Past Exhibitions

The first Annual Exhibition was installed at the College in 1911. It is the longest-running series of original exhibitions of contemporary art staged by any academic institution in the United States. Careful acquisitions from each of the Annuals have resulted in Randolph College’s outstanding collection of American art, chiefly paintings, works on paper and photographs dating from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The Annual is traditionally a group exhibition inspired by a common theme.

Watch a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary about the Annual >>

The Maier also presents exhibitions from the Permanent Collection and works of art on loan.

112th Annual Exhibition – Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women
October 22, 2023, through April 11, 2024

Image: Melissa J. Craig, (S)Edition, 2010, cast and hand-shaped handmade abaca fiber paper, embellished with cotton rag pulp; dyes, wool. Courtesy of the artist.

Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women features work by 39 artists and represents the diverse community of women in the United States creating in this genre. The exhibition presents expansive concepts of the book as art, in an array of formats and materials. Content and themes are wide-ranging as well, expressing beauty, outrage, hope, loss, humor.

Back to Front is also inspired by current unsettling trends that seem to vilify books in general. In conjunction with the exhibition, we are offering a range of engagements for our visitors to champion the book and academic freedoms, such as:

The Unapologetic Initiative, an ongoing interactive project that challenges societal expectations for women by addressing internal conditioning connected to female gender roles. A growing collection of phrases spotlights the need many women feel to apologize for not meeting pervasive societal expectations and challenges participants to consider their own relationship to this issue. By doing so, participants will contribute to an artist’s book which will document the project. A variety of project keepsakes will be available during the exhibition.

The Quarantine Public Library (QPL) is a collaborative project by Katie Garth and Tracy Honn. This repository of one-page books made by artists is published online for anyone to freely download, print and assemble—to keep or give away. The QPL titles transform from a printed piece of paper into a book through folding. Martha Chiplis, curator of the 112th Annual exhibition, chose 100 titles by women in the QPL to be displayed at the museum as part of the exhibition. Visitors can participate in the creation and installation of the Exhibition through the process of assembling the QPL books. People may also add to the QPL installation by leaving their own books in the format of the QPL one-page books.

Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women is curated by Martha Chiplis, in collaboration with Lyall Harris and Martha Kjeseth Johnson and was made possible by the generous support of Mary Gray Shockey, ’69.

Recent Acquisitions
June 2, 2023 – March 19, 2024

Image: Kayla Mohammadi, Heat of the Day, 2018, oil and acrylic on panel, Gift in honor of Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

This exhibition highlights a selection of works added to the permanent collection within the past five years. Primarily featuring paintings, photographs, and prints, Recent Acquisitions also showcases a ceramic piece, Convergence: Spirit World Army, 2022 by Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo), acquired from our 111th Annual Exhibition.

The Matrix: Prints from the Permanent Collection
May 5 – September 27, 2023

What is printmaking? As an artistic process, it is based on the principle of transferring images from a matrix onto another surface, most often paper or fabric. Traditional printmaking techniques include woodcut, etching, engraving, lithography, and screen printing. The matrix is the printing plate or silkscreen where the magic originates. The Matrix: Prints from the Permanent Collection, guest curated by Jill Jensen, features over 40 fine prints from the permanent collection with exquisite examples of every technique. Artists include Jack Beal, George Bellows, Richard Bosman, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dali, Tara Donovan, Sam Gilliam, Brice Marden, Allison Saar, Art Spiegelman, May Stevens, and Grant Wood.

2022-2023

Beyond the Sound: In Memory of Sandra Whitehead 

Beyond the Sound features works from prominent American artists associated with Monhegan Island, Maine. All works are on loan from the collection of The Honorable Paul Whitehead, Jr. The exhibition includes paintings by James Fitzgerald, Jamie Wyeth, Sears Gallagher, Andrew Winter, Eric Hudson, Don Stone, Peter Poskas, and Guy Wiggins Carlton. The exhibition includes an interactive iPad kiosk developed by Emilie Bryant ’22.

2023 Senior Studio Art Thesis Exhibition
April 13 – May 20, 2023 

Featuring works by studio art major seniors Grace Duckworth, Faith Martin, and Joshua Roberts.

The 111th Annual Exhibition, Survivance: Contemporary Native Art
October 21, 2022 – April 16, 2023

Image: Cara Romero, Evolvers, 2019, limited edition archival fine art photograph printed by the artist on Legacy Platine paper, 15 x 48 in.

The 111th Annual Exhibition, Survivance, features contemporary Native art of the Southwest. The first “Annual” opened at the College in 1911 and the tradition has continued, uninterrupted. It is one of the longest-running series of original exhibitions of contemporary art staged annually by any academic institution in the U.S. While our mission is devoted to the study, collection and exhibition of American art, none of our Annuals have focused on Native American artists, and only a handful are represented in our collection.

2022 marks the centennial of The Santa Fe Indian Market, widely considered the most recognized and influential event in the Native American art world of the 20th and 21st centuries. The history of the Market is fraught, problematic and rich with controversy. Paradoxically, it has also been empowering, community building, and undeniably important, especially in its current iteration, one hundred years later. Museum and heritage studies major, Emilie Bryant ’22, engaged with the New Mexico History Museum in a virtual internship during the summer of 2021. Her task was to research the Santa Fe Indian Market and develop an interactive timeline to celebrate the Market’s centennial. Survivance features artists with roots in/connections to the Santa Fe Indian Market tradition and more generally in the creative output of the region. Their work is a blend of ancestral legacy, individual expression, and contemporary innovations. Artists include Cara Romero, Diego Romero, Michael Namingha, and Virgil Ortiz.

The 111th Annual Exhibition, Survivance, is co-curated by Martha Kjeseth Johnson and Emilie Bryant ’22, and is made possible by the support of Mary Gray Shockey, ’69.

New Acquisitions 2022

Image: Derrick Woods-Morrow, Frederick on Lake Pontchartrain | after Lincoln Beach, 2019, archival print on paper, 40 x 30 in. Purchase made possible by the Elson Acquisition Fund, 2021.

This exhibition includes photographs by PH Polk, Derrick Woods-Morrow ’12 and Earlie Hudnall, and two acquisitions from the 110th Annual by Faith Ringgold and Aminah Robinson.

Modern and Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection: President Bateman’s Picks 

In recognition of President Bradley Bateman’s service to Randolph College, most of the paintings, photographs and prints in the exhibition hung in his home and office during his tenure at the College. A campus filled with original artwork has been a priority since the founding of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1891, and President Bateman has been an active participant in this tradition. He retired as the College’s 10th president on June 30, 2022.

Image: Earlie Hudnall, Portrait of President Bradley W. Bateman, 2022, archival pigment print on paper, 30 x 40 in. Purchase made possible by current, former, and emeriti trustees and alumni led by June Rowan Bishop ’48, Elizabeth Grimm ’71, Allison Muller ’71, and Anne Wilkes Tucker ’67, and the Gignilliat Acquisition Fund, 2022.

2021-2022

The 110th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Storytellers: Faith Ringgold + Amina Robinson

October 2021 – April 1, 2022

The 110th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Storytellers: Faith Ringgold + Aminah Robinson.

Image: Faith Ringgold, The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, 1992, silkscreen on paper, 28 x 31 in. Courtesy of ACA  Gallery, New York.

The 110th Annual Exhibition is generously sponsored by Mary Gray Shockey ’69. Organized by ACA Galleries, New York.

 

Saints and Sin: Selections from the Permanent Collection by Black Artists

Through April 1, 2022

Saints and Sin: Selections from the Permanent Collection by Black Artists included work by Benny Andrews, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, Toyin Odutola, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Carrie Mae Weems, and Kehinde Wiley.

The exhibition was presented in unison with the amplification of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020. It intended to provide a glimpse of the richness, variety and creative power of Black artists, underrepresented in museum collections, including our own. Formal purity and themes of innocence are intertwined with imagery laying bare the sin of systemic racism. Saints and Sin also included recent acquisitions depicting Black artists.

Image: Kehinde Wiley, St. Francis of Adelaide, 2006, cast marble dust and resin. The Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

2020-2021

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Collection

May 30, 2021- September 12, 2021

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Collection included new acquisitions by William Castellana (b. 1968) and Andrew Newell Wyeth    (1917-2009). Highlights included works by social realist Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Untitled (Children in Doorway), ca. 1939-1942, by Louise Rosskam, and the newly framed triptych, Autobiography (Broadside) by Robert Rauschenberg, 1968. Brett de Palma (b. 1949), Sally Mann (b. 1951), Elizabeth Murray (1940-2007), Judy Pffaf (b. 1946), Kukuli Velarde (b. 1962), and Bernarda Bryson Shahn (1903-2004) were also featured in the exhibition with works in a range of mediums.

Yarning for Unity: An Outdoor Installation

November 18, 2020 – September 2021

Yarning for Unity covered the outside of the Maier with various art forms such as crochet, knitting, embroidery and printing. The drive-thru “craft-bombing” installation originated with RandolphCollege student, Emilie Bryant ’22, a double major in Museum and Heritage Studies and Art History.  While studying “Craftivism” in Art and Activism, taught by Assistant Professor of Art History, Lesley Shipley, Bryant conceived of a Y4U, a collective of craftivists interested in creating messages of love, hope and unity through public installations and immersive experiences. Artists from several states submitted colorful works. 

Press about Yarning for Unity.  More Press!

