Current Exhibitions

Bottle of perfume

Current Exhibitions

The exhibitions listed below are currently on view in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries and the Walsh Gallery. Related programs and events are listed on our calendar and on our Eventbrite page.
Christy Rupp, Pangolin

Streaming: Sculpture by Christy Rupp

Walsh Gallery

January 19 – April 27, 2024

Understood as one of the early pioneers in the field of ecological art activism, the artist, activist and thought-leader Christy Rupp has an international reputation. Streaming will feature a survey of Rupp’s intricate collages, wall installations and free-standing sculpture, which chronicle the ongoing tension between natural systems and the environment in transition, and call our attention to our interconnectedness with non-humans and habitat – transmuting detritus gathered from the waste stream through collage and sculpture to reveal what is hidden away from common view and understanding. Informed by science and the historical representation of natural history, the artwork in this exhibition examines the way we frame our opinions of nature, using irony and wit to represent the human impact on our natural habitat.

Image: Christy Rupp, Pangolin, 2022 steel, paper, and credit cards. Courtesy of the artist

Leaves unstalled

Leaves: The Endangered Species of New England

Bellarmine Lawn

December 1, 2021 - June 1, 2025

The leaves installed on the Bellarmine lawn are on loan to the Fairfield University Art Museum for the next year from the American artist Alan Sonfist (b. 1946), best known as a pioneer of the Land or Earth Art movement. These four larger-than-life aluminum sculptures of leaves were created in 2011 and represent several of New England’s most beloved native trees: the American Beech, the American Chestnut, the Burr Oak, and the Sugar Maple. The sculpted leaves act as reminders to honor and protect the trees, and as a warning that failure to do so could result in their extinction.

The museum is working with the Biology Department, the Environmental Studies Program and the artist, around a series of programs to be presented in the spring of 2022 to highlight these sculptures, along with climate change and endangered species.

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