EXHIBITIONS

A few of the dozens of museum exhibitions that I have curated and/or to which I have strongly contributed during my career:

PAINTED PRAYERS: WOMEN’S ART IN VILLAGE INDIA

Smithsonian Institution: Arthur M Sackler Gallery (now the National Museum of Asian Art)
Washington, DC
1995-1996

An exhibition of 75 color prints of Huyler’s photographs of rural women’s art that opened at the Smithsonian in 1995 and then traveled to be in ten museums in the US, as well as ones in Canada, Britain, Germany, Peru, and India.

PUJA: EXPRESSIONS OF HINDU DEVOTION

Smithsonian Institution: Arthur M Sackler Gallery (now the National Museum of Asian Art)
Washington, DC
1996-2000

Curated by Dr. Huyler, this large show of sacred Hindu art was displayed in the context of temple, household, and roadside shrines in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Originally intended to be open for just six months, large popular demand kept it open for four full years.

MEETING GOD: ELEMENTS OF HINDU DEVOTION

American Museum of Natural History, New York
2001-2002

Because of the popularity of the Smithsonian’s Puja show, Stephen Huyler assembled a second exhibition of interactive sacred Indian art that traveled to two museums in the US and two museums in Britain, as well as touring museums in India in an abbreviated form.

INDIA UNFOLDING: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF STEPHEN P HUYLER

Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine
2003

In 2003, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, Maine, gave Huyler carte blanche to create a huge exhibition of his photographs in which he chose to push the envelope and experiment in a broad variety of photographic mediums and innovative displays.

Daughters of India at the Fowler, UCLA

INDIA ADORNED: SELECTIONS FROM THE STEPHEN P HUYLER COLLECTION

Mingei International Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
2008-2009

In 2004, Huyler donated 650 pieces of Indian folk art and craft to the permanent collections of Mingei International Museum in San Diego. Over four decades of field research throughout India, he had painstakingly collected these rare objects that were at that time undervalued or discarded. In 2008, the Mingei featured one hundred of the finest examples in this six-month exhibition.

SONABAI: ANOTHER WAY OF SEEING

Mingei International Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
2009-2010 

For five years, Huyler collected and designed this unusual exhibition on the work of one unique Indian rural female artist, Sonabai. Living in enforced isolation for 15 years, she had invented a style of sculpture with a vibrancy that is riveting and inspiring. The exhibition used photographs, sculptures, projections, and unusual display techniques to create an immersing experience that was extremely popular with the public over its 13 month run.

PUJA AND PIETY: HINDU, JAIN, AND BUDDHIST ART FROM THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
2016-2017

Dr. Huyler consulted with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and co-curated this exhibition on the sacred art of three indigenous Indian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

The SBMA requested that Dr. Huyler make this film to accompany the exhibition. It was shown on a giant screen in one of the galleries with no soundtrack so that the noise would not interfere with exhibitions in other galleries. However, the rituals portrayed in this film are filled with sound. If Dr. Huyler has a chance, he will remake the film with the ambient sound included, as he had originally planned.