Past Exhibitions
January 27 – March 25, 2012
In Material: Fiber 2012
In Material features four artists who bring imagination and innovation to the field of fiber art. Japanese-born artist Lucy Arai apprenticed in the practice of sashiko, a decorative stitching process which she re invigorates and applies to handmade paper and mixed media. Sonya Clark uses thread, plastic combs, human hair, and other found objects to create wall hangings inspired by her African and American ancestry. Philadelphia-based Mi-Kyoung Lee, has had her woven backdrops incorporated in theater productions around the globe. Cynthia Schira digitally connects art and language in her elaborately patterned Jacquard cloths, drawing inspiration from ciphers, musical notes, and geometric patterns.
Click here to read ENGL-111 students' poems inspired by this exhibit.
In Material: Fiber 2012
In Material features four artists who bring imagination and innovation to the field of fiber art. Japanese-born artist Lucy Arai apprenticed in the practice of sashiko, a decorative stitching process which she re invigorates and applies to handmade paper and mixed media. Sonya Clark uses thread, plastic combs, human hair, and other found objects to create wall hangings inspired by her African and American ancestry. Philadelphia-based Mi-Kyoung Lee, has had her woven backdrops incorporated in theater productions around the globe. Cynthia Schira digitally connects art and language in her elaborately patterned Jacquard cloths, drawing inspiration from ciphers, musical notes, and geometric patterns.
Click here to read ENGL-111 students' poems inspired by this exhibit.
November 18, 2011 - January 15, 2012
Double Take: Series, Multiples, and Prints from the University of Pennsylvania Collection
The exhibition features 58 prints, photographs, pastels, and sculptures drawn from the University of Pennsylvania's diverse art collection, the second in a series of collaborative exhibitions by the University's Office of the Curator and the Arthur Ross Gallery. The exhibition explores issues of serialism and artistic process. The earliest works represented are Albrecht Dürer's Engraved Passion Series (1508-13) and two William Hogarth engravings from A Rake's Progress, 1735.
Double Take: Series, Multiples, and Prints from the University of Pennsylvania Collection
The exhibition features 58 prints, photographs, pastels, and sculptures drawn from the University of Pennsylvania's diverse art collection, the second in a series of collaborative exhibitions by the University's Office of the Curator and the Arthur Ross Gallery. The exhibition explores issues of serialism and artistic process. The earliest works represented are Albrecht Dürer's Engraved Passion Series (1508-13) and two William Hogarth engravings from A Rake's Progress, 1735.
August 13 – November 6, 2011
An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Art
This travelling exhibition from Tuscaloosa, Alabama features exceptional paintings from three centuries of American art drawn from the personal collection of Jonathan "Jack" Warner and his wife Susan Austin Warner and the collection of The Warner Foundation. The paintings chronicle the American experience from 1799 to 1971 in portraiture, historical, genre, still life and landscape.
An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Art
This travelling exhibition from Tuscaloosa, Alabama features exceptional paintings from three centuries of American art drawn from the personal collection of Jonathan "Jack" Warner and his wife Susan Austin Warner and the collection of The Warner Foundation. The paintings chronicle the American experience from 1799 to 1971 in portraiture, historical, genre, still life and landscape.
April 8 – July 24, 2011
Lauren Greenfield's Girl Culture
Girl Culture is a wide-ranging and profound documentation of the lives of American girls and young women. Greenfield’s installation presents over 50 color photographs of girls and young women from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds across the United States. The images in this show take an unflinching look at contemporary life for girls, addressing such topics as sexuality, body image, and weight loss culture.
Lauren Greenfield's Girl Culture
Girl Culture is a wide-ranging and profound documentation of the lives of American girls and young women. Greenfield’s installation presents over 50 color photographs of girls and young women from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds across the United States. The images in this show take an unflinching look at contemporary life for girls, addressing such topics as sexuality, body image, and weight loss culture.
January 21 - April 3, 2011
Post-Mao Dreaming: Contemporary Chinese Art
Post-Mao Dreaming: Chinese Contemporary Art presents over thirty prints, drawings, photographs and paintings that offer a glimpse of the post-Cultural Revolution era in China following Mao Zedong’s death, when Chinese artists began to throw off the restrictions of Maoist Communism (1949-1979) and to reclaim their individuality.
Post-Mao Dreaming: Contemporary Chinese Art
Post-Mao Dreaming: Chinese Contemporary Art presents over thirty prints, drawings, photographs and paintings that offer a glimpse of the post-Cultural Revolution era in China following Mao Zedong’s death, when Chinese artists began to throw off the restrictions of Maoist Communism (1949-1979) and to reclaim their individuality.
November 5 – January 9, 2011
The Dogon: Photographs by Stuart Franklin
Illustrating issues of water and sustainability in the Dogon region of Mali, these fifteen limited edition photographs were taken by Stuart Franklin on behalf of the Voss Foundation in 2009. Providing a view of the daily impact of the global water crisis, this exhibition was organized in conjunction with The University of Pennsylvania’s theme year of Water.
The Dogon: Photographs by Stuart Franklin
Illustrating issues of water and sustainability in the Dogon region of Mali, these fifteen limited edition photographs were taken by Stuart Franklin on behalf of the Voss Foundation in 2009. Providing a view of the daily impact of the global water crisis, this exhibition was organized in conjunction with The University of Pennsylvania’s theme year of Water.
August 28 – October 31, 2010
Naked: The University Collection Unveiled
Naked: the University Collection Unveiled features paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs drawn from the University of Pennsylvania’s diverse and remarkable art collection. This inaugural collaboration between the University’s Office of the Curator and the Arthur Ross Gallery draws attention to the historic evolution of the nude from the 16th century to the present.
Naked: The University Collection Unveiled
Naked: the University Collection Unveiled features paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs drawn from the University of Pennsylvania’s diverse and remarkable art collection. This inaugural collaboration between the University’s Office of the Curator and the Arthur Ross Gallery draws attention to the historic evolution of the nude from the 16th century to the present.
April 10 - June 27, 2010
Laughing Matters: Soviet Propaganda In Kruschchev's Thaw, 1956-1964
This exhibition offers a unique and thematically coherent sample of propaganda posters from the "Thaw," a period of post-Stalinist liberalization during Nikita Khrushchev’s ascendancy (1956-1964). The exhibition illuminates the changes in political rhetoric and iconography at a time when the Soviet Union encouraged an unprecedented "warming-up" in all social and cultural spheres and struggled to define a new imagery of Soviet collective purpose.
Laughing Matters: Soviet Propaganda In Kruschchev's Thaw, 1956-1964
This exhibition offers a unique and thematically coherent sample of propaganda posters from the "Thaw," a period of post-Stalinist liberalization during Nikita Khrushchev’s ascendancy (1956-1964). The exhibition illuminates the changes in political rhetoric and iconography at a time when the Soviet Union encouraged an unprecedented "warming-up" in all social and cultural spheres and struggled to define a new imagery of Soviet collective purpose.
January 27 - March 21 , 2010
Silence Dogood: An Installation by Miler Lagos
Silence Dogood on Miler Lagos' website
As part of the citywide celebration, Philagrafika 2010, the Arthur Ross Gallery will present a site-specific installation by Miler Lagos, a renowned Columbian contemporary artist. Lagos is a multi media artist with an interest in relating different socioeconomic environments-urban and popular-and re-appropriating the different visual ad social phenomena that emerge in each context. He uses a variety of modern materials: plastics, steel, cement and recycled paper.
Silence Dogood: An Installation by Miler Lagos
Silence Dogood on Miler Lagos' website
As part of the citywide celebration, Philagrafika 2010, the Arthur Ross Gallery will present a site-specific installation by Miler Lagos, a renowned Columbian contemporary artist. Lagos is a multi media artist with an interest in relating different socioeconomic environments-urban and popular-and re-appropriating the different visual ad social phenomena that emerge in each context. He uses a variety of modern materials: plastics, steel, cement and recycled paper.
October 16 - December 24, 2009
Jacob Lawrence and the Urban Experience: Selected Prints 1963-2000
A renowned 20th-century African-American painter/printmaker, Lawrence's self-defined style of "dynamic cubism" was primarily influenced by his life growing up in Harlem. The New York Times (June 9, 2000) called Lawrence "one of America's leading figurative painters" and "among the most impassioned visual chroniclers of the African American experience."
Jacob Lawrence and the Urban Experience: Selected Prints 1963-2000
A renowned 20th-century African-American painter/printmaker, Lawrence's self-defined style of "dynamic cubism" was primarily influenced by his life growing up in Harlem. The New York Times (June 9, 2000) called Lawrence "one of America's leading figurative painters" and "among the most impassioned visual chroniclers of the African American experience."
July 7, 2009 - October 11, 2009
West Philadelphia: Building a Community
This exhibition documents the neighborhood's 19th-century architectural and urban development while it features highlights of today's dynamic, multicultural community. The earliest works in the exhibition include watercolors by self-taught Scottish immigrant, David J. Kennedy. Kennedy's watercolors, drawn from the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, depict West Philadelphia houses, institutions, and streets between 1836-1898. City land maps, early photographs, and post cards also reveal the neighborhood's rapid expansion and growth then.
West Philadelphia: Building a Community
This exhibition documents the neighborhood's 19th-century architectural and urban development while it features highlights of today's dynamic, multicultural community. The earliest works in the exhibition include watercolors by self-taught Scottish immigrant, David J. Kennedy. Kennedy's watercolors, drawn from the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, depict West Philadelphia houses, institutions, and streets between 1836-1898. City land maps, early photographs, and post cards also reveal the neighborhood's rapid expansion and growth then.
April 11 - June 14 , 2009
Thirteen Miles from Paradise Paintings by John Moore
This exhibition of industrial landscape paintings by John Moore executed over the last 3 decades focuses on sites from Conneaut, Ohio to Waterville, Maine, including Coatesville, PA, a locale that specifically inspired American Modernists such as Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler. Moore has revisited places he painted 20 years ago, and his most recent paintings reveal changes that have occurred. JoMoore’s paintings resemble places where he grew up. While the images appear immediately recognizable, the paintings are in fact partial composites based on site specifics, formal concerns and oral history as told by individuals with ties to the sites.
Thirteen Miles from Paradise Paintings by John Moore
This exhibition of industrial landscape paintings by John Moore executed over the last 3 decades focuses on sites from Conneaut, Ohio to Waterville, Maine, including Coatesville, PA, a locale that specifically inspired American Modernists such as Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler. Moore has revisited places he painted 20 years ago, and his most recent paintings reveal changes that have occurred. JoMoore’s paintings resemble places where he grew up. While the images appear immediately recognizable, the paintings are in fact partial composites based on site specifics, formal concerns and oral history as told by individuals with ties to the sites.
Download this PDF for a comprehensive list of the Arthur Ross Gallery's past exhibitions.