Past Exhibit Information

2021

Fall 2021

The McGrath Gallery at Bellarmine University presents "Picturing Community" in partnership with the Louisville Photo Biennial.

Photograph by Timothy Robertson Photograph by Michael Winters

Featuring photographs by Jordan Lienhoop, Scotty Perry, Timothy Robertson (above left) and Michael Winters (above right).

  • Dates: October 8 – November 5
  • Events: Opening Reception, October 8th from 5 – 7 PM

Shae Goodlett: Reflectance

  • Godhede 2021 - Ink on Cut PaperAugust 20 - September 24
  • Reception: Friday, August 20, 5 - 7PM

About the exhibition: Reflectance can be defined as the measurable total quantity of visible light reflected by an object in all directions when illuminated by a light source - that is, the object's permanent, essential property such as color (Kandel, 2016). The perception of these visual properties, such as that found in a work of art, are greatly influenced by their context. That is to say that the way in which a viewer perceives a color is not only determined by the surrounding compositional elements of art such as line, form, light, and pattern, but also the individual’s own personal internal context.

Analogously, spirituality and ritualistic practice offer a similar theory. In each there are physically observable elements such as symbols, props, and mantras used to prompt an internal interpretation of that which is being exhibited. Therefore spirituality, like color, is a relative medium whose meaning is subject to an individual’s own cognition.

The body of work exhibited in Reflectance investigates the perception of color and its emotional, spiritual, and associative qualities. The exhibition is a series of colorful geometric abstractions whose intricate mark-making reflect those of ritualist practice. These works on paper are displayed under subdued light to create a contemplative space that encourages inner reflection/meditation and spiritual/personal transcendence.

2020

Spring 2020

Exhibitions will highlight our graduating seniors.
Student artwork in gallery

2019

Fall 2019

Enid Generations of Women Sculptors

  • Enid Generations of Women SculptorsSeptember 7- October 5
  • Reception: Friday, September 6, 5-7 p.m. 

About the exhibition: October 2019 marks the 150th birthday of Louisville-born and nationally-renowned sculptor Enid Yandell (1869-1934). In honor of this significant occasion, the cultural cornerstones of Louisville, including: Bellarmine University’s McGrath Gallery, 21c Museum Hotel, The Filson Historical Society, Speed Art Museum, Louisville Free Public Library, The Frazier History Museum, and many more invite you to celebrate her life of art and activism at special exhibitions and programming throughout the year.

Special thanks to Caren Cunningham for organizing this exhibition for the McGrath Gallery.


Louisville Photo Biennial: Ashley Johnson “Mark Yourself Safe”

Louisville Photo Biennial: Ashley Johnson “Mark Yourself Safe”
  • October 11 - November 8
  • Reception: Friday, October 11, 5-7 p.m.

About the artist: Ashley Johnson is an American artist and photographer who first came to public recognition with her deep portraits from the WOVEN series. She earned her BAs in English and Media Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her work uses photography, performance, textile and live floral, woven and braided masks to navigate intra-racial conflict, identity evolution, generational impact, southern femininity, and studies of relative time as it relates to African American/feminine beauty practice.

Noted for asking complex questions on black identity through highly stylized portraits, Johnson was recognized in 2018 by Click Magazine as 20 Women Changing Photography. Recent performances and solo shows include Reach: A live exhibition on hair identity and southern womanhood attracting over 300 guests and Through The Lens in partnership with Soho House. Johnson currently lives and works in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.


Jennifer Palmer: After the Storm

Jennifer Palmer: After the Storm
  • November 15 - December 15
  • Reception: Friday, November 15, 5-7 p.m.

About the artist: The last few years have been a journey without a known destination. This series of work is about mapping the path to finding beauty in the chaos of life. This collection of artwork is about finding the light from the darkness and coming to peace with oneself. These artworks explore the concept of mapping in a non-traditional approach. By utilizing mixed media these artworks are a way to document life that map abstractly the emotional process that has become a meditative exploration in finding myself.

Life is full of challenges and finding my footing after the death of my mother from cancer has been a journey. And the peace I find is from the healing powers of the creative process. It is about being at home with oneself.

2018

Spring 2018

Exhibitions included highlights of our seniors’ final portfolios.

Fall 2018

Fractured

Frac/tured
An abstract introspection by Meredith Harber

  • Exhibit: September 4 - Saturday, September 29
  • Reception: Friday, September 7, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

2017

Spring 2017


"Grapefruit" by Deborah Zimlich

January 13 - February 12

  • Reception: 5 - 7 p.m. on January 13
  • Senior Show: Shae Goodlett and Christian Nelson

February 17 - March 12

  • Reception: 5 - 7 p.m. on February 17
  • Senior Show: Jordan Clevenger, Jacob Franklin and Scoot Taulane

March 17 - April 7

  • Reception: 5 - 7 p.m. on March 17
  • Senior Show: Hayley Davis, Miranda Galbreath and Deborah Zimlich

April 12 - April 27

  • Reception: 5 - 7 p.m. on April 19
  • Annual Student Show

Fall 2017

LandEscape Group Exhibition

  • August 20 - September 16
  • Reception: August 20
  • Curated by Caren Cunningham
Photo of the LandEscape art exhibit

Sarah Martin: Expectations

  • Louisville Photo Biennial
  • October 2 - 27
  • Opening Reception: October 6, 5 - 7 p.m.
Motel at dusk

Fulgeat Aeternum (Brightly Forever)

In association with Bellarmine's Celebration of Luther's Call to Reform 1517 - 2017

  • November 6 - 30
  • Artist: Adam Moser Opening
  • Opening Reception: November 10, 5 - 7 p.m.

2016

Spring 2016 Senior Exhibitions

Kayla Darbyshire, Jesse Oswanski, Natalie Schulte
January 8 - January 31
Opening Reception Friday, January 15, 5-7 p.m.

Anna Blake, Heather Cameron, Taylor Smith
February 12 - March 6
Opening Reception Friday, February 12, 5-7 p.m.

Ryan Kennerknecht, Phoenix Fowler, Everett Ohland
March 11 - April 1
Opening Reception Friday, March 11, 5-7 p.m.

Annual Student Art Show
April 7 - May 1
Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony April 7 5-7 p.m.

Signs and Signifiers

October 7 - November 6
Reception: 5 - 7 p.m. on October 7
Above: We Sell + You Buy, a screen print by Randy Bolton

Among the most persistent forms of printed matter in the public sphere, signage may well be king of the mountain. The artists in this exhibition use both traditional and innovative approaches to printmaking to explore the ways in which printed signage in its various forms reflects the values of a consumerist society, physically dominating the built environment, conferring authenticity and authority, codifying desirability, and blurring the lines between the personal, the economic and the political. This exhibit is curated by Professor Nick Ruth of Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY in conjunction with the 2016 Mid America Print Council Conference.

Professor Ruth will be giving a gallery talk at 6:00 p.m. during the reception. In addition to his own work, the show features prints by:

  • Kim Beck of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg
  • Randy Bolton of Cranbrook Academy, now living in Fayetteville, TX
  • Amze Emmos of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA
  • Kevin Haas of Washington State University
  • Collaborative partners Jessica V. Gatlin and Abigail Lucien aka "Nature's Intent" from Knoxville, TN
  • San Francisco artist Jenny Robinson
  • Nick Satinover of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro
  • R.L. Tillman of the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore
  • Ericka Walker, of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax
  • Oli Watt of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Strangely Familiar


November 11 - December 11
Reception: 5 - 7 p.m. on November 11
Top: Ann and Fay, Digital Archival Photograph by Sarah Martin, 2016
Bottom: Jungle Art, Digital Archival Photograph by Maury Gortemiller, 2015-16

A group photography exhibition featuring work by artists Maury Gortemiller, Rob Johns, Sarah Martin and Zac Wilson.

2015

Rachael Banks: Between Home and Here

August 26 - September 18
Reception: 5 - 7 p.m on August 26
Above: Cecelia by Rachael Banks, 2015

Rachael Banks is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Northern Kentucky University. She received her MFA in photography from Texas Woman's University and a BA in photography and painting from Bellarmine University. Professor Banks also works as a Communications Manager for the non-profit organization Crusade for Art. Her work addresses family dynamics, relationships, and notions pertaining to identity informed by place.

The Inland Experience

Midwest Regional Society for Photographic Education
Women's Caucus Exhibit
October 1 - October 31, 2015

Curated by Margaret LeJeune

Reception: Thursday, October 1, 7:30-9:30 pm
Artists: Sarah Berkeley, Jasmine Clark, Dana Fritz, Lee Ann Paynter, Kris Sanford, Mille Tibbs, Crystal Tursich

The Inland Experience is a juried exhibition highlighting the unique environmental and cultural character of the Midwest, featuring women artists living and working throughout the region. The exhibition is part of the 2015 Louisville Photo Biennial and "Throwing Light, Catching Shadows", the 2015 SPE Midwest Regional Conference being held in Louisville from October 1st through 4th.

