2019 Exhibitions
Diane Edison
2019 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence
January 17 – May 8, 2019
In 1986, Diane Edison began to focus on self-portraits and images of family members, co-workers, and friends. She has become well known for these intense, honest, larger-than-life, close-range portraits. Edison creates her work using color pencil on black paper. The intricately detailed works draw the viewer in for scrutiny, and offer an extreme psychological and physical depiction of the people within the artist’s circle.
Edison earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1976 and her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. Edison has been a member of the faculty at the Lamar Dodd School of Art since 1992. Her college textbook, Dynamic Color Painting for the Beginner, was published in 2008 by Harry Abrams in New York City and simultaneously with Laurence King Ltd. in the United Kingdom.
Established by an anonymous donor in 1997, the endowed Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows the University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus each academic year. In residence during the spring semester, the visiting artist creates work in a campus studio and teaches an art seminar open to all students.
IMAGE: Diane Edison, Large Self-Portrait, 1993. Pastel on black paper. Courtesy of the artist and George Adams Gallery.
Power and Beauty: Women Artists from the Collection
January 22 – February 10, 2019
In 2005, the inaugural exhibition for the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum featured the powerful work of Carrie Mae Weems and culminated in the acquisition of a photograph from the artist’s Kitchen Table Series. To celebrate the past 15 years of hosting exhibits on the first floor of the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center and to honor museum benefactor Siddy Wilson, the museum presents an exhibition highlighting artwork from the museum’s collection by contemporary women artists.
IMAGE: Matika Wilbur, Dr. Mary for Project 562, 2014-15. Copper photogravure. Museum purchase, 2018.018.
Momoyo Torimitsu: Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable
February 14 – April 14, 2019
Installation artist Momoyo Torimitsu pushes the boundaries of viewer comfort and investigates the phenomenon of “cuteness syndrome” with oversized inflatable pink bunny rabbits. The artist writes, “A bunny is one of the stereotyped images of cuteness: an innocent, pure, small something that should be protected… This oversized bunny I created that looks down on you doesn’t seem cute anymore – it’s kind of disturbing.”
Torimitsu works in a variety of forms, including sculpture, installation, video, photographs, performance, and site-specific projects. Her work is inspired by the hypocritical imagery of corporate culture and media stereotypes of cuteness and happiness, reexamined through the lenses of irony and humor. Born in Japan, Torimitsu earned her BA from Tama Art University in Tokyo. She has lived and worked in New York since 1996, when she joined the P.S. 1 International Studio Program. Torimitsu received grants from Rema Hort Foundation and Asian Cultural Council, and she completed residencies with Art Omi International in Ghent, NY, and ISEA in collaboration with National University of Singapore’s computer science laboratory. Torimitsu has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and installations nationally and abroad. This exhibition is sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
#howcuteistoocute?
IMAGE: Momoyo Torimitsu, Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable, 2000. Inflatable nylon balloons. Courtesy of the artist and Misa Shin Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Kioko Keizo.
20th Century Photographs from the Rugaber Collection
February 21 – April 28, 2019
This exhibition presents 53 black-and-white works by prominent 20th century photographers and loaned to the museum by Walter and Sally Rugaber. The collection includes landscape, architectural, and portrait photography that showcases life in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It features historic photographs from the Farm Security Administration (FSA) including work by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, Ben Shahn, and others. The collection also includes photographs by Eugene Atget, Lewis Hine, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Danny Lyon, Sally Mann, and many more.
Walter and Sally Rugaber are longtime supporters of the arts in the Roanoke valley. They each began their respective careers in journalism and met while working at the Atlanta Journal. They have lived in southwest Virginia since 1982, during which time Mr. Rugaber worked as publisher and president of the Roanoke Times and Landmark Publishing Group. Additionally, Mr. Rugaber was a Trustee on the Hollins University Board from 1993-2007, and served as the university’s interim president in 2001-02. While on a visit to Santa Fe, NM, the Rugabers purchased their first photograph from the FSA era. The Rugabers note, “We certainly didn’t intend to become ‘collectors’… somewhere in there decided we loved those scenes from the 30s and wanted more of them.”
This exhibit is sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
IMAGE: Marion Post Wolcott, Negro Man Entering Movie Theater to “Colored” Section, Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939. Photograph. Courtesy of Walter and Sally Rugaber. Photo by Kyra Schmidt.
2019 Senior Majors Exhibition
May 14-25, 2019
This exhibition features the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2019 majoring in studio art: Meera Chauhan, Kristenna France, Rachel Lee Foster Jackson, Anais Quick, Naomi Saltzman, Maya Paige Schattgen, Ashley Soechting, and Anshu Thapa. 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.
Women Working with Clay Symposium Exhibition
May 9 – June 12, 2019
In conjunction with the ninth 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 Donna Polseno; assistant director Dara Hartman; presenters Jen Allen, Beth Lo, Liz Lurie, and Tip Toland; keynote speaker Lydia Thompson; and endnote speaker Cynthia Bringle. This symposium emphasizes the creative process from every level while looking at the particular aspects and points of view that may be unique to women working in clay.
