2024
Wilkes University Alumni Exhibition: Celebrating the Blue and Gold
Wilkes University Alumni Exhibition: Celebrating the Blue and Gold from June 18 to August 11, 2024. This exhibition was juried by Ryan Ward, Curator of the Maslow Collection in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the Owner/ Director of The Ruffed Grouse Gallery in Narrowsburg, New York. He specializes in Contemporary, Folk, and Self-Taught Art.
Featuring 50 works of art by alumni spanning 52 years of creative expression, Wilkes University Alumni Exhibition: Celebrating the Blue and Gold stands as a testament to the transformative power of education, the boundless potential of human creativity, and the enduring connections that unite us as a community.
Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence
Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcased a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts that many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.
Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts that many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.
2023
Framing Moments: Photography from the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Throughout its history, the KIA has collected works by photographers whether studio, documentary, photojournalists, or artists that documented or preserved their unique points of view spanning the mid-nineteenth century to present. By focusing on the time periods works were produced and collected, curator Dr. Deborah Willis reimagines and explores what stories and moments the KIA curators gravitated to by iconic photographers such as Ansel Adams, Dawoud Bey, Sheila Pree Bright, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cindy Sherman, Deborah Turberville, and James VanDerZee, among others.
The One Rose: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Rose O’Neill
Rose O’Neill, an American illustrator of the early 20th century, was a woman of many accomplishments. She was the first woman illustrator for Puck magazine, the leading men’s magazine of the late-19th century, entertaining its readers with considerable satire and political commentary; creator of the Kewpie Doll, the subject of a major merchandising campaign, which made her fortune; activist for women’s suffrage; and accomplished artist and sculptor of “Sweet Monsters” featured in exhibitions in Paris (1921) and New York (1922). The One Rose: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Rose O’Neill exhibition celebrates the life and career of Wilkes-Barre born artist at the Sordoni Art Gallery, located just streets away from where the artist was born.
Circle of Truth
Circle of Truth is the visual equivalent of the childhood game where a message whispered in the ear of a first person, then relayed to a second person, a third, and so on until the original message becomes so mangled by its reinterpretation that by the time it arrives at its final understanding the words hardly bear any resemblance to the original.
This domino chain started with a source painting created by Circle of Truth co-curator Shane Guffogg, whose work was delivered anonymously, along with a blank canvas, to the second artist in “the Circle.” Each subsequent artist then received an identical package: the anonymously created previous artist’s painting, a blank canvas, and the instructions to find and paint their response to the “truth” that they saw in the first painting. This chain was repeated to some 49 artists over a period of nine years.
John Paul Caponigro: Landscapes Within Landscapes
Mar 21 - May 13, 2023
A form of environmental art in virtual space, John Paul Caponigro’s works are about the nature of perception and perception of nature. Exhibited internationally, his works have been purchased by private and public collections including The Estee Lauder Collection, Princeton University, and The Smithsonian.
John Paul is a pioneer among visual artists working with digital media. He consults with the corporations that build the tools he uses including Adobe, Apple, Canon, Kodak, and Sony. A member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame, Epson’s Stylus Pros, and X-Rite’s Coloratti, his work is published widely in periodicals and books including Art News and The Ansel Adams Guide.
A highly sought-after lecturer (Apple, Google, TEDx), leads unique adventures in the wildest places on earth to help participants creatively make deeper connections with nature and themselves.
2022
David C. Driskell & Friends: Creativity, Collaboration & Friendship
Nov 1, 2022 - Feb 26, 2023
A Dr. Roy E. Morgan Memorial Exhibition, David C. Driskell and Friends: Creativity, Collaboration, and Friendship highlights the artistic legacy of David C. Driskell and the importance of his relationships with fellow artist friends—many of which have a significant place in the art canon.
The exhibition explores the work and Driskell’s relationships with such figures as Hale Woodruff, James Porter, Elizabeth Catlett, Kara Walker, Romare Beardon, Keith Morrison, Jacob Lawrence, and many more. Original works of art created by Driskell would also be featured, as well as ephemera from the Driskell Papers that exemplify the artists’ unique friendship.
In Search of Meaning: Memory Becomes Us
Aug 26, 2022 - Oct 9, 2022
An exhibition illuminating the role memory plays in relation to who we are. Patricia Moss-Vreeland’s paintings, prints, artist books, poetry and videos are metaphoric responses and reside in concert with the interlacing of science texts, connecting the personal to the universal.
