A series of prints showing the human body in four different states, part of Charles Suggs’ Body Gaze series, a collection of monotypes meant to confront the viewer.

Visual Arts

New 808 Gallery Exhibition Showcases Faculty, Alumni Artwork

First shown at the 2024 Venice Biennale, monthlong exhibition celebrates BU-affiliated printmakers and photographers

Haunting monochrome portraits, vivid abstract art, and etchings of all kinds line the walls of the Boston University Art Galleries 808 Gallery as part of its latest exhibition, Hidden in the Layers. Although the printmaking techniques are varied, they all have one aspect in common: the artists are BU faculty or alumni. 

Premiering during the 2024 Venice Biennale—the world’s oldest arts and architecture festival—Hidden in the Layers celebrates faculty within the College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts Print Media & Photography program, as well as alumni artists engaged in printmaking. The Venice exhibition was one of two BU-affiliated shows; the other was a showcase of work by 14 participants in BU’s Study Abroad Venice Studio Arts program. 

“This is really the first show that I’ve [directly] curated at BU in the seven years that I’ve been here,” says Lissa Cramer, director of BU Art Galleries. “It was kind of an experiment for me to curate remotely in an international gallery—and then I liked the show so much that I just thought, why don’t we share it with our BU community here?”

Cramer says that while the work of all five artists is different, they’re connected through the implementation of layers, whether a physical layering of mediums or layers within the meaning of each piece. Harvey Young, dean of CFA and BU’s interim vice president for the arts, initially spearheaded the exhibition’s theme and chose its artists, while Cramer and Stacy McKenna (MET’21), CFA associate director for strategic initiatives, cocurated the show.

The exhibition highlights several pieces from Lynne Allen, a CFA professor of art and print media and photography chair; Deborah Cornell, a CFA professor of art and printmaking chair; Toni Pepe, a CFA associate professor of art and photography chair; Joshua Brennan, a CFA lecturer in printmaking and technical associate in printmaking and photography; and Charles Suggs (CFA’20).

The Print Media & Photography MFA program was launched in 2022 by Allen, Cornell, and Pepe and emphasizes exploration of various media, from lithography to photography to woodcut and beyond. 

“It’s all very rare, and a treat, to show [work] as colleagues,” says Cornell, whose multimedia practice explores how large-scale environmental forces impact human life. “Each of us comes to the printmaking medium with a very different expectation and a really different intention.”

Suggs, a Boston-based multimedia artist, explores figure portraits using oil printing and candle smoke in his Body Gaze series. The art doesn’t depict any specific person, but the forward-facing portraits are intended to challenge and confront the viewer. 

“I started that when I was in one of Deb’s [Cornell] classes,” he says. “Most of the pieces [in the exhibition] now are iterations of that work.”

Suggs, who had worked on the series for more than a year, was at the exhibition’s premiere in Venice. And this summer he completed four new works.

“I’m with this group of printmakers who are really established and know their stuff,” he says of fellow exhibitors. “I feel really lucky and glad they asked me to be a part of it.”

Pepe’s work is primarily photography-based and frequently uses 20th-century newspaper clippings from the Boston Public Library archives. Her work in the exhibition is part of a larger series called Can I Hold You, which features ink-jet prints that she retraces with gouache, ink, and graphite.

“I like to spend a lot of time with my work,” Pepe says. “My hand becomes part of this larger chain of hands that have touched this photo and edited it.”

Allen has a collection of wood etchings and digital print reliefs on display, while Brennan is showing pieces from his series Abyssal Palimpsest—named to evoke a ruined vista.

It’s “part beautiful landscape, yet it withholds any fully recognizable forms,” Brennan told BU Today during the 2024 Biennale. “There’s a constant interplay between what is visible and what is obscured, inviting viewers to question the boundaries of the image.”

The colorful abstract forms, inkjet prints augmented with acrylic paint, suggest figures in a chaotic dance. They play against Suggs’ stark monochromatic pieces, showing the breadth of possibility within the printmaking medium. “I hope anybody coming to see the exhibition will just spend time really looking,” Pepe says. “This is an exhibition about layers: a layering of history, a layering of touch, a layering of presence. I hope people will give the time and space needed to just spend with the work.” 

Hidden in the Layers is on view through November 22 at the 808 Gallery, 808 Commonwealth Ave. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm. The exhibition is free and open to the public. A reception will be held on Wednesday, November 12, from 5:30 to 8 pm, at the 808 Gallery.