Artist’s Lecture by The Inland Experience juror Margaret LeJeune:

Wednesday September 30, 4:00-5:00 pm
The Lintner Room in Centro Treece Hall​

Margaret LeJeune is an image-maker who works primarily in photographic mediums. Her recent series, The Modern Day Diana, explores the relationship of women hunters to their domestic spaces. Her work has been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries including The Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA), Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), and ARC Gallery (Chicago, IL). She is the recent recipient of a Puffin Foundation Grant. LeJeune currently serves as the area coordinator for the graduate and undergraduate photography programs at Bradley University in Peoria, IL.

Strains Familiar
Emily Schumann
January 5 - February 1, 2015

Opening Reception: Friday January 9, 2015 from 5-7 p.m.The playful and richly colored work utilizes scientific imaging tropes from anatomy, cartography, microbiology and botany to create new dialogs and designs. This is the first local solo show of Schuhmann’s, a Louisville native and enamellist, whose work has be publicized and featured in juried craft shows nationally including American Craft Today. The artist writes, “My sculptures and drawings derive from acts of studying, thinking, looking, and repetition. In finding rhythms, parallels, and surprising relationships our understanding is enhanced, convoluted, beautiful, formed and unformed. I want my work to fall somewhere in this middle. Sometimes my connections make sense, other times they echo like a half remembered nursery rhyme - the sounds soothing familiarity, the mind filling in the unknowns.“

2014

Bobzilla! The Legacy of Bob Lockhart

November 7 - December 13, 2014bob lockhart

Caren Cunningham’s Train

train post card

October 3 – November 1, 2014

Artist’s Statement:
If you have ever been stopped by a passing train, you will appreciate this exhibition. The show comprises over 1,000 framed images of graffiti, engines, order boards, built plates, and graphics accompanied by a white noise train audio. Cunningham has documented over 1,500 trains and wants to share what she finds beautiful and interesting about that rusty, lumbering, massively large object that is impeding your progress.

Spring 2014 Senior Exhibitions

potato critters

Kayla Bischoff and Angela Musk
January 10 - February 2
Opening Reception Friday, January 10, 5-7 p.m. 

Summer Luckett, Stephen Milburn, and Lauren State
February 7 - March 2
Opening Reception Friday, February 7, 5-7 p.m.

Lucy Heidrich and Clare Gandenberger
March 7 - March 23
Opening Reception Friday, March 14, 5-7 p.m.

Jessica Miller, Samantha Badder, and Jake Kestler
March 28 - April 12
Opening Reception Friday, March 28, 5-7 p.m.

Annual Bellarmine Student Exhibit
April 17 - April 30
Opening Reception Thursday, April 17, 5-7 p.m.

Ephemeral Art and Practice Symposium

ephemeral postcard

The Ephemeral, The Fleeting 
McGrath Gallery, Bellarmine University
opening reception: Friday, November 8, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Curated by Tiffany Carbonneau
Artists: Letitia Quesenberry, Natalie Tornatore, Lisa Walcott

This symposium is hosted by Bellarmine University and Indiana University Southeast Art Program, the Bellarmine McGrath Gallery and the IUS Barr Gallery. Both galleries will exhibit the works of participating artists in two exhibitions: the ephemeral, the fleeting, on display at Bellarmine’s McGrath Gallery, including works by Leticia Quesenberry, Natalie Tornatore and Lisa Walcott, and the ephemeral, the evolving, on display at IUS’ Barr Gallery, with works by Courtney Kessel, Joyce Ogden and Linda Swanson.

All events are free and open to the public and do not require registration.

Salt

chapter room

Salt Prints and Calotypes by Mitch Eckert and Laura Hartford
October 4 - November 1

Artist's Lecture by Mitch Eckert: Thursday, October 17 at 5 p.m. in Pasteur Hall room 180

Reception: Thursday, October 17, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the McGrath Gallery

Artists Mitch Eckert and Laura Hartford both combine 19th and 21st century photographic processes in their work.

Mitch Eckert’s latest body of work, Borrowed Views, explores the genre of landscape photography. Borrowed Views is a phrase associated with Japanese garden designers of the Edo period in which a distant view was integrated into the garden design, allowing both the garden and the vista to be appreciated as one scene. These landscape photographs, made at botanic gardens, conservatories and museums of natural histories, is an exploration of the concept of the borrowed view utilizing the historic Kallitype process patented in 1889 by W. W. J. Nicol. These fabricated and sometimes fantastical spaces cause the viewer to reflect on the mediated manner in which we observe the natural world.

Laura Hartford’s Salt images were created during a month-long residency at Lacock Abbey, the family estate of William Henry Fox Talbot in Wiltshire, England. The Calotype, invented by Talbot in 1840, was the first photographic negative/positive process, using paper as a substrate for a light-sensitive silver-salt emulsion. It is the antecedent of those techniques we still use in the darkroom today. Hartford’s images explore the Calotype process in an effort to capture the aura of photography’s birthplace. They reflect on the science and history of photography and the experience of working in a managed historic site. The work includes prints made using traditional 19th practices, as well as inverted scans that reveal the surface quality, texture and detail of the original paper negatives.

lingscheit postcard sunday Carrie Lingscheit

August 30 - September 20
Artist's Lecture: Friday, September 20 at 5 p.m.
Reception: Friday, September 20, 5:30 - 7 p.m.

Carrie Lingscheit’s work exploits the subtleties of intaglio technique to explore the malleable nature of memory formation and recall, creating dubious narratives characterized by omission, distortion, and hyperbole. Her work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions and in dozens of invitational exchange portfolios. Recent exhibitions include the 2nd International Mezzotint Festival in Ekaterinburg, Russia; and Fusion - International Contemporary Intaglio Print Exhibition in Guanlan, China. Lingscheit holds a BFA from The University of South Dakota (2006), and MFA from Ohio University (2010).  She currently lives in Chicago, and her work can be viewed at www.carrielingscheit.com.

 

a hidden wholenessA Hidden Wholeness:
The Zen Photography of Thomas Merton

An Exhibit of 35 Photographs by Thomas Merton
McGrath Art Gallery, Bellarmine University
May 7 - June 2, 2013
Open Daily

Thomas Merton is best known today for his spiritual writings on contemplation and his own personal spiritual journey that led him to study Eastern religions, especially Zen Buddhism. Merton was also a visual artist of considerable talent exploring drawing and calligraphy and, as reflected in this exhibition, photography. It is unclear exactly when Merton took up the camera. On October 10, 1961, Merton recorded in his journal his impressions of using a camera: A completely miraculous achievement of forms. Marvelous, silent, vast spaces around the old buildings. Cold, pure light, and some grand trees … How the blankside of a frame house can be so completely beautiful I cannot imagine.

This very beginning of using the camera to isolate images, small things normally gone unnoticed, carried on through the brief history of Merton’s practice of photography and parallels Zen teaching in allowing the mind to embrace the unnoticed beauty in the world of mundane objects and the passing of light, shadow and textures through the course of a day. Deba P. Patnaik's writes:
In photography, he felt free, open and quiet – nothing to debate or discourse, nothing to argue or explain; only animated by imagination, silence, and connectedness with what he visually experienced. It served him as a mode of attuning "to the other music that is beyond the words."

Merton's photographs express the Zen perception of our immediate world as ever changing, impermanent, but with a unity of all things. We are what we are. We are light and dark, substance and shadow, speak the images. We are matter and memory. We are pictures; we are mirrors. We are full; we are empty.

Remember the three Doors:
the door without wish
the door without sign
the door of emptiness.
SEE
And say: Amen. Say: Shantih.

Spring 2013 Student Exhibit Schedule

Matthew Poppe and Kaitlin Ritcher cloudMatthew Poppe and Kaitlin Ritcher
January 18 - February 10
Opening Reception Friday, January 18, 5 - 7 p.m.

Allison Marcum, Donna Mullins and Kohdy Woods
February 15 - March 10
Opening Reception Friday, February 15, 5 - 7 p.m.

Laurel Anderson, Jennifer Greb and Tatiana Rathke
March 15 - April 7
Opening Reception Friday, March 15, 5 - 7 p.m.

Annual Bellarmine Student Exhibit
April 11 - April 28
Opening Reception Thursday, April 11. 5 - 7 p.m.
Awards Ceremony at 6:00 p.m.

Bob Lockhart: The Perimeters of Love are Surrounded by Thorns and Dogs

McGrath Gallery, Bellarmine University, December 14 - January 13
Artist’s Lecture: 5:30 p.m. Friday, January 11 in Pasteur Hall room 180
Reception for the Artist: 6 - 8 p.m. Friday, January 11 in the McGrath Gallery

Award-winning sculptor Bob Lockhart has recently completed a forty-year career as a professor of art at Bellarmine University. His distinctive bronze sculptures adorn the University’s campus, and his work has been displayed in galleries, museums, schools, churches and private collections around the country. He holds a BFA and MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and has been featured in over one hundred solo exhibits, as well as 75 group shows. Bob’s work is as enigmatic as it is intricate, combining human and bestial forms of abstracted proportions and in vibrant color. Equally engaging are the titles of his drawings – complex, absurd phrases that invite speculation and contemplation. This exhibit was planned and installed by the students in Bellarmine’s ART.410 class.