Reunion: Rosalind Waiwaiole ’14
May 16 – June 16, 2019
Rosalind (Roz) Waiwaiole is a graduate of Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. Growing up as a native of Hawaii, she has always been drawn to the natural elements. As part of her culture and beliefs, one is connected with the earth. Waiwaiole has lived in many parts of the country, all of which have inspired her to look at the landscape and the environment, which she captures through an architectural or nature-based realm. She is interested in structures that have been abandoned and that are in the process of deteriorating as they provide a sense of atmosphere, longing, and passage of time. The shapes of the natural terrain, the line of structure, and the color palette of the earth are embodied in her work.
Waiwaiole now resides in Henry County, in Southwest Virginia, and works and teaches out of her studio located in The Grainery Studio, in historic downtown Rocky Mount.
IMAGE: Rosalind Waiwaiole, Untitled, 2019. Charcoal, oil, and cold wax. Courtesy of the artist.
Dance Lab: MFA Dance Thesis Exhibitions
June 13-23 and June 27 – July 7, 2019
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. Eryn Schon-Brunner is an American choreographer, dancer, and dance educator. Her work employs classical, electronic, jazz, and contemporary pop music with a wide-ranging movement vocabulary. Her exhibition, Puzzling Essence, examines the nature of being by juxtaposing portraits of a single subject in various media: painted portraits, choreography, and kinetic sculpture. Erica Gionfriddo is a dancer, choreographer and somatic researcher experimenting with how and where bodies – and humans – connect. Her exhibition, In the Ether, is a staged rehearsal of possible cyborg realities. Using the performance of identity as a lens to interrogate the ways emergent technologies de-center the body, this interactive exhibit offers participants the opportunity to question the distinction between their actual and virtual selves.
Mary Jane Begin: Mapping the Imagination
June 28 – September 8, 2019
Each summer, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum collaborates with the Children’s Book Writing & Illustrating M.F.A. program at Hollins University, presenting exhibitions by summer faculty and visiting artists. Illustration professor Mary Jane Begin’s exhibit, Mapping the Imagination, deconstructs the creative process and shares the development of two book projects: Revolution and Ping Meets Pang. Begin is a professor in the illustration department at the Rhode Island School of Design and an award-winning children’s book illustrator and author. Her latest picture books include My Little Pony: Under the Sparkling Sea and The Dragons on Dazzle Island, published in collaboration with Hasbro. The artist’s select advertising clients include Hasbro, Celestial Seasonings, Mead Johnson, and Disney. Begin’s work has been exhibited throughout the country, with one-woman shows at Books of Wonder Gallery in New York, NY and Beverly Hills, CA, and the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, RI.
IMAGE: Mary Jane Begin, Ping Meets Pang, 2019. Illustration.
Ben Hatke: Nobody Likes a Goblin
July 11 – September 15, 2019
Ben Hatke is an author, illustrator, and graphic novelist nationally known for his New York Times bestseller Zita the Spacegirl. He has also written and illustrated the graphic novels Little Robot and Mighty Jack, and the picture books Julia’s House for Lost Creatures and Nobody Likes a Goblin. In the delightful and charming children’s book Nobody Likes a Goblin, Hatke tackles expectations and prejudice. This exhibit presents 40 original watercolors from the book and allows viewers of all ages to walk through the story with Goblin, from his happy life in the dungeon shared with rats and his best friend Skeleton, to his journey out into the world after adventurers kidnap Skeleton and steal everything they own. Hatke currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife and five daughters.
This exhibition and related programs are sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
IMAGE: Ben Hatke, illustration from Nobody Likes a Goblin, 2016. Watercolor and ink.
Power, Beauty, and Justice: A Selection of Contemporary Women Artists from the Collection
July 25 – September 8, 2019
Power, Beauty, and Justice presents a selection of work by contemporary women artists from the permanent collection. Arranged by medium, this exhibit encourages guests to explore the combined visual effects of concept, process, and subject matter. The active process of art making can be intricate and beautiful in a traditional sense such as Reni Gower’s and Lauren Scanlon’s carefully cut paper designs or meditative, repetitive, and formally complex as in Jennifer Printz’s and Alison Hall’s markmaking. Or it can be bold and powerful using non-traditional methods such as shooting bullets into a large-scale painted metal surface such as in the work of Margaret Evangeline.
Many of the artists in the exhibit have focused on using their artwork to explore, witness, and raise awareness of issues of identity, gender, race, environmental concerns, animal and human rights, and social justice. Together, they give us a unique vision of their inner and outer worlds, with beautiful comments on and powerful reactions to contemporary life.
IMAGE: Zanele Muholi, Nomali I Roanoke, Virginia, 2018. Silver gelatin print. Museum purchase, 2019.008.
Gibby Waitzkin: The Truth Continuum
September 19 – December 8, 2019
Gibby Waitzkin is a fiber artist, papermaker, and photographer. For over 35 years she has used her arts and design background to support arts advocacy issues and environmental and women’s rights. This installation transforms part of the Wilson Museum into a visual representation of strength, community, and interconnection. Plant samples and a video of the artist’s process reveal her centuries-old papermaking techniques.
This exhibition and related programs are sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
IMAGE: Gibby Waitzkin, Reflection at Sunset. Mixed media.
