Image: Newport Art Museum
The Newport Art Museum is presenting ‘Play / Pretend,’ a cross-generational exhibition examining how imagination shapes identity from childhood through adulthood. On view at the Griswold House in Newport, Rhode Island, from May 7, 2026, through January 31, 2027, the exhibition places historic dolls and automata alongside contemporary art.
Organized around the relationship between play, performance and self-construction, ‘Play / Pretend’ considers childhood games as an early way of testing roles and inventing possible worlds. The exhibition’s premise extends that process into adulthood, where people continue to construct narratives about who they are and how they are seen. Rather than treating play as something left behind, the presentation frames it as a continuing form of discovery.
The historical material comes from the Collection of Shelley D. Schorsch and includes dolls and automata dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. Works from the Redwood Library & Athenaeum are also included. These objects are shown in dialogue with work by contemporary artists Tom Deininger, Gerry Perrino, Entang Wiharso, Christina Pell, Saberah Malik and Rick Lazes.
The exhibition page identifies several works in the presentation, including Perrino’s ‘The Dangerous Animal, Still Life with 2 Toys,’ an oil painting on panel; Pell’s ‘Round and Round,’ made with ink and pastel on paper; Lazes’s ‘Meghan,’ a hand-molded acrylic panel; and Wiharso’s ‘Ring of Fire: Banaspati,’ an acrylic work on buffalo hide. Other works listed include Libby Schoettle’s ‘Be Yourself,’ Sam Heydt’s ‘Artichoke’ and Eric Telfort’s ‘Flight of the Haitians.’
The exhibition also extends into the museum’s Elizabeth Conklin Museum Shop, where Newport-based artist Sam Heydt has created a special pop-up environment. According to the museum, the installation is intended to blur the boundary between observer and participant, carrying the exhibition’s questions about play beyond the formal gallery setting. Heydt’s participation is presented separately from the exhibition’s group of contemporary artists listed in the museum’s main description.
Founded in 1912, the Newport Art Museum describes itself as one of the oldest continuously operating art museums and schools of its kind in the United States. Its collection comprises approximately 3,000 works across painting, sculpture, decorative arts, installation, textiles, photography and works on paper, with holdings concentrated in American and contemporary art from the 18th century to the present. ‘Play / Pretend’ remains on view at the Griswold House through January 31, 2027.
