BU Art Galleries Presents STUFFED to Celebrate Artists Working at the Nexus of Quilting, Painting, Sculpture, and Installation
Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Piedra de Mar, 2022. Fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, acrylic paint and spray paint. 50 1/2 x 42 x 4 inches. Friedman Family Collection. Photography courtesy of the artist and Shulamit Nazarian Gallery. © Maria A. Guzmán Capron.
BU Art Galleries Presents STUFFED to Celebrate Artists Working at the Nexus of Quilting, Painting, Sculpture, and Installation
The group exhibition, on view from June 15-September 15 at BU’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, is co-organized by guest curators Mallory A. Ruymann and Leah Triplett Harrington
Exhibition Dates: June 15-September 15, 2023
Public Reception: Saturday, June 17, 6-8pm
Boston University Art Galleries is pleased to present STUFFED, a group exhibition featuring twelve female artists working at the nexus of quilting, painting, sculpture, and installation. Co-organized by guest curators Mallory A. Ruymann and Leah Triplett Harrington, the exhibition highlights the ways in which contemporary and historical practices that incorporate soft materials offer novel ways of merging material with expression.
Both historical and grounded in a contemporary context, the exhibition offers works from Khadija Aziz, Natalie Baxter, Amelia Briggs, Maria A. Guzmán Capron, L’Merchie Frazier, Jai Hart, BSisters Khaleghi, Anne Libby, Meg Lipke, Elizabeth Murray, Rose Nestler, Courtney Stock, and Nastassja E. Swift.
Together, these twelve artists survey the use of stuffing as a way to embrace new approaches to personal and communal experiences. STUFFED presents these artists together for the first time.
“Filling. Batting. Liner. Wadding. Padding. Bushing. Swaddle… there are many ways to name the material that brings life to a blanket or fills a comfortable seat,” explains co-curators Mallory A. Ruymann and Leah Triplett Harrington. “A quilt reflects the collision of painting and technology. Portraits of people and charismatic objects emerge from padded surfaces. Wool gives shape to imaginative reflections on identity. The curve of an unstructured edge conjures architecture. This exhibition examines the volumes that swell, and the possibilities presented within those distensions,” they add, “and though reflecting movements associated with Soft Sculpture, Craft, and other pliable materials similarly historicized, the artists presented here make in ways that defy category. Offering, beguiling, and encouraging new ways for art to exist in space, STUFFED makes room for softness to stretch beyond neutral material.”
This exhibition examines the volumes that swell, and the possibilities presented within those distensions. Offering, beguiling, and encouraging new ways for art to exist in space, STUFFED makes room for softness to stretch beyond neutral material.
STUFFED is the third independent curatorial collaboration between friends and colleagues Mallory A. Ruymann and Leah Triplett Harrington. Their partnership is grounded in an interest in global contemporary artists working with materials associated with craft. They seek to generate scholarly exhibitions that simultaneously uplift the artists they present, expanding critical dialogue on under-represented practices in art history. Their joint exhibition history includes shape_shifting_support_systems, Praise Shadows, Boston, MA (2022), and A Romance Of…, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA (2023).
EXHIBITION DETAILS
STUFFED will be on display to the public from June 15-September 15, 2023, Tuesday-Saturday,* 11am-5pm. Admission is FREE.
A public reception will be held Saturday, June 17, 6pm-8pm.
*The exhibition will be closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays
Boston University’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery is located at 855 Commonwealth Avenue inside Boston University College of Fine Arts, and accessible by the B Green line to Amory Street Station. Visitor parking is available at the Agganis Arena parking lot at 925 Commonwealth Avenue. For more information on transportation, visit bu.edu/art/visit.
About Us
Boston University Art Galleries serves as a resource of learning and cultural engagement for Boston University and the surrounding metro area. The galleries maintain ongoing rotating exhibitions that allow for a wide scope of art to be featured from all ranges of mediums and artists. Part of the College of Fine Arts, the Boston University Art Galleries maintains an ongoing exhibition schedule in two locations on the University’s Charles River Campus—the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery and 808 Gallery. The galleries are free and open to all. BU Art Galleries animates the cultural life of Boston University by exhibiting inclusive, dynamic art that encourages learning and appreciation for the visual world. Boston University Art Galleries is located at 855 Commonwealth Avenue inside the College of Fine Arts. The gallery is located on the Boston University campus (Amory Street stop on the “B” Green Line.) Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 11am–5pm, (Closed Sundays, Mondays and Holidays.) For more information, visit bu.edu/art.
Mallory A. Ruymann is a curator, art advisor, and art historian working with emerging artists in all media. She is the Managing Partner of art works, an art advisory partnering with individuals and companies across the United States and Canada to build significant collections of contemporary art through a mission-driven lens. Among other institutions, she has previously worked at Tufts University Art Galleries, MassArt Art Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, and Fabric Workshop and Museum. Her writing can be found in academic journals and community publications, including Boston Art Review.
Leah Triplett Harrington is a curator, writer, and editor currently serving as the Director of Exhibitions and Contemporary Curatorial Initiatives at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (PAFA). Previously she was a curator at Now + There, where she facilitated the Public Art Accelerator and organized large-scale public art commissions. She is also editor-at-large for Boston Art Review. Her writing has most recently appeared in that publication as well as ArtNet News, Sculpture, Public Art Dialogue, Flash Art, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and others. As an independent curator, she has organized projects for Boston University Art Galleries, Trestle Gallery, and Herter Gallery. In 2021, she was the inaugural curatorial mentor for Praise Shadows Art Gallery, and in 2022-23, she taught at Boston University.
Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 34,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Learn more at bu.edu.
Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a community of artist-scholars and scholar-artists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, CFA prepares students for a meaningful creative life by developing their intellectual capacity to create art, shift perspective, think broadly, and master relevant skills. CFA offers a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, as well as a range of online degrees and certificates. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa