BU Art Galleries presents Painting& to Celebrate Newly Commissioned Installations from Prominent New England Artists
Portraits of the four artists included in Painting&, from left to right: Cicely Carew, Chanel Thervil, Kate Holcomb Hale, Soyoung L. Kim.
BU Art Galleries presents Painting& to Celebrate Newly Commissioned Installations from Prominent New England Artists
A group exhibition organized by guest curator Mallory A. Ruymann will be on view at BU’s Stone Gallery January 18 – March 8, 2024
Exhibition Dates: January 18 – March 8, 2023,
Public Reception: Thursday, January 18, 6–8 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Wednesday, March 6, 6–8 p.m.
Boston University Art Galleries is pleased to present Painting&, a group exhibition featuring four artists interrogating the definition of painting. Organized by guest curator Mallory A. Ruymann in collaboration with the Boston University Art Galleries team, the exhibition highlights the ways in which painting has transformed into an expansive expression incorporating a variety of mediums and techniques.
Grounded in a contemporary and regional context, the exhibition features newly commissioned artwork by Cicely Carew, Chanel Thervil, Kate Holcomb Hale, and Soyoung L. Kim. Painting& presents these artists together for the first time. Says the curator:
“This group exhibition examines the porosity and mutability of painting through a collaboration with four artists living and working in New England. With practices grounded in the process and materiality of painting, these artists engage in a hybrid, multiple-media approach to making, equally calling upon traditions of muralism, sculpture, installation, performance, new media, and more.
Artists include: Cicely Carew, utilizing lyrical, spontaneous expressionism to manufacture a total environment primed for healing; Kate Holcomb Hale, investigating the psychological potential of memory-laden architecture to encourage profound empathetic responses; Soyoung L. Kim, tapping into the narrative potential of the painted archive by juxtaposing ephemeral performance with static picture; Chanel Thervil, documenting individual members and moments of community building to amplify the work of the greater collective.
The artwork presented in this exhibition draws from artists’ established painting practices while offering space for newly commissioned work to unfold in a large-scale installation format. Distilled into four distinct expressions of painting in the expanded field, Painting& interrogates the definition and delineation of a medium through augmentation, amendment, and expansion. It’s both something and something more.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Cicely Carew (b. 1982, Los Angeles, CA) is a Boston-based artist, educator, and wellness coach whose multimedia works blur the boundaries between disciplines in an expression of sensory transfiguration and delight. Carew completed her MFA at Lesley Art + Design in Cambridge and her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art + Design in Boston. Recent solo exhibitions include Fitchburg Art Museum (Fitchburg, MA); The Commons Provincetown (Provincetown, MA); Simmons University (Boston, MA); and Northeastern University (Boston, MA). Carew’s recent honors include the ICA Boston’s James and Audrey Foster Prize (2023) and the Brother Thomas Fellowship (2023).
Chanel Thervil (b. 1991, Miami, FL) is a Haitian-American artist and educator who uses varying combinations of abstraction and portraiture to convene communal dialogue around culture, social issues, and existential questions. At the core of her practice lies a desire to empower and inspire tenderness and healing among communities of color through the arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Pace University and a master’s degree in art education from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She’s been making a splash in New England via her educational collaborations, public art, and residencies with institutions like The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), The Boston Children’s Museum (Boston, MA), Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA), The DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA), and The Surf Point Foundation (York, ME).
Kate Holcomb Hale (b. 1976, Buffalo, NY) is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in greater Boston, MA. Kate’s installations, hand-sewn soft sculptures, and paper clay impressions act as vehicles to consider the burden and privilege of care, grief, the residue of families, and the invisible labor that occurs within the domestic sphere. Kate received her MFA in critical theory and studio art from Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She has exhibited throughout the United States and internationally including exhibitions at The Danforth Art Museum (Framingham, MA), Zabludowicz Collection (London UK), Praise Shadows Art Gallery (Boston MA), LaiSun Keane Gallery (Boston MA), Spilt Milk Gallery (Edinburgh Scotland), and the ICA (Portland ME).
Soyoung L. Kim (b. 1974, Seoul, South Korea) was born in Seoul, South Korea, grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, and lives and works in Boston, MA. Her background as 교포 Gyopo, as part of the Korean diaspora, allows her to move freely across artistic disciplines to create new works that blend those disciplines. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2021, she received the Live Arts Boston Grant from The Boston Foundation. She has exhibited in both solo and group shows, including the Boston Center for the Arts (Boston, MA), Simmons University (Boston, MA), and Pao Arts Center (Boston, MA).
EXHIBITION & PROGRAMMING DETAILS
Painting& will be on display to the public January 18 – March 8, 2024, Tuesday – Saturday (The exhibition will be closed on Sundays, Mondays, and holidays) from 11am to 5pm. Admission is FREE.
A public reception will be held on Saturday, January 17, from 6 to 8 pm
A closing panel with the four artists will be held on Wednesday, March 6, from 6 to 8 pm
Additional programming may be announced.
VISIT BU ART GALLERIES
HOURS
Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm. Closed on Sundays, Mondays, and holidays.
FREE ADMISSION
All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
LOCATION
Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery
855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (first floor)
Boston University’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery is located at 855 Commonwealth Avenue inside Boston University College of Fine Arts and is accessible via the B Green line 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.
The Boston University Art Galleries (BUAG) 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. She has independently curated exhibitions for Praise Shadows Art Gallery, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, and Boston University Art Galleries.
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, and think broadly. 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