Pulped Under Pressure
September 26 – December 19, 2019
With traditional hand papermaking at its core, Pulped Under Pressure underscores important contemporary issues steeped in history and craft. These works encourage a contemplative slowing down even as they urge acknowledgement of the issues facing civilization today. Each of the artists starts simply with a foundation of pulp made from natural fibers. Their multifaceted results incorporate a rich range of printmaking, letterpress, papercutting, and installation with a diversity of reused materials. In very unique ways, these artists consider paper beyond its most common function as a passive surface of record or craft. Instead, the material is transformed and embedded with content that turns communication into a public practice.
IMAGE: Marilyn Propp, Travelers. Relief print on paper.
2018 Exhibitions
Susan King: Chronicles of a Southern Feminist
January 4 – April 8, 2018
Susan King first encountered artist books in Los Angeles at the Feminist Studio Workshop (later to become the Women’s Building), one of the first independent art schools for women. In the mid-1970s, she became the studio director of the Women’s Graphic Center at the Woman’s Building, working closely with Judy Chicago and other pioneer feminist artists, writers, and activists. In 1975, King established Paradise Press, and for the past 43 years she has been producing her own work and that of other writers/artists.
King chose a quiet, intimate medium to create clever, feminist statements in the form of books, broadsides, and ephemera. Her work draws inspiration from her personal life including childhood memories, family lore, travel, growing up in the South, learning French, fashion in the 1960s, and battling breast cancer. Witty juxtapositions of stories and type portray her thoughtful and wry style, dovetailed with intelligent, innovative design and feminist sensibilities. King has returned to her roots in Kentucky, moving her presses to her home studio where she continues to write, photograph, and create books and ephemera.
IMAGE: Susan King, The Queen of Wands, 1993. Offset, gold stamping, die-cut tetra tetra flexagon structure. Funded by Women’s Studio Workshop Grant. Courtesy of the artist, Paradise Press, and Women’s Studio Workshop.
BRIGHT LIGHTS: James W. Hyams
January 18 – March 25, 2018
In this exhibition of ten lighted sculptures and the original prints that inspired them, Roanoke art collector James W. Hyams pays homage to artists whom he considers “bright lights” in the art world. Hyams writes, “What you will find in this exhibition are a series of sculptures that were designed to honor and have a bit of fun with a few of my favorite artists.” These include Christo, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ettore Sottsass. This exhibit reveals the power and impact of living with art.
IMAGE: James W. Hyams, Bright Lights: Claes Oldenburg, 2017. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist.
Zanele Muholi: 2018 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence
February 8 – April 22, 2018
Artist/Visual Activist Zanele Muholi’s development as a photographer is deeply intertwined with her advocacy on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community in South Africa and worldwide. After Muholi co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women in 2002, she enrolled in the Advanced Programme in Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, South Africa. In 2009, Muholi earned her MFA in documentary media from Ryerson University in Toronto. Muholi has earned numerous awards, most recently and most notably France’s Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters) for 2017, which recognizes those who have “distinguished themselves in the domain of artistic or literary creation or for the contribution they have made to art and literature in France and the world.” Her work has been exhibited internationally. She is represented in the United States by Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York. The Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows Hollins University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus every year. During their time at Hollins, the Artist-in-Residence is a vital part of the campus and greater Roanoke community.
IMAGE: Zanele Muholi, Lumka Stemela Nyanga, East Cape Town, 2011. Gelatin silver print. © Zanele Muholi, courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson, New York, and Stevenson Cape Town/ Johannesburg.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Student-Curated Exhibitions
April 26 – May 20, 2018
Using selected works from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s permanent collection, student curators put theory into practice in this exhibition which is the culmination of the spring class, “Behind the Scenes: Principles and Practice.” 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 Dr. Genevieve Hendricks, Professor of Art History, and Jenine Culligan, Director of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. The 2018 exhibitions are Familiar Forms: Exploring the Male Gaze in Modern and Contemporary Art and Entering Art: Exploring Works through Shape and Color.
2018 Senior Majors Exhibition
May 8–20, 2018
This exhibition features the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2018 majoring in studio art: Robin Brewster, Amber Carter, Summer Eary, Brittany Lewis, Amanda Malone, and Ashley-Kate Meador. 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.
Women Working with Clay Symposium Exhibition
April 5 – June 13, 2018
This exhibition is organized in conjunction with the Hollins University Women Working with Clay Symposium (which takes place June 11-14, 2018). Works are on display by program director and organizer Donna Polseno; keynote speaker Winnie Owens-Hart; endnote speaker Dara Hartman; and presenters Sunshine Cobb, Rebecca Hutchinson, Eva Kwong, and Deborah Schwartzkopf.
These artists, internationally known in the world of ceramics, bring a wealth of research, knowledge, and a masterly, unique style to the field of ceramics. They create functional pottery, art vessels, and sculpture, inspired by disparate sources including traditional African pottery, Eastern and Western aesthetics, industrial forms, and engineering in nature. By breaking apart and reassembling structures, a number of the artists explore the intersection of art and science, the relationship between light and shadow, and the liminal space between the imagined and the real.
DANCE LAB: MFA Dance Thesis Exhibitions
June 7-17 and June 21 – July 1, 2018
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 will present L Taylor Ashton’s Ataba, (June 7-17), and Erica De La O’s ellesig (June 21-July 1).
