On View
Weiting Wei: Inner Power
Burton D. Morgan Gallery
January 28 – May 2
ARTIST TALK: Tuesday, January 28, 4 pm
My identity as a mother and caregiver is intertwined with my role as an artist. Understanding the behavior of materials and using processes akin to domestic tasks fosters a sense of familiarity with forms and muscle memory. This enables me to engage with the nuances of the materials, their responsiveness to my hands, and the fusion of clay shaping and the use of kitchen tools in my creative process.
My work traverses the domestic realm through the use of tools and themes centered around pregnancy, children, and motherhood, interwoven with memories and traditions from my childhood.
In my recent artworks, I draw inspiration from the natural forms of organisms and integrate them into sculptures crafted from polymer clay. My artworks invite viewers to explore the hidden complexities within the monochromatic surfaces. By capturing the dynamic shapes and intricate details of nature, rooted in my childhood memories, I convey the diverse emotions and states experienced by women during their journey of growth.
In partnership with the department of Chinese Studies.
Art Is Dangerous: Artists on Injustice and Inequality
January 28- March 18
Celebrated author Toni Morrison claimed boldly that “Art is dangerous!” for the power it holds to disturb the power structures upholding the status quo.
This exhibition presents artwork from the CWAM permanent collection by Black, Native American, feminist, and queer activist artists. They assert autonomy over their own bodies, demand recognition of their identities, call out unequal representation in power and economic structures, and attest to the systemic violence done to their communities by racism, sexism, and queerphobia. At a time of deep division, anxiety, and uncertainty, they challenge the deeply rooted White supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist structures that remain entrenched in contemporary life.
Calling out injustice and inequality where they have found it, these artists call us IN as witnesses to pay attention, to notice what previously we have not, and to engage with empathy. By doing this, we invite and accept one of the most dangerous risks we can face: the possibility that we may change our minds, and in doing so, may take action.
“Art is dangerous….the history of art…has always been bloody because dictators and people who want to control and deceive know exactly the people who will disturb their plans. And those people are artists. They’re the ones that sing the truth. And that is something that society has got to protect.….because it is one of the most important things that human beings do.” -Toni Morrison, from “Art and Social Justice” at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, June 15, 2016.
This exhibition is made possible by the many gifts of donors throughout the years that have formed the College of Wooster Art Museum’s collection. Funding for this exhibition generously provided by the Julia Shoolroy Halloran Endowed Fund and the College of Wooster.
2024
COLLECT: New Acquisitions
COLLECT: New Acquisitions celebrates the generous contributions of donors to the Art Museum over the past five years. From the earliest years of the College, alumni and affiliates have supported its teaching and learning mission with gifts of art, artifacts, and funds. Donations comprise the greatest part of the Art Museum’s collection; each tells a story about the collectors, their interests, and their relationships to the college.
Purchases of artwork for the Art Museum have been rare throughout its history due to a lack of dedicated funds. The recent establishment of the Raymond Machesney Art Endowment has allowed us to explore new directions for the museum collection to grow. Over the past five years, new aquistions have been chosen to reflect critical contemporary ideas and social concerns such as justice, labor, and life during a global pandemic and to increase the representation of Black, Native American, and queer artists in the collection.
This semester, we invite our community to participate in conversation with us to select a new work for the collection and help us set priorities for future purchases.
Funding for this exhibition generously provided by the Muriel Koslow Art Exhibition Endowment. Many thanks to the Raymond Machesney Art Endowment, the Lauretta M. Dennis Endowed Art Fund, the Charlene Derge Sussel ’53 Revocable Trust, Thomas R. Ford, Terry Schupbach-Gordon and Toby Gordon, and John Szoke for their gifts of artwork.
2023
Mirror Mirror
Focusing on issues of identity as women, as artists, mothers, wives, daughters, and friends these contemporary artists embrace their personal experiences in socially significant ways. Sometimes the work directly mirrors their own struggles, and at other times presents new realities in which their full power can be expressed.
These images and narratives convey truths about the inner lives of women and the ways they exist and interact in the world. A language of icons and symbols communicate deeply personal mythologies that relate conflicting feelings about sexuality, domesticity, motherhood, and female strength and vulnerabilities.
The intimate aspects of these artworks make them strong, relevant, and important today.
Organized by Fowler Artistic LLC and the Springfield Museum of Art. Curated by Christine Fowler Shearer, PhD.
Exhibition design and installation by Doug McGlumphy, CW Art Museum Preparator & Collections Manager. Program support and design for promotional materials by Tracy Mathys, Administrative Coordinator.
Funding generously provided by the Muriel Koslow Art Exhibition Endowment.
Essential Matter
The artists in this exhibition have strategically sourced and transformed the materials from which their work was made.
In each case, the meaning of the artwork hinges on this process – none of them could be composed from wholly new materials. The works hint at or allude to the original purpose of their materials as their fundamental characteristics carry through into new creations.
These artworks and their makers grapple with deeply human and universal themes and issues – the ways that we relate to our built, designed, and inhabited environments; stewardship of the ecosystem; our relationships and communities; how we imagine, create, and invent; and the nature of art itself.
Many thanks to the artists who have lent their work to this exhibition: Doug McGlumphy, John Sabraw, and Petra Soesemann.
Curated by Marianne Eileen Wardle, Director/Curator. Exhibition design and installation by Doug McGlumphy, CW Art Museum Preparator & Collections Manager. Installation assistance from Mike and Charlie McGlumphy, Jonah McGlumphy, Ollie Bream, and Noah Fox. Program support and design for promotional materials by Tracy Mathys, Administrative Coordinator.
This exhibition was funded by The College of Wooster and is made possible by the generosity of donors to the College and Art Museum.
2022
Contained: The Art of Holding it Together
The College of Wooster Art Museum collection holds containers from around the globe spanning over 3500 years of human history. Nearly all were gifts to the college, marking relationships of trust and care.
Containers are objects that enable trade, hospitality, preservation, and nourishment. These vessels mark the traces of human interaction and most of those exhibited here show signs of use. They were made, handled, bought, sold, and given by human hands far from Wooster.
In short, they hold us together.
Delicious Dishes celebrates the everyday traditions that bind us to family, friends, and community, and the containers that make carrying them out possible. Many thanks to the 10 members of the College of Wooster community who entrusted us with their stories, recipes, and cherished containers. This project was conceived by Marianne Wardle in consultation with Jodi Robison and Tracy Mathys.
Tracy Mathys facilitated and implemented the project and created the layouts of text, images, and recipes. Installation by Doug McGlumphy.
View Stories and Recipes
Your Food is Fighting
May 14-30, 2022 | On Display Throughout Downtown Wooster
View Virtual Exhibit2022 Senior I.S. Exhibition
Senior I.S. Studio Art PortfoliosStudio Art Class of 2022
Iván Akiri
Griffin Carnett
Sydney Clifton
Etta DeMartino
Maya McDonald
Catie Rogan
Patrick Wellman
Xiangjie Rebecca Wu
Painting Biathlon: Marina Mangubi
Painter, printmaker, and installation artist Marina Mangubi explores sport as a medium of performance and social inquiry. Taking on the structure, limitations, and challenges of biathlon, a modern sport combining cross-country skiing and rifle target shooting, the artist investigates physical conditioning and limitations, the experience of traversing unique and challenging topography, artmaking in unpredictable circumstances, and a willingness to return to earlier states of curiosity and openness to the unexpected. A continuing project, the works in this exhibition spring from three artist residencies: Banff Centre, Canada (2015); Joshua Tree National Park, California (2016); and Siena Art Institute, Italy (2019). In each locale, Mangubi structured a circuit for cross-country skis, snow or roller, broken by stations at which she stopped to paint or create digital drawings. The demands of endurance skiing and artmaking, while both requiring control of form, focus, and timing, were placed in opposition: the engagement of large muscle groups in expansive motion versus the fine motor skills underlying painting and drawing; a long view across a moving landscape versus the focus on a fixed spot; forward movement versus stillness.
The exhibition presents video documentation of the process, paintings and drawings done on site, and prints and paintings created subsequently. Additionally, an experimental community collaboration, which stems from the Breckenridge Creative Arts residency (2020), is planned.
Themes and questions that can be considered within the context of this exhibition include:
- Experimentation, physical challenge, and the discipline of preparation
- The relationships between sport and politics
- Sport as an art form
- The landscape as it is navigated, transformed, managed, and damaged by human intervention
- Acquiring knowledge through movement (movement-mediated cognition)
Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, troubled by the toll of the pandemic on the world, and especially his Navajo community, the turmoil of racial and political difference, and economic challenges, photographer Eugene Tapahe dreamed of the peace and healing brought by the jingle dress dance on sacred lands. Intended as a healing practice, The Jingle Dress Project was launched and the group began their journey to heal the land and the people.
The images in this exhibition reflect an ongoing artistic collaboration and offer an opportunity to connect and process our experiences during the pandemic, to think about the land and our stewardship of the environment, to consider the contributions and practices of contemporary Native Americans, and to engage the power of healing and creativity.
The Jingle Dress Project includes photographer Eugene Tapahe; dancers Joanni Begay, Sunni Begay, Dion Tapahe, and Erin Tapahe; and logistics manager Sharon Tapahe. (Photographs courtesy Eugene Tapahe)
2021
About Face
Faces serve as the primary way we identify one another. They communicate individuality, heredity, emotions, and attitudes. This exhibition celebrates artistic interpretations of faces alongside current scientific understanding about the face’s unique relevance for human interaction. How do we recognize each other and how does that affect the way we forge relationships? How do we wordlessly communicate our innermost feelings, even when we may want to hide them? How do artists challenge us to rethink the way we see each other and ourselves?
The exhibition includes artworks over many centuries from around the world by Philip Akkerman, Ivan Albright, Anna Arnold, Félix Braquemond, Clarence Carter, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Arthur Heintzelman, Käthe Kollwitz, Henri Matisse, Michael Nachtrieb, Tom Phillips, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt van Rijn, Michael Rothenstein, William Paul Thomas, Stacy Lynn Waddell, and Andy Warhol, among others.
BEHOLDEN
A sensitive portraitist, William Paul Thomas creates images of people within his circle of friends and family, calling on the viewer to consider their essential humanity and inner emotional lives. The larger than life-size portraits convey honor, respect, and even reverence for everyday people, and act as a bridge for us to connect.
BEHOLDEN asks us to look closely and consider how much we owe one another.
2021
- 2021 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition
- Turmoil and Activism: Selections from the CWAM Permanent Collection
2020 will go down in history as a devastating year that included a raging pandemic, political unrest, and global demonstrations. While artists are currently writing the visual record of 2020, Turmoil and Activism looks back at how artists responded to the wars, changing environment, and racial/identity issues of their era. Artists represented in the exhibition include George Grosz, Francisco Jose Goya y Lucientes, Hung Liu, Kiki Smith, David Nash, Elizabeth Catlett, Lorna Simpson, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Francis Bacon, and Andy Warhol.
2020
- Bridget Murphy Milligan Wonder Tales: The Imprint of Child’s Play
2019
Tracy Cosgriff and students in the Spring 2019 History of Prints seminar in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery during the research phase of “Printing History: Observation, Imagination, and the Ephemeral.”
- Design by Time: Press Release
- Printing History: Observation, Imagination, and the Ephemeral: Catalogue | Press Release
- 2019 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition
- Doug McGlumphy: monumental: Gallery Texts | Press Release
2018
“Kim Julja, Dodu Jeju,” 2013 by Hyung S. Kim is one of the works in “The Ocean After Nature,” September 11-November 8, 2018 at the CWAM. Above: Hyung S. Kim (b. 1965, South Korea), “Kim Julja, Dodu Jeju,” 2013; Digital photograph on canvas; 90 1/2 h x 59 w (inches), Courtesy of the artist and ICI, New York.
- Robyn O’Neil: WE, THE MASSES: About
- Saints, Relics, and Images: The Art of Medieval Devotion: Visual Diary of Research Lab and Final Installation | Catalogue
- 2018 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition
- The Ocean After Nature: Press Release | Review
2017
January 17-March 10, 2017, :Alison Saar: “Breach.” Above: Alison Saar, “Breach,” 2016; wood, ceiling tin, found trunks, washtubs, and miscellaneous objects; 155 h x 60 w x 51 d (inches). Courtesy of the artist and L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, CA.
- After the Thrill is Gone: Fashion, Politics, and Culture in South African Contemporary Art: Catalogue | Introductory Text | Object Label Text | Response Labels
- Leadership Arts in Africa: Catalogue
- 2017 Studio Art Senior Independent Group Exhibition: Catalogue
- Alison Saar: Breach: Catalogue | Introductory Text | Object Label Text
- Amber Kempthorn: A River Isn’t too Much To Love: Introductory Text | Artist’s Website
2016
One of the works in the CWAM’s Fall 2016 exhibition, “Dusk to Dusk,” Aristarkh Chernyshev’s “Knode” twists news headlines into a constant flow, referencing the endless news cycle that seems to feed on itself.
- Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal: Image Gallery
- 2016 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition: Catalogue
- PICTURE YOURSELF: Selfies, Cellphones, and the Digital Age: Brochure
2015
Tom Thayer’s “Chorus of Voices,” from the Fall 2015 exhibition, “Archetypes, Puppets, & Power.”
- Archetypes, Power, & Puppets:About | Brochure
- Walter Zurko: Looking up to look down: About
- 2015 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition:
- FREE PLAY: About | Artist bios
2014
Willie Cole (American, b.1955), “With a Heart of Gold,” 2005-2006 (detail); Shoes, wood, screws, metal, and staples, 85 w x 16 h (inches), Courtesy of Alexander, and Bonin, New York, NY Willie Cole (American, b.1955), “With a Heart of Gold,” 2005-2006 (detail); Shoes, wood, screws, metal, and staples, 85 w x 16 h (inches), Courtesy of Alexander, and Bonin, New York, NY
- 2014 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition: Installation Images
- Lasting Impressions: Print Technique and Process: Catalogue
- Complex Conversations: Willie Cole Sculptures and Wall Works: Website | Interview
- Kuchi-e Woodblock Prints: Tradition and Modernity:
- The Jay Gates Collection: The Art of China and Japan: About
- Selections from PROJECT 35 VOLUMES 1 & 2: About PROJECT 35 | About the Artists | Reflections
- SHAPESHIFTING: Contemporary Masculinities: About | Brochure | Students & Faculty Response | FYS Students Response
2013
Carrie Mae Weems, “I Looked and Looked to See What So Terrified You,” 2006, one of the works in Deborah Willis’s exhibition “Posing Beauty in African American Culture,” at the CWAM in January 2013.
- The Performative in African Art: Student Research
- RACE: Are We So Different?: About
- 2013 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition: Announcement
- OBJECT LESSONS: Announcement | Catalogue
- Posing Beauty in African American Culture: Announcement | Student Research
2012
Antti Laitinen’s “It’s My Island,” three-channel projection in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery.
- Shiva Ahmadi: About
- Ellen Sheffield: Page by Page: About
- Bea Nettles: Return Trip: About
- Shirin Neshat: Tooba: About
- Middle Eastern Manuscripts, Textiles, and Ceramics: About | Announcement
- 2012 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition: Artists’ statement and images
- Museum Studies: Recent Acquistiions + 1: Donor List and Student Research
- LTL Architects: Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis: Announcement | Brochure | Lecture (.mp3) (podcast) | Website
https://youtu.be/AKzIOR7EJ9o
- Antti Laitinen: It’s My Island: Announcement
2011
“Within the realm of possibilities,” 2011, by Alejandro Almanza Pereda.
- Nipirasait: Many Voices
- Alejandro Almanza Pereda: within the realm of possibilities: Brochure
- PROJECT 35: Announcement
- Walter Zurko . . . matter of time: Announcement
- Trees: an interdisciplinary dialogue: Announcement | Journals
- Bridget Murphy Milligan: fireside tales: Announcement
- 2011 Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition: Announcement | Statements and Images
2010
Gallery view from “Chinese and Japanese Painting and Calligraphy.”
- Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy and Painting: Announcement
- Andy Warhol: Photographs 1975-1986: Announcement
- 2010 Senior Studio Art Independent Study Group Exhibition: Announcement | Artists’ Statements
- The David and Karina Rilling Collection of African and Oceanic Art: Announcement
- War Work: Artists Engage Iraq: Announcement
2009
Alison Elizabeth Taylor, “Room,” 2007-2008, (detail), 96 h x 120 w x 96 d (inches), from the Fall 2009 exhibition, “Alison Elizabeth Taylor.” “Room” is now in the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
- Body Maps: The Bambanani Women of Cape Town, South Africa and Gallery LAB: Announcement
- Molecules that Matter: Announcement
- Alison Elizabeth Taylor: Taylor brochure | Ekphrastic brochure
- Jaime Carrejo: Our Own Worst Enemy: Brochure
- Matthew Kolodziej: Necessary Parts: Brochure
2008
- The William C. Mithoefer Collection of African Art: Announcement
- Marcella Hackbardt: Story of Knowledges: Brochure
- Carrie Olson: Follies: Brochure
- 2008 Five Colleges of Ohio Juried Student Biennial: Brochure
- 2008 Faculty Exhibition; Doug McGlumphy: Regular Guy Monuments; Studio Art Senior Independent Study Group Exhibition: Faculty, McGlumphy, Senior announcement
2007
- The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper: Announcement | Student Response Essays
- Selections from the AT&T Collection
- Northeastern Waters
- Ceramics: Selections form the Permanent Collection
- Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins
- Global Anxieties: Nine Perspectives on a Changing Planet: Brochure
2006
Gallery view from Mel Kendrick’s solo exhibition at the CWAM in 2006.
- Jim Campbell: Brochure
- Hiraki Sawa: Brochure
- Convergence 2006: A Regional Juried Exhibition
- 2006 Five Colleges of Ohio Student Biennial
- Mel Kendrick: Brochure
2005
- Ancient Ohio/Ancient Egypt: Ancient Ohio Brochure | Ancient Egypt Brochure
- Drawing Narrative: Brochure | Family Guide
- William Kentridge Prints: Brochure
- Artists’ Books: Selections from the Permanent Collection
- Reality Tales: Bridget Milligan
2004
Lorna Simpson, “Easy to Remember,” 2001, was part of a survey of Simpson’s work at the CWAM in 2004.
- Lorna Simpson
- Walter Zurko: hand/i/work
- Marina Mangubi: Eight Board Feet
- 2004 Studio Art Faculty Exhibition
- The Possibilities of Prints
- Radical Line: Innovation in Chinese Contemporary Painting
2003
- Kate Budd: Honey
- Irina Nakhova: When Will You Be Home?
- Convergence 2003: Regional Juried Exhibition
- 2003 Five Colleges of Ohio Student Biennial
- WWII Posters from the Permanent Collection
2002
- Ann Hamilton: tracing language
- The Contemporary Landscape
- Ken Aptekar: Painting Between the Lines 1990-2000
- Hollis Sigler: Selections from the Breast Cancer Journal
- Representations of Illness and Healing in African Art
2001
- Russian Brass Icons
- Marina Mangubi: Music on the Bones
- Bridget Murphy: A Public Confession
- Michael Mercil: promise
- Pipo: AnOther Western
- 2001 Five Colleges of Ohio Student Biennial
- t(here): Holly Morrison
- The Romance of Architecture: Prints from the John Taylor Arms Collection
2000
- Claudia Bernardi: Frescoes on Paper
- Walter Zurko: Work
- Johnny Coleman: For Oshon, A Gathering of Brothers
- Nanette Yannuzzi Macias: Drawings
- Steel and Real Estate: Margaret Bourke-White and Corporate Culture in Cleveland
1999
- Selections from the Chinese Collection
1998
- French and British Etchings 1850-1900
- Hung Liu: A Ten-Year Survey 1988-1998
- Claudia Esslinger: Civil Divination