August 26th - December 14th, 2025
In scores of her assemblages and installations, Connecticut-based artist Maureen McCabe has returned to the intertwined themes of fate and magic over a career that spans six decades. Her playful yet carefully composed artworks weave imagery from ancient and contemporary cultures, together with aspects of folklore, literature, spiritualism, and myth. She creates poetic images charged with humor and wit, inspired by the world around her and fascinated by its mysteries. Game boards, tarot cards, dice, birds, fortune tellers, and constellations populate her works, which prompt age-old questions about control over our fates and the power to shape our destinies.
This exhibition presents rarely seen works from the artist’s studio and private collections alongside the objects that have inspired her. The show highlights McCabe’s collection of original magic paraphernalia, such as rapping hands, magic numbers, cups and balls, Ouija boards, and posters. She has an abiding interest in the history of magic, and often draws themes from past luminaries like the mentalist Alexander “The Man Who Knows,” the female illusionist “Ionia,” and the fortune teller Mademoiselle Lenormand. Much of McCabe’s art has the same sense of wonder, awe, and sleight of hand found in a magician’s performance.
Fate and Magic: The Art of Maureen McCabe is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an essay by Amanda A. Douberley, Ph.D., Curator & Academic Liaison at the William Benton Museum of Art.