Four Fur Feet: A Hollins Collaborative Early Literacy Project
May 31 – September 2, 2018
This exhibition features ten original gouache paintings by Ruth Sanderson along with sketches and a storyboard for the book Four Fur Feet. Sanderson has illustrated over eighty books for children, and her fairytales have received much critical acclaim. She co-directs the MFA in writing and illustrating for children at Hollins University.
IMAGE: Ruth Sanderson, Four Fur Feet, 2017.
Shadra Strickland: Illustrations
June 28 – September 2, 2018
Shadra Strickland studied design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University and completed her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her first picture book, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Strickland co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. She currently teaches illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, and travels the country conducting workshops and sharing her work with children, teachers, and librarians. This exhibition features illustrations from a selection of Strickland’s award-winning books.
IMAGE: Shadra Strickland, illustration from Bird, 2008.
Eric Fitzpatrick: Southern Culture Series
July 12 – September 23, 2018
Born and raised in Roanoke, artist Eric Fitzpatrick is beloved in Southwest Virginia, known for his paintings of landmark buildings, local hangouts, area musicians, street scenes and area personalities. Fitzpatrick has worked as a full-time professional artist for over 35 years. He earned his BA at Virginia Tech, studied painting at the University of Georgia, and completed two fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His work is in private, corporate, and museum collections throughout the U.S. and worldwide.
Fascinated by the way Southerners are taught to view their past, Fitzpatrick turns his characteristic style to exploring those defining stereotypes in his Southern Culture Series. Bordering on caricature, this work exaggerates these stereotypes, forcing the viewer to confront their own (often unconscious) cultural assumptions.
IMAGE: Eric Fitzpatrick, Flat Footin’, 2006, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Mike Wilson, Bohemian Robot Photography.
Images of Social Justice from the Segura Arts Studio
September 13 – December 9, 2018
Master printer and publisher Joe Segura has dedicated his life’s work to collaborative printmaking, working with and promoting artists from underrepresented cultural groups. Segura founded the Segura Publishing Company in 1981 in Tempe, Arizona, and was drawn to marginalized artists: women, African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. In 2013, upon invitation from the University of Notre Dame, Segura moved the workshop to South Bend, Indiana, and changed the name to Segura Arts Studio. Following the move, Segura immediately began to dovetail the studio’s activities with those of the academic departments at the University of Notre Dame.
This exhibition features thirty-six prints created at Segura Arts Studio by seventeen visiting artists. Social justice issues bind these artists together, each tackling either human, animal, or land rights issues in their own style. The prints include a linocut by Elizabeth Catlett, lithographs by Sue Coe and Luis Jiminez, mixed media works by Luis Gonzales Palma, and photogravures by Graciela Iterbide. More recent artists to visit the workshop include: Claudia Bernardi, Enrique Chagoya, Claudio Dicochea, Terry Evans, Hung Liu, Jacob Meders, Faith Ringgold, Maria Tomasula, Vincent Valdez, Carrie Mae Weems, Emmi Whitehorse, and Matika Wilbur. All of these artists express concerns regarding the abuse of power, culture wars, race, gender, and citizenship. This exhibition is sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
IMAGE: Claudia Bernardi, Palabras de Arena (Words of Sand), 2013. Color intaglio, ed. of 60.
Christian Benefiel:
sculpture in an otherwise empty space
October 4 – December 16, 2018
Made of interwoven pieces of wood, Christian Benefiel’s large-scale sculptures are both aesthetically pleasing and philosophical in nature. These three works all feature holes and allude to targets, tunnels, or vessels. The holes are also representative of depression and loss. No nails, bolts, or glue are used to construct the works. Instead, they are held together with tension, relying on stress and force, balance, and other basic elements of physics. Inspired by the systematic structures in which culture, interpersonal relationships, and civilization are based, the works explore the notion of order in chaos, and become metaphors for the interconnectedness and fragility of society. Benefiel notes, “The way in which materials, people and elements interact, react and depend on one another is the string that ties my work together.” Students at Hollins University assisted the artist with the installation of these works. View a time lapse video of installation here.
Benefiel is Associate Professor of Sculpture at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. He has shown his work nationally and internationally and is represented in collections and public installations throughout the United States. He has received numerous awards including the Roth Endowment Award, William J. Fulbright Post Graduate Research Grant, and the Hamiltonian Fellowship. Benefiel has held artist residencies in the United States and abroad. The artist lives and works in western Maryland. This exhibition is sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.
IMAGE: Christian Benefiel, Opportunity, Obstacle and Ordeal, 2016. Natural materials.
2017 Exhibitions
Views of Tinker Mountain by Ron Boehmer
January 12 – April 30, 2017
In conjunction with the 175th anniversary celebration of the founding of Hollins University, this exhibition presents eleven studies for the oil painting by Ron Boehmer, Tinker Creek. Commissioned in 1990, the painting has been on view in Main Building on Hollins’ campus since 1991. The studies donated by the artist to the University, and now part of the permanent collection of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, are being displayed for the first time. Each a beautiful work of art, these studies show the artist’s working method and include graphite and ink sketches, ink wash, and oil pastel studies. They will be exhibited alongside the finished painting. Lynchburg-based artist Ron Boehmer is co-founder of Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton, Virginia, where he teaches drawing and painting classes and workshops, specializing in plein air painting.
