The Faces of Sewanee exhibition features the work of student artists, giving them a chance to actively engage in the conversation about representation on campus.
The Faces of Sewanee exhibition features the work of student artists in “Topics in Contemporary Painting”: Elizabeth de Wetter, Jonathan Godbold, Laura Heath, Mila Hwang-Carlos, Emma Jewell, Maddy Keller, Gracen Kelly, Hallery Matson, Evie Murray, Henry Ray, Liza Read, Anna Douglas Smith, Emilea Thrasher and Megan Vlahoplus. The exhibition runs from Oct. 29, 2019 to May 10, 2020.
An opening reception and presentation will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Torian Room of Jessie Ball duPont Library.
Faces of Sewanee gives Sewanee students a chance to actively engage in the conversation about representation on campus, particularly with regard to tradition, history, legacy, and storytelling as understood through portraiture. In considering who they want to represent on the walls of our institution, students selected 18 individuals, from a wide variety of social identity groups, to celebrate through the painted portrait.
The paintings, displayed in the Learning Commons, complement the portraits of the institution’s vice-chancellors that currently hang in that space. By displaying these works alongside those of the vice-chancellors, students, faculty, staff, and alumni will be represented through the painted image as significant contributors to the campus community.
Professor of Art Jessica Wohl states, “This exhibit allows members of our community, some for the first time, to see themselves, or someone like them, on the walls of our institution. The project is part of an important conversation institutions are having nationwide regarding who has been worthy of reverence and representation in the past, and who is worthy of representation in the present and the future. In this exhibition, the portraits celebrate all of us.”