The 109th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art,  Time & Place: Water, Sky, Land 

December 4, 2020 – April 1, 2021 

View the virtual exhibition and related lectures online >>

The 109th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Time & Place: Water, Sky, Land, presented four American artists who document and reveal the planet’s endangered ecosystems. Mark Klett revisits desert landscapes first documented by 19^th century American surveyors and makes new works that question the nature of time and history. James Balog’s photography confronts climate change and human modification of nature. Terry Evans’ photomontages of American prairies invite the viewer to commune with and contemplate the fragility of pristine grasslands.  In her newest work, transdisciplinary artist Erika Blumenfeld documented  in gestural form one year’s worth of meteor activity. Time & Place: Water, Sky, Land was curated by Anne Wilkes Tucker ’67

Image: James Balog, Vanessa and Trey With Rising Seas, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, 2016, pigment print on poly fabric. 

Time & Place: Water, Sky, Land was made possible by the support of Mary Gray Shockey, ’69.

2020

Passages: An Installation in Progress by Cheryl Harper

February 28 – July 26, 2020

View the exhibition and catalog online >>

Passages was a site-specific installation which explored themes of heritage, identity, persecution and privilege. Harper’s ongoing investigation of her ancestry, as well as that of her husband’s, reveals complexities and contradictions. She explains, “In the last few years, I’ve been thinking about how I came to where I am now, a Jewish woman who lost extended family in the Holocaust and who married a direct descendant of a Southern plantation family that owned other people. I am a descendant of the oppressed who married into a family who oppressed.” Intensely personal, the installation presented a distinctly female point of view. It included original family wedding dresses overlaid with other clothing and accessories owned by Harper’s mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. A variety of objects related to their standard of living and aspirations were arranged below her ancestors’ dresses, suspended from the ceiling. Hand-printed wallpaper brought together imagery culled from family photographs and objects that refer to immigration, plantation life, and slavery.

Image: Passages installation view, Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. Passages at the Maier Museum of Art is generously sponsored by Maier Member, Sally Maier Rowe ’67.

Scorched Earth

January 31 – July 19, 2020 

View the exhibition and catalog online >>

Scorched Earth presented Beatrice Modisett’s recent investigations into the visualization and layering of landscapes – referenced, imagined and remembered – in various states of formation, collapse and upheaval.

Modisett’s large scale paintings are formed through the accrual and erosion of layers and layers of thinned oil paint. Various objects are placed under and on top of the canvas and the resulting hills and valleys direct, disrupt and imprint the paint’s flow and surface. Walls of paint on the canvas also direct the flow of material. These levees are drawing tools that serve as metaphor for the systems humans construct in an attempt to control, contain and navigate constantly shifting landscapes. Fiery reds burning beside cool grays and turbulent waves of rivulets recall the geologic phenomenon that shape terrain – eruptions, tsunamis and shifting tectonic plates among them – and the undulating and cracked surfaces exhibit the highly physical process of each painting’s creation.

Monumental charcoal drawings created immersive viewing experiences that reference cliffs, caves and bodies of water that the artist has moved through, void of the color that would indicate their state of being. Alongside mixed media floor sculptures the drawings and paintings  presented the vibration and tension between the creative and destructive events that shape our landscape – both natural and human caused.

Image: Beatrice Modisett, Installation photo of Scorched Earth, photo credit: David Hale. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Mary Gray Shockey ’69. The Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation NYC 2019 fall visual grant was awarded to Beatrice to help with the installation of this exhibition.

2019

The 108th Annual Exhibition, Children’s Book Illustrations: Visual Storytelling

September 20 – December 15, 2019

For the first time in 108 years, Randolph College’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art focused on children’s book illustration. The art of several illustrators, including the current 2019 Caldecott Medal winner, Sophie Blackall, offered a magical time for visitors of all ages. Curated by Kathy Muehlemann, chair of Randolph College’s art department and professor of art, the 108th Annual Exhibition features illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Larry Day, Douglas Florian, E.B. Lewis, and Jerry Pinkney. Also included is the retrospective Finding Sophie Blackall. Blackall’s whimsical, yet thoughtfully realistic artwork, invokes nostalgia at its purest. She skillfully employs Chinese ink and watercolor to record some of life’s greatest moments, both victorious and sorrowful.

The 108th Annual Exhibition is generously sponsored by Mary Gray Shockey ’69. The retrospective Finding Sophie Blackall was organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, Texas. 

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Collection

May 29 – August 25, 2019

Modern & Contemporary Selections explored a selection of recent additions to the collection and some “old” favorites, in this exciting exhibition curated by Maier Museum of Art Director, Martha Kjeseth Johnson. The exhibition also included some rarely seen art from the Collection selected by Maier volunteers. Docents provided a tour about some of their selections and why they choose them during the tour, “A Few of our Favorite Things” on Sunday, August 4.

