Inaugural Cantor Art Gallery Exhibition in the Prior Performing Arts Center to Showcase Faculty Works

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross is pleased to announce the first exhibition in its new home in the Prior Performing Arts Center, “Afterimage: Visual Arts Faculty 2022.” Showcasing works by visual arts faculty members: Michael Beatty, Rachelle Beaudoin, John Carney, Hilary Doyle, Colleen Fitzgerald, Matthew Gamber, Cristi Rinklin, Leslie Schomp, Susan Schmidt and Victor Pacheco, the exhibition will be on view from Sept. 12 through Oct. 23, 2022, with an opening reception scheduled for Wed., Sept. 14, 5-7 p.m. 

A tradition at the Cantor, faculty exhibitions highlight recent work by the visual arts faculty, who work in media across photography, drawing, painting, digital media, sculpture, printmaking, textile arts and artists’ books. The exhibition affords the College and wider communities an opportunity to engage with the work of these artists, whose developed practices explore themes deeply connected to the study of the liberal arts.

Cristi Rinklin, chair of the Visual Arts Department, will showcase a number of landscape paintings – a mode in which she has been working for several years. In these images, Rinklin manipulates a familiar visual trope – the two-dimensional representation of the land – through digital and analog constructions. Her paintings offer a contemplative space that invites the viewer to encounter and contemplate complex layers of visual information. 

Rinklin explains: “While there is lush beauty here, there is also a conspicuous human absence in these uninhabited, detached fragments that float in ambiguous, abstract spaces. Much in the way that memories exist in fragments with gaping voids of lost information, these landscapes hover in a state of dreamy and melancholy suspension, as if these apparitions are all that is left of a world that no longer exists.”

Sculptor Michael Beatty’s work explores his interest in the intersection between art, mathematics, natural forms and architectural structure, as well as technology and the handmade. He combines new technology such as 3D printing with handcraft processes. For Beatty, sculpture acts as a bridge between the physical world and the inner self. His work as a visual artist explores the rich psychological possibilities of material, structure and scale. Beatty teaches sculpture and three-dimensional design at Holy Cross.

Artist Rachelle Beaudoin uses video, wearables and performance to explore feminist identity within popular culture. Her humorous and often satirical video performances explore how women in particular are targeted online with messages of “being the best version of themselves” and “living their best lives.” Through these performances, Beaudoin exposes the vulnerability of women and the invisible burdens they carry. She teaches digital media projects.

Matthew Gamber’s photographic process explores how the elements of photography construct meaning in an image. He has recently recreated the early color theory experiments of musicians and amateur scientists Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes in the “Lost Color of God and Man.” His project at the Cantor uses three-dimensional imaging techniques to explore the legacy of the Transcendentalists through New England landscapes. At Holy Cross, Gamber teaches photography and new media.

Artist Victor Pacheco’s three-dimensional works utilize a variety of media – often as a means to comment on the use and misuse of resources in today’s society. His recent work manifests a shift in his own studio practice, moving away from using non-sustainable plastics into more permanent and reusable materials such as bronze. 

Also a multimedia artist, Leslie Schomp uses traditional materials such as cloth, thread and human hair to create both sewn “drawings,” as well as larger, sculptural work. Her work explores the figure and the encounter with nature, materials and how they shape form,  and most recently ideas of transcendentalist communities in New England. She teaches drawing, collage, and other related courses at Holy Cross.

Susan Schmidt is a draftsman, print- and bookmaker whose work explores personal and family relationships, social issues like immigration, and a concern for environmental issues such as climate change. At the Cantor, she will show an artist's handmade book designed and constructed in collaboration with nine local, female artists responding to a poem by Worcester-based poet Susan Roney-O’Brien. Susan Schmidt teaches printmaking and book projects. She is a member of the Boston Printmakers. 

Studio manager John Carney and visiting artists Hilary Doyle (painting)  and Colleen Fitzgerald (photography) will also have work included in the exhibition. 

The Prior Performing Arts Center is in active use as of the start of the Fall 2022 semester. An official dedication celebration will be held in December.

EVENTS:

Wed, 9/14 from 5 - 7 pm: Opening Celebration

Tue, 9/20 at 12.15 pm: Faculty artist Cristi Rinklin in conversation with Mark Freeman, Psychology Department

Wed, 9/21 at 12.15 pm: Faculty artists Matthew Gamber and Colleen Fitzgerald in conversation

Tue, 9/27 at 4 pm: Faculty artists Victor Pacheco and Leslie Schomp in conversation

Thu, 9/29 at 12.15 pm: Faculty artist Michael Beatty in conversation with Amy Finstein, Visual Arts Department

Tue, 10/4 at 12.15 pm: Faculty artists John Carney and Hilary Doyle in conversation

Tue, 10/18 at 4 pm: “The Load,” a performance and talk by faculty artist Rachelle Beaudoin

Wed, 10/19 at 4 pm: “Artists & Poets, Collaborative Books,” faculty artist Susan Schmidt in conversation with Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, English Department, with a reading by poet Susan Roney-O’Brien

Wed, 10/26 at 4.30 pm: Artist Talk, Justine Hill, location TBD