Exhibition
Rising Up
Rocky and the Making of Monuments
When
Opens April 25
Where
Main Building, Dorrance Galleries
About
In a moment of reckoning and reimagining for monuments, why do millions of people from around the world visit the Rocky statue by the steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum?
The exhibition Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments will respond to this central question while exploring the creation, context, and communities that orbit around Philadelphia’s iconic Rocky statue. Timed to align with the 50th anniversary of the Rocky film franchise, the exhibition will examine why societies often root for the “underdog,” a figure in our collective imagination.
Organized by guest curator Paul Farber, Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab and host of the acclaimed podcast The Statue from NPR/WHYY, Rising Up will offer an art history of the Rocky statue, unpacking how this movie prop ultimately turned into a public art piece and site of global pilgrimage. The exhibition will showcase over 150 works by more than 50 artists and artifacts spanning more than 2,000 years in an investigation of the changing role of monuments across time. Blending the worlds of art, sports, and popular culture, Rising Up takes on the life of monuments by exploring the profound meanings and mythologies of the Rocky statue.
Curators
Guest Curator: Paul Farber, Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab, with Caro Campos, Assistant Curator, Monument Lab, and Joslyn Moore, Exhibition Assistant, Philadelphia Art Museum
Louis Marchesano, Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and Conservation
Support
Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments is made possible by Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions, The Robert Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions, and Laura and William C. Buck Endowment for Exhibitions.
Sponsored by:
All exhibitions at the Philadelphia Art Museum are underwritten by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Generous support is provided by Andrea Baldeck, M.D.; Julia and David Fleischner; Robert Hayes; and Mark W. Strong and Dana Strong.
Photographer Gene Smirnov.
About the Guest Curator
As Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab, Paul Farber is among the nation's thought leaders on monuments, memory, and public space. Farber is author and co-editor of several publications including Monument Lab: Creative Speculations on Philadelphia (2019), A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall (2020), and the National Monument Audit (2021). Farber’s previous curatorial and collaborative work includes Beyond Granite: Pulling Together with Salamishah Tillet, the first curated multi-artist public art exhibition on the National Mall in Washington D.C. (2023), and Declaration House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park (2024) with Anna Arabindan-Kesson and Yolanda Wisher. Farber is the host and creator of The Statue, a podcast series from WHYY/NPR which was recognized as a Webby Honoree in Best Podcasts in the Arts & Culture. Farber was born and raised in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy neighborhood. He holds a PhD from the University of Michigan in American Culture and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Urban Studies. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York, NY), Board of Directors of A Long Walk Home (Chicago, IL), and Advisory Board of the Humboldt Forum (Berlin, Germany).
Image Gallery
Blue Horizon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 1990, 1990, Larry Fink, (American, 1941 – 2023), Photograph © Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Neck Amphora, 510-490 BCE, Artist/maker unknown. Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. Photo: Penn Museum Photographic Archives.
Philadelphia Museum of Art from Museums series, 2006-present, Carrie Mae Weems, Digital c-print. © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone, New York, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin.
Portrait of a Macho Camacho, 1985, Keith Haring (American, 1958 – 1990). Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation.
Royce Jarvey, 2024, Maria Hupfield (Canadian (Wasauksing First Nation), born 1975), archival pigment print. Courtesy of Patel Brown and the artist © 2026 Maria Hupfield.
Self Portrait laying on Jack Johnson’s Grave, 2006, Rashid Johnson (American, born 1977), Durst lambda print mounted on panel. Courtesy of Cosmic Studios © 2026 Rashid Johnson.
Skin Tight (Ice Cube’s Eyes), 1995, Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960), Black pigment on natural canvas. The Fabric Workshop and Museum Bequest of Marion Boulton Stroud © 2026 Glenn Ligon.
Smokin Joe Frazier at weigh-in at the Philippine Coliseum, 1975, Leroy Neiman (American painter and printmaker, 1927-2012). © 2026 LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation.
Solidarity, 2023, Hank Willis Thomas, patina bronze, Pace Gallery, Los Angeles. Courtesy of Goodman Gallery and Hank Willis Thomas.
A. Thomas Schomberg at work, 1980. Photo courtesy of Schomberg Studios.