2021 Exhibitions

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Alison Saar: Mirror, Mirror

February - April, 2021
One of Alison Saar's paintings. A blue-gray, naked male figure's portrait against a mustard yellow background. His lips are red and his eyes are completely white with no pupils. He is holding a yellow-spotted, red snake between his teeth.
Alison Saar, Snake Man, edition AP 3/4, 1994 (detail). Lithograph and woodcut; 28 x 37 in.
From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

Virtual Opening Reception for the Artist Thursday, February, 18, 5:00 PM

Alison Saar’s works narrate stories of the African American experience, moving effortlessly from the personal to the political. In many of her works, she charts the tragic history of slavery in America, but her figures symbolize defiance and strength. Other recurring images are informed by jazz, romance, and desire. Through decades of work, Alison Saar has used the power of art to tell stories, and especially ones that matter.

 

Artifacts at the End of a Decade

February - April, 2021
Photo of a beige cloth box on a white backdrop, with white serif text on top reading, "Artifacts at the End of a Decade".
Steven Watson and Carol Huebner Venezia, Publishers and Editors. Artifacts at the End of a Decade,
1981. Unbound book/portfolio in a clamshell fabric-covered case; includes 44 works in mixed media
by various artists; title page; and catalogue; edition 48/150. Purchased with funds from the
University of Massachusetts Alumni Association and Robert D. Watson in memory of Mary Watson. 

Virtual Opening Reception Thursday, February 25, 6:00 PM

Co-curated from the UMCA collection by Jessica Scott, 2021 MFA Studio Arts candidate, and Jill Hughes, 2021 MA Art History candidate, Artifacts at the End of a Decade will be exhibited in its entirety for the first time since 1989.

This exhibition prompts the audience to examine the meaning of these works, now that we have seen how history has unfolded through a 40-year span, from the 1970s to today. Artifacts provides space to consider the past from the vantage point of a collaborative work of cultural reflection. What about their time did these artists most want to communicate to future audiences? How did they envision us? On the eve of our own new decade, this prescient and multifaceted artists’ book models a hands-on approach in using a subjective perspective to understand the socio-political moment, asking, “Have we been here before? How did we survive then, and how can we survive now?”

 

We Are For Freedoms

February – April, 2021
Poster by Catherine D'Ignazio. The poster is broken into 5 sections, each of a different color of what looks like marker strokes radiating from the center. From the top to bottom, the colors are cyan blue, light green, pink, lavender purple, and bright yellow. The words read, "Endure", "Persist", "Be Loved", "Rise Up", "And Shine".
Catherine D’Ignazio, Endure | Persist | Be Loved | Rise Up | and Shine. Ink and watercolor pen on paper. Feminist font by Dina Benbrahim. 16 x 20 in.

Opening Reception February 6, 5:00 p.m. 

We Are For Freedoms is an interdisciplinary exhibition and related public program series in partnership with For Freedoms, a national non-profit arts platform for creative civic engagement and direct action. The UMCA commissioned a series of posters from local and regional artists, asking them to respond visually to their interpretation of freedom.

The artists are: Javiera Benavente, Anne Beresford, Catherine D’Ignazio, Liz Chalfin, Andrae Green, Priya Nadkarni Green, Imo Imeh, Jonathan Jackson, kara lynch, and Ali Osborn. The original posters they create will be framed and displayed in the museum. In the spirit of the exhibition, they will be scanned and reproduced in color, and will be given away free to visitors.

The exhibition will include a visual history of For Freedom’s national billboard project and will feature related materials from the UMass Special Collections Social Justice Archive.