2007 Exhibitions
Zeuxis: Facets of Perception
Through February 17, 2007
Zeuxis, an association of still-life painters, was founded in New York City to celebrate still-life painting in a postmodern art world and is named for an artist living in Greece during the fifth century B.C. According to legend, Zeuxis created a painting of grapes so realistic that birds swooped down from the sky to eat them. In Facets of Perception, the artists of Zeuxis each include a glass tumbler in their work. Within this unifying motif, the works show a variety of scenes and situations. Featured artists include 2005 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Ruth Miller, Hollins Professor of Art Bill White, and Zeuxis founder Phyllis Floyd.
Looking Inside Godey’s Lady’s Book: Dress and Domesticity in the Nineteenth Century
February 13 – April 14, 2007
Featuring items from the Wyndham Robertson Library Special Collections and the museum’s permanent collection, Associate Professor of Art Kim Rhodes’ Art 350 class has curated an exhibition exploring the symbolic, metaphorical, and political interpretations of women’s fashion in the nineteenth century. Godey’s Lady’s Book is widely recognized as the premiere women’s magazine of the nineteenth century, featuring hand-tinted fashion plates, poetry, and articles. The colorful fashion plates depict stylish ladies at the seashore and “modern ways to arrange the hair,” while other pages offer patterns for embroidery and articles on home décor. Also included in the exhibition are period garments, hairwork jewelry, and painted screens. This exhibition is supported by the Sowell Fund and the Collaborative Faculty/Student Research Fund.
2007 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Michael Ananian
March 6 – April 28, 2007
Painter Michael Ananian creates images that reflect the mutual influence of framework and ideas. Using rough brushstrokes that mimic the instincts and emotions of his subjects, he combines these elements to construct a complete visual narrative. Ananian received his B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design and his M.F.A. from the Yale School of Art. He has served as a visiting artist at the University of Louisville, Indiana University, and the University of Tulsa and is currently on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
The Architect’s Brother
April 24 – June 23, 2007
Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison creatively portray an environment damaged by technology and overuse. Featured in each historically inspired photograph is Robert ParkeHarrison as “The Architect’s Brother.” The character stitches together a torn landscape using a giant needle and thread, or climbs a huge overblown dandelion to spread its seeds. With sweetness and humor, The Architect’s Brother reminds us to consider the ways we use our world. The Architect’s Brother was organized by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film with the support of the Bulrush Foundation.
The Senior Exhibition
May 8 – 20, 2007
This exhibition features the work of the members of the class of 2007 majoring in studio art and film and photography: Brittany D. Addison-Prescott, Kate Anderson, Mandy Atkinson, Elizabeth Hunter Bartenstein, Erika Breiding, Cheyenne Brown, Stephanie Coston, Elizabeth M. Denton, Mandy Dziewulski, Dyanna W. Fincher, Tiffany Jackson, Lora Walentina Jarocki, Larissa McGinnity, April Ngo, Lisa Marie O’Quinn, Rhiann Elizabeth Pask, Lee Pembroke, Amanda Progen, Megan Hoke Rexrode, Ann C. Richardson, Nessa E. Ryan, Alexandra Leigh Schlicht, Sarah Straits Vanell, Libby Viars, Adrian Wade, and Ashley Wimer. Join us at the campus preview reception to see which works have been awarded purchase prizes and will be added to the teaching collection. The family reception at the conclusion of the show is a celebration for parents and relatives who are on campus for commencement.
Reunion 2007: Susan Cofer ’64
June 1 – September 1, 2007
The subtle details and biomorphic forms of Susan Cofer’s Prismacolor pencil drawings suggest spiritual introspection without voicing a particular agenda. After graduating from Hollins in 1964, Susan Cofer returned to Atlanta where she continues to work. She is well known for her intensely sensitive and enigmatic organic form drawings. Her work has been exhibited in prominent museums and galleries throughout the U.S. including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Each year during Reunion, The Wilson Museum is honored to feature the work of an alumni artist. Please contact the museum if you are (or know of) an alumna artist to make sure you are in our database.
Nancy Callahan: The Book as Art
June 15 – September 29, 2007
By combining bookmaking with nontraditional media, Nancy Callahan’s books tell an unexpected life story illustrated through the objects of everyday life. Known for her creative work in screen printing, Callahan is a leader in the field of artist’s book. She has exhibited her work since 1968 both nationally and internationally. Based on her research and development of unique book and paper structures, she has lectured nationally and has received several research and project grants. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Art, State University of New York College at Oneonta.
VISIONS: Contemporary Women Artists
July 6 – August 18, 2007
What’s your vision of the feminine? Contemporary female artists Laura Schiff Bean, Johan Hagaman, Melody Postma, June Stratton, and Maggie Taylor share their opinions in this exhibition featuring painting, sculpture, and new media. Structured as an open forum, this exhibition features each artist’s explorations of iconic, ritualistic, psychological and socio-cultural feminine portrayals through a variety of materials. This exhibition was organized by Lanoue Fine Art in Boston.
LOOK HERE Speed from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
September 8, 2007 – January 5, 2008
Organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and featuring objects from their collection, this exhibition shows how artists use movement to create spirited and expressive masterpieces and includes 2-D and 3-D art and artifacts from several cultures. A yacht racing over dark water, a galloping horse, and a full-skirted dancer represent motion in painting and sculpture. These works project the vibrancy of life and celebrate the desire of artists to capture the thrill, terror, and delight of movement. Speed has been called “an experiment in cross-cultural art interpretation, following a single concept down several avenues of discovery and rediscovery.” The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is a Statewide Partner of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Regional Spotlight: Richard Stenhouse
September 18 – December 8, 2007
Richard Stenhouse applies pastel and graphite to translucent Mylar with such precision that the resulting image appears as an atmospherically sensitive photograph. He shows North and South Carolina landscapes colored with an air of mystery, evoking emotions through careful choice of subject matter. This exhibition showcases work from almost two decades of the artist’s career, during which he honed the seldom-used technique of drawing on Mylar film. Stenhouse studied architecture before pursuing his M.F.A. at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His work is collected by several museums including the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and the Mint Museum.
Collection Connection: Tom Brady
October 16, 2007 – February 16, 2008
The Collection Connection exhibition series connects a work from the museum’s permanent collection with a wider body of the artist’s work. Tom Brady’s sketches and oil paintings show students how an artist works with different media over time. With brilliant color and thick impasto, he brings importance to everyday people and objects. Brady received his M.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and was awarded a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in 2000. Black Cross, the work owned by the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, was acquired in 2004 as part of the Ralph Grant collection. Brady’s art has been exhibited in museums throughout the east coast.
2006 Exhibitions
Two Decades of Deadlines: Works by David Hodge
January 17 – February 11, 2006
In conjunction with the premiere of the museum’s logo, this retrospective exhibition serves as a mid-career survey of Roanoke graphic designer David Hodge. A graduate of Radford University, Hodge has worked as a graphic designer for more than 20 years and has won numerous awards for his work. In addition to his efforts with the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hodge has worked with Hollins University since 1993 designing the award winning Hollins alumnae magazine as well as many of the printed materials for the admissions office. He is currently a partner with Anstey Hodge Advertising Group in Roanoke, Virginia.
Red Beans and Rice: Asian Artists in the New South
January 17 – April 1, 2006
This multi-disciplinary exhibition features the work of thirteen contemporary Asian artists who call the American south “home”. Curated by Craig Bunting and Kóan-Jeff Baysa, this exhibition explores ideas of cultural engagement, dual citizenship, spirituality, and American and Asian ideals and stereotypes in the post 9/11 landscape. Layered and personal, the artists in this show represent the Asian countries of China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines — and the increasingly diverse face of the New South.
The Spiritual and the Material: Visual Culture of Religions
January 31 – April 29, 2006
Explore the relationship between religious art and visual culture in this exhibition comprised primarily of objects from the museum’s permanent collection. The Spiritual and the Material examines the influence of various religions on art made in celebration of the sacred and the secular. This teaching exhibition was developed through the collaboration of several university programs (art history, classics, and religious studies) and with the assistance of student interns.
2006 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Jan Baltzell
February 21 – April 29, 2006
Jan Baltzell, a painter who lives and works in Philadelphia, is professor of painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. With a B.F.A. from the Philadelphia College of Art, and an M.F.A. from Miami University, Baltzell is from a long line of Philadelphia artists whose vision is based on Modernist ideas of color structure. Exuberant and sensuous, her abstract works are often painted on translucent Mylar sheets and suggest a garden in full bloom.
Selections from the Ralph Grant Collection
April 18 – September 9, 2006
In fall 2004, Lexington art collector Ralph Grant gave over 150 works from his personal collection to the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. This diverse gift includes paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures and prints from regional luminaries in Virginia and Pennsylvania, (Frank Hobbs, Jane Piper, Edna Andrade) as well as nationally known artists, including photographer and Hollins alumna Sally Mann ’74, M.A. ’75. This exhibition will showcase the breadth and depth of the collection, and honor the generous spirit of Ralph Grant. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
The Senior Exhibition
May 9 – 21, 2006
This exhibition will feature the work of the class of 2006 majoring in art, including: Jessi Lawson, Eileen Struble, Halle Dillon, Alexis Hair, Tracey Alexander, Nichola Hays, Hannah Phillips, Nicole Miniclier, Hilda Graham, Tara Jones, and Marilyn Thompson.
