Zilkha

Every exhibition presented in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery establishes an idea–or an argument–of what art is, how art is made, who makes art, and what art does. “With every presentation, we attempt not to narrow the answers to any of those big questions,” said Associate Director of Visual Arts and Adjunct Instructor in Art Benjamin Chaffee ’00. “We think critically about the art that is shown and also how we’re framing it.” The most recent exhibition at Zilkha has created an interesting opportunity for juxtaposition. "Liquid Gold" includes a video installation and a sculpture by Assistant Professor of…

Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts has announced the highlights of its 2023 spring season, including world premiere dance and Connecticut premiere theater and music performances, as well as solo exhibitions by both alumni and current faculty. “The Center for the Arts is thrilled to be hosting several projects that consider, with such care, different scales of human existence, memory, and sense of belonging,” said Joshua Lubin-Levy '06, Director of the Center for the Arts. “From the urgency of ‘Ocean Filibuster,’ which takes up humanity’s relationship to the vastness of the ocean, to the intimacy of Carrie Yamaoka’s ’79 in…

In a time when the wounds of racial injustice continue to be raw in America, Wesleyan University’s Black History Month programming hopes to represent the complexity, struggles and joys of the African American experience. “We explicitly want to highlight the importance of the Black joy we are living,” said Demetrius Colvin, director of The Resource Center. “There is so much death, sadness, and trauma. We have to honor that. But an important aspect to the joy and sorrow is how people are surviving, resisting, and thriving.” The University will celebrate the month with gallery exhibits, film screenings, performances, and celebrations.…

The Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery has a climate problem. “The airflow is not democratic,” said Ben Chaffee, associate director of visual arts and the curator for this fall’s exhibit by artists Renee Gladman and Nick Raffel, running through October 16. In the wing that is favored by airflow, Raffel installed a fan. In the other wing is Gladman’s collection. Her lines of prose and lines of drawing are neglected by the ventilation system. Raffel’s installation, called airfoil, explores how the aesthetics of utilities express historic understandings of energy usage. Gladman’s exhibit, called THE DREAM OF SENTENCES, is the…

Gabby Farina ’23, an Art History and English major, was interested in how artists’ work dealt with family, identity, body, grossness, and fleshiness. What she found from her classmates inspired her. “Everything was very much tied back to this idea of the human form,” Farina said. Farina is the first Wesleyan student to curate a Senior Thesis Showcase exhibition on her own. The exhibition, “It's Mutual,” was the first such exhibition in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery since COVID-19 led to the cancellation of a planned showcase in May 2020. As part of her tutorial, Farina visited the working…

On April 6, artists and visitors gathered at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery for a reception for week three of the Senior Thesis Exhibition. This week's exhibition features work by seniors Sophie Becker, Casey Herrick, Samantha Ho, Gla, and Zach Scheinfeld from the Department of Art and Art History's art studio program. The exhibition will be on display through April 10. (Photos by Hannah Norman '16)

In February, the annual student-curated exhibition, Be The Art, committed to celebrating and raising awareness of artists of color, was held at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. The objective of this showcase is to create a space that exhibits the work of artists who are often underrepresented at Wesleyan and in the world at large. The exhibition featured works of art by Gandarv Chawla '17, Dung Pham '17, Ocean Gao '19, Eunice Lee '19, Justina Yam '19, Shirley Fang '18, Phuong Le '18, Malcolm Phillips '19, Katherine Puntiel '19, Tenzin Kyisarh '16, and Rajaa Elidrissi '16, and performances by Sahil Singhvi…

An exhibition titled "We Chat: A Dialogue in Contemporary Chinese Art" opened Jan. 26 in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. In her introductory remarks, Center for the Arts Director Pam Tatge ’84, MALS ’10, P’16 noted that this was the first gallery exhibition of work by this generation of Chinese artists in this country. Born after the end of the Cultural Revolution, these young artists are challenging traditional notions of Chinese identity and inventing new ways to shout out in the global arena. This exhibition debuts at Wesleyan and features works by Sun Xun, Jin Shan, Ma Qiusha, Lu…

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"A World of Dreams—New Landscape Paintings" by Professor of Art Tula Telfair will be on exhibit through Dec. 7 at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. "A World of Dreams" includes new large-scale paintings in which Telfair presents monumental landscapes and epic-scale vistas that are simultaneously awe-inspiring and intimate. This is her second exhibition in the Zilkha Gallery. Read more about the exhibit here. The exhibit's opening reception was held Sept. 16 at the gallery. (Photos by Dat Vu '15) (more…)

"A World of Dreams—New Landscape Paintings" by Professor of Art Tula Telfair will be on exhibit Sept. 16 through Dec. 7 at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. The exhibit's opening reception will be held 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at the gallery. "A World of Dreams" includes new large-scale paintings in which Telfair presents monumental landscapes and epic-scale vistas that are simultaneously awe-inspiring and intimate. She combines stillness with motion, solitude with universality, and definition with suggestion in her bold and quiet works. This is her second exhibition in the Zilkha Gallery. All paintings are oil on canvas. "The work…

Open-Ended Questions: New Exhibit at the Zilkha Gallery

“Sharing the World With Each Other:” Spring Performances at CFA

Wesleyan Honors Black History Month

Lines of Prose, Drawing, and HVAC Systems at the Zilkha Gallery Fall Exhibition

“A Very Intimate Process:” Farina ’23 and Chaffee ’00 on curating the Senior Thesis Showcase

Audible Bacillus Exhibit Explores the Fluidity of the Human Biome

Art Studio Seniors Exhibit Theses at Zilkha

Student-Curated ‘Be the Art’ Exhibition Held at Zilkha

Contemporary Chinese Art on Exhibit at Zilkha Gallery

Art Thesis Exhibition on Display in Zilkha Gallery

Telfair’s Paintings Celebrated at Zilkha Gallery

Telfair’s New Landscape Paintings on Exhibit in Zilkha Gallery