Past Exhibitions

The University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art will present the spring 2024 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) group exhibition from Monday, April 22, through Sunday, May 12. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m., Monday, April 22, in the south lobby of the Kamerick Art Building (KAB).

UNIVERSITY CLOSURE ANNOUNCEMENT: 

Due to the university precautionary closures on Tuesday, January 16th, we will need to move the opening reception back one week. The opening UNI Department of Art Faculty + 1 exhibition opening reception will now be held on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.

Abstract art in an American context often focuses on the idea of pure abstraction or non-representational art, especially the works by Abstract Expressionist or Minimalist painters. American Abstraction presents a variety of approaches to abstraction by American artists. Among the works on display are prints, paintings, and sculptures by various artists from the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century: Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Louise Nevelson, Robert Motherwell, Doña Rosa, and more.

On February 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Scott Charles Ross decided everyone needed to do their part to help Ukraine and its people. He immediately started sketching images he’d seen on online news outlets. His part would be to make art—to paint a series that would raise awareness and, potentially, funds.

The University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art and Permanent Collection announces its opening art exhibition, "Repetition, Suites, and Series." Located in the Mary Haskell-Hansen Room of the Gallery, this UNI Permanent Art Collection exhibition was curated by Gallery Director Laura Gleissner and will run from August 21 – December 8, 2023.

January 17 – February 24; March 20 – April 13; April 24- May 5, 2023

Located in the Mary Haskell-Hansen Room of the Gallery, this UNI Permanent Art Collection exhibition was curated by Gallery Director Darrell Taylor and features a number of objects recently added to the Collection, including a Japanese woodblock print by Meiji Era artist Utagawa Yoshiiku and seven drawings and paintings by Hans Breder (German American), a generous donation from the estate of Hans and Barbara Welch Breder of Iowa City. Also featured are artworks by Sandra Baker (American), M.C. Escher (Dutch), Paolo Soleri (Italian), and Todd Walker (American). Rounding out the exhibition are loaned objects from UNI Professor of Art Jeffery Byrd, which include photographs based on performance artworks by Boris Nieslony (German), Rachel Rosenthal (French American), and Heather Sincavage (American).

Shayla Kelly of Cedar Rapids, IA presents an exhibition titled "Never Enough." Macey Reed of Marion, IA presents an exhibition titled "Fat." Jess Vazquez of Osceola, IA presents an exhibition titled "Bay Street."

6:00 - 8:00 p.m. This performance showcase features the work of UNI Performance Art students. Slated for the evening are timed and durational performance as well as digital media works happening within four rooms of the Gallery and parts of the first floor of Kamerick Art Building South. Some performance works are intended for mature audiences.

The Iseminger Collection is named for UNI alumna Lois E. Iseminger who in 2011 donated over 160 works of art collected for decades in and around Chicago where she makes her home. This gift significantly boosted the aesthetic profile of the UNI Permanent Art Collection by helping fill out its holdings of Midwest contemporary artists. That same year, the Gallery presented an exhibition titled "Turning Point," for the purpose of honoring that gift.

This fall, we present significant objects from the Iseminger Collection in addition to objects never before displayed. Look for paintings by Sarah Krepp, Vera Klement, Susanne Doremus, and William Conger as well as sculptures by David Bower, Barry Tinsley, and David Bottini. Also on display are photographs by Ingvar Kenne and Jakub Augustyn, woodcut prints by Branislaw Bak, a major conceptual work by Hanne Darboven, and most of the objects from the New Art Examiner Box acquired by the collector at the New Art Examiner’s 25th Anniversary Surrealist Cabaret Ball in April of 2000.

In the Mary Haskell-Hansen Room of the Gallery. This UNI Permanent Art Collection exhibition was co-curated by Art History instructor Josh Hainy and Gallery Director Darrell Taylor and features female-identifying artists, indigenous artists, and artists of color such as Dawoud Bey, Russell T. Gordon, Marion Greenwood, Lee Krasner, Doña Rosa (or Rosa Real Mateo de Nieto), Melanie Walker, Marguerite Wildenhain, and Betty Woodman.

Presented jointly by the University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art and the UNI Department of Art. An awards ceremony will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, March 21 in the KAB Auditorium, room 111. This competitive exhibition showcases outstanding recent artworks by students enrolled in classes in the UNI Department of Art. The juror for this year's competition is Barbara Fedeler, Professor of Art at Wartburg College, Waverly, IA. Free and open to the public.