IMAGE: Ron Boehmer, Tinker Creek, 1990. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Hollins University.
Hélion Highlights: Selections from the Blair Family Gift
February 2 – March 26, 2017
In May 2016, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University was the recipient of a a gift from the Blair family: a collection of over 385 preliminary paintings, drawings, and prints by Jean Hélion (French, 1904-1987). This gift (the largest in the history of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum) is an important collection of studies by one of France’s noted modernists. French by birth, Hélion married an American from Virginia and spent time living and working in the United States. He lived with his wife in Virginia from 1936-1940 and returned during WW II to work in New York City. This exhibition will present selections from this generous gift, most of which has never been exhibited to the public. This collection makes Hollins University a major repository for Hélion studies.
Inspired by the organization, rhythm, and patterns that would come to characterize his abstract paintings, Hélion’s early interests included poetry, chemistry, and architecture. In the mid-1920s, he abandoned his studies in favor of drawing classes at the Académie Adler in Paris. Over the next several years, he met and drew inspiration from abstract and cubist artists including Otto Freundlich, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, and Piet Mondrian. In 1936, Hélion moved from France to the United States. Living in New York and Virginia for four years before returning to France, Hélion deliberately changed his style to be more representative. After World War II, Hélion’s career grew to include radio and lecture appearances as well as a best-selling book about his months as a prisoner of war. Even as his later painterly interests became figurative and naturalistic, his work relied on shape and repetition in the same manner as his abstractions.
IMAGE: Jean Hélion, Study of a Standing Nude Female before Cheval Mirror, 1973. Pastel on grey paper. Courtesy of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University.
2017 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence:
Susan Lichtman
March 9 – May 9, 2017
Susan Lichtman works from direct observation to create large-scale paintings. Her renderings of interior spaces suggest a domestic narrative; she is influenced not only by Johannes Vermeer and Pierre Bonnard, but by cinematography and fiction. Lichtman lives and works in southeastern Massachusetts and is an Associate Professor of Painting at Brandeis University. The Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows Hollins University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus every year. While in residence, the artist creates work in a campus studio and teaches an art seminar open to all students. During their time at Hollins University, the Artist-in-Residence is a vital part of the campus and greater Roanoke community.
IMAGE: Susan Lichtman, Under Grapes, 2016. Oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist.
SCREEN SWAP: 175th Celebration, Roanoke College and Hollins University
April 1–16, 2017
In partnership with Roanoke College’s Olin Hall Galleries, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum will present an exhibition of “film shorts” created by students of Hollins University under the direction of the Chair of the Film Department, Amy Gerber-Stroh along with selected works from Roanoke College’s “Basically Tarantino” film contest under the direction of Joe Boucher, Director of Student Activities at the Colket Center. This exhibit will premier at Roanoke College, March 13-March 31, 2017, followed by a public screening of the selected films for the joint exhibitions at the Grandin Theater on March 30, 2017. The show will then travel to the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, April 1 – April 16, 2017.
2017 Senior Majors Exhibition
May 9–21, 2017
This exhibition features the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2017 majoring in studio art: Natalie Marie Badawy, Suprima Bhele, Laura Carden, Samantha Dozal, Madi Hurley, Maggie Perrin-Key, and Erin M. Leslie. 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.
Women Working with Clay Symposium Exhibition
May 18 – June 15, 2017
In conjunction with Hollins University’s Women Working With Clay Symposium, the Wilson Museum presents an exhibition of work by well-known artists in the world of contemporary ceramics: program director, Donna Polseno; presenters Julia Galloway, Gerit Grimm, Ayumi Horie, Patti Warashina; and featured speaker Lale Dilbaş. Internationally known in the world of ceramics, these artists use the medium of clay to create functional pottery, art vessels, and sculpture. Each brings a wealth of research and knowledge to the techniques they employ and a masterly, unique style.
ANNETTE POLAN: Covert Autobiography
Reunion 2017
June 1 – September 17, 2017
Annette Polan is a renowned portrait painter and professor emerita at the Corcoran School of Art and Design at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Polan graduated from Hollins in 1967 and also studied at Tyler School of Art, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and Ecole du Louvre. Her recent work includes sculpture, painting, drawing, mixed media, and video. Covert Autobiography explores the aging process, concentrating on a series that “incorporates images of nature to explore issues of gender and age in our culture as well as in [Polan’s] own life. It investigates aspects of a single, mature woman who although powerful and confident, can feel disenfranchised, invisible or muffled.”
Polan has taught and lectured on her work and contemporary American portraiture in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. In recognition of her leadership for Faces of the Fallen, an exhibition of portraits honoring American servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001-2004, Polan was awarded the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Outstanding Public Service Award.
IMAGE: Annette Polan, Bound Unbound. Archival ink jet on silk, cotton fibers, aluminum, fluorescent lights. 67.5 x 32 x 32″. Courtesy of the artist.
