On View in the Art Gallery: Other Worldly: Paintings by Nancy Hayes

Now on view in the RSM Art Gallery is Other Worldly, an installation of large format paintings, triptychs, and diptychs by Nancy Hayes. All are invited to attend a reception for the artist in the gallery on Thursday, March 21, from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

The exhibit will be on view until April 19, 2019. To learn more about the artist, please read her statement below and visit her website at https://www.nancychayes.com/.

Other Worldly: Paintings by Nancy Hayes
March 15 – April 19, 2019

Artist’s Reception
Thursday, March 21
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Soaring by Nancy Hayes
Soaring by Nancy Hayes
acrylic on board, three panels, 4’x2′ each
2018

Artist’s Statement

Painting permits direct access into my own personal laboratory where I develop forms and visual landscapes built from my imagination. I work with color, line, pattern and shape, arranging and rearranging until I am inspired to elaborate on a composition, going deeper into its texture, its biology.

As a writer does, I am building my own characters, their personalities and context in which they live. Just as a reader injects their own personal knowledge into a story, enriching the plot, my objective is to allow the viewer to explore their own visual narrative, enhancing the forms with their imagination.

Nancy Hayes
nancychayes.com
nhayes256@comcast.net

Now Showing in the RSM Art Gallery: Paintings by Christina Chang

We are very pleased to announce that Saturation: Paintings by Christina Chang is now on view in the RSM Art Gallery. All are invited to meet the artist at an opening reception on Wednesday, February 13, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. To learn more about the artist and her work, please read her statement below.

Saturation: Paintings by Christina Chang
January 14 – March 8, 2019

Artist’s Reception
Wednesday, February 13
5:00-7:00 p.m.

Spring Sunshine by Christina Chang

Artist’s Statement

Color, light, energy, and movement all come to mind when thinking about why I create art. I am never at a loss for ideas and the desire to create and paint is in me every day. I enjoy challenging myself to come up with new color combinations and applying them to the canvas surface. I find the process mesmerizing and meditative.

Although I was trained classically, and created art in many forms and expressions, capturing color, light, and shapes are primary goals in my latest creations. My work has evolved and transformed from portraying landscapes through an impressionistic style to abstraction. I am currently painting works that emphasize light in new ways. A stroke of the brush and the application of bold color are what drives my art to come to life.

I created the latest works with water-soluble oil paints on canvas. These paintings capture my love of painting and being outdoors, as well as my emotions and feelings. When I paint, I am able to express nonverbal feelings.

I enjoy working on many paintings simultaneously. I sometimes reference landscape photographs that I took at a particular location and find inspiration from those photos and my experience at that time. It is so gratifying to complete a painting with my own two hands and bring a painting from my imagination into existence.

Art Gallery Exhibit: 2018 International Education Photo Contest

Now showing in the RSM Art Gallery are the 2018 International Education Photo Contest category winners and a selection of top finalists.

Cast Your Vote!

You have one more opportunity to vote for your favorite finalist (non-category winner)! Stop in to the gallery to cast your vote before 4:00 p.m. on Friday, November 16. The Bentley Votes Winner will receive a $50 Amazon gift card. One lucky raffle winner will be chosen from those who voted to receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Finalists on display: Gunver Doga, Carly Elliott, Erin Iwamoto, Christopher Mancuso, Ciara Mann, Collette Martley, Dana Polihovsky, Ambar Romero, Graham Smith, Amanda Spaccarelli, and Julia Wang.

To learn more about this annual photo contest and to take a peek at the winners, visit the Office of International Education on Facebook and Instagram. The exhibit will be on view until January 9, 2019. Don’t miss these spectacular photographs!

2018 International Education Photo Contest
Winners and Selection of Finalists
November 9, 2018 – January 9, 2019

Click to view the International Education Photo Contest Album on Facebook

 

On View in the RSM Art Gallery: Photographs by Kyle Eyma

We are very pleased to announce that opening on October 5, 2018, is an installation of photographs by Bentley University student Kyle Eyma. All are invited to a reception to celebrate the artist and his work on Wednesday, October 10, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. The exhibit will be on view until November 5. To learn more about the artist, please read his statement below.

