2017

Living in Frames: Gendered Spaces

October 19 – December 17, 2017

Opening Reception – Thursday, October 19, 2017,  4:30-6:30 pm.
Cash bar, hors d’oeuvres, & live music by “Souls of Zion” playing original and cover Roots Reggae 

Remarks by Françoise Dussart at 5:30

Gender and space are the central concepts of this exhibition. Gendered identities are confined to public or intimate spaces and monitored through palpable gazing techniques.  The culture of the gaze seems invisible and natural, at times, making us complacent about how inequalities are created. It is important to pay attention to the ways in which spaces are embodied and how boundaries can be created by the movement of conforming or defiant actors.

The representations of such movements captured in paintings and photographs force us to ask the following types of questions:

Who is looking?
Who is being looked at?
What social positions are framed in these artworks?
What is visible and what is invisible?
How do these positions change the spaces?
How do such frames reinforce stereotypes?

This exhibition was curated by students enrolled in Anthropological Perspectives on Art taught by Professor Françoise Dussart (Spring 2017).

The student co-curators are: Stephanie Abadom; David Attolino; Sarah Castleberry; Hannah Einsiedel; Alexa Every; Jocelyn Hernandez; Esther Kang; David Lagace; Kevin Mendoza; Conor Merchant; Hayden Miller; Beth Park; Bruno Perosino; Catherine Ramirez Mejla; Lily Shih; Mackenzie Tarczali; Abdul Vanadze; and Daphnée Yiannaki.

The William Benton Museum of Art is proud to collaborate with students and faculty to provide engaging learning experiences.

Felicia Meyer Marsh, Interior, n/d, Oil on Masonite

Felicia Meyer Marsh, Interior, n/d, Oil on Masonite, William Benton Museum of Art, 1978.8.10

Nicholas Vasilieff, Woman With White Dog, c 1946, Oil on canvas

Nicholas Vasilieff, Woman With White Dog, c 1946, Oil on canvas, William Benton Museum of Art, 1979.10

Henry Mosler, Spring, 1909, Oil on Shaped canvas, Henry Mosler, Summer, 1909, Oil on Shaped canvas, Henry Mosler, Winter, 1909, Oil on Shaped canvas

Henry Mosler, Spring, 1909, Oil on Shaped canvas, William Benton Museum of Art, 1991.10.3a
Henry Mosler, Summer, 1909, Oil on Shaped canvas, William Benton Museum of Art, 1991.10.3b
Henry Mosler, Winter, 1909, Oil on Shaped canvas, William Benton Museum of Art, 1991.10.3c

 

Image

KK Kozik, Dress Up, 2000, Oil on Linen, William Benton Museum of Art, 2003.22

 

Unfiltered: An Exhibition About Water

August 31December 17, 2017

Opening Reception – Thursday, August 31, 2017,  4:30-7:00 pm.

Unfiltered explores water as a universal concern and which touches specifically on the themes of: the power of water and the changing landscape; water pollution and biology; water scarcity; climate change; the physical properties of water; and the Connecticut River. The exhibition attempts to place on view works of art which provide visual launching points for discussions about these important water-based issues.

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with the departments of Natural Resources and the Environment; Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Marine Sciences; Institute of Water Resources; as well as the CLEAR, CT Sea Grant, and CT NEMO Programs at the University of Connecticut, Storrs

The following artists are included in this exhibition: contemporary artists Diana Barker Price; Will Sillin; Leif Nilsson; Stacy Levy; Ravi Agarwal; Vibha Galhotra; Kate Cordsen; Susan Hoffman Fishman; Jamie Murphy; Rani Jha, Atul Bhalla, and Michael Singer as well as nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artists: Lionel Feininger; Frederick Judd Waugh; Reginald Marsh; Arthur B. Davies; Gerrit Hondius; Martin Johnson Heade; Fairfield Porter; Maurice Prendergast; Henry Ward Ranger; and Robert Motherwell.

A portion of this exhibition will travel to the University of Connecticut regional campuses in Avery Point, Groton, and UConn Stamford.

See what the Hartford Courant says about the exhibition.

Related Event:  Upstream/Downstream – New Delhi conceptual artist Vibha Galhotra talks about her work.

Diana Barker Price, "Ornament"

Diana Barker Price, “Ornament,” photograph, 12×21”, 2017. Courtesy of the artist

Susan Hoffman Fishman, "Water Wars #2"

Susan Hoffman Fishman, “Water Wars #2,” 24 x 48″ mixed media. Courtesy of the artist

 

Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy

August 31October 15, 2017

Opening Reception – Thursday, August 31, 2017,  4:30-7:00 pm.
FREE & Open to the Public.
Professor Dancy will give a Gallery Talk about her work at 4:30pm.

