All Past Exhibitions

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Annual Juried Student Exhibition

January 30 – February 25, 2020
The Annual Juried Student Exhibition features works created by current DePauw students enrolled in studio art courses. The 2020 Exhibition is juried by David Anthony Ondrik. David Ondrik is an artist, educator, and writer. He received his BFA from the University of New Mexico in 1998. For ten years he taught visual art in public high schools and in 2009 he achieved a National Board Certification for Early Adolescent / Young Adult Visual Art Instruction. His artwork has been exhibited across the country, appears in numerous publications, and is in the collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and multiple New Mexico public art collections. He received his MFA in photography from Indiana University in 2017 and is currently a Lecturer in Photography at Indiana University.
Mediterranean Fire, Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me)

February 3 – June 9, 2020
Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) is a culmination of curator Biba Sheikh’s collaborations with Mediterranean refugees, thirteen Arab-world artists have created a body of work that weaves her poetic texts, shared immigrant experiences, and their own testimonies into visual works of art. Collectively, they illuminate stories of indignation, systemic discouragement, human trafficking, gender biases, exodus, and survival of life as human flotsam in an ever changing, turbulent political ocean. Together with Sheikh, the artists are discussing Refugees, America, and Cultural Hybrid Theories. The artists of Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) communicate through a variety of media delivering messages rich in thematic subjects. One theme that dominates the refugee experience, that of landscape arrives on canvas where architecture, political apparatuses and history are dismantled with the destructive revelry of a toddler. The theme of landscape is revisted by several participants with such concerns as the constant metamorphosis of social structure, moving boundaries between capitalism and culture, war, and the facets of the human psyche. Sheikh spent years conducting ‘creative interventions’ with Syrian refugee youth detained on the Greek island of Mykonos and in Athens, and Beirut. Certain of the healing property of story telling, Sheikh has employed Hakawati (a traditional storytelling platform that engages the community in problem solving), dance, art, and sound to assist the youth in finding their own voice of liberation. The resulting script of Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) is a theatrical fusion of personal reflection melded with Arab flamenco rhythms and sound poetry which will be used in continuing workshops with youth refugees. The artists of this exhibition, many of whom are current residents of occupied territories and refugee camps, include: Hani Alqam (Jordan), Thameur Mejri (Tunisia), Sinan Hussein (Iraq), Taghlib Oweis (Jordan), Wael Darweish (Egypt), Ahmed Nagy (Egypt), Klaudja Sulaj (Albania), Lucas Paleocrassas (Greece), Manal Kortam (Lebanon), Abbas Yousif (Bahrain), Basel Uraiqat (Jordan), Mohammed Al Hawajri (Palestine), Haitham Khatib (Syria), May Murad (Palestine), Hassan Meer (Oman). All have been given a voice through this Detroit based endeavor. in Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me), we have witness to how their situations reverberate with refugees world-wide.
Ian Weaver - The Black Knight Archive: Migration

October 26 - December 1, 2020
Ian Weaver utilizes a variety of media to act as metaphors for “fracture”. Weaver is interested in how we – as individuals and communities – construct our own identities and memories from the fractured, disparate elements of our lives. Such identities are constructed through commemorations and the objects we construct and archive. The work included in this exhibition centers on the Near West Side of Chicago: a large multi-ethnic community, and, specifically, the "Black Bottom" section of the Near West Side where black residents once lived. The various parts of the Near West Side and the Bottom were destroyed to construct an expressway and a university in the mid-1960’s. As a result, the community lost much of its history. Weaver has constructed a fictional history for this community utilizing a variety of handmade faux elements that allude to preservation and material culture such as museum vitrines, maps and documents of the community, various sculptures, and textiles. Recently, Weaver has extended this construction to the creation of a fictional group, the Black Knights – inspired in part by his interest in both medieval heraldry and black activism – who have, ostensibly, lived within the “Black Bottom” community, circa 1940s. Weaver has developed lore for the Black Knights who have used political, social, and guerrilla tactics to fight for the survival of the community. Viewers are invited to engage with this fictional narrative through the objects that Weaver has constructed in a way that encourages us to consider the value of history. How might these fragmented parts add to a whole understanding of a cultural experience? How do objects play a role in building and sustaining cultural and socio-political power? Listen to Ian Weaver’s talk that will be available on our site beginning November 2, 2020. Ian Weaver is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Saint Mary's College, South Bend, IN. His M.F.A. (Visual Art) is from Washington University in St Louis. His exhibitions include a survey of work at the South Bend Museum of Art, as well as solo exhibitions at The Chicago Cultural Center, the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, and Saint Louis Art Museum.
Annual Juried Student Exhibition

