Our main gallery is currently undergoing an HVAC system upgrade. We are preparing for an upcoming exhibition — stay tuned for details.
Our lobby gallery remains open throughout the summer.
WUNDERKAMMER III:
THE LANGUAGE of THINGS
September 25, 2025 – May 29, 2026
Lobby Gallery
Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College (CUNY)
The third installment of GTM’s Wunderkammer series, The Language of Things, invites viewers to engage with the subtle and powerful voices embedded in material culture. Curated from GTM’s permanent collection, the exhibition juxtaposes the sacred with the mundane, offering a rich tapestry of human creativity, belief, and everyday life.
Spanning millennia and continents, the selected artifacts range from a 15th-century baptismal plate portraying Adam and Eve to a 1960s tramp art box crafted by a Ukrainian priest in New York, and a Ptolemaic-era figurine of Osiris. Alongside these are more ordinary but no less significant items—a brass Turkish coffee grinder, traveling hangers for stockings, and a 4,000-year-old hematite cylinder seal—each bearing the imprint of human use and memory. Together, these objects speak in the silent, tactile language of material culture. They are more than relics—they are messages preserved in form, material, and craftsmanship, resonating with the hands that made and used them.
A special feature of this iteration is a tribute to Allen Rosenbaum, long-serving GTM board member, generous donor, and proud Queens College graduate, 1958. His gift of over 200 Daruma—figures representing Bodhidharma, the 5th century founder of Zen Buddhism in Japan—adds a vibrant spiritual dimension to the exhibition. Selected Daruma pieces on view embody resilience, faith, and the enduring influence of Eastern philosophies in material form.
Support for Wunderkammer III: The Language of Things is provided by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Kupferberg Center for the Arts, and Queens College, CUNY.
Watch the exhibition video on YouTube.
MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO ALLEN ROSENBAUM (1937 – 2025)
September 25, 2025 – May 29, 2026
Lobby Gallery
Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College (CUNY)
The Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College is honored to present a memorial tribute to Allen Rosenbaum, distinguished art historian, longtime director of the Princeton University Art Museum (Emeritus), and devoted GTM board member for over 25 years. Allen passed away on August 3 at Calvary Hospital in New York City at the age of 88.
Exhibition support is provided by the Kupferberg Center for the Arts. Education programs and initiatives are supported by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with New York City Council.
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