March 28, 2024

UMW Art Collection Now Online

The UMW Galleries are pleased to announce that the permanent art collection is now accessible online. Simply go to our homepage at umwgalleries.org and click on the menu tab that reads “permanent collection” or follow this link http://umwgalleries.pastperfectonline.com/

There are more than 6,000 objects in the UMW Galleries’ museum collection and for the first time, they are available through this online platform. Publishing the collection online allows our students — especially those studying art, art history, and museum studies — an invaluable resource in their work. Not only does this tool enrich the UMW community, but it is also an important resource for scholars, researchers, and institutions seeking information about the artists and works in our collection.

Gallery staff will continue to make improvements to the site and the information available in the upcoming months. Specifically, UMW Gallery staff and interns are continually improving the images available by scanning works on paper in collaboration with the UMW Libraries Digital Archiving Lab.

Feel free to read a short history of the UMW Galleries on the collection home page and browse using the Random Images tab! Assistant Curator and Exhibitions Coordinator, Rachel Hutcheson, oversaw the project and will be managing the content updates.

Confluence by Assistant Professor Jon McMillan in duPont Gallery

Confluence, on view Sept. 1- Oct. 9, 2016, in DuPont Gallery

Confluence features new ceramic work by UMW Assistant Professor Jon McMillan. The sculptures in this series address the concept of duality by bringing together disparate parts in a variety of relationships. The idea of confluence informs the work through the physical reference to processes and materials, and through a metaphorical examination of diverging thoughts, traits, sources and forms. As the meeting point of two rivers, a confluence is often the place where clay collects over millions of years of erosion. By using this material to join seemingly disconnected objects and ideas, McMillan hopes to engage viewers, drawing them into a dialogue that pulls from universal inferences as well as deeply personal reactions.

About the Artist

Jon McMillan is an artist and educator residing in Fredericksburg, Va., where he is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Mary Washington. He holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and a BFA from James Madison University, where he also earned a minor in Art History. After undergraduate school, Jon worked for seven years as a full-time studio potter before pursuing his master’s degree. Currently, he makes functional and sculptural ceramic artwork, both of which are exhibited widely. Highlights include recent solo shows at Tennessee Tech University, Mary Baldwin College, and Luniverre Gallery in Cordes Sur Ciel, France. Jon was a finalist for the Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics and was awarded “Best In Show” at the 2013 Strictly Functional Pottery National Exhibition, among other honors.

Programming

Opening Reception: Sept. 1, 5-7 p.m.

duPont Gallery

Artist’s Talk by Jon McMillan: Sept. 15, 4 p.m.

duPont Gallery

New Exhibition at the UMW Galleries from Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The French Horse from Romanticism to Surrealism: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Ridderhof Martin Gallery, Sept. 1- Oct. 9, 2016

The French Horse from Romanticism to Surrealism: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is on view from Sept. 1-Oct. 9 in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery. The horse was omnipresent in 19th-century France. Not only did humans awake and doze off to the clatter of their hooves in the streets and the sounds of their snorts, whinnies, and neighs, avoid their dung as they walked, and smelled their horse-sweat, but they saw them portrayed in every manner and style by all types of artists. The exhibition explores this subject in detail, with major artworks in painting, sculpture, and on paper by artists including Eugène Delacroix, Theodore Géricault, André Derain, Edgar Degas, and others, with every major movement in French art from Romanticism to Surrealism represented. Featuring more than 40 works, the exhibition draws from the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts including the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.