This exhibition is a group invitational event curated by UNI Professor of Art JoAnn Schnabel who will retire from teaching at the conclusion of 2021. Exhibition participants include the following: Bryan Coons (B.F.A, 2012), Lori Dale (B.A., 1997), Thaddeus Erdahl (B.F.A., 2004), Allison Fretheim (B.A., 2015), Sarah German (B.F.A., 2006), Travis Gingerich (B.F.A., 2016), Matt Kelleher (M.A., 1997), Rylie Lawrence (B.F.A., 2018), Caitlin Mary Margarett (B.F.A., 2018), Lisa McClurg (B.A., 2010), Nicholas Meyer (M.A., 2010), Daniel Orr (M.A., 1998), Jesse Parrott (B.F.A., 2010), Wade Scheel (B.A., 1995), Chris Singewald (B.F.A., 2006), Kelsey Sorensen (B.F.A, 2015), Denae Statzer (B.F.A., 2020), Brad Travis (M.A., 2003), Dallan Troyer (M.A., 1996), Madalyn Loring Vorrie (B.F.A., 2017), Amythest Warrington (B.F.A., 2014), Chad Wolf (B.F.A., 1996), and the curator herself.

August 23 - September 25; October 15 - November 6; and December 2 - 15, 2021

In the Mary Haskell-Hansen Room of the Gallery. Co-curated by UNI alumna Angela Waseskuk and Gallery Director Darrell Taylor, this exhibition highlights objects from the Collection and the UNI Museum by historical and contemporary Native artists. The title is taken from N. Scott Momaday's book, "Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land." Momaday (Kiowa) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet and recipient of a 2007 National Medal of Arts.

This final Collection exhibition of academic year 2020-21 is curated by Gallery Director Darrell Taylor and installed in the Rooms D and E to accompany the Spring 2021 B.F.A Group Exhibition. Just as in previous Gallery exhibitions during the year, COVID-19 protocols are in place, so masks must be worn, social distancing must be observed, and only 10 persons are allowed in the space at a time. Among the sixteen works of art on view are five bronzes and an aquatint, ink, and sugar lift print by Reuben Nakian, all of which depict the Greek myth of Zeus and the Aetolian princess and Spartan queen Leda. In order to emphasize the solemnity of this ancient tale, the presentation is located exclusively in the northeast area of the Gallery in Room D. Artworks by local legends Dean Schwarz, Clarence Alling, and John Page can be found in Room E. Aside from one iconic canopic jar by Schwarz, which serves as a bridge between the two rooms, the art objects here reference cherished regional landscapes and the vitality of the natural world. Incidentally, presented for the first time in the same exhibition are all seven of the Collection’ River Series prints by John Page.

Due to the university’s ongoing policy regarding the pandemic, the UNI Gallery of Art will present the exhibition online only. This competitive online group exhibition showcases outstanding recent artworks by students enrolled in classes in the UNI Department of Art. The juror for this year's competition is Heather Skeens, Cultural Programs Supervisor for the City of Cedar Falls and overseer of the Hearst Center for the Arts. Ms. Skeens will make a selection from student entries and choose a number of merit awards and honorable mentions. View the exhibition here: 2021 Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition.

Juror’s Zoom lecture: Monday, March 15 at 5 p.m.

Awards Ceremony: Monday, March 29 at 5 p.m.: https://youtu.be/QcDzkEpJ518

Poster design by UNI graphic design major Sarah Westholm.

Curated by Gallery Director Darrell Taylor and installed in the Main Room (B). Its purpose is to offer art students, staff, and faculty a place to view art during on campus in-person instruction. COVID-19 protocols are in place, so masks must be worn, social distancing must be observed, and only 10 persons are allowed in the space at a time.

31 art objects from the UNI Permanent Art Collection are on display for much of the spring 2021 semester and include prints by M.C. Escher, Herbert Bayer, Edna Andrade, and Robert Indiana as well as bronzes by Antonio Virduzzo and a couple of variations on Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square. Also on view are several Seagrove-tradition ceramics from the Lawrence W.S. Auld Collection and a painting series based on the Fibonacci sequence by Dutch artist Marianne Lipschitz Jørgensen from the Lois E. Iseminger Collection.