Image: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, All American (detail), 1996, woodcut on paper. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Developed and Disturbed: Visions of the American Landscape

January 25 – August 25, 2019
Co-curated by Elisabeth Ayars ’19, Jordon Kirkpatrick ’19, and Sara Primm ’20

Developed and Disturbed examined how landscape art may reveal an increasing tension between nature and industry within the United States. The exhibition included works in a variety of media, from the 19th-century to the present, that address this tension in subtle and thought-provoking ways.

This exhibition was the capstone project for students enrolled in Randolph College’s Curatorial Seminar. This seminar offers upper-level undergraduates at Randolph College the opportunity to curate an exhibition at the Maier Museum of Art, drawing from works in the Collection. Lesley Shipley, Assistant Professor of Art History, with assistance from the Maier’s staff, supervised the student curators in the fall of 2018.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Maier Member Sara Maier Rowe ’67.  Image: Thomas Hart Benton, Running Horses (detail), 1955, lithograph on paper. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Class of 2019 Studio Art Majors’ Thesis Exhibition

April 25 – May 12, 2019

Artists featured: Essence Anderson, Elizabeth Ayars, Emma Cullen, Cai Czuhai, Megan Guzik, Siri Johnson, Krista McCombs.

 

One Place, Two Views: John Walker and Kayla Mohammadi

January 25 – April 14, 2019

One Place, Two Views offered rich, complementary interpretations of a shared, beloved sense of place. Stylistically distinct, both are non-objective, abstract painters whose work is suggestive of landscape. The natural forms and features that surround their home in Maine are major sources of inspiration, especially Seal Point, the setting that has shaped their work.

John Walker was born in Birmingham, England and represented England at the 1972 Venice Biennale. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to the United States in 1969-70 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981. He has been artist-in-residence at Oxford University (1977–78), and at Monash University, Melbourne (1980) He has taught at the Royal College in London and at Yale University. In the 1980’s he was Dean of Victoria College of Art in Melbourne, Australia. From 1993 to 2015, he taught at Boston University and is currently Professor Emeritus of Art and former head of the graduate program in Painting and Sculpture at Boston University School of Visual Arts. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in NY; The Phillips Collection in DC; The Tate Gallery, London; The Hayward Gallery in London; The Kunstverein, Hamburg; The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia; and others.

Kayla Mohammadi is first generation American, born to a Finnish mother and Iranian father in San Francisco, California. Her awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize in 2014; The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for Painters in 2008 and The Joan Mitchell Artist Residency in New Orleans; The Dedalus Foundation Award for The Vermont Studio School Fellowship in 2008; Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant in 2006; Blanche E. Colman Award in 2004; Constantin Alajalov Scholarship; and Vermont Studio School Fellowship in 2001. She is currently a Fine Arts Lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. And has also taught at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA; St. Mary’s College in Maryland; UMass Boston; Northeastern University in Boston; and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.

This exhibition was generously sponsored by Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

2018

The 107th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Zeitgeist: The Art Scene of Teenage Basquiat

September 20 – December 14, 2018

Zeitgeist: The Art Scene of Teenage Basquiat was a group exhibition focusing on the artists and scene around Jean-Michel Basquiat’s teen-aged, pre-fame years. Curated by Howl! Happening, Sara Driver, Carlo McCormick, and Mary-Ann Monforton, Zeitgeist first appeared at Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project from May 13 – June 10, 2018 (extended to July 29, 2018) to complement and amplify the theatrical release of Sara Driver’s film BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat from Magnolia Pictures. The film premiered on May 11, 2018 at IFC, New York.

The period covered in the exhibition and film tells the story of Jean-Michel’s early work, peers, and creative community in gritty, pre-AIDS, downtown New York—before the rise of the 80s art and real estate juggernaut. It was a time when decay, drugs, and dissolution fueled a boom in creativity where the definition of fame, success, and power was not based on money, Facebook likes, and self-promotion. For these creators, to be a penniless published poet or a musician gigging at CBs was the height of success. In the rawness of the work, the focus on street art and graffiti, and the experimentation and cross-pollination of styles and disciplines, the era has become a flash point for younger generations seeking to learn about and understand the authenticity, closeness, and community expressed in the work of the artists in Zeitgeist.

The exhibition—and a series of special events—illuminate Basquiat’s work and that of his friends and other artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians who emerged from that scene, including:

Alexis Adler, Charlie Ahearn, Ted Barron, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Philippe Bordas, Robert Carrithers, Henry Chalfant, Brett De Palma, Vivienne Dick, Jane Dickson, Al Diaz, Barbara Ess, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Fab 5 Freddy, Futura, Robert Goldman aka Bobby G, Godlis, Nan Goldin, Richard, Hambleton, Becky Howland, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Jim Jarmusch, Justen, Ladda, Ann Messner, Mary-Ann Monforton, James Nares, Glenn O’Brien, Franc Palaia, Lee Quiñones, Walter Robinson, Christy Rupp, Luc Sante, Kenny Scharf, Paul Tschinkel, Robin Winters, and Bob Gruen.