In a series of conversations, Moss-Vreeland has with Dr. Dasa Zeithamova, University of Oregon, explore the function of the human brain to find meaning, the parallel universes of art and science, their different ways of knowing and self-expression, and the importance of stepping out of our silos and forming relationships. Moss-Vreeland integrates her ongoing inquiry about the social impact of memory in new works, adding another layer of meaning, along with a new sensory component designed with the Monell Chemical Senses Center.
GETTING THERE
Jun 21, 2022 - Aug 7, 2022
GETTING THERE is an exhibition by the creative duo Andrew Ellis Johnson and Susanne Slavick, both faculty members from Carnegie Mellon University. The exhibition addresses timely themes surrounding peoples affected by migration due to war, famine, climate change, political repression, and social injustice.
It pairs ink and mixed media on paper works by Johnson, and oil and mixed media paintings on paper and panel by Slavick, with writings by novelists, poets, anthropologists and journalists who have informed their projects and whose words they have included or cited. Among them are Jenny Erpenbeck, Lev Golinkin, Eliza Griswold, Mohsin Hamid, Ali Johar, Maria Melendez Kelson, Jason De León, Blas Manuel de Luna, Suketu Mehta, Yasser Niksada, Prageeta Sharma, Warsan Shire, Wisława Szymborska, and Vu Tran.
State: Obvious/Not So
Apr 5, 2022 - May 29, 2022
Dan R. Talley is a Professor Emeritus, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where he taught Photography, Time-Based Media, and Professional Practices. He has been involved in the arts since 1970, working as gallery director, an arts writer, and an artist. Talley co-founded several arts organizations including Art Papers Magazine (Atlanta, GA), and Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT). Early in his career, Talley’s artwork—including photography, videos, drawings, and installations that incorporated audio and photographic projections—was exhibited at various galleries, museums, and alternative venues.
His writings have appeared in a variety of publications including Sculpture Magazine, New Art Examiner, Ceramics Monthly, Art Papers Magazine, and in numerous exhibition catalogs and books. For much of his career, gallery administration has been a primary focus, but since stepping down as director of Kutztown University’s gallery in 2010, he is producing new artwork, much of it realized as photo-based pieces that continue his long-standing interest in Conceptualism and Minimalism.
Juan Logan: Creating and Collecting
Nov 2, 2021 – Mar 13, 2022
Working out of his studio in Belmont, North Carolina, artist Juan Logan continues to expand his art’s unyielding call for social responsibility. Logan’s artworks, which address subjects relevant to the American experience, are simultaneously abstract and representational. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and videos address the interconnections of race, place, and power. They make visible how hierarchical relations and social stereotypes shape individuals, institutions, and the material and mental landscapes of contemporary life.
A retired University of North Carolina Professor, Logan’s installations, sculptures, prints, and paintings are included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, and many more. Through his many exhibitions and a very successful career, Logan amassed a collection of works from his friends and sources of inspiration in the art world. Not only will this exhibition share his many holdings by the most important artists from the 1970s to the present, it will also present Logan’s own work in dialogue with his collection. The galleries will examine the role that Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenberg, Robert Motherwell, Thornton Dial and more have played in Logan’s practice as an artist and how collecting has informed his creative process.
This exhibition originated at the Hickory Museum of Art.
2021
Light the Way Forward
Light the Way Forward, a Celebration of Innovation at Wilkes University
This unique presentation of Australian aboriginal art was projected onto Weckesser Hall in honor of the inauguration of Dr. Greg Cant, Wilkes University's 7th president.
This project is presented in partnership with the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.
More About Kluge-Ruhe external website
- Video Artwork by Jeff Dubrow
- Featuring the artwork by Australian Aboriginal artists:
- Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa
- Michael Jagamara Nelson
- Limpi Putungka Tjapangati
- Maxie Tjampitjinpa
- Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula
- Anatjari Tjampitjinpa
- Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri
- Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri
- Yanatjarri Tjakamarra
- Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra
- John John Bennett Tjapangati
- Music by Electric Fields
L’Esprit : Exploring Wit and Beauty in French Prints
Curated by Nancy Sojka
Celebrate the joys and foibles of French society and culture between 1830 and 1930, when Paris was the world capital of artistic creativity, innovation and opportunity. The daily life of people “from the city and country, rich and poor, famous and anonymous “grew to become a most popular subject. The exhibition is organized according to several major themes that dominate the museum’s holdings. These include depictions that glorify or ridicule the ever-present French State, landscapes of the monuments and street life found in big towns and cities, bucolic renditions of farm life, the adoration of beautiful women, the love of children and the fruitful relationship that arose between printmaking and literature. This exhibition of spectacular images in the KIA collection is assembled by guest curator Nancy Sojka, retired from the Detroit Institute of Arts as curator of prints and drawings. Among the artists on view are Honoré Daumier, Charles Méryon, Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin.
Carbon by Ray Klimek
Wilkes graduate, Ray Klimek's Carbon work focuses on the industrial landscapes of Pennsylvania and employs shifts of scale to suggest landscape imagery buried within everyday objects. Inspired by the dark enchantment of mining-scapes in NEPA and abroad, Ray Klimek highlights the mysterious beauty of the dark topography. Part of the exhibition is CC, which is a series of scans of Carbon Paper blown up magnified and cropped to suggest landscapes in their own right.
Brutal Beauty: The Transformation of Women through Mythology
Work by Martha Posner | Curated by Heather Sincavage
Brutal Beauty: The Transformation of Women in Mythology at the Sordoni Art Gallery is a mid career retrospective of the interdisciplinary
artist, Martha Posner. Martha Posner is a mixed media artist living and working in
Martins Creek, PA. Examining themes of trauma and recovery through the lens of classic
mythology, Posner’s large scale paintings and sculptures haunt the viewer with an
unparalleled perspective on familiar folklore.
2020
Drawn to Abstraction: Prints from the 1960s and 70s
Organized by the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
The mid- to late-20th century in America was a time of boundary testing and social critique. Artists, too, challenged accepted techniques and subject matter while critically examining the role of art in society. Abstract Expressionism--America's first home-grown, avant-garde movement--attempted to heal the traumas of post-war society, emerging from a sense that American society was losing touch with a spiritual core. Meanwhile, other artists, identified as "Minimalist," reacted by returning to push the boundaries of a reductive impulse initiated earlier in the century. Experimentation with placing the emphasis on the experience of the viewer led to Op Art. And Pop Artists spurned the earnest emotionality and psychology alienation at the core of Abstract Expressionism.
Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints
Curated by Nancy Crow
Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints, an exhibition focused on the art of quilt-making, presents seventeen works by seven
fiber artists representing the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Curated
by internationally renowned artist and teacher Nancy Crow, Material Pulses contributes
to the dialogue of contemporary textile arts. Says Crow, “Material Pulses is the culmination of my mission to bring back the majesty, strength, and energy
of textile works, particularly large quilts.” Crow has seen trends in the medium follow
a track of smaller quilts in more neutral colors, and asked, why? The pull of quilting
lies in its large, forceful presence and the freedom to use color joyously. Making
a quilt is a physical activity, involving piecing parts on working spaces that can
span entire walls. Material Pulses features quilts, mixed media, and installation works. Quilts as large as 101 inches
high will be featured—a truly dramatic scale for an art form that is often relegated
to its
functional qualities. The artists investigate color, pattern, and size through traditional
and experimental quilt-making applications. The curator balances a focus on shapes
with oversized works, exploring excellence in machine quilting and surface design.
2019
Two Presidents, One Photographer
The iconic photographs of Pete Souza are well known from his tenure as Chief Official White House Photographer for President Obama. What most people don’t remember is that Souza, who was trained as a photojournalist, was also an Official White House Photographer for President Reagan. Souza was in his late 20’s, at the beginning of his career, when he joined the Reagan White House in 1983. More than 30 years later, Souza returned to the White House to join the Obama administration.
Rust Belt Biennial
We are thrilled to host the first Rust Belt Biennial, a celebration of photography with work realized throughout the Rust Belt Region in all its manifestations. For our inaugural Biennial we are grateful to have Andrew L. Moore as competition juror.
Get More Info on Rust Belt Biennial
Lit by Lyn Godley
Artist Lyn Godley explores the relationship between art and technology in her exhibition, Lit. Inspired by the interaction of light with differing materials, Godley combines LEDs and fiber optics with photography to study the therapeutic applications of light, as well as both the emotional and physical impact light plays on viewers and consumers.
Simply Picasso
The pop-up exhibition features a ceramic piece created by Pablo Picasso at the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris, France. The piece will be on display and open to the public from 12 noon to 4 p.m. during the three-day exhibition.
Member's Only Spotlight Lecture
The Sordoni Art Gallery will host a lecture for gallery members at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 30. This members-only event will feature Garth Johnson, curator of ceramics at Everson Museum. The lecture is preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.
Individuals interested in becoming a member of the gallery may join in advance to attend the lecture. RSVP is required.
