Through Their Eyes: Selections from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection

On January 26, the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis, unveils the first US presentation of Italy’s renowned Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, and the first solo museum exhibition of artist Ruby Neri, 2025. Through Their Eyes: Selections from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection focuses on international and intergenerational perspectives of women artists working in a variety of media, and Ruby Neri: Taking the Deep Dive presents new figurative ceramics of female nudes. 

“We are honored that Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has chosen our university museum as the venue for the US premiere of her collection,” said Manetti Shrem Founding Director Rachel Teagle. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity to showcase diverse, groundbreaking work and build upon the museum’s track record of featuring women artists at significant moments in their careers. Closer to home, showing Ruby Neri’s large-scale ceramic work at UC Davis represents both a literal and artistic homecoming for an artist whose work resonates deeply with Northern California’s artistic legacies.” 

Through Their Eyes: Selections from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection
January 26–June 22, 2025
Curator: Susie Kantor

This exhibition brings together more than 60 works of painting, photography, sculpture and video by some of the most prominent artists in the art world today, as well as rising new voices. From iconic images—photographer Nan Goldin’s Joey on my roof, NYC (1991) or Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Not ugly enough) (1997)—to newer imaginaries—Canadian painter Ambera Wellmann To a Girl in a Garden (2023) or American artist Danielle Mckinney’s She (2023)—the exhibition offers the chance to experience world-class art. Each touches on the construction of identity, particularly through the lenses of gender and sexuality, using different methods—including humor, exaggeration, shifting scale and the language of advertising—to investigate stereotypes and expectations.

The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection is one of the most important private collections of contemporary art in Europe. It comprises over 2,000 artworks by both emerging young artists and artists of international renown which have been displayed in museums throughout Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Poland and the United Kingdom. Its first US presentation is intentionally at a university museum, reflecting the educational focus of the collection and the not-for-profit Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

Ruby Neri: Taking the Deep Dive
January 26–May 5, 2025
Curator: Ginny Duncan

Taking the Deep Dive is the first solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work. Neri sculpts brightly colored personal motifs and uninhibited female nudes, playing with familiar forms and monumental scale to challenge our expectations. At a time when women’s rights and bodily autonomy are under fire, Neri brings power and agency to the female body. Her figures are a reflection of her own experiences of womanhood and motherhood, and a mirror for broader issues around gender and sexuality. While Neri is an established voice in contemporary ceramics and the LA art scene, her roots are in the Bay Area. The daughter of sculptor and UC Davis professor Manuel Neri, she draws inspiration from the boundary-pushing work of Northern California artists of the 1960s and ’70s. This exhibition at UC Davis is the first to recognize a career that spans decades and is deeply grounded in California. 

About the Manetti Shrem Museum
The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis, is a contemporary art museum and cultural resource dedicated to making art accessible and approachable to all. It builds on UC Davis’ legacy of exceptional teaching and practice of the arts to offer engaging experiences, exhibitions and educational programs that reflect and serve the community, now and for generations to come. The museum is Free for All.

Media contact: Laura Compton, llcompton [​at​] ucdavis.edu.