The 107th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art is supported by Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 30 – August 12, 2018

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection highlighted a selection of recent acquisitions to the Randolph College collection. Artists with works in the exhibition included Rackstraw Downes, Walton Ford, Brice Marden, Alison Saar, Elena Sisto, Carrie Mae Weems, Andrew Wyeth, among others.

Image: Stan Brodsky, On the James River, 1985, casein on paper, 20 x 28 inches. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. Gift of the artist, 2016.

Atmospheric Conditions: Gathered and Unsettled

January 26 – June 3, 2018

Atmospheric Conditions was a site-specific installation by New York-based artist Rebecca Smith. Her installation included colored tape “drawings” on gallery walls and painted metal wall sculptures, abstract, though suggestive of and named after glaciers and molecules. Appearing nonrepresentational at first glance, Smith’s glaciers are icy, stratified. Their steely, grid-like construction seems strong but the thinness of the metal strips and ample negative space between them also suggests a vulnerable fragility.

Atmospheric Conditions incorporated two new works by Smith, Globe I and Globe II. Smith describes them as “part of the environmental theme in that they are images of somewhat battered, disfigured planets with continents, communicating the notion of an Earth that has been clogged by pollutants and atmospheric greenhouse gases.”

Atmospheric Conditions was supported by Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

Randolph College’s Senior Studio Art Major’s Thesis Exhibition: Convergence

April 23 –  May 13, 2018

An exhibition of selected works by Randolph College’s graduating studio art majors: Bailey Marshall ’18, Morgan Osburn ’18, and Stacey Samuels ’18.

 

From Source to Surface: Works by Randolph College Studio Art Faculty

January 26 – April 8, 2018

From Source to Surface was a group exhibition, featuring paintings by Randolph College’s studio art faculty: Chris Cohen, Brooke Marcy, James Muehlemann, Kathy Muehlemann, and Dan Shipley. The exhibition catalog essay is written by Randolph Professor Emeritus Jim Peterson, the current Pearl S. Buck Writer in Residence. From Source to Surface demonstrated the artistic skills of the College’s art department, and provided an important example for Randolph’s studio art students.

From Source to Surface was supported by Maier Member Sally Maier Rowe ‘67.

2017

The 106th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Carceral States

September 22 – December 15, 2017

This exhibition focused on the timely issue of mass incarceration, approaching the theme from a breadth of perspectives by a number of important contemporary American artists. Included in the exhibition were documentary and landscape photography, oil painting, and sculpture. Carceral States offered both the directness of the photo-journalist tradition as well as more aesthetically-centered works which have meaningful things to say about incarceration in ways that are uncovered gradually.

Image: Stephen Tourlentes, Walpole, Massachusetts, State Prison, 1997, archival pigment print. The 106th Annual Exhibition is made possible through the generosity of Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection

June 1 – July 23, 2017

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection, highlighted a selection of recent acquisitions to the College’s collection. 

Image: Sondra Freckelton, Begonia and Pillow, 1978, watercolor on paper, 50 x 44 3/4 in. Gift of Emma Lou Marchant Martin ’59, 2017. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Prints from the Permanent Collection

February 3 – July 23, 2017

Prints from the Permanent Collection featured a variety of printmaking techniques, with an emphasis on woodcuts. The exhibition also included intaglio, relief, serigraphy and lithography.

Image: Edward J. Glannon, Walking the Track, 1976, lithograph on paper. Gift of the Edward J. Glannon Family, 2016. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Randolph College Senior Studio Art Majors’ Exhibition

April 24 – May 15, 2017

Artists included Angie Chen ’17, Thomas W. Overgaag ’17, Melissa Pasierb ’17, and Cole Schreiner ’17.

Image: Thomas W. Overgaag, Gaze 2

Investigating Identity: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Art

February 3 – April 9, 2017

Curated by Randolph College art history professor Lesley Shipley, Investigating Identity brought together works from the permanent collection to foster conversation about the theme of identity in art since 1960. Learn more >

2016

The 105th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Threatening Beauty

September 30 – December 16, 2016

Threatening Beauty featured 10 artists working in a variety of media who explore the tension between beauty and unrest, between the sublime and the sinister. There is both a sense of underlying seduction and unease present in many of the works selected for the exhibition. Threatening Beauty examined the paradox of enchantment and how it is both delight and delusion in the way that fiction implies both fantasy and deceit. The exhibition also alluded to environmental issues, suggested particularly in the photographic pieces.