DANCE LAB: MFA Dance Thesis Exhibition
June 22 – July 2, 2017
The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is committed to serving a wide variety of art disciplines and fostering creativity and collaboration across the Hollins campus and in the region. In response to the shifting paradigm of art making, the Wilson Museum is partnering with Hollins’ M.F.A. Dance program to host Red Wind / Ruah Aduma, a graduate dance thesis project presented by Erika Tsimbrovsky.
Red Wind / Ruah Aduma is a structured improvisation, combining dance, visual art, and music in a poetic abstract installation/performance. The project is dedicated to a spirit of revolution and inspired by the Russian avant-garde. Red Wind continues their search for what is beyond form and what is behind the mind in a place between the sky and the earth exploring the horizon. The work is directed/choreographed by Erika Tsimbrovsky in collaboration with dancers Ronja Ver, Rebecca Lillich, Kathryn Schetlick, and Cayla Puyandaev; visual artist Vadim Puyandaev; video artist Lucas Krech; and musician Grundik Kasyansky.
Ethan and Vita Murrow: Drawings from “The Whale”
July 20 – October 8, 2017
The Whale is the debut picture book by husband-and-wife artistic team Ethan and Vita Murrow. This exhibition features 28 stunningly detailed graphite drawings created for this semi-wordless book. The Murrows have collaborated on a variety of artistic projects including writing, video, film, drawing, and photography. They share and divide duties much like a film production, working as a team to write and plan together. Vita acts as producer and director; Ethan builds the drawings in conversation with Vita. Both artists bring their strengths to The Whale, published first in the EU with Big Picture Press/Templar in 2015 and in the US with Candlewick Press in 2016.
Vita Murrow is currently director of the Greater Boston Jewish Coalition for Literacy at the Jewish Community Relations Council. She has worked as a teacher, an educational consultant, and in the film department at the Sesame Workshop. She is also a motion media artist and filmmaker. Ethan Murrow shows his drawings, film, and video work internationally and has exhibited in Paris, New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Dust, a short film the two Murrows collaborated on along with Harvest Films, was an official selection of the 2008 New York Film Festival. Ethan Murrow is currently a faculty member at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
IMAGE: Ethan and Vita Murrow, Boat Crash (detail of illustration for The Whale), c. 2015. Graphite on paper. 18 x 36&”. Courtesy of Winston Wachter Fine Art, Inc., New York, NY.
Drawn from the Vault
September 28 – December 10, 2017
Drawn from the Vault brings together a disparate selection of drawings on paper in a variety of media. Many of these artworks date from the second half of the 20th century and have never been exhibited. The works are grouped by medium (graphite, ink, colored pencil, charcoal, pastel, and mixed media) and range from realistic to non-objective. Many of these drawings have Hollins connections, created by former faculty such as John Ballator and Louis Thompson, for whom the exhibiting gallery is named. A number of the drawings were executed by Hollins students, either in classes during their time at Hollins, as in the case of Anne Thomas ’52 and Stephanie Coston ’07, or created by alumnae who became career artists, including Susan Cofer ’64 and Mary Page Evans ’59. A number of works on view were collected and donated by alumnae and other generous donors, such as the Paul Klee drawing, owned by the museum’s namesake Eleanor D. Wilson ’30. Additional works come from artists who became part of the region’s artistic legacy, including Walter Biggs, Peter Wreden, and Jean Hélion. This exhibition presents just a small sampling of the riches in the museum’s vault.
IMAGE: Susan Cofer, Untitled (Began as “Georgia Summer” or “My Irish Mother”), 2004. Prismacolor on paper. Gift of the artist, 2014.011.
An Almost Unnoticed Quietus: Sabbatical Work by Jennifer D. Printz
October 5 – December 20, 2017
Elegantly poetic, Jennifer D. Printz’s work explores the interplay between the material and intangible aspects of our world. Delicately rendered surfaces seamlessly combine with photographic elements as an invitation to ponder what we do and do not know. Printz is an associate professor of studio art at Hollins University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been included in publications as diverse as Tricycle and The Carolina Quarterly. Printz is an active artist who has also held leadership positions on the boards of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, SGC International, and SECAC. The works presented in this exhibition were created on Printz’s recent sabbatical in Maryland, France, and Virginia.
IMAGE: Jennifer D. Printz in her studio. Photo by Ronnie Lee Bailey.
Obsessive Collage: Matthew Cusick, Tom Nakashima, Diane Samuels
October 26, 2017 – January 21, 2018
Collage, from the French verb coller, to glue, is an assemblage of different parts to form a new whole. Artworks created using the collage technique first hit the mainstream art world in the cubistic works of Braque and Picasso in the early years of the twentieth century. The collage technique became a preferred medium for numerous artists in the Dada and Surrealist movements and helped break down barriers between painting and sculpture, sometimes incorporating found materials. Even in today’s digital age, the hands-on material quality of collage remains an important medium for twenty-first century artists.
The works in this exhibition go above and beyond our concepts of collage in both scale and preoccupation with detail. As an alternative to paint, Matthew Cusick employs an inlaid collage technique, which utilizes the inherent line, motion and prescribed palettes found in maps and other printed ephemera. Tom Nakashima draws from both Eastern and Western traditions to create monumental works of art that remind us of the heroic and metaphorical power of natural forms. In her large-scale shaped collage pieces, Diane Samuels uses other peoples’ words from books that have influenced her life, transcribing entire books in micro-text. These three artists have used collage to visually portray a persistent idea, image, or desire; although their approach is unique, each uses bits and pieces of disparate paper elements to create a new whole based on visual memories.
