ROCKFORD UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

The Rockford University Art Gallery provides a varied series of art exhibitions and related programming in support of the Department of Art and Art History and is an important educational and cultural resource for the campus and community. The Gallery is located in the Clark Arts Center, the locus of the University’s Department of Art and Art History.

Fall 2018 Exhibitions

“Justice and Return”

Exhibition Dates: September 14 – October 12, 2018

Friday, October 5 – 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Artist Talk in Severson

6:00 – 8:30 p.m. Reception in the Gallery 

Graphic novelist Leila Abdelrazaq’s work uses comics as a medium to explore her Palestinian heritage, diaspora, history, memory, and borders. Her work fuses art and activism to help readers understand the history and present reality of the Palestinian struggle for justice and return, while working to bring forward issues of concern within the Palestinian communities both at home and diaspora. The exhibit will feature illustrations from comics such as Baddawi, The Opening, as well a number of short comics, zines, and poster illustrations. An artist lecture will precede the closing reception and will be held in Severson Auditorium from 5-6pm. 

“Convergent Narratives”

Exhibition Dates: October 22 – December 7, 2018 

Friday, October 26: 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. Reception in the Gallery

“Convergent Narratives” will feature the ceramic and two-dimensional works that appropriate southern culture used to build personal lore, by KC Weldon and Arden Cone. The sculptural work by Kelsea Nichols that connects landscape and manufactured environment. Showed in contrast these works play with a sense of grounding and history can be uprooted or given a new perspective. These artists also engage with time and its ability to shape reality. Eric Cortez’s work gives form to time by cumulative mark making, while the patterns and bookmaking of Zeinab Saab take ownership of a history both shared and personal. While the paintings of Giovanna Pizzoferrato freeze an articulate moment, that becomes both beautiful and confrontational.