A retrospective exhibition.  Recently retired from the University, Deborah Dancy was on the faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Connecticut since 1981.  Deborah Dancy is a painter whose abstract work describes odd invented spaces and stacked structures. Subtle tonalities and fragmented lines become descriptive markers in work that suggests familiar yet ambiguous spaces. Dancy works in a variety of mediums, large-scale oil paintings, mixed media on paper, printmaking and artists’ books. She has received a number of significant honors and awards, including: a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Connecticut Commission of the Arts Artist Grant, New England Foundation for the Arts/NEA Individual Artist Grant, Nexus Press Artist Book Project Award, Visual Studies Artist Book Project Residency Grant, The American Antiquarian Society’s William Randolph Hearst Fellowship, YADDO Fellow, and Women’s Studio Workshop Residency Grants and a Connecticut Book Award Illustration Nominee for her mixed media work in the book, The Freedom Business.

She has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries and her work is represented by Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, and N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami.

For more information about Deborah, visit http://www.deborahdancy.com.
The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center has shared a 1986 interview with Deborah Dancy from their collection:
The Black Experience in the Arts Collection

Deborah Dancy, “Libby”
Deborah Dancy, “Libby” painting, 72” x 120”, 1998, courtesy of the artist

Liz Whitney Quisgard: An Installation

March 23 – July 30, 2017

Liz Whitney Quisgard was one of the few women artists represented by eminent gallerist Andre Emmerich in NYC in the 1960s.  Her career spans six decades and the work in this installation features an environment of patterned textiles and sculpture created in the last two decades.

The exhibition’s opening reception, featuring our three exhibits coinciding with Women’s History Month, is on Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 4:30-6:30pm.  Murderous Chanteuse will perform at the reception. Free to the public.

Exhibition on view March 23 through July 30, 2017. (Please note the Museum will be closed April 8-9, April 15-16, and May 8-15, 2017, as well as Mondays and holidays.)

Objectifying Myself: Works by Women Artists from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

March 23 – July 30, 2017

Objectifying Myself explores work by women artists, created between 1968-2005, which serve, to some degree, as self portraits.  But these “self portraits” employ surrogate objects rather than depictions of the artists’ faces or bodies. Artists in the exhibition include Judy Chicago, Louise Bourgeois, Miriam Schapiro, June Wayne, Louise Nevelson, and Kiki Smith. These works are on loan from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA) which was founded in 1805 by painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other Colonial artists and business leaders. We thank PAFA, and especially David Brigham, Executive Director of PAFA and University of Connecticut alumus, for their generosity in collaboration.

Art by Alice Oh, Phases of Conception W.P.I.
Alice Oh, (b. 1967)
“Phases of Conception W.P.I.”, 2000
Gouache, acrylic & graphite on Rives B.F.K. paper
Art by Women Collection, Gift of Linda Lee Alter, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.
© 2000 Alice Oh
Art by Alice Oh, entitled Phases of Conception
Alice Oh, (b. 1967)
“Phases of Conception W.P.III.”, 2000. Gouache, acrylic & graphite on Rives B.F.K. paper
Art by Women Collection, Gift of Linda Lee Alter, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.
© 2000 Alice Oh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work It: Women Artists, Ellen Emmet Rand, and the Business of Seeing

March 23 – July 30, 2017  (closed May 8 – 15)

Work It features paintings by Ellen Emmet Rand and other women artists in the first half of the 20th century—how they fought for opportunities, paid their bills, and found ways to have their art and creativity seen and taken seriously. Featuring several works by Ellen Emmet Rand, as well as pieces by Dorothea Lange, Violet Oakley, Mary Foote, Eudora Welty, Lois Mailou Jones, and Imogen Cunningham, “Work It” features the diversity of styles and subjects that helped women achieve both recognition and security as working artists.

Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941) was arguably one of the most important and prolific American portrait painters of her time but likely you have not heard her name before. This is in spite of the fact that during her career, she painted portraits of famed author Henry James, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and over 800 other notables. Her early career was meteoric: she studied with William Merritt Chase; by eighteen she was a regular illustrator for Vogue; at twenty she was encouraged by John Singer Sargent and Stanford White to study in Paris. She returned to the US in 1901 and set about painting the most famous and important people who could afford her fees. Moving between diverse patrons—from state governors to opera singers—Rand carefully balanced changing social mores and fashions with her clients’ need to project authority, intelligence, and beauty through their portraits. For Rand, as with the other artists in this show, portraits, illustrations, advertising and fashion imagery paid the bills and supported families. Yet this work also, simultaneously, suggested that these women were not “real” artists, and instead only worked for money, not love or creative commitment. This exhibition looks to confront the complexity of the careers of women artists who had to work to have their art seen but also had to work for money.

Tuesday April 25: Ellen Emmet Rand and Women Artists in the Early 20th Century. A dialogue with Dr. Alexis Boylan and Dr. Emily Burns. Talk begins at 5:30pm.  See our calendar for details.

The exhibition’s opening reception, featuring our three exhibits coinciding with Women’s History Month, is on Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 4:30-6:30pm.  Murderous Chanteuse will perform at the reception. Free to the public.

Exhibition on view March 23 through July 30, 2017. (Please note the Museum will be closed May 8-15, 2017, as well as Mondays and holidays.)

The Benton’s collection of Rand’s work is viewable online, here.

The 50th Annual Studio Art Faculty Exhibition

January 26 – March 12, 2017

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 2, 2017
4:30 – 6:30pm

This annual exhibition highlights recent work of the permanent, adjunct, and visiting studio art faculty from the Department of Art and Art History, School of Fine Arts at UConn. A variety of media are featured; painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, printmaking, photography, and installation art. Such diverse bodies of work represent the most significant directions in contemporary art, as well as the unique vision of each artist-faculty member.

Highlighted Faculty Artists
Deborah Dancy
Ray DiCapua
Janet Pritchard

Note:  Photos and image details of additional faculty work in the exhibition can be seen below.  These photos are meant for marketing purposes only and may not be the best quality.  To see the entire works as they were meant to be seen, please come view the exhibition in person!

Unknown-1 copy
Monica Bock creating “exodus”, 2017

Image Detail of work by Laurie Sloane
Image Detail of work by Laurie Sloan “Untitled”

Image Detail of work by Frank Noelker “Toddy”

Image Detail of work by Kathryn Myers " "
Image Detail of work by Kathryn Myers “Exhumation”, 2016

Image Detail of work by Pam Bramble " "
Image Detail of work by Pamela Bramble “Adagio”, 2016

Image Detail of work by Cora Lynn Deibler "Hillary clinton: Politician", 2014
Image Detail of work by Cora Lynn Deibler “Hillary Clinton: Politician”, 2014

Judith Thorpe, "Cat and the Fiddle"
Judith Thorpe, “Cat and the Fiddle”, 2016

Charles Hagen, "Spotlight", 2016
Image Detail of work by Charles Hagen, “Spotlight”, 2016

Image Detail of work by Allison Paul "Supper Napkin"
Image Detail of work by Alison Paul “Supper Napkin”

Image Detail of work by Rossitza Skortcheva Donesky "Rittenhouse Square IV"
Image Detail of work by Rossitza Skortcheva Donesky “Rittenhouse Square IV”

Image Detail of work by Blake Shirley "Living with Ghosts 2", 2016
Image Detail of work by Blake Shirley “Living with Ghosts 2”, 2016

Brandon Bultman, “APHELION”

Detail of work by Shauna Merman "Topo", 2016
Image Detail of work by Shauna Merman “Topo”, 2016

Detail of work by Brad Guarino, "Implicit Burdens", 2016
Image Detail of work by Brad Guarino, “Implicit Burdens”, 2016
 

 

 

 

Image Detail of work by Edvin Yegir “Trumpula Rasa”, 2017

Image Detail of work by John O'Donnell “Pizza Temple”
Image Detail of work by John O’Donnell “Pizza Temple”

UConn Reads: Sacred Ground

January 26 – March 12, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 2, 2017
4:30 – 6:30pm

Inspired by this year’s UConn Reads selected book, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America by Eboo Patel, this exhibition features artists and subjects connected by a shared history, ideals, and identity that serve as bridges of cooperation throughout Islam and America.

*All works in the exhibition courtesy of the Leila Heller Gallery.

“The University of Connecticut’s UConn Reads program has been created to bring together the University community – from students, faculty, and staff to alumni and friends of UConn, as well as citizens of Connecticut – for a far-reaching and engaging dialogue centered on a book suggested by the community.”

Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo Patel is the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based organization building the interfaith movement on college campuses. Author of the books “Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America” and “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,” which won the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Eboo is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR, and CNN. He served on President Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz, and two sons. When he’s not teaching his kids about interfaith cooperation, you’ll find him feeding his coffee addiction and rooting for Notre Dame.–Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC)

Image Credit: The Snake Charmer of the 21s Century Savage, 2013. Shoja Azari, American/Iranian b. 1958