Artists represented in Threatening Beauty play with this theme in different ways. Often they are simultaneously informed by specific political events yet remain ethereal and poetic. Alternately, they may have no social message to convey, but give us their interpretation of the wonder and aesthetic overwhelm of natural phenomenon. At its heart, the exhibition celebrated the radical force of brazen, unabashed beauty, and its power to change us.

Artists included were Teresita Fernández, April Gornik, Sharon Horvath, Matthew Klein, Susie MacMurray, David Maisel, Judith Schaechter, Kiki Smith, Barbara Takenaga, and Kako Ueda.

The 105th Annual Exhibition was made possible by the generous support of Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

Dreams that Money Can Buy (Update)

September 30 – December 16, 2016

Hans Haacke, one of the foremost Conceptual artists, creates work that addresses, and often exposes, the inner workings of social and political structures. Haacke’s installations are designed with an attention to the particular time and space of the exhibition. Dreams that Money Can Buy, is a selection of works that have appeared in different contexts. The central focus is a piece entitled The Business Behind Art Knows the Art of the Koch Brothers (2014), a critique of the system of wealth-fueled influence over art and public policy. An ongoing concern for Haacke, it explores the way art has been used in corporate culture as a tool to promote particular ideologies in more or less overt ways.

The installation also includes a sculpture consisting of a damaged metal locker tipped over on its side, spilling a pool of pennies. It was first shown in Haacke’s 2005 exhibition, State of the Union, which reflected on the aftermath of 9/11 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Maier installation offers a recasting of these concerns within the context of the current congressional and presidential election season. Rounding out the installation will be the maquette for Gift Horse (2013), Haacke’s winning proposal for the Fourth Plinth on London’s Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery. A meditation on capital and casualty, Haacke’s work was unveiled in London on March 5, 2015. Its 18-month run concludes just as this exhibition at the Maier opens.

Recent Acquisitions: Prints by Robert Kipniss

May 21 – August 14, 2016

New York-based artist Robert Kipniss is considered a master of the mezzotint. One of few contemporary artists to employ this technique, Kipniss’ prints feature a range of values from velvety black to muted gray to glowing white.

The exhibition presented a recent gift to Randolph College by James F. White, an avid collector of Kipniss’ work. It was curated by Randolph College student Elisabeth Price ’16 and made possible through the generosity of Sally Maier Rowe ’67.

125 from the Permanent Collection

January 22 – August 14, 2016

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the College’s Founder’s Day, the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College staged an exhibition featuring 125 of the finest works of art from their permanent collection. The exhibition was hung in the manner in which artwork was typically hung 125 years ago.

The “salon-style” hang was both appropriate to the period and necessary to accommodate so much artwork. Visitors are accustomed to viewing between 40 and 80 works from the permanent collection at any given time, so the abundant 125 from the Permanent Collection offered was unprecedented. The Maier’s galleries were transformed, the walls filled with artwork placed in unusually close proximity to each other.

2015

Venetian Visions: Selections from the National Gallery, London

November 6, 2015 – March 31, 2016

Venetian Visions featured works on loan from the National Gallery, London, as well as works from the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition explored the richness and variety of Venetian painting in the Renaissance and offered three themes: friends and heroes; art, poetry, and the pastoral; and the Madonna and Child.

Featured in the exhibition was David and Jonathan and The Virgin and Child by Cima da Conegliano as well as Homage to a Poet, a work by a follower of Giorgione. Cima’s David and Jonathan represents two heroes of the Israelites, but departs from the biblical narrative of their military exploits and seems instead to highlight their friendship. The Virgin and Child illustrates how Venetian artists responded to the demands of changing tastes and different contexts in their representation of Mary and Jesus. Homage to a Poet, by a follower of Giorgione, intrigues us with its still – unidentified subject. The painting embodies the spirit of ancient poetry celebrating nature. Renaissance scholars, poets and artists eagerly collected and emulated this type of poetry. Homage to a Poet demonstrates the contribution of Venetian painters to the development of the pastoral, an important subject to European art and literature for subsequent centuries.

Andrea Campbell, a Randolph art history professor, curated Venetian Visions. The exhibition was possible because of the one-of-a-kind partnership between Randolph College and the National Gallery, London.

The 104^th Annual Exhibition, Breath/Breadth: Contemporary American Black Male Identity

September 3 – December 11, 2015

The 104^th Annual Exhibition, Breath/Breadth: Contemporary American Black Male Identity, explored wide-ranging visual expressions, defying the impulse to hone in on singular, cohesive definitions because it is precisely the impulse to categorize that encourages racial profiling. While focusing on a particular demographic, Breath/Breadth demonstrated the complexity of this demographic.

Breath/Breadth aimed to be intentional about revealing diversity, while also making reference to recent racial strife embodied in the concept of “breath” as it refers to the now very charged quote “I can’t breathe” resonating with the current dialogue over how we identify and value black lives. At the same time, our collective concept of breath is poetic and meditative, ultimately common, life-sustaining, non-racial.

