Department of Art & Art History - School of Arts & Sciences

The study of art at the university level, embedded in the ideals of a liberal arts education, allows students to develop both their creativity and their critical faculties through visual media. Visual and Media Arts Practice and Art History have separate curricula, but links between the two, and other disciplines, are encouraged.

News

Exhibitions:
Professor Brittany Nelson:
"Cosmological Arrows", Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, August 2019.
"Urania," Sonnenstube, Lugano, Switzerland. November 2019.
Professor Sable Elyse Smith:
"The Smiths," Marlborough, London, England, June 2019.
"Colored People Time: Banal Presents," ICA Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 2019.
"Great Force," ICA Richmond, VA, October 2019.
"or the song spilling out," Carlos/Ishikawa, London, England, November 2019.
Professor Tanja Softić:
Exhibition of prints and lecture "Contemporary Variations of Mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodcut)" at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (University of Buenos Aires, School of Philosophy and Literature), November 2019.
"Contemporary Variations of Japanese Engraving," Museo Etnográfico Juan B Ambrosetti, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 2019.

Publications:
Professor Allison Myers:
"Alan Ruiz: Infrapolitics," exhibition review at 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA, published in Art Papers 43.02, Fall 2019.
Professor Brittany Nelson:
"Brittany Nelson Puts a Sci-Fi Spin on Closeted Gay Life," review of the exhibition "10,000 Light Year From Home," by Jeremy Lybarger, Art in America, August 2019.
"For Artist Brittany Nelson, Space is a Queer, Lonely Place," review of the exhibition "10,000 Light Year From Home," by Lauren Deland, Frieze Magazine, August 2019.
"Brittany Nelson Out of the Everywhere," Edited by Stefanie Hessler, Mousse Publications, 2019.
Professor Tanja Softić:
Essay "Circle Back: Immigrant Memories and Fungal Networks," Journal of Speculative Philosophy 33, no.2 (2019): 300-10.
Alumnae Elizabeth Montague, UR'18: Luck of the Draw, written by Marin Cogan. Washington Citypaper, September 19, 2019.
Research:
Professor Elena Calvillo:
Participated in a scholars day at the National Gallery of Art on the 16th-century artist "Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain," Washington, DC, November 2019.
Will continue her research on early modern Iberia and travel to Madrid, Spain to view an exhibition dedicated to the female artists Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana at the Prado Museum. December 2019.
Art History Student Kate Wiley received the 2019 Harnett Summer Research Fellowship. She Co-curated "Satire and Social Criticism: Prints by William Hogarth from the Collection" and "The Age of Hogarth and Piranesi: Masterpieces of 18th-C. European Printmaking" alongside Richard Waller, Executive Director of UR Museums.

Residencies:
Alumnae Vi Trinh UR'19 was awarded a 2020 Post Grad Residency at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA Jan-March 2020.

Faculty Highlights

Smith On Display
Professor Sable Elyse Smith’s work will be on display at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Philadelphia in the exhibition’s third installment entitled Banal Presents. On view starting September 13.
Smith at ICA
Professor Sable Elyse Smith’s work will be on display at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University. The exhibition Great Force will be on view starting October 5.
Nelson Exhibition Reviewed
Professor Brittany Nelson’s exhibition “10,000 Light Years From Home” at Chicago’s PATRON Gallery was reviewed by Frieze and Art in America, calling the work “a poignant meditation on love, isolation, and queer desire."
Nelson on Display
Professor Brittany Nelson’s work is on display at the Cosmological Arrows exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. The exhibition is open now until November 10.
Smith Opens Exhibition
Professor Sable Elyse Smith’s solo show will open at the Carlos Ishikawa Gallery in London on November 6.
Nelson Book Launch
Professor Brittany Nelson’s book Out of the Everywhere launched at Casa Caníbal on August 19 and published by Mousse Publishing. Highlights topics such as feminist science fiction, space travel, and isolation.
Smith at MoMA
Professor Sable Elyse Smith’s work is currently displayed in MOOD: Studio Museum Artist-in-Residence 2018-19 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Smith Exhibition Reviewed
Professor Sable Elyse Smith’s work was reviewed in a New York Times’ article about must-see art shows in New York City.
Smith Featured
Professor Sable Elyse Smith was featured in an article by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Smith discusses her hands-on approach to her work and the brutality in everyday objects.
Softic Published
Tanja Softic published a paper in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy entitled "Circle Back: Immigrant Memories and Fungal Networks."