Petah Coyne: How Much a Heart Can Hold

The Lowe Art Museum presents Petah Coyne: How Much a Heart Can Hold, a sweeping exhibition that examines the artist’s decades-long exploration of feminine identity, creativity and resilience.

Organized into three thematic sections, Women’s Work, Women’s Relationships and Women Obscured & Transformed, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how Coyne’s work interweaves personal memory with broader cultural histories. Her unconventional use of materials such as wax, silk flowers, taxidermy and steel produces sculptures and installations that are both delicate and monumental, evoking transformation, vulnerability, and strength.

Petah Coyne (b. 1953) is an acclaimed contemporary sculptor whose career spans more than four decades. Known for her richly layered, materially inventive works, Coyne often draws on literature, history, and personal narrative to create environments that are at once intimate and theatrical. Her work is represented in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and she has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally.

Petah Coyne: How Much a Heart Can Hold is organized by the Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Generous support for this exhibition was provided by Stephen and Pamela Hootkin and the Anonymous Fund.