Contact Nicole Lewis at nicole.lewis1@wilkes.edu or (570) 408-5815 for membership information and reservations.
Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga
Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection
This exhibition draws from Syracuse University's collection of over 300 examples from this influential art movement. Masters of this medium are represented; this includes the work of Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshida, and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and they illustrate the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.
Learn More About Japanese Woodcuts
Peasant War by Käthe Kollwitz
on loan from Dickinson College Trout Gallery
From 1903 to 1908, Käthe Kollwitz worked on the metal plates for Baurenkrieg / Peasant War, a series of etchings that represent the brutal treatment of peasants in sixteenth-century Germany, their rise to revolution and battle, and their subsequent humiliation and death.
Sacred Sisters by Holly Trostle Brigham
Sacred Sisters is a collaboration between visual artist Holly Trostle Brigham and award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson. Brigham is a figurative painter whose work explores feminist narratives through paintings that are enriched by her research into the art, symbolism, and history of her subjects.
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2018
Loud Silence: Expressions of Activism
Curated by: Heather Sincavage
October 23 - December 16
Those who have been denied a voice are forced to scream the loudest. Loud Silence: Expressions of Activism calls on the viewer to examine their own blind-spots and understand perspectives they may have never considered, through art. The works featured demonstrate the unique perils of living while a woman, while of color, while indigenous, while LGBTQIA+, and while an immigrant. For centuries, artists have used the image of the body as an exploration of their humanity and that of their subjects. This exhibition explores artists who use the human figure or body as a means for activism.
A Stirring Song Sung Heroic: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom
William Earle Williams
August 21 - October 7, 2018
A Stirring Song Sung Heroic is an exhibition of contemporary photographic works by William Earle Williams presented alongside related historic objects. Together, they depict the often invisible journey from slavery to freedom in the United States. The exhibition focuses on sites and historic events in the New World from 1619 to 1865 where Americans, black and white, determined the meaning of freedom.
Read More About William Earle Williams
Solid Gone
Curated by Ben Woodeson
June 1 - July 1, 2018
"Life and energy; objects, concepts, narratives, things on the cusp of being or not-being... A vase placed too close to an edge, a delicate eco-system, an idea whose time has almost come. Things that burst with a literal or metaphorical energy, light of touch, or maybe things just waiting to die transience... Clinging on by your fingernails." -Ben Woodeson
Selections from the Sordoni Collection of American Illustration and Comic Art
Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Frank Schoonover, George Herriman, Milton Caniff, Charles Schulz, and more.
April 7 - May 20, 2018
From Disney to Playboy and billions of Sunday morning papers in between, the art of illustration is tightly ingrained in the American zeitgeist. Narrative illustration is unique in its ability to be harrowing, hilarious, or politically motivating, at times simultaneously. Though often used as advertisement, these works also stand alone as art in their own right.
Read more on American illustration and comic art
Angela Fraleigh
The Bones of Us Hunger for Nothing.
January 16 - March 2, 2018
In this exhibition, Angela Fraleigh reimagines the role of women as they have been depicted in art history, literature, and media. She reaches through the depths of centuries-old and often patriarchal tradition to breathe new agency into her female subjects. The grade scale works feature luxurious depth that makes them sometimes Edenic, sometimes mystical, but always breathtaking.
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2017
Andy Warhol
15 Minutes: From Image To Icon
October 6 - December 20
Pennsylvania artist, Andy Warhol, changed how we view art. Inspired by pop culture, Warhol’s imagery defined the new age of fine art and influenced society, to in turn, be a creator of pop culture. This exhibition examines the artist’s inspiration, process, and wide influence to both fine and commercial art.
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Mirandah Akeley & Corbett Fogue
This Too Shall Pass: Emerging Artist Biennial
MARCH 23 – MAY 21
This Too Shall Pass focuses on artists whose body is an intrinsic part of their studio process. Mirandah Akeley and Corbett Fogue consider the emotional significance of body function- a breath, a swallow, a spit. As each artist performs their emotional self, the subtext explores absence, grief, and loss.
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Lyndon Barrois Jr.
Of Color
MARCH 23 – MAY 21
A SIGNAL FOR PLAY (Francine J. Harris)
Afterward, you may remember the figures in Lyndon Barrois, Jr.’s “Of Color” emanating
more color than they actually do. In their cutout, halftone resonance, the figures
positioned in teams atop a gallery-installed asphalt basketball court, pulse a sunniness,
a rosiness, a billowing blue. Partial adornments outfit those figures built of toner
boxes in neat, asymmetric columns, and the ensembles vibrate diaphanously as modern
totems, while the pale, white gallery walls recede into a wash of light.