Curated by Gallery Director Darrell Taylor and dedicated to Emeritus Professor of Graphic Design Phil Fass. Presented in association with the 2021 Elena Diane Curris Biennial Design Exhibition. This online exhibition based on objects in from the UNI Permanent Art Collection branches roughly into concepts about color theory, typography, architecture, linear perspective, economy/minimalism, graphics (symbols, diagrams, illustration) and other gestalt principles. With a hearty thanks to Walt Whitman, design “contains multitudes.” Encompassing American, German, British, and Italian designers/artists, this exhibition is by no means comprehensive; however, one can hardly argue with the authority that Josef Albers, Warren Platner, and Jessica Helfand bring to the table. This selection extends from the last mid-century to very nearly the present and includes letterpress, digital prints, and screenprints as well as painting, photography, and even jewels and precious metal. The earliest acquisition is the Albers painting and the most recent is a three-dimensional exhibition catalogue from 1970, produced for a Paolo Soleri retrospective. Visit the exhibition here: Design from the UNI Permanent Art Collection.

August 17 – October 24, 2020

Curated by Gallery Director Darrell Taylor and installed in the Main Room (B). Its purpose is to offer art students, staff, and faculty a place to view art during on campus in-person instruction. COVID-19 protocols are in place, so masks must be worn, social distancing must be observed, and only 10 persons are allowed in the space at a time.

20 art objects are on display from Romare Bearden to Sonnenzimmer, from Mary Snyder Behrens to Robert Arneson, from Mark Tobey to Kee-ho Yuen, to three of our UNI photography alumni. It was conceived as a continuation of a summer 2018 single-day exhibition presented in association with a Cedar Valley Chamber Music concert titled L.A. Stories: Forgotten Composers of the Silver Screen, in which objects from different artists were paired. These pairings present the viewer with closely related themes, similar use of materials, or an uncanny presentation of shared motifs (i.e., shapes, textures, line, and subject matter).

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.

Located in the Mary Haskell-Hansen Room of the Gallery, this UNI Permanent Art Collection exhibition was co-curated by Dr. Adelman and Gallery Director Darrell Taylor. This Collection exhibition was supplemented by objects on loan to the Gallery by Dr. Adelman. Featured artworks from the Collection include the following: prints from Bronislaw Bak’s "One-Hundred Views of Chicago" series, which was donated by UNI alumna Lois E. Iseminger of Chicago;  "Flower" by the late Ralph Haskell, professor emeritus of the UNI Department of Art; "Inspiration" by Käthe Kollwitz, which was donated by Kurt and Cynthia Kruse of Cedar Falls; "Seated Model with Mirror" by Steven Bigler of St. Paul, which was donated by the artist himself; and an untitled still-life by Jean Lurçat, which was donated by Ray and Sandy Benter of Des Moines. Also, on view will be a newly conserved 18th century portrait in an antique gilded frame donated by Dr. Hart M. Nelsen and Dr. Anne Kusener Nelsen of Seattle.

The "2019 Department of Art Faculty Exhibition" is a formal presentation of recent accomplishments by the faculty in the UNI Department of Art and includes painting, drawing, printmaking, graphic design, sculpture, ceramics, photography, mixed media, performance and installation art as well as art history scholarship. The exhibition is an opportunity for students and the public at large to experience current themes in contemporary art and also to meet artists who not only teach but also maintain vibrant professional careers in studio art, graphic design, art history, and art education. The opening reception begins at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 16, in the Kamerick Art Building (KAB) south lobby.

Opening Reception: Apr. 29 at 7 p.m. The following students are pursuing Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in their respective emphasis areas and are exhibiting new artwork to fulfill graduation requirements: multidisciplinary artist Anastasia Chloe, painters Deo Rai and Emily Michelle Schroeder, and sculptor Hanna Seggerman. Concurrently, the Gallery will present M.A. Art Education Candidates’ Visual Timelines in the Showcases and ZigZag Cases in the KAB South lobby. These visual timelines document classwork and applied research completed by the Art Education cohort of 2019. All events are free and open to the public.

An Art Collection Travelogue is a UNI Permanent Art Collection exhibition curated by Gallery Director Darrell Taylor that features the installation Paper Border by Paul Valadez, ten large-scale drawings from Mary Frisbee Johnson’s Navigating series, newly acquired ceramics by Dean and Gunnar Schwarz, and a remarkably pristine tapa bark cloth from the Polynesian island of Tonga.

On Thursday, Jan. 24 at 6:00 p.m. in KAB 111 artist Paul Valadez will present a lecture titled "The Potlatch Project, the Artwork of Paul Valadez." An opening reception will follow.