duPont Gallery Archives

New Gallery Exhibitions on Display, through April 27 and June 1

April 10, 2025 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

Two exciting new exhibitions are on display: The 2025 Annual Student Art Exhibition and Self Adjacent, a traveling exhibition about parenthood.

2025 Annual Student Art Exhibition on display now through April 27.

On display in DuPont Gallery April 8 – April 27, the Annual Student Art Exhibition showcases the incredible talent and creativity of UMW students. This year’s guest juror is New York-based painter and writer Jason Stopa, who joined us on campus last month to meet the students and give a talk. Out of 98 submissions, Stopa selected 40 artworks by 30 students. It really is a stunning exhibition of the strengths and skills of our student community.

On view in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery April 8 – June 1, Self Adjacent examines the transforming experience of parenthood by artists as they navigate their many identities alongside and within the field of caregiving. Featuring the diverse viewpoints of twenty artists from across North America, Self Adjacent includes photography, performance, painting, printmaking, video, textile, and sculpture. The exhibition traveled to the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, Massey Klein Gallery in Manhattan, and the Kennedy Museum of Art in Athens, Ohio, before coming to UMW.

Self Adjacent examines the transforming experience of parenthood by artists on display through June 1.

Self Adjacent was curated by Sarah Irvin and Tracy Stonestreet. Artists include: Alberto Aguilar, Robin Assner-Alvey, Christa Donner, Travis Donovan, Meg Foley, Kate Gilmore, LaToya Hobbs, Sarah Irvin, Kevin and Jen Johnson, Carmichael Jones, Courtney Kessel, Chloé Clevenger, Colleen Merrill, Qiana Mestrich, Sarah Sudhoff, Emilia White, William Glaser Wilson, Megan Wynne, and Bohyun Yoon.

Hours & Admission: Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 10am-4pm except on holidays and during student breaks. Admission is always free and tours are available.
Contact Us: If you have any questions, please call (540) 654-1013 or email gallery@umw.edu. Visit us online at www.umwgalleries.org or in person at 1301 College Avenue, Fredericksburg, VA 22401.
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UMW Art Professor Sculpts Student Bonds, Quarter-Century Career

March 12, 2025 by Sarah Mahoney

UMW Professor Emerita of Art Carole Garmon with former students, mostly alumni, who are featured in the art exhibit “The Class” housed in the duPont Gallery through March 23. Photo by Suzanne Rossi.

An oversized aquamarine sculpture crafted using sun hats, silk and wood. Black and white ink drawings on bristol board. An elaborate gown made entirely from pantyhose. This is just a small sampling of the artwork inspired by University of Mary Washington Professor Emerita of Art Carole Garmon by her former students, mostly alumni.

The exhibit, called “The Class: If You’re Asking the Question, You Already Know the Answer,” which runs through March 23, showcases the quarter-century career of Garmon at UMW. Housed in the University’s duPont Gallery, it features the work of 24 artists, most of whom shaped their art beside her in Melchers Hall. An array of sculpture is highlighted, including object, performance, digital and conceptual works.

“This exhibition represents all the students who have spent time in Melchers searching for their voices and learning how to communicate their ideas through visual language,” said Garmon. “It represents those late nights in the studio working through obstacle after obstacle, dancing to music for inspiration and hiding things in the studio for me to find later.”

Garmon, who retired in 2024, will return to the gallery on Thursday, March 13, at 5 p.m. – not to find comedic treasures stashed by students with whom she bonded – but to give a talk reflecting on her time teaching at UMW. She’ll discuss “the most rewarding aspects of mentoring and guiding young artists and tell the stories behind the exhibition,” she said. Read more.

UMW Galleries Highlight Alumni and Faculty Artists Past and Present

January 28, 2020 by jlaiacon

Origins

A retrospective of artwork from Mary Washington alumni and faculty past and present will be featured in one of two exhibitions hosted by the UMW Galleries, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 6. The other will honor the legacy of a former professor who was instrumental in cultivating the University’s art collection.

The exhibits, Origins: UMW Ceramics Faculty and Alumni in the duPont Gallery, and Julien Binford: A Legacy of Inspiration & Enterprise in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery, will open with receptions from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Origins, which will be on display through March 29, showcases the diverse artwork of faculty and alumni from the University of Mary Washington’s ceramics program over the past 50 years. It is also a concurrent exhibition for this year’s National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), to be held in Richmond Virginia in late March.

Julien Binford

By bringing together a variety of expressions, techniques and processes, the exhibition highlights the success of our former students and the strength of our department while illustrating the range and depth of contemporary ceramic art. From sculptural objects and installations to functional pottery, Origins celebrates our community, and reiterates Mary Washington’s identity as an institution grounded in the liberal arts.

Julien Binford, on display through March 15, honors the legacy of former Mary Washington Professor of Art, Julien Binford. The show presents preparatory drawings that Binford created during the 1940s and early 1950s for important commissions he received from LIFE Magazine and The Greenwich Savings Bank. These works were graciously loaned by Maureen Paige (UMW, Class of 1970), a former student of Julien Binford. Also on display are artworks acquired by Binford during his tenure at Mary Washington.

Galleries Showcasing Two Exhibits

September 1, 2014 by Erika Spivey

The University of Mary Washington Galleries is hosting its inaugural Melchers Gray Purchase Award Showcase, the first time the collection has been shown together since the founding of the Purchase Award in 1995. The exhibit is one of two shows that opened Thursday, September 4, at UMW Galleries, including “The [Visual] Poetry of Logical Ideas” at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery.

Click to view slideshow.

The exhibitions will run through Sunday, Oct. 5. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Purchase Award Showcase features the work of students who have won the Melchers Gray Award, a recognition presented to one student each year during the Annual Student Art Exhibition. The award-winning work becomes part of the university’s permanent collection. This exhibition will feature more than 20 works including sculptures, painting, prints, photographs, mixed media and digital media pieces.

“The [Visual] Poetry of Logical Ideas”explores the relationship between rationality and beauty- between the perfection of a conceptual form and the visual pleasure it manifests. This gallery also will exhibit the “Arthur Hash: Wearable Objects.” Hash’s recent works utilize digital fabrication technologies, such as 3-D printing, which will be on display.

Ridderhof Martin and duPont galleries are located on the Fredericksburg Campus near the intersection of College Avenue and Thornton Street. They are open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (540) 654-1013 or visit http://www.umwgalleries.org/.

UMW Galleries to Feature Large Scale Drawings Exhibition

October 24, 2011 by Brynn Boyer

Join the UMW Galleries this Thursday for our exhibition SUPER-SIZED: Large Scale Drawings in the duPont Gallery, located inside duPont Hall. The exhibition will feature works of art by seven different artists, including Patricia Bellan-Gillen, Joshua Bienko, Pat Bretano, Karen Brummund, Ray DiCapua, Dennis Jones and Ben Tolman. The free opening reception will be held from 5 – 7 p.m. in the duPont Gallery. Light refreshments will be provided.

The exhibition is intended to explore ways in which artists involved in the drawing medium employ scale in their process of creating works of art and how that use of scale affects the impact of the work. The drawings in this exhibition vary greatly in the artists’ choices of materials and methods, which range from graphite, ink or charcoal to the blade of a knife. Some of the artists combine drawing with other media, such as acrylic and oil or digital printing. Some of the work is site-specific; some incorporates text. Each speaks from a unique perspective.

Free street parking is available near the duPont Gallery on College Avenue. The exhibition will be on display in duPont Gallery until December 2, 2011. Please call us at (540) 654-1013 with any questions.