2024 Exhibitions
Learning to Look: An Artist’s Perspective
January 18 – March 17, 2024
This exhibition is curated by Alejandre Favela, Hollins University class of 2024 and the museum’s summer 2023 intern sponsored by the International Fine Print Dealers Association. During Favela’s time at the museum, he gained a number of skills, including learning the basics of handling works of art and researching printing techniques. As part of the internship, Favela studied works in the museum’s print collection in order to propose and curate this exhibition, which juxtaposes prints in unexpected and thought-provoking pairs. He writes, “The purpose of pairing these works based on visual similarities is to teach audiences how to look at art from an artist’s perspective… It is my goal to make art approachable, and I hope that this exhibition helps everyone in learning to look.”
IMAGE: John Ballator, Oregon Landscape, 1950. Screenprint. Gift of the artist. Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, 2009.011.
African-American Quilts from the Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi
February 1 – April 14, 2024
Collector, scholar, and maker Carolyn Mazloomi sought work by artists with powerful voices as she built her collection. Quilts, especially those with a narrative element, have been a particularly vital tool that Black makers use to illustrate Black history. These artists portray a variety of Black experiences, some celebrating the achievements of artists, poets, and adventurers, and others protesting the pervasive and harmful racism directed towards people of color in American society. A selection of twenty-four contemporary quilts are presented in this vibrant and inspiring exhibition. Quilts provided from the collection of Carolyn L. Mazloomi.
IMAGE: April Anue Shipp, Mama Rosa, 2017. Cotton fabric, cotton batt; machine appliqué, machine quilting. Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi.
2024 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Ying Li: Blossoms in a Sudden Strangeness III
February 1 – April 14, 2024
Ying Li is known for her thickly-painted, abstract plein air paintings created in beautiful outdoor gardens, landscapes, and urbanscape settings around the world and across the United States. She has taught at Haverford College since 1997 and is currently the Phlyssa Koshland Professor of Fine Arts. In March of 2020, the busyness of our human lives began to grind to a halt, with classes, exhibits, and concerts cancelled. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Li created these colorful paintings while living on the Haverford campus.
The Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows Hollins University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus every year. In residence during the spring semester, the Artist-in-Residence creates work in a campus studio and teaches a seminar open to all students.
IMAGE: Ying Li, Awakening, 2020. Oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist.
Live, Laugh, Levavi Oculos: Celebrating a Community Through Time
April 4 – 21, 2024
Using selected works from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s permanent collection and the archives at the Wyndham Robertson Library, student curators put theory into practice in this exhibition which is the culmination of the spring class, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum.” As part of the class, students collaborate and share responsibility for conceptualizing, researching, designing, interpreting, and installing a cohesive exhibition. Participants bring a variety of backgrounds and experience to the class, pursuing various disciplines. Co-instructors are Stephanie Gibson, Professor of Art History, and Jenine Culligan, Director of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum.
The student curators explain, “We, as Hollins students, live and laugh together over the years, recalling past and present visualizations of our surroundings. This exhibit embodies the idea of Levavi Oculos to lift thine eyes to the views around us.”
IMAGE: Ron Boehmer (American, b. 1949), Untitled (preliminary sketch for Tinker Creek), 1989-90. Oil on toned paper. Gift of Bill and Linda White. Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, 2016.009.
2024 Senior Majors Exhibition
May 2-19, 2024
This exhibition features the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2024 majoring in studio art: Jamie (Caroline) Collins, Katrina Dodge, Amanda T. Dowd, Lex Eakle, A. Carol Ennis, Alejandre R.V. Favela, Fiona Grannan, Jazmyn Long, Mary Marshall Martin, Raine E. Matos, Gabriella Marie S. Pedicone, SG Pratt, Ryn A. Ruiz, Priscila Santiago Hernandez, Althea T. Slattery, Seaira C. Siv, Regan Tate, and Finn Webster. The exhibition is the final requirement for art students earning their Bachelor of Arts at Hollins, and is the capstone experience of their yearlong senior project.
2024 Ceramics Post-Baccalaureate Exhibition
May 2-19, 2024
This exhibition features the work of the inaugural members of the Hollins University Ceramics Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program: Beth Moody and Tara Wolfe.
Women Working with Clay
May 30 – July 21, 2024
In conjunction with the annual Women Working with Clay Symposium held each summer at Hollins University, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum presents an exhibition of work by these well-known artists in the world of contemporary ceramics: program director Dara Hartman; presenters Hona Leigh Knudsen, Joanne Seongweon Lee, Aysha Peltz, Lydia Thompson, and Christina A. West; guest speaker Christa Assad; and founding director Donna Polseno. Founded in 2011, this symposium was created to honor the great accomplishments of women ceramic artists today. It explores the connections of the long history of women in cultures all over the world as vessel makers, artists, and artisans.
Dance Lab: Melissa Miller
June 13-30, 2024
Each summer, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum partners with the Hollins University M.F.A. Dance program to host selected student graduate dance thesis presentations in the Main Gallery, melding live dance, performance, and visual art. This summer, the museum presents the work of one graduating student. Melissa Miller is an artist working in movement, writing, and installation based in St Louis, Missouri. Holy Body / Monstrous Body: The Life and Practices of Saint Catherine of Siena is the story of a body caught in the cross hairs of religious dogma, male dominance, and violent misogyny and the ways in which that body behaved and succumbed.
IMAGE: Courtesy of the artist.
Julie Benbassat: Illustrations
June 13 – July 28, 2024
Julie Benbassat’s inspiring illustrations combine observational drawings of nature and everyday objects with imagination and fantasy. This exhibition of Benbassat’s work emphasizes process, and includes concept work, original drawings and paintings and digital prints. On view are story boards and ideation scripts; imagined character, object, and place concept drawings; and original works paired with final digitized images.
Benbassat is an illustrator and painter based in Philadelphia, PA. A 2019 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she specializes in editorial illustrations and children’s publishing. Benbassat employs a range of mediums, from traditional to digital, often blending them to create eccentric works that are both fantastical and natural. Her artwork has been included in exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Her latest project, illustrating There’s That Sun Again by MK Smith Despres, will be released in fall 2024.
IMAGE: Julie Benbassat, Cover spread for The Book from Far Away, 2023. Digital print. Courtesy of the artist.
Children’s Book Illustration Faculty Exhibition
July 11 – September 15, 2024
The M.F.A. program in Children’s Book Writing and Illustration at Hollins is the first of its kind in the country. Students who want to both write and illustrate books for children and young adults, or who wish to work in publishing, or who wish to attain a terminal degree to teach in higher education, can immerse themselves in a concentrated creative environment. Each summer, a core group of talented and renowned children’s book authors and illustrators arrive on campus from all around the U.S. and, along with invited guest artists, teach and host workshops. The campus is populated each year with familiar storybook characters.
This process-oriented exhibition features recent work by five illustration faculty and one guest artist for the 2024 summer program: Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Director of Graduate Programs in Children’s Literature and Illustration; Mary Jane Begin, visiting associate professor and Illustration Chair; Matthew Faulkner, visiting associate professor; Ruth Sanderson, visiting associate professor; Ashley Wolff, visiting associate professor; and James Ransome, guest artist. The works on view focus on recent book projects, and a few of the artists have included preliminary sketches and other materials to emphasize process.
This exhibition is sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
Larry Day: Relational Drawings
August 8 – September 22, 2024
Often referred to as the dean of Philadelphia painters, Larry Day (1921-1998) was a pioneer in the postmodernist movement and best known for his large figural compositions and fresco-like paintings that placed contemporary people into a classical narrative.
Drawing was central to Larry Day’s work. He made preliminary sketches; drawings during a painting’s evolution; and reflective drawings, executed after the painting was completed. The drawings in this exhibition are from a 2022 gift to the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum from Larry Day’s widow, Ruth Fine, and relate to three large paintings by the artist: Times of Day: Morning, Afternoon, Evening, 1965; Parnassus, 1968; and Self Portrait Break/Change/Limit, 1981-83.
This is the first time these relational drawings and paintings have been exhibited together, providing the opportunity to compare how the artist experimented with figural composition, gestures, and changing structural issues. They portray Day’s easy aptitude with multiple drawing mediums including charcoal, graphite, ball point pen, and ink wash.
Larry Day was a professor of painting, drawing, and theory at Philadelphia College of Art, professor emeritus at University of the Arts, and taught at other schools throughout his native city, Philadelphia.
IMAGE: Larry Day, Drawing Related to Times of Day: Morning, 1965. Sepia wash. Gift of Ruth Fine. Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, 2022.010.
Warhol Revisited
August 8 – October 6, 2024
In 2011, the Andy Warhol Foundation celebrated their 20th anniversary with substantial gifts of Warhol’s photographic works to university and college art galleries across the United States. The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University received over one hundred photographs as part of this generous program. In 2013, additional gifts were made to complement the photographs. The Wilson Museum received seven important Warhol prints which are on view in this exhibition. These prints by Warhol were outside the published or trial proof editions.
Warhol Revisited reexamines with a modern lens Andy Warhol’s personal attitudes and involvement in the Pop Art movement to better understand how his prints play a role in today’s world. With a variety of subject matter, Warhol’s prints give insight into the focal points and topics of importance of not only the Pop Art movement but Warhol himself.
Warhol Revisited curator Alyssa Lawhorn (Hollins University class of 2026) is the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s summer 2024 intern, sponsored by a grant from the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Foundation.
This exhibition is sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
IMAGE: Andy Warhol, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1975. Screenprint on Arches paper. Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation. Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, 2014.005.