Please contact Laura Hartford for additional information: lhartford@bellarmine.edu

Tiffany Carbonneau

Opening reception: Friday, November 9, 5 - 7 p.m. The exhibit runs November 9 - December 9.

Vessel, a solo exhibition by Bellarmine University Assistant Professor of Art, Tiffany Carbonneau, will be the culmination of her research as a 2011 Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellow. For the previous three years, Tiffany has been collecting photographic and video documentation of international industrial waterways, including the Hudson River at the New York City Container Terminal, The Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, the Yangtze River as well as several other industrial waterways throughout China, the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand, the Vistula River in Warsaw, Poland, and others. Tiffany maps the projection of these videos to highlight architectural elements unique to the space of exhibition. The juxtaposition of imagery allows for viewers to form connections between themselves and the communities that surround the movement of commodity, local and global, while the non-traditional presentation of video calls into question our receipt of information in the post digital age, allowing the viewer to re-examine their personal networks as well as their relationship with the information that is being presented.

Photography Invitational


Opening reception: Friday, October 5, 6 - 8 p.m. The exhibit runs October 5 - November 4, featuring work by Annie Langan (top photo), Rosemary Jesionowski (bottom photo) and Sharon Lee Hart (below).

Following a lecture by Rosemary Jesionowski in Pasteur Hall room 180 at 5:00 Bellarmine University is proud to announce its third Photography Invitational, opening in the McGrath Gallery on October 5th and featuring the work of local and regional artists: Sharon Lee Hart, Rosemary Jesionowski,and Annie Langan.

The Bellarmine Photography Invitational brings together diverse talents from throughout the region working in photography and photo-derived media. All events are free and open to the public.

Sharon Lee Hart was born in Washington, D.C., earned her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and recently relocated to Lexington to teach photography at the University of Kentucky. She will be exhibiting work from her series “Sanctuary: Portraits of Rescued Farm Animals”. Inspired by her belief that individual animals each have unique, complex emotional lives, she creates portraits of those rescued from slaughterhouses, live meat markets, laboratories, cockfighting and other unspeakable horrors. Hart's first monograph, "Sanctuary: Portraits of Rescued Farm Animals" published by Charta, will be available in bookstores this fall.

How does place define and change us? This question is explored by Virginia artist Rosemary Jesionowski. Born in Portland, Oregon, Jesionowski received her MFA from Indiana University. She has exhibited throughout the country and currently resides in Richmond where she teaches a variety of courses as Assistant Professor of Multiple Imaging at the University of Mary Washington. She will be exhibiting work from her series Mapping Nowhere, which incorporates map imagery as well as satellite photography. These images reference her experience of place and her investigation of the relationship between location and identity.

Louisville artist Annie Langan received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and currently teaches Photography and Multimedia at the Kentucky School of Art. Her work has been shown in numerous national and international exhibits and is included in private and public collections including those of Sir Elton John and the Museum of Art at RISD. Her multi-frame panoramic images are about human relationships and their co-existence with the landscape.

Emily Sheehan

Opening reception: Friday, August 31, 5 - 7 p.m. Exhibit runs August 31 -September 23.

Emily Sheehan received her M.F.A in Visual Studies, with a specialization in Drawing and Sculpture from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2008. Her artistic research/practice utilizes perceptual drawing (drawing from observation in a multi-sensory way) to explore the way marks left on a page become evidence of lived experience. Sheehan uses both traditional and nontraditional drawing materials and techniques to create works that compel the artist and the viewer to linger in the human space between encounter and retelling; it is where we make our world personal. Her work has been exhibited nationally in group, invitational and juried shows and is included in the private collection of the president of the College of Saint Benedict as well as the collections of The Weismann Art Museum and the Target Corporation.

“We perceive through our bodily senses, absorb and evaluate each encounter, and construct means to interpret, respond to and convey our understanding to others. It is in this human space between encounter and communication that we make our world personal. The activity of perceptual drawing (drawing, immediately, from observation in a multi-sensory way) holds me in that human space longer. It makes me think about what I internalize. It lets me decide what to share and then allows me to create drawings whose physicality and tactile nature entice others to encounter my experience and embrace their own.” ~ Emily Sheehan