About the exhibition

The exhibition is the outcome of an innovative course team-taught during the fall semester by Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, VMFA; Jeffrey Allison, Paul Mellon Educator and Manager of VMFA Statewide Programs and Exhibitions; and Richard Waller, Executive Director, University of Richmond Museums; with course assistant Kristie Couser, Curatorial Assistant for the Mellon Collection, VMFA. The students participating in the intercollegiate seminar include: Alisa Ashley Carmichael, ’17, art history and studio art double major, Randolph-Macon College; Samantha Davis, ’16, art history and studio art double major, Randolph-Macon College; Emmett Fleming, ’16, studio art major, Virginia Commonwealth University; Alyssa M. Hughes, ’15, art history and German double major, University of Mary Washington; Jenny Kacani. ’17, art history major, University of Richmond; Dylan Maddox, ’16, art history major, Virginia Commonwealth University; Claire McDonald, ’16, art history and Italian studies double major, University of Richmond; Moriah Webster, ’15, art history major, Randolph-Macon College; and Amy Mei Woo, ’16, art history major, The University of Virginia.

According to Dr. Mitchell Merling of the VMFA, “It was a pure pleasure bringing the art and the students together, and we hope the public takes equal enjoyment in the resulting exhibition, which contains both great works by well-known masters as well as hidden gems by lesser-known but equally able artists, all on this central theme of the horse.”

The exhibition was produced as a collaboration between the University of Richmond Museums and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. It is partly funded by the Paul Mellon Endowment at the VMFA and is produced by the VMFA Statewide Traveling Exhibition Services.

Exhibition Programming

Opening Reception: September 1, 5-7 p.m. in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery

Lecture by Dr. Mitchell Merling

September 27, 7 p.m.

Trinkle Hall

Culturespots Audio Guide: Select exhibition labels have been recorded in an innovative audio guide using Culturespots and smartphone technology. We hope that the new audio guide will encourage a greater understanding of the exhibit for our many audiences.

Group tours are available upon request- simply contact Assistant Curator and Exhibition Coordinator, Rachel Hutcheson at rhutches@umw.edu to schedule a tour at least 1-2 weeks in advance of your visit.

UMW Galleries Present Annual Student Art Exhibition

The University of Mary Washington Galleries is proud to announce the Annual Student Art Exhibition in the duPont Gallery. Of the many entries, only 28 artworks were selected for the show. We are proud to announce two recipients of the prestigious Melchers Gray Purchase Award: Michael Evart’s Horsehair Pot and Kacie Waters-Heflin’s Pas de Basque will be purchased for the UMW Galleries’ permanent collection.

Participating artists: Morgan Wallace, Kacie Waters-Heflin, Lily Radolinski, Evelyn Savaria, Lauren Rauch, Rachel Harkrader, Jade Brooks, Lillian Schloeder, Dominique Giles, Michelle Pierson, Hannah Morgan, Michael Evart, Dave Hansen, Maddox Palmer, Hannah McConaughy, Taylor White, Eliza Nolen, Laura Bufano, Megan Crockett, May Shorten Townley, Noah Enders, Courtney Greathouse and Christina Beckham.

The exhibition was guest juried by Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder, artists whose work explores the relationship between avant-garde film practice and the incorporation of moving images and time-based media into the museum and art gallery. The artists have exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, Anthology Film Archives, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Fesival and Tate Modern, among others.

The Annual Student Art Exhibition is on view through April 29, 2016.

UMW Galleries Present Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment

The University of Mary Washington Galleries is proud to host the first exclusively video exhibition at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery. Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment features five groundbreaking moving image artworks from the 1980s by internationally renowned artists.

The exhibition explores feminist videos and films of the 1980s, taking its title and framework from artist and theorist Martha Rosler’s influential essay, “Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment” (1985-86)[1] . Rosler’s essay, first delivered as a talk in 1984, proposes that the utopian moment is at the birth of video art in the late 1960s. Apart from the apocryphal beginnings of video, however, the breadth of this artform and subsequent video art is paid little attention in standard art histories. Focusing on artworks by Cecelia Condit, Ximena Cuevas, Mona Hatoum, Maxi Cohen, Ericka Beckman and Mike Kelley, Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment seeks to counter the prevailing histories of video and art with the diverse experiences and formal languages employed by these artists.