Photographs by Kyle Eyma
October 5 – November 5, 2018

Artist’s Reception
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
4:00-6:00 p.m.

Photograph by Kyle Eyma

Artist’s Statement

I know not everyone I shoot with prior to the photo, but afterwards, either via interaction or the camera, I learn a little bit about them. My photos feature different people, because I know a couple characters. The phrase ‘Damn, that kid’s black’, is just a statement of the obvious for saliency purposes. It’s an exclamation of the pride I have in myself. I’m unequivocally black. I’ve seen what I’ve seen and know what I know as a result. I bring it up because it’s entirely irrelevant but inarguably existential to my identity. Besides, I like standing out as the community of photographers of color is small. In this exhibition, I share my growing appreciation of the people I see. It explores color, light, darkness, and isolation in the city.

This exhibit is cosponsored by the Bentley Library, The Multicultural Center, The Valente Center for Arts & Sciences, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and the Global Studies Department

You’re Invited! Artist’s Reception, Thursday, September 13, 5-7pm

Please join us in the RSM Art Gallery on Thursday, September 13, from 5:00-7:00 p.m, to celebrate artist John Wawrzonek and his exhibit of large-format photographs, The Hidden World of the Nearby. Meet the artist, view the art, and enjoy some light refreshments!

The Hidden World of the Nearby: Photographs by John Wawrzonek

Artist’s Reception
Thursday, September 13
5:00-7:00 p.m.

The Hidden World of the Nearby: Photographs by John Wawrzonek
The Hidden World of the Nearby: Photographs by John Wawrzonek

Art Gallery Exhibit: John Wawrzonek | “The Hidden World of the Nearby”

Now on view in the RSM Art Gallery is The Hidden World of the Nearby, an installation of large format photographs by John Wawrzonek. All are invited to attend an opening reception for the artist on Thursday, September 13, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Please visit the gallery to view the show before it closes on September 30.

The Hidden World of the Nearby: Photographs by John Wawrzonek
August 20 – September 30

Artist’s Reception
Thursday, September 13
5:00-7:00 p.m.

Photograph by John Wawrzonek
Photograph by John Wawrzonek

 

Artist’s Statement

I started photographing as a hobby when I was 8. I was 30 and working at Bose Corporation when I got the urge to make really good large prints of nature. I bought a view camera in 1974. I did not want my pictures to give themselves away as photographs by being out of focus or failing to show fine detail. I liked finely detailed texture and color and worked for the most part by finding these qualities in nature, and only then working on making the composition.

I also began to realize that making my own prints would be important. The best printing method I found was called dye transfer which was invented in the 1930s. Besides giving me control over contrast and saturation it was capable of extraordinarily brilliant color. I used the process for 19 years until the materials were discontinued. By then Epson had started to make extraordinary digital printers with archival inks.

The subjects I reacted to most strongly were like tapestries, extending from corner to corner and often with little in the way of a center of interest. I wanted the viewer’s eye to wander so I put in only hints of a “subject” or center of interest.

After 28 years with the view camera I found it more and more difficult to find new subjects. But soon a new very good digital camera perked my interest again. I found many mums with extraordinary colors at a local nursery and began to enjoy creating the subject in a sense as well as photographing. When photographing the mums, I had made a trundle that allowed me to put several pots side-by-side with the camera shooting straight down. Shooting digital involved photographing in sections and using focus stacking to get really good detail with everything in focus. The large “mélange” required about 120 exposures.

The “musical” images are created in Photoshop from studio photographs made for me by Douglas Saglio. All but one of the images is almost entirely based on edges, so the instrument becomes in a sense transparent so I can create a foreground (the melody) and a repeating background (a continuo). There are just two instruments: a saxophone and a French horn in the images on display. What is next I am not sure, but there are many more musical instruments to work with.

My original collection of landscapes I called “The Hidden World of the Nearby” since all the images were made from ordinary roadsides (often Interstate Highways) where one would usually not think of photographing. In a sense, the flowers and musical instruments are also hidden images, only revealed after much experimenting.

Locally I have been seeing the effects of global warming. At the moment I am obsessed with a website on global warming that blends my various careers and skills to try to teach about what is happening and to warn that we are on the edge of warmth that we must find a way of stopping. The website is inanothersshoes.com. More of my work can be found on my website wawrzonek.com.

On View in the RSM Art Gallery: Arnie Casavant: “In A Different Light”

Now on view in the RSM Art Gallery is an exhibit of oil paintings by artist Arnie Casavant. Please visit the gallery to view the show before it closes on Friday, June 8.

Arnie Casavant
In A Different Light
April 27 – June 7, 2018

Arnie Casavant

 

Artist’s Statement

Arnie Casavant works in studio and en plein air, painting largely in oil on location at dawn or dusk, when the sun’s interaction with his subject matter is at its most dramatic.  Arnie adheres to the old adage that “light is the bringer of beauty” and his work reflects a strong emphasis on the interplay of light, shape and color and a devotion to impressionism.  “Chasing the Light” best describes Arnie’s paintings.  “The natural elements and my paints combine to reward me with lasting memories.”

Arnie attended the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, courtesy of the GI Bill, and until 2005 was an art instructor and Department Chair at Oliver Ames High School in Easton, Massachusetts, a position which he held for 27 years.  He taught landscape and abstract painting at locations in Boston and on Cape Cod through Northeastern University’s Graduate Institute in Education until 2011.

He has exhibited his work at the Yellow Barn Gallery in Glen Echo, Maryland, the Gallery at Spencer Lofts and the True Grit Gallery in Middleboro. He displayed his paintings at the Weston Town Library in 2012 and the Natick Arts Center in 2016.  His work is available for viewing at Studio 218 at SOWA at 450 Harrison Avenue in Boston during First Friday’s. He is represented by the Pearl Street Gallery in Chelsea and was a guest artist at Gallery 31 in Orleans in July 2017.  Arnie recently taught and had a show at the Bristol Rhode Island Art Center and returned in August of 2017 to show once again.  He resides in Medford, MA with his wife Kathleen and his Cairn Terrier Tobin.

Arnie can be contacted at arnieart47@gmail.com or at 617-884-4129 for information regarding your interest in his work.

Art Gallery Exhibit – Leading & Learning: A Century of Women at Bentley

archival photo of women in the classroom
Now on display in the RSM Gallery is “Leading & Learning: A Century of Women at Bentley.” This exhibit, curated by the Bentley University Archives, explores over one hundred years of women’s achievements at our institution. It is on view in the library from 3/14/2018 – 4/22/2018.

Please also join us for an exhibit reception on Wednesday, March 21st from 2:00-3:30 p.m. Enjoy snacks and refreshments, make a commemorative button, and discuss women’s history at Bentley.  No RSVP needed, drop in as you are able.

About the Exhibit

In 1918, women were first offered admission to Bentley as a response to the large number of college-aged men drafted to fight in WWI. After the war ended Bentley again became a single-sex institution, although many women were still working diligently in Bentley’s administration. Prompted by another war, admission of women resumed in 1942. Since then, women have been learning, working and teaching at Bentley and have made an immeasurable impact on our campus.

This exhibit presents a chronological narrative of some of the activities and achievements of women over the course of Bentley’s history. As you view the exhibit either in person or online, we encourage you to think critically about the context in which these events occurred. What opportunities did women of various backgrounds have in our country over the last century? How was this the same or different at Bentley?

We hope this exhibit will be the beginning of a campus-wide conversation about historical narratives and recorded memory. Traditionally, the accomplishments and opinions of women and members of other underrepresented groups have often gone unrecorded. It is partly because of this fact that any exhibit discussing women at Bentley cannot be all-encompassing. We have done our best to provide a broad overview of women’s progress at Bentley, but we acknowledge many archival silences as well.

To help us create a richer picture of Bentley history – and to ensure that records from our current time are similarly robust – please consider donating photographs, documents, and items of memorabilia to the Bentley Archives. Tell us about your unique experiences in the Bentley community, and suggest ideas for other groups whose histories you would like to explore further.

If you have comments, questions, or suggestions please email Jaimie Fritz, University Archivist, at archives@bentley.edu.

To view the online version of this exhibit and additional multimedia content, please visit blogs.bentley.edu/bentleyarchives.