Read MORE about lyndon barrois jr.
Lydia Panas
After Sargent
JANUARY 20 – MARCH 3
Award-winning photographer Lydia Panas explores vulnerability, tension and emotion within the classic but non-traditional portrait. Panas captures a revealing and compelling honesty through body language, facial expression and the model's relationship with space.
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2016
Ying Li
Geographies
October 25 – December 18
Geographies, an exhibition of paintings by Chinese-born Ying Li is more than images of landscapes and city scenes. This exhibition depicts the physical and metaphysical act of painting resulting in a thick and tactile surface vibrating with expression.
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Persistence: The Continuing Influence of Classical Myths
Classical Mythology
August 30 – October 12
Artists have found inspiration in Classical Mythology for hundreds of years. In Persistence: The Continuing Influence of Classical Myth, artists have tackled the universal tales- some using traditional imagery and others with a modern twist- but all find inspiration in the Classical narratives. Curator Stanley I Grand includes contemporary works that are easily timeless.
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Upstream & Down: The Susquehanna
Susquehanna River
JUNE 13 – AUGUST 13
A group exhibition of contemporary artists who have painted the Susquehanna River in all its many moods and seasons. The exhibition celebrates the river and reminds us of its fragility and the need to be wise stewards of this great resource. Artists include: Michael Allen, Ruth Bernard, Tom Dougherty, Rob Evans, Brian Keeler, William Kocher, Earl Lehman, Raoul Middleman, Peter Paone, Thomas Paquette, E. M. Saniga, George Sorrels, Robert Stark, Joseph Sweeney, John David Wissler, Mark Workman, and Scott Wright. Several of the artists have created works specifically for this exhibition.
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Jack Troy, Archie Johnson & Ruth Cohen
Feats of Six Hands
MARCH 29 –MAY 15
Jack Troy is a potter, teacher, and writer, from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he taught at Juniata College for 39 years. His work has been exhibited widely and is included in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery, Auckland (NZ) Museum of Art, Kalamazoo (Michigan) Institute of Art, and Alfred University. He received the 2012 National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Excellence in Teaching Award. He is the author of Salt Glazed Ceramics and Woodfired Stoneware and Porcelain and over 90 articles in ceramics publications. In addition he has published a book of poems, Calling the Planet Home.
Archie Johnson is a retired architect who operates Mud and Fire Potters external website with his wife Ruth Cohen. He describes his work as “architecturally influenced with an emphasis of pure form, and the creative fusion of traditional and contemporary forms...” Combining wheel-thrown with pure sculptural forms, he creates objects evidencing a dynamic tension between the functional and the formal. He is the recipient of two “best in show” awards at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
An educator and ceramicist, Ruth Cohen is now based in Little Meadows, PA, where she and her husband Archie Johnson run Mud and Fire Potters external website , a studio and gallery. Her work reflects her philosophy that “art should surround us and be enmeshed in every day routines. Casual rituals, as sipping tea from a handcrafted bowl or mug, should promote self-reflection and feelings of peace and tranquility.” Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries in Northeastern Pennsylvania and New York.
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Baron Wolman
Backstage Pass: Baron Wolman and the Early Years of Rolling Stone
January 28 – March 16
Immortalized by writers, filmmakers, and musicians from Stephen King to Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, the cover of Rolling Stone magazine has embodied generations of popular culture. For artists, the cover is a coveted career achievement, and for many readers, it represents a fantasy realm of the rock-n-roll lifestyle. The exhibition Backstage Pass: Baron Wolman and the Early Years of Rolling Stone explores how the lens of one artist’s camera captured and helped define one of the most important eras in rock-n-roll history.
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2015
David Mazure
New Mythologists: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse & The Little Mermaid
October 27 – December 12
New Mythologists: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a site-specific installation and performance that moves beyond memory, beyond recollection, to strive for new possibilities. What happens to this end-of-the-world myth when it fails to deliver what it has promised? Can we re-arrange and re-purpose it to suit the needs of the new millennium?
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Blair Seitz
Aerial Perspectives
September 10 - November 11
Blair Seitz is the photographer of 22 books. His publications are numerous including "National Geographic Traveler," "Nation's Business," "New York Times Magazine" and "Endless Vacations." Book titles include Tapestry, PA from the Air, Philadelphia and its Countryside, Pittsburgh, Amish Ways, Gardens of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Yesterday and Today. He has also written a memoir of his years in Africa and Asia as a photojournalist.