The videos included in this exhibition are within a postmodernist discourse at odds with the critical or explicitly formal modes of the previous generation. The works largely center on specific events or narratives drawn from daily life and individual subjectivity, such as Maxi Cohen’s Anger, giving a voice to those marginalized by society through direct address to the camera. Mona Hatoum’s Measures of Distance centers on the artist’s relationship with her mother as they are divided by war. Cecelia Condit also uses contemporary events and her own experiences with violence against women to create Beneath the Skin. Antes de la Televisión by Ximena Cuevas as well as Mike Kelley and Ericka Beckman’s Blind Country feature humor, play and absurdity. As such, the videos offered in this exhibition provide an alternative to both modernist formalism as well as a male-dominated canon, which so often go hand in hand.

The exhibition will also feature a special screening on Wednesday, April 20 from 7-8:30 with two additional media artworks, Damnation of Faust Trilogy (video, 1983-1987) by Dara Birnbaum and Mayhem (film, 1987) by Abigail Child.

Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment is on view in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery through April 29.

Rachel Hutcheson, Assistant Curator & Exhibition Coordinator

[1] Martha Rosler, “Video Shedding the Utopian Moment,” was originally delivered as a talk, “Shedding the Utopian Moment: The Museumization of Video,” at the conference “Vidéo ‘84” (Université de Québec à Montréal).

UMW Hosts Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition

For the first time, the artwork of ceramics faculty from nearly every college and university in Virginia will be brought together for one exhibition at the University of Mary Washington. This show represents the broad diversity of contemporary ceramics, with excellent makers working in many facets of the medium, from object sculpture and figurative work to functional vessels. The variety of forming methods, firing ranges and conceptual approaches represented highlight the incredible potential of clay while revealing the talent and skill of professors across the state. On show at duPont Gallery from October 29 – December 6, 2015. Opening Reception: Thursday, October 29, 5-7 p.m.

UMW Galleries Present “Contemporary Craft”

The UMW Galleries are pleased to present “Contemporary Craft.” This exhibition aims to share with the viewer artworks that utilize traditional materials in new ways, yet maintain the hand and craftsmanship of the artist. The works presented represent classic mediums of craft: clay, glass, metal, paper, textile, and wood. On Show from October 29 – December 6, 2015. Opening Reception Thursday, October 29, 5-7 p.m.

UMW Galleries Present New Exhibitions

The UMW Galleries will host two exhibitions to kick off the Fall 2015 semester. The Ridderhof Martin Gallery features “Breath That Fades Away,” an exhibition of new work by Joseph DiBella, Distinguished Professor of Art. In duPont Gallery, artist Jarod Charzweski has created an installation entitled, “Rat’s Nest,” constructed from donations of cable and wires made over the summer.

About the artists:

Joseph DiBella has served as chair of the Department of Art and Art History from 1990 to 1993 and 1996 to 1999 and Director of University Galleries from 1983 to 1988. Instrumental in the establishment of the gallery program and Ridderhof Martin Gallery at Mary Washington, he was Director of University Galleries from 1983 to 1988 and Interim Director in 1989 and 1997-98. From 1994 to 2003 he was co-director of the University’s program in Urbino, Italy. He has a BA in art history from Rutgers and MA and MFA degrees in painting from Northern Illinois University. A signature member of the National Watercolor Society and affiliated with other professional art organizations, he has exhibited in regional, national and international venues. The UMW Galleries are honored to exhibit his work.

Jarod Charzewski’s large scale installations are created from collections of everyday items from the community. The accumulations have included varied materials, such as buoys and denim jeans, and now cables. These installations make evident the desire and pleasure we have in collection that then manifests into compulsion. Charzewski holds a BFA in sculpture from the University of Manitoba, Winnepeg, Canada, an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Minnesota. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

UMW Galleries to Host Two New Exhibitions

Quanta, by David Row, 2012.

Quanta, by David Row, 2012

The University of Mary Washington Galleries will exhibit American Abstract Artists: 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery and Antediluvian by Mia Feuer in duPont Gallery. Both exhibitions open on Thursday, Oct. 23 with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Admission to the receptions and exhibitions are free and open to the public. The exhibitions will run from Oct. 23 to Dec. 7.