January 31 – February 26, 2019
The Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition features works created by current DePauw students enrolled in studio art courses. The 2019 exhibition is juried by Hannah Barnes, Associate Professor of Art, Ball State University.
Constructed Landscapes

February 1 – August 1, 2019
Visit a museum today, and it’s likely that a major blockbuster exhibition of impressionist painting or perhaps documentary photographs will find the galleries crowded with visitors. Landscape, vis-à-vis observational artmaking, provides an accessible entry point for both casual and frequent museum goers. The subject matter is identifiable, relatable, and the many movements within the genre—including impressionism and hyperrealism—have withstood the test of time. Yet, as with all art genres, the artist mediates the viewer’s understanding of reality and fiction through a complex balancing act of artistic and creative control. As viewers, how do we reconcile the role that artists play as arbiters of reality and artistic vision? Is the world of the artist’s landscape as simple as it might appear at first glance, or is there perhaps more complexity behind these seemingly simple renderings of the landscape? Constructed Landscapes highlights over 50 works drawn from the DePauw University permanent art collection and asks us to meditate on one particular perspective: is the artistic landscape a true representation of reality, or is it simply a construct—an invention of the artist’s mind? Whether intended as memorial, analogy, historical document, or perhaps even a creative exercise, the artist’s landscape reminds us that the way we render and translate the world around us is critical to understanding our place in the 21st century.
Quotidian Artisanal Life: Coptic Textiles of Byzantine Egypt

February 1 – March 24, 2019
The history of Coptic textiles can be traced to the 4th century in Egypt, where the Christian population of artisans wove wool and linen for decorative and practical uses. The term ‘Coptic’ is derived from the ‘Copts’ which were Christian Egyptians during the 4th-13th centuries AD in the early Byzantine to Islamic era in Egypt. The fragments on display for this exhibit belong to the University Collection. To learn more about these and others in our collection, stop by 2nd floor of the Peeler Art Center.
Repeat, Repeat: Gestures of Repetition in Video Art

February 1 – July 10, 2019
Repeat, Repeat: Gestures of Repetition in Video Art emphasizes repetition as a creative strategy. Comprised of early video works through today, Repeat, Repeat asks viewers to analyze not only the repetitive audio-visual elements, but also the use of repetition—and the tension it creates—as an art form itself. Repeat, Repeat features eight works drawn from the DePauw University Permanent Art Collection and the Video Data Bank. This exhibition was made possible by the Arthur E. Klauser Asian and World Community Collection Endowment.
Senior Art Exhibition

April 19 – May 18, 2019
An annual exhibition featuring the work of graduating senior studio art majors.
Shaping: inspired timber creations

June 7 - August 1, 2019
Opening Reception June 7, 5:30pm to kick off First Friday in downtown Greencastle Join us in the galleries as we celebrate several local Indiana artisans and their woodworking craft. Using one of the oldest manipulative materials, artisans in our own Putnam and surrounding counties breathe new life into wood through their functional and/or artistic creations. From chairs to tables to bowls to fine art, woodworking in our community takes many forms. Shaping offers a chance to share in showcasing these many talents.
Tales of Triumph from the Old Testament: Victorious Stories of the Bible, by Yaacov Heller

April 5 - May 12, 2019
Stories bring us together and allow us to create connections. The stories encompassed in this display of four silver sculptures by Yaacov Heller are from the Old Testament of the Bible, and share messages of victory, triumph, and the possibility of overcoming great odds. These four sculptures, portraying stories of great victory and triumph, are just a small selection of all of the pieces by Heller in DePauw University’s collection at Peeler Art Center. In 1998, a donor named Beverly McDermond generously loaned fourteen of Heller’s silver sculptures to DePauw in loving memory of her husband, Robert C. McDermond, a 1931 DePauw alumnus.