Artists included were Kevin Beasley, Mark Bradford, Nick Cave, Todd Gray, Barkley Hendricks, Rashid Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Toyin Odutola, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley.

The 104^th Annual Exhibition was made possible by the generous support of Mary Gray Shockey ’69.

Question Bridge: Black Males Video Installation

July 10 – October 10, 2015

Question Bridge is a documentary-style video installation featuring Black men of all ages and backgrounds asking and responding to questions about life in America.

The project, launched in 2012, was created to stimulate connections and understanding among Black men, but also to show the diversity of thought, character and identity in the American Black male population. Also on view was Lynchburg Bridge, a documentary inspired by Question Bridge featuring Black men from Lynchburg and the surrounding areas.

To learn more about Question Bridge: Black Males, visit www.QuestionBridge.com

The installation was a precursor for the Maier Museum’s 104th Annual Exhibition, Breath/Breadth: Contemporary American Black Male Identity.

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 28 – August 16, 2015

 

Photography from the Permanent Collection

May 28 – July 2, 2015

Image: Nat Fein, The Babe Bows Out, June 13, 1948, 1948, gelatin silver print on paper. Gift of Anne Wilkes Tucker ’67, 2013. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Class of 2015 Studio Art Majors’ Exhibition

April 28 – May 17, 2015

Crowdsourced from the Permanent Collection: Randolph Curates

January 22 – April 12, 2015

The Maier Museum of Art crowdsourced the content of this exhibition by inviting Randolph College students, staff, and faculty to request specific works from the Collection to be considered for the exhibition.

Crowdsourcing is an open call to a diverse group for their ideas and involvement in a task, inviting them to bring their individual experiences, knowledge, and preferences to the process. The strategy of crowdsourcing is largely based on technology. Like many museums, the Maier’s collection is viewable in an online catalog. While never intended to replicate the experience of encountering art “in the flesh” it does offer an array of ways to study and utilize the collection. A number of museums have used crowdsourcing approaches to curating, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Aves: Birds from the Natural History and Art Collections at Randolph College

January 22 – April 12, 2015

In addition to its collection of American art, Randolph College is also home to a natural history collection which originated soon after the College was founded. Aves was a collaborative exhibition between the Maier Museum of Art and the Randolph College Natural History Collections Project, highlighting the history and aesthetics of ornithological specimens and avian art in both collections.

Aves featured specimens from the Weber Collection surrounded by artwork from the permanent collection housed at the Maier featuring bird imagery, including works by Gregory Amenoff, John James Audubon, Leonard Baskin, Joseph Cornell, Morris Graves, Sue Johnson, Hans Kleiber and Alexander Wilson.

2014

The 103rd Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: A Menagerie of Metaphors

September 12 – December 14, 2014

A Menagerie of Metaphors featuresd artists who present a wide range of responses to the animal, including Jane Alexander, Louise Bourgeois, Nick Brandt, Walton Ford, Jenny Lynn McNutt, Jane Rosen, and Kiki Smith.

Image: Jenny Lynn McNutt, Moon Games, oil on canvas, 2011-2012, 30  x 42 in. Purchase made possible by the Hamaker-Hynning Endowment for Acquisitions, 2014. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Modern & Contemporary Selections from the Permanent Collection

June 6 – August 24, 2014

Curated by May Carter, Jill Jensen, Martha Kjeseth-Johnson, Jon Roark, and Rosalie Day White

The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College partnered with the Academy of Fine Arts’ Visual Arts Intensive summer course for accomplished high school art students. Focusing on drawing, painting, printmaking and ceramics, students were instructed by some of the area’s most respected artists and arts educators: May Carter, Jill Jensen, Jon Roark and Rosalie Day White.Students enrolled in the program visited this special exhibition repetitively, gaining inspiration for intensive studio work. Most works in this exhibition were chosen by the instructors as excellent examples of a variety of media.

Fear and Wonder

January 24 – April 13, 2014

Fear and Wonder featured works by Randolph College professor of art James Muehlemann.  Muehlemann was out of the classroom on sabbatical for the duration of 2012–2013 academic year. During those months, he was prolific in the studio, producing a series of paintings with common imagery and themes.

Modern Woman: Roles or Reality?

January 24 – April 13, 2014

The exhibition The Modern Woman: Roles or Reality? examined how women are represented in art, and what the artist—whether male or female— communicates about the subject. Is the work a depiction of the woman’s “reality”—both physical and psychological—or is it a construct based on her role and gender? These questions and more led five enthusiastic students in Randolph College’s Curatorial Seminar to design this exhibition.

The student curators selected diverse works of art (created by 10 female artists and five male artists) from the Randolph College collection dating from the late 19th century to the present. Societal roles, the subject’s gaze, voyeurism, motherhood, and race constitute the main themes, but each work begs the viewer to consider the woman’s role in the artwork—subject, viewer, participant, or object.

