The University of Louisville Fine Art Department manages two gallery spaces for the presentation of student and faculty artwork, and to host exhibitions of national and international artists whose work is contributing to contemporary fine art dialogue. Our on campus Schneider Hall Galleries have an active exhibition program with exhibits ranging from exhibitions of local, regional, national and international artists to exhibitions of student work from our BA, BFA, MA, and MFA programs. The space serves as a locus of experimentation for our students as well as an excellent resource for the university’s faculty to teach and engage their students in various forms of art practice and themes that explore issues of social justice, various cultures, and new media. Our Cressman Center gallery located in downtown Louisville serves to educate, engage and excite the community through the visual arts. The Center functions as a space where practice and theory; artists and the public intersect. The Cressman Center expands the department’s studio art and exhibition programs and provides an educational focus for the visual arts within the urban center of the city. The Department of Fine Arts is the largest and most comprehensive art program in the state. Its active and productive faculty composed of artists and scholars form the core of scholarship and research from which the Cressman Center is built, but perhaps the most important strength that ensures the success of the Cressman Center is the cultural wealth of the city of Louisville, and the desire of the University to make a greater contribution to the growth and well-being of the city.
Image: Nina Kersey, BFA Fall 2019 Installation,
BFA Thesis Exhibitions Our undergraduate BFA students complete a senior thesis exhibition prior to graduating. This exhibition serves to highlight their artistic growth through the BFA program and showcases their individual creative processes. The professional practices skills they gain from completing the project—creating a cohesive body of work, installing their show, and networking with other artists and the community all prepares them for future careers in the arts.
Image: Jordyn Oswald, 2019 BFA Thesis Exhibition installation
Image: Olivia Lantz, Kentucky Christmas installation, 2019 BFA Thesis installation
Image: Taylor Hayes, 2019 BFA Thesis Exhibition installation
Image: Hannah Melvin 2019 BFA Thesis Exhibition installation
Image: Kelsey Shaw, Psychosoma, resin, steel, acrylic, found objects, 29” x 20” x 48” from our 2018 Annual Student Exhibition
MFA Thesis Exhibitions Our MFA students exhibit their work in two exhibitions at the end of their final year. The first is their individual MFA Thesis Exhibition that highlights their individual projects and accomplishments from the previous three years. The second is our MFA graduates exhibitions that presents the students work together in a group exhibition. The exhibitions offer the MFA graduates the opportunity to work in different spaces and plan how best to exhibit their work individually and in a group setting.
Image: Helen Payne, Transducer Phosphene, monoprint, 2019 MFA Thesis Exhibition installation
Image: KCJ Szwedzinski, Mutualism, Family heirloom chair, Tracate Sotah, 2019 MFA Thesis Exhibition
Image: KCJ Szwedzinski, The Impossibility of historical Resonance II, 2019, glass, found obect, wood, metal, 2019 MFA Thesis Exhibition
Images: Installation view: MFA Thesis Exhibition 2020 featuring Shae Goodlett and Zed Saeed
Image: left: Arthur Werger, Venus, 1998, aquatint, University of Louisville Art Collection right: Laura Volkerding, Hand Painted Tie, 1964, woodcut, University of Louisville Art Collection from Summer Breaks, CCS student exhibition
Image: Caprices: Wit and Whimsy exhibition installation, CCS student exhibition
Critical and Curatorial Studies: Exhibitions The Schneider Hall and Cressman Center Galleries also offer our students the opportunity to curate their own exhibitions. Every Summer our MA Critical and Curatorial Students organize an exhibition utilizing the Hite Art Departments art collection. Throughout this process the curatorial students are given hands on learning experience into every aspect of exhibition curation. Starting with research into the collection, the students work collaborately to develop an exhibition theme, select works, and then move through the process of researching the artists they have selected, writing exhibition text and statements, creating press releases and finally installing the exhibition in the gallery.
Image: Richaed Gallo Performance and Studio exhibition installation. Curated by CCS student Scott Rollins
Student curated exhibitions are not just limited to our CCS Students. For the 2019 Louisville Photo Biennial, MFA graduate Zed Saeed, curated an exhibition of Walker Evan’s photographs from the University of Louisville Photographic Archives. This monumental exhibition showcased one of the United States most popular photographers and presented nearly 100 photographs that were enjoyed both by our campus community and the city of Louisville!
Images: Lyric Documentary, Exhibition installation. curated by Zed Saeed
Image: RAQS Media Collective, Corrections to the First Draft of History, 2014, Conspiritaorial Aesthetics Exhibition
Image: !Meidengruppe Bitnik, Ashley Madison Angels at Work in Louisville, 2018, 5 channel video installation, Conspiratorial Aesthetics Exhibition
Image: Cara Benedetto, Stone Broke, 2018, Conspiratorial Aesthetics Exhibition
Finally our galleries serve as a space to Educate, Engage, and Excite our campus and the Louisville community. Under the guidance of the gallery director, exhibitions by national and international artists are exhibited in our spaces. These exhibitions serve as tools for the teaching of our fine arts students and to engage with other campus departments, and also as tools to connect with the community at large. Our exhibitions create larger conversations centered around international contemporary art movements and the social, cultural, and political climates the work engage with.