UVA Department of Art

Ruffin Gallery at the UVA Department of Art is pleased to present Lemniscata, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Sasha Fishman, opening August 28.

Building on her previous work in fountain-building and biomaterials, this work reflects Fishman’s continued fascination with aquatic systems of energy exchange. Her hydrological sculptures take up questions around toxicity, entropy, care, capture, and fluidity. This curiosity has led Fishman to experiment with living substrates such as fish skin, hagfish slime, and mycelium as well as kinetic structures derived from marine aquaculture such as salmon ladders and fish cannons, tracing humanity’s past and present obsession with controlling, transporting, and harnessing water from the ecosystemic down to the bodily scale. Sasha Fishman is not searching for an answer, but drawn to the murkiness—the tension, confusion, and complexity of where these phenomena arise and how technology attempts to resolve deeply rooted ecological and ethical issues.

Sasha Fishman is a New York-based sculptor and researcher. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she collaborated with labs on salmon, fountains, and carbon capture materials. She is a current fellow at Lighthouseworks and recipient of the 2026 Folly Tree Dancing Tree Award.

Lemniscata is organized by Stephanie Germosen Salazar, Ruffin Gallery Coordinator. The exhibition will be accompanied by a limited edition publication designed by ᗰᗩᖇIᗩᑎᗩ, featuring an essay by eleonor botoman

Exhibition on view: August 28 - October 9
Artist talk: August 28, 3:30-5pm
Opening Reception: August 28, 5-7pm

This exhibition is supported by the UVA Department of Art and the Peter B. and Adeline W. Ruffin Foundation Endowment for Distinguished Artists-in-Residence.

Flyer design by Mariana Mora

REGISTER NEXT WEEK: Two courses in Arts Administration

ARAD 3100: Principles and practices of Arts Administration
Tuesdays and Thursdays · 2:00–3:15 p.m.
The theories, processes, and practices behind running arts and culture
organizations: mission delivery, governance, program development,
cultural policy, creative placemaking and placekeeping, and working
with artists. Teams build a new organization from the ground up.

ARAD 3550 Arts Leadership and Cultural Resilience
Tuesdays and Thursdays · 12:30–1:45 p.m.
This course explores how artists and cultural leaders shape thriving communities through visionary, inclusive, and sustainable practices. Bridging traditional arts administration with community-based approaches, this course introduces students to leadership models that are both innovative and grounded in cultural knowledge. We examine how the arts can drive public engagement, support environmental and social well-being, and inform policymaking and civic decision-making. Through applied projects, guest speakers, and collaborative learning, students will build practical strategies for leading impactful and resilient arts initiatives across a variety of settings.

General Education Curriculum Requirements/Attributes: Critical Thinking|Oral Communication|Quantitative Reasoning|Undergraduate Research|Scientific Reasoning|Written Communication

REGISTER NEXT WEEK: ARTH 2861 East Asian Art
Prof. Dorothy Wong

This course introduces the artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan, from prehistoric times to the modern era. Surveys major monuments and the fundamental concepts behind their creation, and examines artistic form in relation to society, individuals, technology, and ideas.

General Education Curriculum Requirements/Attributes: Artistic, Interpretive, Phil|Cultures/Societies World

Major/Minor Requirement: Courses before 1500, Courses after 1500, Courses Emphasizing African, Asian, or Indigenous Traditions

Enrollment Requirements: None

We are delighted to share that Jennifer Marine successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Registering the Invisible in Fin-de-Siècle Europe”.

Congratulations Jennifer on a compelling thesis, and all best wishes as you begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Richmond.

A familiar face returns to Charlottesville!

Currently a lecturer in Studio Art and Design at the University of Louisville, Jackson Taylor was born and raised in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky on an intergenerational cattle and to***co farm. He holds a BFA in 2D Studio Art from the University of Louisville and received his MFA in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of Iowa in 2021. He is a master of lithography and monotype processes, which he uses to generate multifaceted prints and drawings about growing up in the American South. Taylor has taught courses at the University of Iowa and the University of Virginia. He teaches printmaking workshops across the US, while exhibiting his work internationally. He is represented by Olson-Larsen Galleries in Des Moines, Iowa.

You can join Jackson for a Monotype Print Workshop on July 23rd, from 6-9pm, taking place at Infinite Repeats. This workshop costs $40 for the general public, and $20 for Visible Records and Infinite Repeats members. There is a cap of 10 participants, so please RSVP by email to [email protected]!

*NEW COURSE ALERT!*
*Q***r Histories of U.S. Art, 1950s to 1990s
ARTH 2769
Professor David Getsy
Tues/Thursdays 5pm–6.15pm

In the wake of the Second World War, demographic, economic, and political shifts fostered newly visible communities of le***an, gay, and otherwise non-heterosexual people in the United States. This lecture course examines the contributions of these communities to American art and visual culture, discussing how ongoing tensions between visibility and censorship forged a robust role for q***r and trans artists in mainstream debates about the future of art. In the decades when the United State took center stage in the international discourse of contemporary art, q***r artists helped to define American art and were crucial to its impact. We will examine the rocky road from the highly coded and covert registrations of q***r lives in the 1950s to the forthrightness and activism that emerged after the Stonewall uprising in 1969 to the rage of the 1980s spurred by the AIDS crisis. This course will introduce a history of postwar art through some of the most well-known and influential American artists as well as lesser-known artists who worked to build local and regional communities.

MEETS General Education Curriculum Requirements/Attributes: Artistic, Interpretive, Phil|Critical Thinking|Historical Perspectives|Written Communication

MEETS Major/Minor Requirement: Courses after 1500, Modern/Contemporary Art History for Studio Art

Enrollment Requirements: None

Image caption: Andy Warhol, Elvis I, 1963.

Great opportunity!

WE’RE HIRING—come work with us!

The job posting for Manager of Education and Programs at Kluge-Ruhe is now live: https://jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/UOVUOVUSR0084437EXTERNALENUS/Manager-of-Education-and-Programs-Kluge-Ruhe-Aboriginal-Art-Museum

Please help us get the word out by sharing—UPDATE: Application deadline extended to July 6.

University of Virginia UVA Arts UVA Department of Art

Arts in the Cav Daily!

"The University’s flexibility in majors and minors allows students to pursue other interests without sacrificing the arts"

Featuring our very own Marisa Williamson!

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2026/06/having-it-all-students-bridge-the-gap-between-academics-and-artistic-passions

We are pleased to announce that Ph.D. candidate Alex Del Dago’s article “Q***r Localities: Space, Class, and Desire in Thomas Painter’s Visual Archive” has just been published in the most recent issue of Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art (v.12, n.1, Spring 2026).

The article is available open access at https://journalpanorama.org/article/q***r-localities/. Its topic was developed from preliminary dissertation research conducted while on fellowship at the Kinsey Institute. Congratulations to Alex on this publication!

It is with the greatest pleasure that we share the news of Karl-Magnus Brose’s successful defense of his PhD thesis, “Forms of the Antique: Edme Bouchardon and the Sculptural Imaginary, 1723-1762.”

Please join Dr. Sarah Betzer, together with the other members of Karl’s committee, Professors Douglas Fordham, David Getsy, and Chad Wellmon (German and English), in congratulating Karl on a truly superb dissertation.

Congratulations Karl!