Image: Isabel Bishop, Noon Hour, 1935, etching on paper.  Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

2013

The 102nd Annual Exhibition: Contemporary Vietnamerican Art

September 5 – December 9, 2013

The exhibition featured five artists born in Vietnam who live and work in the United States: Binh Danh, An-My Le, Pipo Nguyen-Duy, Lien Truong, and Thomas Thuấn Đặng Vũ.

The 102nd Annual Exhibition was intentionally related to The 101st Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Bridges Not Walls which highlighted the fact that so much significant contemporary American art is being created by people from other countries who have made the United States their home. Bridges Not Walls is also the name of Randolph’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) required for reaccreditation, the theme of which is selected and developed by the college community to enhance student learning. The goal of Bridges Not Walls is to improve the intercultural competence of our students by offering initiatives that will lead students to become knowledgeable about values, expectations, and beliefs in cultures other than their own.

The concept of  Contemporary Vietnamerican Art was broad. With the exhibition we intended even more integration with the College’s demographics, focusing our attention on the cultural make-up of the foreign students within our community where we enroll more students from Vietnam than from any other foreign country. Given that fact, and the primarily tragic relationship the United States has had with Vietnam historically, the exhibition focused on five American artists originating from Vietnam. The exhibition provided our community with conversations about art and related cultural, social and political issues, both past and present.

Image: Thomas Thuan Dang Vu, Sober, Sober, Drunk, 2010, Mixed Media on Canvas, 60 x 48 in. Gift of the artist, 2013. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Modern Movement: Arthur Bowen Davies Figurative Works on Paper from the Randolph College and Mac Cosgrove-Davies Collections and Arthur B. Davies Paintings from the Randolph College Collection

January 18 – April 14, 2013

Arthur B. Davies (1862–1928) was an artist and primary curator of the groundbreaking Armory Show of 1913, credited with bringing modern art to American audiences. The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College is home to sixty-one works by Davies, many of which have never been exhibited. Malcolm Cosgrove-Davies, greatgrandson of Arthur B. Davies and owner of over 300 Davies pieces, contributed a selection of works from his collection which were on view to the public for the first time. Modern Movement: Arthur Bowen Davies Figurative Works on Paper from the Randolph College and Mac Cosgrove-Davies Collections focused on figurative works, many depicting dancers in various poses. This exhibition was presented on the centennial anniversary year of what was officially billed as The International Exhibition of Modern Art but commonly referred to as the Armory Show due to its location at New York’s 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. That year the exhibition traveled to venues in Chicago and Boston as well.

Exhibition available for loan. Learn more >>

2012

The 101st Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: Bridges Not Walls

August 31 – December 7, 2012

The 101st Annual Exhibition featured six artists: Edgar Endress, Assaf Evron, Muriel Hasbun, Sook Jin Jo, Jiha Moon, and Kukuli Velarde. The first exhibition of the next 100 years reaffirmed the College’s commitment to contemporary American art education and highlighted the fact that so much significant contemporary American art is created by people from other countries who have made America their home. Artistic talent from around the world converging in this country is nothing new, but public visibility has increased dramatically over the past few decades, as has the ability of artists to be exposed to and influenced by one another’s work.

Randolph College has a longstanding commitment to cultivating a global perspective in a liberal arts setting. At the time of the 101st Annual, the College embarked on a five-year, cross-curricular, measurable plan to move away from the old model of “tolerance” for diversity toward “intercultural competence,” a philosophy with more depth and integrity. Intercultural competence is about bridging cultural differences and recognizing commonalities in values, expectations and beliefs.

Image: Kukuli Velarde, Letter to My Father, 2005, Oil on Steel Plate. Purchase made possible by the Estate of Bethea Scott Owen in memory of her sister Helen Owen Calvert ’93, 2013. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Selected Acquisitions Since 2000 and Italian Inspirations

May 23 – August 12, 2012

Mirror of a Passing World: Ephemeral Places, Vanishing Spaces

January 17 – April 15, 2012

Mirror of a Passing World: Ephemeral Places, Vanishing Spaces was curated by students in Randolph College’s curatorial seminar class.

“This exhibition encourages viewers to take a moment to pause and indulge in a moment of stillness inspired by the works, which represent an array of ephemeral subject matter,” said Meghan Luksic ’12, a member of the class.

Guided by Dr. Leanne Zalewski, an art history professor, the students were responsible for every aspect of preparing the exhibition for viewing, including choosing the works of art and the hanging and display of the objects. In addition to Luksic, other students participating in the course project included Stormy Clowdis ’13, Glenna Gray ’14, Cathy DeSilvey ’13, Melissa Halka ’14, and Laura Shearer ’12.