Sarah Kelly Oehler

Sarah Kelly Oehler, Field-McCormick Chair and Curator, Arts of the Americas, joined the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002. Her recent projects include the 2022 reimagination and reinstallation of the Arts of the Americas galleries and the acquisition and installation of the monumental Hartwell Memorial Window by Tiffany Studios. In 2018, Sarah curated the critically acclaimed Charles White: A Retrospective, the first major retrospective of this influential African American artist in several decades. Other exhibitions include Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945 (2018), Whistler’s Mother: An American Icon Returns to Chicago (2017), America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s (2016), Shatter Rupture Break: The Modern Series I (2015), and They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950 (2013). She has contributed to numerous other exhibitions and publications at the museum, including Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (2020), Ivan Albright Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago (2019), and American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago from World War I to 1955 (2009). She received her PhD in American art from Columbia University and her BA in history from Yale University.
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Multiple Modernisms in the Americas: Old Favorites and New Stories
Four curators share their favorite elements of the newly reimagined galleries and the deeper, richer, more entwined narratives they tell.
Elizabeth McGoey, Andrew James Hamilton, Annelise K. Madsen, and Sarah Kelly Oehler -
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Building an Exhibition with Barbara Kruger: Five Perspectives from Five Collaborators
Staff members from various fields—curatorial, exhibition design, project management, and retail—all share their unique perspectives of bringing Kruger’s vision to the museum’s galleries.
Leticia Pardo, Sarah Kelly Oehler, Courtney Smith, Jason Stec, and Jennifer Evanoff -
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Red Things, Kinds of Light, and the Enduring Warmth of Margo Hoff
Curator Sarah Kelly Oehler draws attention to an American artist who captured the quietly uncanny nature of everyday life.
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Nighthawks as Hope: A Curator Muses on Edward Hopper and Crisis
The artist imagined what it would be like to come across a brightly lit diner in the middle of the night, with people—the “nighthawks”—within.
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American Gothic: A Curator Answers the Top Five FAQs
Curator Sarah Kelly Oehler tackles the most common questions about the iconic painting.
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Redefining American Art: Scraping the Sky in Gallery 271
Our trio of American art curators continues our tour through the reinstalled galleries.
Sarah Kelly Oehler, Elizabeth McGoey, and Annelise K. Madsen -
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Reconfiguring American Art: Gazelles in Gallery 272
There were multiple approaches to experiments leading up to modernism.
Sarah Kelly Oehler, Elizabeth McGoey, and Annelise K. Madsen -
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Rethinking American Art: Swooning in Gallery 273
A gallery reinstallation that has been years in the planning and the subject of countless hours of conversations and thought.
Sarah Kelly Oehler, Elizabeth McGoey, and Annelise K. Madsen