IMAGES: Diane Samuels, Moby Dick, 2015. Ink on handmade paper. 96 x 564 inches. Installation view.
2016 Exhibitions
Other Realities/Divergent Paths:
Montages by Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor
February 4 – April 23, 2016
Artists Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor both construct montaged works of art out of collected images or objects, yet the creative journey each employs are very divergent paths. Uelsmann is a pioneer in the world of photographic image manipulation. Since the 1950s he has been assembling multiple silver-halide negatives and working with multiple enlargers to create haunting, highly improbable realities that connect with the viewer on a subconscious level. Taylor, on the other hand, has embraced new digital technology and software to create dreamlike, fantastical imagery using what she calls her “menagerie of found objects” along with photos she has taken and vintage photos from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Seen alongside each other, their works share some symbolism and attributes, especially images of water, boats, and houses, yet the difference in feel between the black and white work of Uelsmann and the color-filled work of Taylor is distinct.
IMAGE: Upper: Jerry Uelsmann, Untitled, 2003. Gelatin silver prtint. Courtesy of the artist. Lower: Maggie Taylor, The Moth House, 2012. Pigmented digital print. Courtesy of the artist.
Tip Toland: 2016 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence
February 11 – May 1, 2016
2016 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Tip Toland creates startlingly lifelike ceramic sculptural portraits. Toland explains that her work explores “the inner state of the human condition… the truth of what it is to be human without the veneer.” Toland earned her B.F.A. from the University of Colorado and her M.F.A. from Montana State University. In 2014 she was the recipient of the US Artists Wingate Fellow Grant. She has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia A. Groot Foundation, and the Artist Trust of Seattle, WA. Her sculptures are in public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and the Crocker Art Museum, CA. Toland is a full-time studio artist and a part-time instructor in the Seattle, Washington region, and conducts workshops across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.
The Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows Hollins University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus every year. While in residence, the artist creates work in a campus studio and teaches an art seminar open to all students. During their time at Hollins University, the Artist-in-Residence is a vital part of the campus and greater Roanoke community.
IMAGE: Tip Toland, In the Throes. Stoneware and paint. Courtesy of the artist.
Water, Water Everywhere:
Paean to a Vanishing Resource
March 10 – April 24, 2016
Water is the world’s most crucial commodity and the basis for all earthly life. Its preservation and protection may be our greatest environmental challenge. The global water crisis affects everyone, from those lacking enough to those experiencing uncontrollable floods that wipe away homes and land and wildlife. Water, Water, Everywhere comprises 30-second to 30-minute films from forty-five artists worldwide exploring water issues from the political to the personal and from ethics to aesthetics. Film formats and delivery are wide ranging and include documentary, experimental, educational, humorous, solemn, animated, and acted.
Water, Water, Everywhere is traveling to arts, educational, environmental, science, and other organizations and institutions across the U.S., and is designed as a platform for discussion. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue which features a foreword by Global Water Partnership founder, Ismail Serageldin, an essay by Betsy Damon, Founder and Director of Keeper of the Waters, and an introduction by exhibition Curator Jennifer Heath.
Generous support for Water, Water Everywhere provided by Compton Foundation, Boulder County Arts Alliance, Puffin Foundation, Ltd., J. Gluckstern, Shireen Malik, Jack Collom, Lucy R. Lippard, Valerie Behiery, Felicia Furman, Rickie Solinger, Katie Hyzy, Claudia Borgna, Kathy Maria Marsh, Sarah C. Bell, Heather Sarbaugh, and Marda Kirn.
IMAGE: Michel Varisco, still image detail from Shifting. Single-channel, single-view video. Courtesy of the artist.
2016 Senior Majors Exhibition
May 10–22, 2016
This exhibition features the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2016 majoring in studio art: Georgina Alice, ASH, Gabrielle Heard, Rebecca L. Johnson, Cheyenne Lee, Anna Robertson, MaKayla Songer, Shannon Nicole Ulmer, and Ashley Woodward. 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.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Student-Curated Exhibition
May 10 – June 9, 2016
Using selected works from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s permanent collection, student curators put theory into practice in this exhibition – the culmination of the spring class titled, “Behind the Scenes: Principles and Practice.”
As part of the class, students collaborate and share responsibilities for conceptualizing, researching, designing, interpreting, and installing a cohesive exhibition. Participants bring a variety of backgrounds and experience to the class, pursuing various disciplines including art history, mathematics, and studio art. Co-instructors are Dr. Kathleen Nolan, Professor of Art History and Jenine Culligan, Director, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum.
Women Working with Clay Symposium Exhibition
May 12 – June 16, 2016
In conjunction with Hollins University’s Women Working With Clay Symposium, the Wilson Museum presents an exhibition of work by the program’s director, Donna Polseno; presenters Syd Carpenter, Michelle Erickson, Liz Quackenbush, and Tara Wilson; and featured speaker Silvie Granatelli. This symposium emphasizes the creative process from every level. At the same time, it looks at the particular aspects and points of view that may be unique to women working in clay.
DANCE LAB: MFA Dance Thesis Exhibitions
June 9 – July 3, 2016
The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is committed to serving a wide variety of art disciplines and fostering creativity and collaboration across the Hollins campus and in the region. In response to the shifting paradigm of art making, the museum is partnering with Hollins’ M.F.A. in dance program to host a series of graduate dance theses in our Main Gallery; melding live dance, performance, and visual art.
Mariah Steele will present The Memory Closet June 9-19 and Jessica Fox will show Invitation In… June 23 – July 3, 2016.
Visual Stories – Real and Imagined:
Work by Illustrators and Instructors
June 27 – August 14, 2016
This exhibition featured original artwork by instructors teaching in the summer 2016 M.F.A. children’s book illustration program at Hollins University. Included will be illustrations from Castle Full of Cats by Ruth Sanderson, The Canyon by Ashley Wolff, The Prince’s Diary by Elizabeth Dulemba, Minna’s Patchwork Coat by Lauren Mills, and Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone by Mark Braught. Additionally, this summer’s writers–in-residence, Cece Bell, Newberry Honor winning author of the graphic novel El Deafo and Tom Angleberger, creator of the bestselling Origami Yoda series will have work in the exhibition.
IMAGE: Lauren Mills, Cover for Minna’s Patchwork Coat. Oil on canvas, 20 x 15″. Courtesy of the artist.
Line + Color
July 21 – August 14, 2016
The elements of art (space, shape, line, color, form, and texture) are the building blocks artists use to create a work of art. Using strong examples from the Wilson Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibit focuses on two elements, line and color, to portray the numerous styles achieved by a variety of artists.
IMAGE: Mary Page Evans ’59, Amherst Spring, 1997-98. Oil on linen. Gift of the artist, 2005.049.
Transference: Phobias and Fears
June 23 – September 4, 2016
This selection of works from the permanent collection is presented under a theme not necessarily intended by the artists. This small grouping presents an opportunity to think about some of the most common phobias including pyrophobia (fear of fire), acrophobia (fear of heights), and claustrophobia (fear of small spaces) – transferring the meaning/intent of the work of art, but also offering a chance for the viewer to redirect feelings towards an object. All in all, it is a chance to think about how we view artworks, how they speak to us, and what we in turn project onto them. In other words, we all bring our life experiences, including our “baggage” with us wherever we go – even when we look at art.
IMAGE: Kate C. Anderson, Entropy II, 2007. Oil on linen. Museum purchase. 2007.004.002.
SECAC 2016 Juried Exhibition
September 1 – October 22, 2016
This exhibition is in conjunction with the 72nd annual SECAC meeting, jointly hosted by the City of Roanoke, Virginia Tech, and Hollins. Forty contemporary artists and educators display fifty-seven large- and small-scale works, including video, mixed media, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, prints, and more. The exhibition catalogue can be downloaded here.
IMAGE: Bridget M. Kirkland, Penny Candy, 2016. Frozen found glass captured with digital photography. Courtesy of the artist.
Between Art and Science: Maria Sibylla Merian
September 15 – December 11, 2016
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) led a fascinating life of travel and scientific pursuits, making important contributions to botany, entomology, and what we now call the field of ecology. By the time she was 32, she had published The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars. At age 52, she traveled to the northwest coast of South America, to Surinam, then a Dutch colony, where she spent two years observing, collecting, recording, and documenting plants and the life cycles of the exotic insects of that country. The result was Metamorphosis insectorium Surinamensium, a lavish folio edition featuring 60 beautifully hand-colored copperplate engravings. This exhibition presents 10 of her works, all of which have been loaned by Arader Galleries, New York and Philadelphia.
IMAGE: Maria Sibylla Merian, Plate V from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, 1705. Hand-colored engraving. Courtesy of Arader Galleries.
Re-Righting History: Contemporary Artists Look at Race and Ethnic Identity
November 3, 2016 – January 15, 2017
This exhibit consists of prints, drawings, and photographs created by contemporary artists of color who re-examine and reinterpret the prevailing cultural history of the Americas. Artists represented include Carrie Mae Weems, Willie Cole, Kara Walker, Deborah Muirhead-Dancy, Enrique Chagoya, Roger Shimomura, and Kay Walkingstick. Works are loaned from private and public collections, including the permanent collection of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum.
IMAGE: Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Enactment of the Jefferson-Hemings Affair from the Jefferson Suite), ca. 2001. Silver gelatin print. Gift of Sally Cole Nelson ’49, 2007.010.
Lenny Lyons Bruno: Coal Camp Series
November 10, 2016 – February 26, 2017
Lenny Lyons Bruno was born in a West Virginia coal camp in 1947. The Coal Camp Series is a visual narrative of her early years. Bruno shares her memories in large paintings that incorporate a wide variety of materials including quilts, photographs, ledgers, and found objects, many of which date back to the 1940s. Her sculptures are comprised of everyday objects reconfigured into forms that create a sense of reflection and wonder.
IMAGE: Lenny Lyons Bruno, Fold Inward, 2006. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist.