SLUMA Exhibitions
Current Exhibitions
Cross Currents: Global Exchanges in Modern and Contemporary Art
Sept. 4, 2026
Cross Currents: Global Exchanges in Modern and Contemporary Art examines the reciprocal processes through which artistic forms have been transmitted, translated, appropriated, contested and reimagined across cultures. This exhibit features 62 artworks from various cultures and countries, including Indigenous, Asian, Western, African, and Mediterranean traditions. Organized thematically rather than chronologically, artworks included in the exhibition demonstrate that artistic innovation emerged through sustained encounters among diverse visual traditions, intellectual systems, religious beliefs and historical experiences.
Rhythms of Ancestry
May 12, 2026
Rhythms of Ancestry was curated by students in the Art of the African Diaspora class taught in Fall 2025 by Associate Professor Olubukola Gbadegesin, Ph.D. Combining music and visual art Rhythms of Ancestry is a homage to the visual, spiritual and musical legacies of people of African descent in Africa, South America and the United States.
Featured art includes African masks, diasporic paintings, and songs from Africa and the diaspora. The chosen artworks reflect both the cultural roots of their creator and the persistent spiritual and cultural connections between communities across the African Diaspora.
Fostered by the belief that the arts of the African Diaspora are not just images to be viewed but an experience meant to be lived and celebrated, Rhythms of Ancestry creates a multimedia experience highlighting the many vibrant African diasporic communities across the world. Rhythms of Ancestry is a story of cultural resilience, illustrating how African-descended communities have used music, art, and ceremony to resist erasure, shape identity, and celebrate life.
Headphones and connection cords are available at the front desk to borrow during your visit.
Einar Hákonarson: The Auschwitz Etchings
Over the course of a 40-year career, Einar Hákonarson (b. 1945) has become one of Iceland’s most distinguished artists, with 30 exhibitions in multiple countries. He was educated at the Iceland Academy of the Arts (Iceland’s national art school) and the Valand School of Fine Arts of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Primarily a painter, he has also won numerous awards for his work in printmaking, and he reignited interest in the medium of printmaking in Iceland. In 1965, as a student at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, he made a life-changing trip to Auschwitz. Reflecting on that experience, the artist said, “this visit [to Auschwitz] influenced me tremendously. I simply was not the same as before.”
While a large portion of his work since the Auschwitz visit has dealt with human suffering, Hákonarson made a series of six etchings between 1965 and 1967 that specifically referenced his reflections on Auschwitz. He dedicated the six etchings to the victims of the Holocaust as well as to all victims of hatred, bigotry and injustice. Although intimate in scale, the etchings explore the spirit of the human person to persevere and triumph even in the midst of atrocities on such an epic scale. The etchings remain witnesses to humanity’s dark side, but they are also expressions of hope that in the face of such evil, the vigilant human spirit can still triumph and prevail.
We invite you to spend time with these works, to read the artist’s own reflections on the themes in each of the prints, and to see that, in light of the many contemporary global trouble spots, the message of the Auschwitz Etchings is timelier than ever.
Cartier: A Visionary Journey
In 1847, Louis-François Cartier founded the luxury jewelry and watch brand Cartier. Through his visionary entrepreneurship and the strategic and creative acumen of his sons and grandsons, Cartier rose to become the pinnacle of the international jewelry industry. Louis-François' grandson Pierre married Ella Rumsey, daughter of American tycoon Moses Lee Rumsey Jr. This strategic marital alliance facilitated Cartier's expansion into the American market.
This exhibition provides a glimpse into the lives of the Cartier and Rumsey families through photographs, letters, and documents gifted to Saint Louis University by the family of Marion Rumsey Cartier, daughter of Pierre and Ella, in 1997.