium she was taught years ago in her first art classes, Sollins draws with the softest charcoal possible so that the dust falls in shadows. She depicts articles ranging from her grandmother’s cast iron doorstop to her own underwear and jewelry.

SJMA's Di Napoli Skybridge exhibition featured work by two artists with similar cultural roots who work in distinctly different styles. Il Lee is best known for his historically grounded abstract work using ballpoint pen on paper and canvas, works rooted in the traditions of Asian calligraphy. Sandra Sunnyo Lee creates closely cropped frontal images of the face using oil on canvas, which is informed by her exploration of fundamental life themes.

This exhibition examined the interconnected history of art and politics with a focus on the art of the West Coast, where the interchange between art and politics has been very pronounced in the last 50 years. The exhibition traced the development of political art through the second half of the 20th century beginning with the 1940s and concentrating on the 1960s and early 1970s.

Energized by the potency of nature, the mysteries of the mind, and man’s study of both, Terry Winters depicts terrain, which is (by its very nature) invisible to the naked eye. Relying on the traditional methods of painting, drawing, and printmaking, he explores the intersection of the natural and the imaginary. This small exhibition features oil paintings and a selection of drawings from the Turbulence Skins series.

The art of ceramic sculpture has deep roots in California, and this exhibition featured an impressive range of works by some of the best-known artists working in the field.

This exhibition of works from SJMA’s permanent collection was supported in part by Doris and Alan Burgess.

Beginning Saturday, March 6th the San Jose Museum of Art's first floor galleries will brim with curvaceous, boldly designed products and prototypes as the museum opens its first-ever exhibition devoted to industrial design. The exhibition, Blobjects & Beyond: The New Fluidity in Design is a ground-breaking interdisciplinary look at the objects that fill our lives, chosen from a rich range of product, furniture, graphic, media and architectural work from across the globe.

An accomplished artist and writer, Thurston creates evocative black-and-white photographs. In Vital Signs, a photographic series featuring abstract scenes from hospitals and doctors’ offices, Thurston captured what she has described as “an intimate moment filled with reverence for the frailty and imperfection of the physical self.”

This exhibition continued the ongoing celebration of SJMA’s 35th anniversary. Coupled with a concurrent show featuring 50 major new gifts to the permanent collection, this exhibition by contrast drew from gifts accumulated over the years, contrasting familiar works by artists such as Hung Liu, Robert Colescott, and Roy DeForest with new gifts of works by artists like Clayton Bailey, Ellen Carey, and Sam Tchakalian. A wide variety of paintings, ceramic sculptures, and installations by diverse artists were included.

In 2004 SJMA celebrated its 35th anniversary. To commemorate this event, the Museum launched a gift campaign two years before to acquire 35 new works for the permanent collection—one for each of the Museum’s 35 years of existence. SJMA far exceeded this goal and unveiled more than 100 new acquisitions when It’s About Time: Celebrating 35 Years opened in October 2004. Among the artists included in It’s About Time: Celebrating 35 Years: Ruth Asawa, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Raimond Staprans, Wayne Thiebaud, David Gilhooly, Stephen De Staebler, Roland Petersen, Masami Teraoka and Peter VandenBerge.

Adored by everyone from art critics to punk kids, Nara's figures haunt galleries and museums, and adorn T-shirts, CD cases, ashtrays, and clocks. SJMA presented the Tokyo- based artist’s first major solo museum exhibition in the United States.

The Koret Foundation was a major sponsor of the San Jose presentation of Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens, which was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. The traveling exhibition was sponsored by an anonymous donor with the additional support of the Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, The Japan Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, The Peter Norton Family Foundation, Nancy and Joel Portnoy and Jennifer McSweeney Reuss.

Art of Zines 04 explored the creative and often subversive phenomenon of the zine, which is typically defined as a modest art book publication produced by an individual or small group. For the three years prior to this presentation, San Jose’s Anno Domini Gallery played a vital role in the zine community by organizing an annual zine exhibition. SJMA partnered with Anno Domini to mount Art of Zines 04.