David Winton Bell Gallery

Past Exhibitions

November 19, 2016 - February 5, 2017

Born in Iskenderun, on the Turkish-Syrian border, Fatma Bucak makes videos, performances, photographs, and installations that grapple with the poetics and pragmatics of borders—their structure, implications, and human consequences. Previous works from the Turkish-Armenian border, the Mexican-U.S. border, the Dakhla refugee camp in Western Sahara, and the Tuz Gölü in central Anatolia are presented alongside a series of new works addressing media censorship, state violence, and mass migration. This exhibition is Bucak’s East Coast premiere.

Curated by Ian Alden Russell
Image: Fatma Bucak, Still from Untitled, 2016. HD video, sound. Courtesy of the artist.

Location Bell Gallery and List Art Center Lobby
September 3, 2016 - October 30, 2016

Diana Al-Hadid’s works are distinctive in style and material. Drawing inspiration from classical and Renaissance imagery, Al-Hadid creates towering sculpture, spectral wall pieces, ethereal drawings and experimental bronzes that foreground her unusual use of materials.

The exhibition takes its title from a central work, Phantom Limb, a term referring to the sensations that a missing arm or leg is still present, and able to move. The title captures the character of much of Al-Hadid’s work, which evokes memory and long cultural history through a visceral, materially-focused working technique.

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery.  

Curated by Jo-Ann Conklin
Image: Diana Al-Hadid, detail of Phantom Limb, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York. Copyright Diana Al-Hadid. Photo Oliver Ottenschleager

Location Bell Gallery and List Art Center Lobby
July 5, 2016 - August 14, 2016

A selection of photographs depicting the leisures of summer, from fishing and baseball to restorative relaxation. Works by Harry Callahan, Lucas Foglia, Justin Kimball, Melissa Pinney, Larry Sultan, and Sam Walker are drawn from the Bell Gallery collection.

Curated by Jo-Ann Conklin
Image: Justin Kimball, Miracles Hot Springs, California, 2010

Location List Art Lobby
May 7, 2016 - June 12, 2016

A native of Providence, Rhode Island, John C Gonzalez makes art with other people. Broadly concerned with processes of collaboration, his project-based artworks often involve painting, sculpture, and performance and emerge from the daily routines of the institutions and organizations in which he is invited to work. Presenting a new project conceived for Brown University alongside a survey of past projects, this is Gonzalez’s first major solo exhibition in Providence.

Curated by Ian Alden Russell
Image: John C GonzalezHome Depot House (process photograph), 2013

Location Bell Gallery and List Art Lobby
April 13, 2016 - April 24, 2016

The David Winton Bell Gallery and the Department of Visual Art present the work of thirty student artists in Brown’s 36th annual Student Exhibition, on view at the Bell Gallery from Wednesday, April 13 to Sunday, April 24, 2016. A reception will be held Friday, April 22, from 7:00pm until 9:00pm. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. 

Location List Art Lobby and Bell Gallery
January 23, 2016 - March 27, 2016

At a time when natural history museums are moving away from taxidermy, a resurgence of interest has been manifest in the popular culture—in internet blogs and image collections,  in fashion and commercial advertising—and in the visual arts. Dead Animals surveys current artistic usage of taxidermy through the work of eighteen artists: Maurizio Cattelan, Kate Clark, Mark Dion, Nicholas Galanin, Thomas Grünfeld, Damien Hirst, Karen Knorr, Annette Messager, Polly Morgan, Deborah Sengl, Angela Singer, Bryndis Snæbjörnsdóttir/Mark Wilson, Richard Barnes, Jules Greenberg, Sarah Cusimano Miles, Richard Ross, and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

The exhibition and accompanying symposium will examine the cultural history of taxidermy, social factors that have contributed to artists’ interests in the “idea of the animal,” and the ways in which these interests are manifest in artists’ works. It will question how taxidermy, with its inherent association with death, differs from the use of live animals or animal substitutes such as stuffed animals, and why taxidermy may be particularly relevant to the exploration of the human-animal question. Finally, it will examine ethical issues surrounding the incorporation of animals in art.

