Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold

Upcoming: Spring 2026

Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold marks the museum debut of several new works by sculptor Petah Coyne and is both a multi-decade exploration of her career and an ode to women’s complexity and creativity. 

In her complex, detailed, fantastical sculpture Coyne often celebrates under-recognized female authors and Eastern literary figures. Her works rise from the writers and characters; dissect their complex stories; and examine how relationships, social constructs and self-image can shape how women—real and fictional—experience and navigate the world. The exhibition features sprawling sculptural works made of cloth, hair, scrap metal, wax, silk flowers, and other unorthodox materials. Visitors will also see The Real Guerrillas: The Early Years. The project is an ongoing collaboration with artist Kathy Grove to photograph the Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous artist activist group that formed in New York in 1985, to expose gender and ethnic bias in art and culture.

The exhibition’s three sections—“Women’s Work,” “Women Obscured and Transformed” and “Women’s Relationships”—present a broad view of Petah Coyne’s artistic practice while honoring the literature and the literary figures she loves. A line by Zelda Fitzgerald inspired the exhibition title. “Nobody has ever measured, even the poets, how much a heart can hold,” the American writer, dancer, and painter wrote in an unpublished manuscript.



Petah Coyne: How Much the Heart Can Hold
is organized by the Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The exhibition was made possible in part by support from The Anonymous Fund and the Joen Greenwood Fund. Additional generous support for the catalogue comes from Stephen and Pamela Hootkin.

ArtsWestchester Generous support for the Neuberger Museum of Art’s presentation of Petah Coyne: How Much the Heart Can Hold  has been provided by ArtsWestchester with funding made possible by Westchester County government with the support of County Executive George Latimer. Additional support is provided by the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art.

Read about the show in this article from Colossal