The Fairfield University Art Museum will debut three exhibitions in January and March, two featuring Chinese art and one on the work of photographer Adger Cowans.
This January and March, the Fairfield University Art Museum (FUAM) will present three new exhibitions: two highlighting different perspectives on contemporary Chinese art, and another comprised of more than 50 works from esteemed Black photographer Adger Cowans.
“We are thrilled to be opening two exhibitions of Chinese art in the Walsh Gallery — with our first in-person opening events since the start of the pandemic,” said Carey Mack Weber, the Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director of the FUAM.
The opening night programs for the Chinese Art exhibitions, SEEING IS BELIEVING: Crossings and Transpositions, Part II and ink/stone, will take place on Thursday, January 20, beginning at 5 p.m. with an introduction of ink/stone by Ive Covaci, PhD, lecturer in Fairfield’s Visual Art and Culture Department, followed by the presentation of a filmed conversation between Professor of Studio Art Jo Yarrington and SEEING IS BELIEVING artists in the Quick Center's Kelley Theatre. The filmed conversation will also be streamed at thequicklive.com. The programs will be followed by an in-person opening reception from 6 – 7 p.m. in the Walsh Gallery, Quick Center Lobby.
SEEING IS BELIEVING: Crossings and Transpositions, Part II is an exhibition organized by Professor Yarrington, featuring work by five contemporary Chinese artists: He Jiancheng, Xiao Yao Ning, Luo Biwu, Zuo Zeng Yao and Zhang Zeng Min. Yarrington travelled to China in 2016 with four other American artists, where they presented Part I of this international exchange. SEEING IS BELIEVING has been made possible with the generous support of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Yang Zhiguang Art & Education Foundation, and the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England.
The ink/stone exhibition is curated by Dr. Covaci and will feature some 15 contemporary Chinese paintings and works on paper, presented together with stone sculptures, including a scholar’s rock. By showing late 20th- and 21st-century works inspired by traditional Chinese artistic subjects of rocks and mountains, ink/stone will investigate how contemporary artists deploy, evoke, and transform this motif, using a range of media from ink on paper to oil on canvas. The artists in the exhibition include An Ho, Bingyi, Gu Wenda, Huang Yan, Lee Chun-yi, Liu Dan, Qiu Deshu, Zhan Wang and others. Exhibition brochures available upon request. Generous funding in support of ink/stone has been provided by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.
Together, these two exhibitions — on view from January 21 through March 5, 2022 — explore the ways in which contemporary Chinese artists draw upon and challenge tradition in their work.
On Thursday, January 27 from 6 - 8 p.m. the FUAM will host an Opening Reception featuring artist Adger Cowans, who will be signing copies of his new book, Adger, published by 21st Editions, accompanied by live music by Grammy-award-winning saxophonist Patience Higgins in the Diffley Board Room and Great Hall of Bellarmine Hall.
*New Date* Wednesday, March 30 at 5 p.m. FUAM will host an Opening Night Conversation for the Adger Cowans: Sense and Sensibility exhibition (on view January 28 – June 18, 2022) entitled "The Illustrious Career of Adger Cowans." FUAM will welcome McArthur Genius award winner, artist, photographer, curator of photography, photographic historian, author and educator, Deborah Willis, PhD, who will be joining her friend artist Adger Cowans, and exhibition curator Halima Taha for the conversation in the Dogwood Room of the Barone Campus Center “that is not to be missed,” said Weber.
“Following the conversation,” Weber said, “I hope people will join us for a viewing of this important exhibition of photography by Cowans in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries, which will feature works from across his career as a photographer of portraiture, landscape, and film.”
Additional program information may be found at fairfield.edu/museum.
Note: Please check the museum website before visiting as Covid-19 protocols are subject to change. University policies related to campus access will apply. Updates can be found on the University website.
