“Reflections” exhibit celebrates new space and local artists’ work
To celebrate the opening of its new Reflection Room, VCU Libraries offers “Reflections,” an exhibit of student, faculty, alumni and community art on the Cabell Screen. The exhibit debuts Jan. 16 when classes resume on the Monroe Park Campus.
The Reflection Room in James Branch Cabell Library is a new space designed to help students balance their mental and spiritual health amid the pressures of college has opened in James Branch Cabell Library. On the second floor, the Reflection Room is a multipurpose space that gives students a quiet area for meditation, contemplation and prayer.
The art selected for the “Reflections” exhibit captures, suggests or evokes feelings of reflection–meditation, inner peace, reverence, silence, contemplation, deliberation, calm or beauty. Paintings, illustrations, animations, short soundless films or photographs, any visual artforms were invited. Works created using Artificial Intelligence programs were not eligible for display.
Of the more than 80 works submitted for consideration, 40 were selected for the exhibit.
The Cabell Screen curatorial committee, made up of librarians with expertise in visual arts, named two best-in-show honorees. They are faculty member Bizhan Khodabandeh and Isaiah Mamo a student in political science and philosophy who graduated in December 2023. Khodabandeh’s work appears above.
The committee thanks the many talented artists who generously shared their work for the exhibit.
Selected Artists and Works
- Emmy Alvarez (painting and printmaking student) – Ecstasy
- Joy Black (communications art & design alumni) – Blue Pod, Despair and Peace, Metamorphosis , Primordial, Seeing Clearly and Spirit and Arenal
- Rebekah Carroll (sculpture and extended media student) – My Lady
- Naomi Chung (faculty) – Angel Trumpet and Canna and Verbena
- Scott Clark (jazz studies alumni) – This Darkness
- Brooke Coursen (VCU staff) – Tranquil Mirrors
- Athene Davis (art foundation student)- Connecting Lines
- Emily Dolganski (a 2022 high school graduate) – Gwyn’s Contemplations
- Kaya Fredrick (art education student) – My Vases
- Reni Gower (professor emerita) – MINDsets: St2:Eleven
- Michelle Holder (VCU staff) – Morning Light
- Jim Junkala (community member) – Life Reflects
- Bizhan Khodabandeh (faculty) – Colobart
- Verne Knight (art foundation student) – Circling
- Renee Lamb (VCUarts Faculty and School of Education Ph.D. student) – Jaipur: A moment of pause and excitement, La Rochelle Downtown 1 and La Rochelle Downtown 2
- Shaely Lincoln (sculpture student) – Musical Fruit
- Isaiah Mamo (political science and philosophy student) – Broad St Median, Go With The Wind, an untitled work, Masking and Street Light Solace
- Holly Morrison (faculty) – Esmark Glacier
- Addy Miner (photo film student with media studies minor) – Untitled
- TeNeice Oates (art foundation student) – Ascending Lotus
- Abby Omberg (psychology and philosophy student) – Tranquility of Solitude and Stillness
- Carl Patow (MFA kinetic imaging alumni) – Faith
- Dorothy Marie Rice (retired Richmond Public Schools teacher) – Swan Looking Away and The Secret Alcove on Grace Street
- Chuck Scalin (faculty emeritus) – Spiral Series #2
- Nicole Valdivia (art foundation student) – Effervescence
Categories Alumni Work, Art Ed, Communication Arts, Community, Faculty Work, News, Student Work