American Abstract Artists: 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio is an exhibition of 48 archival digital prints. Founded in 1936, the American Abstract Artists held its first show the next year at the Squibb Gallery in New York City. The organization fosters the understanding of abstract and non-objective art by organizing exhibitions, producing print portfolios and catalogs as well as providing a forum for discussion through symposia, panels, and the American Abstract Artists Journal. For the first time in its long history the AAA portfolio was printed digitally rather than using traditional forms of lithography or transferring image to plate, thereby engaging the rapidly changing technological field of the twenty-first century.

duPont Gallery will exhibit Antediluvian, an installation by Canadian artist, Mia Feuer (b. 1981). Feuer’s latest project was to be a temporary public sculpture located near Heritage Island in Washington, D.C. created as part of the 5×5 Public Art Festival, a large temporary public arts. Feuer’s envisioned project was a solar powered gas station that would have floated in the surrounding Anacostia River. However, the proposal was abruptly cancelled by community protestors due to environmental concerns.

The duPont Gallery will display the preliminary materials that went into this major project- drawings, maquettes, projections and recorded lectures on environmental issues held at the location of the original project in order to initiate a dialog about public art, questioning what an artwork’s commitment is to the public, the site, and to the artist. Mia Feuer will give a lecture at the closing ceremony of the exhibition.

NEW ART21 Episodes Screening at UMW Galleries

UMW galleries to host exclusive event featuring an advance screening of investigation from season seven of ART21’s Peabody award-winning documentary series “Art in the 21st Century”

ART21 Access ’14 is an international free screening initiative created to increase knowledge of contemporary art, spark dialogue and inspire creative thinking through hundreds of public screenings and events. Season seven premieres on PBS Oct. 24 at 10 p.m. EST (check local listings). Season seven profiles 12 artists who reveal how art can inspire and transform lives and communities.

ART21 Art in the Twenty0First Century, Season 7. ARTWORK:  Katharina Grosse. One Floor Up Highly, 2010. Soil, wood, acrylic, styrofoam, clothing, acrylic on glass fiber and reinforced plastic; 780 x 1680 x 8260 cm.

ART21 Art in the 21st Century, Season 7. ARTWORK: Katharina Grosse. One Floor Up Highly, 2010. Soil, wood, acrylic, styrofoam, clothing, acrylic on glass fiber and reinforced plastic; 780 x 1680 x 8260 cm.

“ART21 Access ’14 provides an opportunity for organizations around the country and the world to experience contemporary art,” says Susan Sollins, executive producer of ART21. “We hope that participating organizations find ways to utilize ART21 materials in their communities and that audiences take full advantage of the events in their area. These events are intended to spark new, innovative conversations and expose viewers of all types to the important work of the artists profiled in the series.”

ART21 Access ’14 events are presented in partnership with Americans for the Arts, the YMCA, and the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture. An updated list of ART21 Access ’14 events and venues worldwide can be found at art21.org/access.

Screening events are hosted by museums, schools, libraries, art spaces, community centers, and universities worldwide. Each event features an exclusive advance screening of one to four episodes from season seven.

The following episode(s) will be screened in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery on Oct. 9, 7-8 p.m.: Investigation

Episode 1: Investigation
PBS premiere on Friday, Oct. 24 at 10 p.m. ET

How do artists push beyond what they already know and readily see? Can acts of engagement and exploration be works of art in themselves? In this episode, artists use their practices as tools for personal and intellectual discovery, simultaneously documenting and producing new realities in the process.

Season seven of “Art in the 21st Century” will be available on DVD from ShopPBS.org or 800-PLAY-PBS, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For more information and images: art21.org/press

About UMW Galleries

The University of Mary Washington Galleries, comprised of the Ridderhof Martin Gallery and the duPont Gallery, are dedicated to advancing the educational goals of the University through the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art. The Galleries promote arts education on campus and in the local community.