Upcoming Exhibitions

Featuring new relief paintings and figurative furniture-sculpture by New York artist Ruby Sky Stiler (b. 1979), this exhibition is presented as part of the celebration of 50 years of women at Fairfield University. Stiler, who holds a BFA from RISD and an MFA from the Yale University School of Art, has been investigating images of women inspired by the techniques and language of classical antiquity for over a decade. Recently, Stiler’s art has expanded to include the subject of “father and child.” The dearth of art historical precedent for depictions of men displaying emotional intimacy, or being defined by their relationship to their children, is in stark contrast to the abundant impressions of “mother and child.”

Curated by Ian Berry, Dayton Director of the Tang Teaching Museum, this exhibition will also include contemporary interpretations of the traditional museum “viewing bench” as a form of utilitarian sculpture. The exhibition will invite viewers to sit and consider their own bodies in relation to the gallery space and the ideas in the artwork on the walls. The exhibition will open with a virtual conversation between Ruby Sky Stiler and curator Ian Berry on September 10, 2020. The exhibition will travel and will be on view at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College in 2022.

Image: Ruby Sky Stiler, No Title (Warm Gemstones Bust), 2020, acrylic paint, acrylic resin, paper, glue, and graphite on panel. Courtesy of the artist and Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Organized by scholar and guest curator Karen Wilkin, this exhibition will feature some 20 paintings and works on paper by British artist Andrew Forge (British, 1923-2002). Forge was a painter and art critic, as well as the dean and professor of the Yale University School of Art from 1975-1994. His highly personal abstractions distill his perceptions of place, season, and time of day into subtle orchestrations of pure color. Through this rich presentation, museum visitors – students and faculty as well as the many members of the general public who attend our exhibitions and programs each year – will be introduced to the work of this important contemporary artist. Lenders to the exhibition include numerous private collections, the artist’s widow Ruth Miller, and the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art.

Image: Andrew Forge, Cloak, 1985, oil on canvas. Collection of Patrick J. Waide Jr. ‘59