Mathematics and the Art of M.C. Escher

Composite, MoMath’s exciting temporary exhibition gallery, serves as the home to a diverse collection of shows and installations that highlight the breadth of human pursuits that mathematics can illuminate. Visiting Composite is free with general admission or as a MoMath member. * Free entry to Escher exhibit with Museum admission. Thursday, October 1 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm (in person) Be among the first to experience Mathematics and the Art of M.C. Escher, the first major exhibition devoted to revealing the mathematics behind Escher’s extraordinary work. Featuring more than 60 prints, drawings, original woodblocks, and other objects, the exhibition illuminates the symmetry, geometry, infinity, perspective, and spatial logic that make his impossible worlds so endlessly fascinating. Join MoMath for the free opening celebration on Thursday, October 1, from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. Registration is encouraged; walk-ins will be admitted as space permits. The Museum is grateful to Marie-Anne and Sorin Popescu for their generous sponsorship of the opening reception. While the event is full, there are often registrants who do not attend. You are welcome to join the wait list line on site; we will start letting people from the waiting list in at 7:30 pm, space permitting. Explore The Many Worlds of M.C. Escher, a special series of presentations inspired by the exhibition, at momath.org/many-worlds M.C. Escher artwork ©The M.C. Escher Heritage. EscherSite collection. This exhibition is produced by the M.C. Escher Foundation and PANART Connections. The exhibition inaugurates the new space for Composite, the gallery at MoMath, a dedicated venue within the Museum designed to showcase bold, innovative work at the intersection of mathematics, art, and human experience. Michael Schultheis paints and sculpts using math equations as models for stories about human relationships: limaçon curves that have interior and exterior loops are used to represent a person’s interior and exterior, while Venn diagrams demonstrate the way in which humans overlap in their relationships with one another. His work explores the many intersections between mathematics and art. MoMath is grateful to David deWeese for his generous sponsorship of this exhibit. November 2025 to January 2026 In Light Echoes, light, sound, and mathematics intertwine in a shifting play of form and motion. At the heart of the installation, the hidden geometry of higher dimensions is transformed into a living sculpture of color and rhythm. Created by MoMath outreach mathematician Chaim Goodman-Strauss and artist Eugene Sargent, this work draws on the deep symmetries of the four-dimensional sphere to create patterns of light that shimmer, pulse, and respond to the human voice. Visitors were invited to take part. When you speak, hum, or sing, the sculpture stirs and changes. Waves of sound ripple through its structure, unfolding arcs and rings of light that appear and fade in real time. Each transformation reveals a brief, flickering glimpse of structures that lie beyond ordinary space. September 2025 to November 2025 In Infinite Forms, textile artist Anette Millington and origami artist Omer Shalev explore how symmetry, pattern, and reflection take shape. Millington’s quilted and patterned forms build structure through color, texture, and repetition, while Shalev’s intricate folded stars play with light and shadow to reveal shifting geometries from every angle. Together, their work transforms mathematical ideas into visual experiences, inviting visitors to linger, look closely, and see familiar forms in entirely new ways. Anette Millington wishes to acknowledge the contributions of her Student Research Assistants Elizabeth Miller and Jing Pei. Featuring work by Edmund Harriss, Henry Segerman, Steve Trettel, Stepan Paul, Robert Fathauer, Nico Belmonte, and Chaim Goodman-Strauss August 2025 to September 2025 This exhibition brings together seven artists whose work is rooted in the visual language of curved spaces, the geometry of surfaces, and mathematical flow. Warped Realities: The Art of Differential Geometry explores how advanced mathematical concepts of shape and space — often abstract and multidimensional — can take on physical, visual, and tactile form. From paths and loops on surfaces to tessellations, to sculptural surfaces shaped by curvature, the pieces on view reveal unexpected beauty in the structure of space itself. Through this convergence of mathematics and art, the exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the shape of reality. Emergent Surfaces: Studies in Tension opens at Composite on Fifth, the Gallery at MoMath. Marvel at Shiying Dong’s exquisitely crocheted surfaces, which capture a sublime interplay of geometry and fiber, and explore David Press’s precisely woven lines that transform string into dynamic sculptural forms. Both artists illuminate the hidden tensions that shape our world, inviting visitors to discover new perspectives on the in