"Empowered"

January 13 – February 29; Due to university policy regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the UNI Gallery of Art closed this exhibition to the public starting March 19, 2020.

Mary Haskell-Hansen Room

A UNI Permanent Art Collection exhibition co-curated by Dr. Elizabeth Sutton and Gallery Director Darrell Taylor. Featured artists include Gladys Nilsson, Birgit Skiold, Sister Mary Corita Kent, Yayoi Kusama, UNI art instructors and alumni as well as objects from UNI Special Collections.

According to Dr. Sutton, "To have power is to have agency. To be empowered is to recognize and use it. This exhibition showcases work by women, people of color, and queer artists who have used their creative capacity to claim agency through art. Women hand-colored engravings in the nineteenth-century magazine Godey's Lady's Book, at once underscoring the roles dictated for them by society in the fashion plates, while gaining employment outside the domestic sphere as paid colorists. Contemporary artists' work demonstrates that creativity is necessarily a part of any person's multifaceted life, whatever their identifications or daytime job—be it caretaker and homemaker, financial analyst, teacher, lawyer, or barista. Various artists here express personal subjectivity as well as demonstrate their careful observation and critique of the social and phenomenal world. The art object mediates between self and world—for the artist and the viewer—and allows each individual to recognize their power within, and the power created by solidarity (being and seeing with), mutual support, and collaboration with others. By bringing us together, art multiplies individual talents and helps us recognize the power of each of us, empowering each other."

All events are free and open to the public. Please note, the Gallery will be closed Monday, January 20 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.