Ivory and bronze sculptures from the West African Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, are among the continent’s most important and valuable works of art. The detailed workmanship and outstanding aesthetic quality of Benin’s royal sculpture has been compared to the work of the celebrated Renaissance artist, Cellini. Its wealth of iconographic detail conveys the sumptuousness of the royal court and its historical importance as a regional powerhouse in West Africa from the 16th through the 19th centuries.

Through this broad survey of the royal arts and culture of the Kingdom of Benin, the exhibition traces Benin’s history—from its origins to the arrival of Portuguese envoys in the 15th century to the growing wealth of the kingdom from coastal trade. It also looks at themes of kingship, hierarchy, and ritual within Benin’s royal court. In 1897 British forces invaded the Benin kingdom. The exhibition closes by considering the reconfiguration of Benin’s monarchy and its arts following this course-altering event.

The Art Institute’s presentation of Benin—Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria features approximately 220 works of art from collections in Europe, Nigeria, and the United States.

The 40-page catalogue Benin: Royal Arts of a West African Kingdom highlights 22 of the exhibition's masterworks and includes an essay by curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock.

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Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids uses paintings, life-size models, and cultural objects from around the world to shed light on the ways people have been inspired by nature to depict strange and wonderful creatures. From Pliny the Elder who, in 77 C.E., asserted that mermaids were “no fabulous tale,” to today’s sightings of Scotland’s famous yet unsubstantiated Loch Ness Monster.

Mythic Creatures features fossils of prehistoric animals and preserved specimens to investigate and illustrate how they could have—through imagination, speculation and even fear—inspired the development of some legendary creatures.  For instance, Scythian nomads of southeastern Europe may have mistaken dinosaur fossils for the remains of griffins and narwhal tusks from the North Sea likely offered credibility to the belief in the unicorn.

Throughout the exhibition, models of mythical creatures astound and delight. Come face-to-face with a 17-foot-long dragon with a wingspan of over 19 feet; a 10-foot-long unicorn; an 11-foot-long Roc with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet and huge talons sweeping overhead; and a kraken, whose 12-foot-long tentacles appear to rise out of the floor of the exhibition as if surfacing from the sea. The exhibition also includes two life-sized models of real creatures: an over-six-foot tall extinct primate called Gigantopithecus; and the largest bird ever to have lived, the over-nine-foot tall, extinct Aepyornis.

Other highlights include: a “Feejee mermaid,” similar to those made famous by P.T. Barnum, created by sewing the head and torso of a monkey to the tail of a fish; a 120-foot-long Chinese parade dragon, recently used in New York City’s Chinatown at a Lunar New Year performance; a Pegasus carousel sculpture; and an 18th century German apothecary sign featuring a unicorn, with an actual narwhal tusk as its horn.