Donna Polseno: A Mid-Career Survey
June 14 – July 29, 2006
The exhibition showcases work from the first 30 years of this important ceramic artist’s career. A catalogue with essay accompanies the exhibition. A graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute and Rhode Island School of Design, Polseno is renowned for her hand-built clay vessels and figures. With work in numerous collections including the Mint Museum, NC, the St. Louis Museum of Art, MO and the Art Museum of Western Virginia, Polseno teaches at workshops and university programs across the country and abroad. Polseno and her husband, Rick Hensley, are members of 16 Hands in Floyd, VA, and are founding instructors in the ceramics program at Hollins University in the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center.
View from the Towers: An installation by Anne Kesler Shields
June 3 – September 2, 2006
In this site-specific exhibition, Anne Kesler Shields utilizes a mix of images from popular culture, current events, and art history, to weave a powerful commentary on modern life in the post September 11th world. A graduate of Hollins (‘54), Kesler Shields studied with Hans Hoffman before earning her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and her work is in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, among others. She is also a founding member of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem.
Suzanne Stryk: Genomes and Daily Observations
August 17 – October 21, 2006
Suzanne Stryk’s installation invites the viewer into the world of the 19th-century naturalist. A series of highly detailed paintings line the walls while the naturalist’s desk, with sketchbook and specimens, stands as she left it. On closer inspection, the delicate paintings reveal images of the DNA double helix, referencing contemporary science and the genome. These overlapping frames of reference ask, “How does knowledge of genetics alter perceptions of the natural world?” Stryk is a Virginia–based artist who exhibits her conceptual nature paintings nationally and has had more than 30 solo exhibits. Stryk’s work can be found in many collections, including the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; the Woodson Museum, WI; and the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Regional Spotlight: Sarah Hobbs
September 19 – November 18, 2006
The second in a series of exhibitions that celebrate the emerging artist, this exhibition spotlights the work of Virginia born photographer Sarah Hobbs. Hobbs uses carefully staged photography to explore, with sensitivity and wit, phobias and obsessive-compulsive behavior. She begins by researching human behavior and painstakingly constructs life-sized tableaux in the domestic settings of her own home, which she then photographs as three-dimensional interpretations of her vision. Born in Lynchburg, VA, Hobbs earned both a B.F.A. in art history and an M.F.A. in photography from the University of Georgia. Hobbs has had numerous solo exhibitions across the country, and her work is in several important collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Montclair Art Museum, NJ. She currently lives and works in Atlanta.
FOREFRONT: Chakaia Booker
September 26 – December 9, 2006
Chakaia Booker creates sculptures of recycled tires that allude to a post-industrial perspective of both environmental decay and transformative redemption. Booker slices, twists, strips, and rivets rubber and radials to create exaggerated textures, prickled edges, and torqued forms. This very physical and fluent work is accessible on a variety of levels; it reflects multiple meanings that weave through historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Booker received a B.A. in sociology at Rutgers University and an M.F.A. from City University of New York (CUNY). She has had solo exhibitions at many venues, including the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; the Akron Art Museum, OH; and Storm King Sculpture Park, Mountainville, NY. She has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2002, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2005, among others. Forefront: Chakaia Booker is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). The exhibition was made possible by support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Benjamin Rosen Family Foundation, and the members of NMWAA, with special thanks to Marlborough Gallery, New York.
Gillian Pederson-Krag
November 2, 2006 – January 6, 2007
Gillian Pederson-Krag was the 2004 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins and gave to the university a collection of etching prints, which then became a part of the museum’s permanent collection. These delicate, detailed etchings of the landscape have a luminous quality that evokes the spiritual in the natural world. Pederson-Krag received a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, and an M.F.A. from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Her prints and paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, and the Library of Congress Print Collection, among others.
2005 Exhibitions
Passionate Observer: Eudora Welty Among Artists of the Thirties
February 15 – April 30, 2005
Internationally acclaimed author Eudora Welty (1909-2001) traveled the American South during the 1930s, recording what she observed in both photographs and words. “Passionate Observer” places Welty’s photographs, for the first time, in the context of the artwork of her contemporaries. Gathering together the work of painters Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton; photographers Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Ben Shahn, Margaret Bourke-White, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott and Dorothea Lange; and southern artists Walter Anderson, William Holingsworth, Marie Hull, and Karl Wolfe, this exhibit clarifies Welty’s artistic vision and affirms her role as both observer and passionate image maker. Developed by the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, this tour is organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.
