Our exhibitions are always evolving, featuring fresh ideas, artists, and stories across multiple galleries. Explore upcoming exhibitions to see what’s coming soon.
Upcoming Exhibitions
She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots
Fairfield University Art Museum | Sited between the Dolan School of Business and Bellarmine Pond
September 11, 2026 - Onward
Fairfield University prepares to become the nation’s second site for Victoria Milstein’s powerful Holocaust memorial sculpture, after the first installation in LeBauer Park in Greensboro, N.C., in 2023.
Image: Victoria Milstein, She Wouldn't Take Off Her Boots, 2023, bronze. Greensboro, NC
Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
September 18 - December 12, 2026
This exhibition will explore the enduring fascination with ancient Egyptian art and culture (dubbed “Egyptomania” by 19th-century Europeans) through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative art ranging from the early 19th century through the present day. These objects, from the humble to the refined, from the shamelessly commercial to the Afrofuturist, represent the range of artistic responses to – and misconceptions about – ancient Egyptian visual culture. Paradoxically, this enthusiasm for Egyptian symbols and motifs contributed to the erasure of the ancient Egyptian people themselves, as their beliefs and customs became exoticized in popular memory. The exhibition will examine how these objects reflect the phenomenon of “Egyptomania” during the last two centuries, and will position their over-simplified or stereotypical narratives in conversation with current archeological understanding about ancient Egyptian culture.
The exhibition is curated by Megan Paqua (adjunct instructor of ancient Egyptian archaeology and art history and Fairfield University Art Museum Registrar).
Image: Charles-Theodore Frère, Along the Nile, ca. 1870, oil on panel. Gift of Michael T. Vigario, ’08, 2023.11.01.
James Welling: Cento
Walsh Gallery
September 25 - December 12, 2026
This exhibition focuses on more than 60 recent works by contemporary photographer James Welling (American, born 1951). The artist's photographs of ancient sites in Italy and Greece, as well as antiquities found in museums around the world, were subjected to digital and painterly alteration by the artist to achieve transformative effects. The photographs will be exhibited alongside a selection from the Museum’s extensive historic plaster cast collection of Greek and Roman sculpture.
As Welling explains, he is interested in “reanimating” the men and women of the ancient past through these works, and connecting them to our own time in a fresh way through his innovative combination of photography and painting. Visitors to the exhibition will feel their curiosity piqued by his elusive and often haunting evocations of the ancient Mediterranean world.
Image: James Welling, Portrait of Kore 679, 2021, oil on laser print. Courtesy of the artist. © James Welling.
Among the Trees
Walsh Gallery
January 29 - August 7, 2027
Taking both its title and its cue from a poem by Mary Oliver, this exhibition invites viewers to immerse themselves in the sustaining energy of trees and forests. Curated by Carey Weber, executive director of the Fairfield University Art Museum, the exhibition brings together paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and textile works that explore the endless artistic responses to trees, the giants that give our world shelter, color, and its very breath.
Image: Luise Kaish, Blossom Allée II, ca.1993-98, oil on linen. Lent by Kaish Family Art Project
Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen: Two Sides of La Belle Époque
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
January 29 – July 31, 2027
This exhibition is comprised of lithographs, drawings, and posters by two artists who represent distinct aspects of late 19th-century Paris, drawn from the collection of Paul and Belinda Firos. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and printmaker known for capturing Parisian nightlife, particularly Montmartre's cabarets, performers, and marginalized figures like prostitutes, often with empathy and insight. In contrast, T. A. Steinlen (1859-1923) focused his artistic career on people’s everyday lives and vicissitudes. During his lifetime, Steinlen’s fame eclipsed that of Toulouse-Lautrec and he was considered the best poster designer of his era.
Image: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Napoleon, 1895, color lithograph. Courtesy of Paul and Belinda Firos
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
(203) 254-4046
museum@fairfield.edu
Plan Your Visit
Enjoy free admission every day—no reservations required.
Before you arrive, be sure to check current hours for the Bellarmine Hall and Walsh Galleries to make the most of your visit.
