National Endowment for the Arts Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2019. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $45,000 to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University for the exhibition Angela Davis—Seize the Time, debuting at the institution. Art Works is the Arts Endowment’s principal grantmaking program.

The Zimmerli  hosts the nationally touring exhibition that explores Dimensionism, an artistic movement, tracing the influence of early 20th-century scientific discoveries on some of the era’s most celebrated artists.

Nine works, consisting of still photographs and multimedia installations, address the subject of the political deviant, the sexual outlaw, and the uncensored artist, who all became the shared “others” for the Cold War-era Soviets and Americans, and remain a problematic political legacy that resonates today.

Nevermore: Leonid Lamm, Selected Works examines the artist's prolific career, which was stimulated by a lifelong inquiry into the multidimensional energy of space. More than 60 works on view represent three key periods: his early decades in the Soviet Union, the period following his move to the United States in the 1980s, and his incorporation of digital formats in more recent years

It is no surprise that domesticated animals have been popular subjects for American artists. In particular, illustrators of children’s books have created memorable canine and feline characters, depicting the distinct movements, expressions, and personalities that endear them to their human companions. The Zimmerli has drawn from its vast holdings in this genre to present Cats vs. Dogs: Illustrations for Children's Literature, featuring more than 40 drawings and collages. The exhibition emphasizes the strength of visual elements in storytelling, especially for children learning how to read.

Set in Stone: Lithography in France, 1815-1900 presents a comprehensive visual history of how artists and a handful of entrepreneurs refined a new medium to strike a balance between individual creative vision and a growing demand for mass produced images.

The year 2017 marks the centennial when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized control of the Russian government that autumn, following months of unrest after the abdication of Czar Nicholas earlier in the year, to form the Soviet Union. To reflect upon the consequences that have influenced the tone of global politics ever since, the Zimmerli  presents Commemorating the Russian Revolution, 1917/2017, with nearly 90 photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and mixed media works.

While many people have resigned themselves to glancing at visual art on tiny screens, three exhibitions reinforce the perspective that there is no substitution for encountering art in person: Stanley Twardowicz: Color Field Paintings, 1962–1990; Three American Painters: David Diao, Sam Gilliam, Sal Sirugo; and Absence and Trace: The Dematerialized Image in Contemporary Art.

In an era when most people employ their phones as cameras, attempting to document every detail of their daily lives, the phrase “social photography” may bring to mind countless posts of #avocadotoast and filtered selfies in an effort to garner as many “Likes” as possible. But outside influences on public images are not a new phenomenon. The exhibition Subjective Objective: A Century of Social Photography traces the history of documentary photography, from the late 19th century to the present, and the social aspects behind some of the world’s most recognizable photos. Photographers have long sought to shape public opinion about social problems, often reinventing the genre in response to evolving concerns and appealing to audiences.

Screenprinting’s present day ubiquity took root during the Great Depression when, through programs administered by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the government encouraged the production and consumption of art by the general public. Serigraphy: The Rise of Screenprinting in America explores how the technique was adapted to create fine art that was accessible and affordable to the middle class during the 1930s and 1940s. Despite the ongoing devastation that followed the nation’s worst financial disaster, public support for the arts reached one of its highest levels in history.

A collaboration between Mason Gross School of the Arts and the Zimmerli provides a window into the working process of American contemporary artist Kara Walker and a cohort of Rutgers students in a project that explores the history of the United States as a slave-owning nation and the shadows that it continues to cast over the 21st century.

The interdisciplinary symposium “Reinventing Documentary Photography in the 1970s” explores the multiple ways that documentary work was rethought and contested during the decade, in both critical discourse and artistic practice.