Curated by Jo-Ann Conklin
Image: Thomas Grünfeld, Misfits (penguin/peacock), 2005. Copyright 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Location List Art Lobby and Bell Gallery
November 7, 2015 - December 21, 2015

The 2015 Faculty Exhibition presents new and recent works by 20 artists from across Brown University's faculty at the David Winton Bell Gallery. Reflecting the creative, cross-disciplinary spirit that is integral to the arts at Brown, the exhibition features work in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, sculpture, installation, music, and literary art.

Curated by: Alexis Lowry Murray, Ian Alden Russell

Location List Art Lobby and Bell Gallery
August 29, 2015 - October 25, 2015

The Bell Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works on paper by Chicago-based artist Tony Fitzpatrick. In conjunction with the exhibition a performance of Fitzpatrick's "Stations Lost" (2010) will be staged at the Granoff Center for Creative Arts on October 9th, 2015.  

Curated by Alexis Lowry Murray 
Image: Tony Fitzpatrick, Blackburnian Wobblers, 2015 

August 29, 2015 - October 25, 2015

Acclaimed conceptual photographer Hank Willis Thomas is known for commandeering American advertising strategies in order to challenge constructions of race and gender in the United States. For several years he has also been appropriating the historical artifacts of past social struggles, from the holocaust, to the civil rights movement, to apartheid, and transforming these records into primary sources that can speak for today’s cultural conflicts. Thomas is particularly drawn to certain hand gestures that are universally legible as acts of protest. He isolates these non-verbal modes of communication from documentary photographs and reconfigures them into sculptures and retro-reflective prints that offer compelling moments of agency and resistance. The Bell Gallery will bring together these resonant gestures alongside mixed media sculptures and a five-channel video installation. The work included in this exhibition communicates contemporary acts of protest even as they are mediated through the events of history.

 

Curated by Alexis Lowry Murray
Image: Hank Willis Thomas, Amandla, 2013 

July 15, 2015 - August 12, 2015

As the summer months unfold, the David Winton Bell Gallery is pleased to present Flora, an exhibition of works on paper from the permanent collection. This eclectic group of photographs, drawings, and etchings re-imagines the traditions of landscape painting, still life, and floral portraiture through unconventional techniques and unusual subjects, while bringing together unexpected works by well-known artists. 

Curated by Jo-Ann Conklin
Image: Tom Baril, Three Poppies

Mobile Museum of American Artifacts
May 11, 2015

The Mobile Museum of American Artifacts (MMoAA) is a touring museum of personal objects and their histories. Housed in a small vintage trailer, MMoAA travels from town to town, conducting an “archeology of the present” that uncovers objects of significant (and insignificant) connection to everyday American life. MMoAA will be making its debut visit to Providence May 11-16th. Mark your calendars and find your objects!

Hosted by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities, the MMoAA will be at the Bell Gallery on Monday, May 11 from 11-4, and at other locations in Providence throughout the week.

Location List Art loading dock
May 9, 2015 - July 5, 2015

The David Winton Bell Gallery is pleased to present a mid-career survey of Dave Cole’s sculptural practice. This exhibition will focus on Cole’s exploration of notions of childhood in America. It will present such monumental works as Music Box (2012), a vintage 1980s CAT CS-553 steamroller that has been refashioned into a giant music box that plays the first stanza of the national anthem, and Fiberglass Teddy Bear (2003), knit from iconic pink Owens Corning Fiberglas. While both works are whimsical and fun, resembling giant children’s toys, they are also poignant reminders of the intimate relationship between the construction of national identity and infrastructure building in the United States. In knitting industrial materials such as Fiberglas, lead, and Fiberfrax porcelain into quotidian objects such as teddy bears and baby blankets, Cole presents a literal portrait of the fabric of American life. Opening Reception, 5:30pm, May 8th, 2015 in List Art Lobby. 

Image: Dave Cole, The Music Box, 2012