School of Visual Arts partnership brings art to Mugar Library with painting exhibition and printmaking workshops
The BU Libraries are pleased to collaborate with the BU School of Visual Arts Painting program to integrate art into library spaces with a new exhibition of student work and workshop series inviting all students to make art and learn about the process of creation.
Now on display on the first floor of Mugar Library, the exhibition, Painting Two at Boston University – Painting, Perception and Contemporary Figuration, presents examples of final paintings by BFA and BA Visual Art students in the Fall 2025 Painting II classes taught by Jill Grimes and Wilhelm Neusser, lecturers in BU School of Visual Arts.
In Painting II, an intermediate oil painting course, students exercise the decision-making skills necessary to make paintings with both formal and conceptual integrity. Throughout the semester, students engaged with increasingly complex painting problems, culminating in open-ended prompts for final paintings that sum up the experience of the semester. Each student made an important multiple-session figure painting in class with variable approaches to the psychology and narrative elements of figure painting. The works on display include students’ independent final painting projects, many involving concepts around self-portraiture, expression, and identity; and sustained still life paintings created mid semester. Together, the pieces highlight the range of technical skill and self-exploration that students developed throughout the semester.
Showcasing these works brings the range of advanced artistic practice and exploration of the program to the center of campus, increasing visibility of and engagement with BU’s arts programs. To deepen BU students’ knowledge of and experience with the arts, the BU Libraries is also hosting a series of printmaking workshops that will provide hands-on art education to everyone in the BU community.
Led by students who have completed the Painting II course, the “Make Your Mark: Stamp Carving Workshops” will teach BU community members how to carve stamps out of linoleum blocks and use them to make prints. Participants will also learn from the painting students about the processes and principles that went into creating artworks on display in the library.
The workshops, on the first floor of Mugar Library, in the student art exhibition area, will be held on:
Sunday, March 22, 2:30-4:30 pm
All are welcome to drop into a workshop at any time.