Ruth Miller, Drawings and Paintings
Francis Niederer Artist-in-Residence
March 15 – June 4, 2005
Ruth Miller is a painter whose meditative engagement with nature is revealed in her quiet and subtle works. It is not uncommon for Miller to return again and again to the same motif or source-an old tree at the bend of a road, or a table full of cabbages-and search for its significant form. Long associated with the New York Studio School as a teacher and critic, Miller has been a visiting artist at schools across the country and abroad, and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Cabell Sabbatical Exhibition: Jan Knipe Drawings
March 31 – June 4, 2005
This exhibition of drawings by Hollins professor Jan Knipe is the result of her recent sabbatical and travel to the Bay Area in California, made possible by a Cabell Foundation Grant. In a departure from earlier studio still-life work, Knipe’s recent drawings explore with sweeping energy the movement of man-made structures (buildings, vehicles, roads) across the larger landscape of the West. Ever mindful of light and the interplay of static forms, Knipe works perceptually to locate incongruent objects and reveal unexpected harmonies.
The Senior Exhibition
May 10 – 22, 2005
Augusta Hunter Beale, Amy R. Blackstock, Rachel A. Harrod, Lydia Marie Johnson, Grace M. Johnston, Nicole Theresa Johnston, Annette F. Mathews, Adele R. Moore, Kristin M. Polich, Ashleigh Qualls, Alicia Nicole Rimel, Allison B. Saunders, Elizabeth Scott Westbrook.
Woodcut: Process and Passion
June 14 – September 3, 2005
The oldest form of relief printing, woodcut has its origins in ancient China and Egypt. This exhibit features examples of woodcuts made by Hollins students and their instructor professor Leigh Ann Beavers in the spring of 2005. Also included are materials that examine both the history of the woodcut and the tools and processes used in creating a woodcut.
George Nick: An Artist’s Conscience
June 15 – July 29, 2005
Long revered by other painters, George Nick is a contemporary realist painter whose hallmark freshness is expressed in vibrant color and brilliant light. The recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, Nick’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, among others. Professor emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and visiting professor and lecturer at universities and colleges across the country, Nick was the Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University in fall 2000.
Landscapes from the Permanent Collection
June 21 – October 15, 2005
Part of our ongoing series highlighting the permanent collection, this exhibition looks at the rich tradition of painting in the landscape. Assembled through the active collecting of artists exhibiting on campus and through generous gifts, this exhibition features a variety of styles and examines the rich history of the landscapes as contained within one collection. Particular emphasis is placed on the Virginia landscape that surrounds the Hollins campus. Artists featured include former Hollins professor Lewis Thompson, folk artist Harriet French Turner, former artist-in-residence Marjorie Portnow, alumna Mary Page Evans ’59, among others.
Photorealism Prints from the James W. Hyams Collection
August 9 – September 10, 2005
This exhibition features an extraordinary array of prints on loan from Roanoke collector James W. Hyams. Including more than forty works in a variety of printmaking media—lithography, screen-printing, etching, and digital inkjet printing—this exhibition is both a survey of printmaking techniques and an overview of this important art movement. The prints in this selection, dating from 1972 to 1995, were created by the leading artists of the Photorealist movement.
Inaugural Exhibition
Carrie Mae Weems: To Be Continued
September 20 – December 17, 2005
This exhibition presents two examples of Weems’ work that are separated by many years in creation but are linked in their continuation of a dialogue on the discourse of race, class, and gender that are at the heart of her work. Weems is an internationally known, award-winning photo-based artist whose work has been included in more than 150 group and solo exhibitions. A mid-career survey and national tour of her work was organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 1996. She received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (1992) and the Herb Alpert Award (1996) as well as the Visual Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In early 2005, she received the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.
2004 Exhibition
Regional Spotlight: Beth Lilly
November 2004 – February 26, 2005
The first in a series of exhibitions that celebrate the emerging artist, this show spotlights Atlanta-based artist Beth Lilly, whose digital photographic series “The Myth of Trees” looks at the reverence we feel when we encounter trees in the landscape. The concept of sacred space is examined as she retraces the steps of early explorers who roamed the forests of the Southeastern region centuries ago. Her use of digital photography is compelling because its modern and ever-changing technical nature is in direct contrast with the ancient forests that inspired the work. Lilly’s work has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and can be found in several public and private collections, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans.