News 2020: We Are All Contagious

UMass Dartmouth Online Exhibition

Artists

Alfonso De Gregorio, Gessopalena, Italy
Alison Benincase, Bloomington, IN
Amanda Bingham, Wakefield, RI
Ann Huang, Newport Beach, CA
Art David, Naples, FL
Barbara Groves, Pass Christian, MS
Beatricia Sagar, Miami Beach, FL
Ben Saucier, Olympia, WA
Brian Payne, Yukon, OK
Charles Lovell, New Orleans, LA
Coleman Griffith, Los Angeles, CA
Daniel Tucker, Philadelphia, PA
Diane Messinger, Truro, MA
Faith Kohler, Bal Harbour, FL
folkdevils, Boston, MA
Hadley Williams, Piedmont, CA
Heidi Rufeh, Solana Beach, CA
Holly Campbell, Surprise, AZ
Jared Schuster, Duluth, MN
Julia Mandle, Amsterdam, North Holland
Katie Delay, Ottawa Hills, OH
KT Hancock, Seattle, WA
Laura Chasman, Roslindale, MA
Laura Noel, Atlanta, GA
Leonidas Dezes, Tampa, FL
Lindsay Garcia, St. Petersburg, FL
Lucy Julia Hale, Cave Spring, GA
Madie Gotshall, Hummelstown, PA
Martha Ketterer, Moss Beach, CA
Nikyra Capson, Pocatello, ID
Patricia Brace & Milcah Bassel, Biddeford, ME & Jersey City, NJ
Raj Manickam, Minturn, CO
Robin Booth, Inverness, IL
Sarah Kilgallon, Brighton, MA
Stephen Remick, Dartmouth, MA
Susan Palchak, Jersey City, NJ
Theodore Golden, West Hartford, CT
Warner Ball, Marshall, MI

The UMass Dartmouth University Art Gallery is pleased to invite you to its new online exhibition, We Are All Contagious. The juror, Nato Thompson, Artistic Director of Philadelphia Contemporary, has selected 49 artworks created by 39 artists from an impressive pool of 745 submitted works of art. Their techniques range from photography, painting, conceptual art, fabric sculpture, digital illustration, drawing, video, to print on toilet paper.

In his statement introducing the open call, the juror said: "We must breathe, and prepare, and be caring and cared for. We must find aid in those around us and build structures for times, like these, that in essence, we are sort of always in. Because, ultimately, we are in this together. For so many, it seems, the end is coming and for the rest of us, the beginning that is coming will most certainly be unrecognizable to us by looking at the past." Nato Thompson added, "As an aggregate we find a collision of exhausted nurses, medical trauma and viral fatigue blended with a much too familiar internet-ennui. While not particularly hopeful, I think the work presents us with the moment we inhabit."

About why this exhibition was conceived, the Gallery’s Director, Viera Levitt, explains that "while we are continuing our programming online due to the current health crisis, we still wanted to create a platform for artists and for our audience to reflect creatively upon the current situation. We are extremely thankful for all the submissions and responses to our open call.”

The exhibition is hosted on the new online galleries website under www.umassd.edu/cvpa/galleries. Special thanks go to Nato Thompson for his thoughtful approach to the selection of the work, Paula Erenberg Medeiros for creating the artist's pages and to Daryl Poeira, Director of Web Systems and Communications for his help with our online exhibitions. Additionally, we would like to thank Jason Loete, Director of Recruitment, Retention & Student Success for agreeing to co-host the opening reception on June 11 on our Zoom platform, as well as to all artists who will be giving a short gallery talk about their exhibited work.

Special thanks to CVPA Dean Lawrence Jenkens, for his enthusiastic support of this exhibition.