UVA Department of Art

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!

Tyler Jo Smith, Ethan Gruber, and Abigail Bradford are thrilled to announce the relaunch of kerameikos.org! Over the last year they have been diligently rebuilding the site to create a more accessible and engaging experience for users — whether they be experts, researchers, students, or those simply with an interest in ancient Greek pottery.

For those of you who have yet to be introduced to the project, kerameikos.org is a Digital Humanities initiative dedicated to defining the intellectual concepts of ancient Greek pottery following the methodologies of Linked Open Data (LOD). Additionally, kerameikos.org aggregates museum and archaeological datasets into an information system that facilitates broader public access. Through the project, thousands of objects from multiple institutions that adhere to Open Data principles are available for analysis by museums, archaeologists, historians, and Greek pottery students and specialists.

The website now features improved navigation, updated search and browsing functions, new definitions, expanded translations, redesigned visuals, and up-to-date information on the project’s history and collaborators. Educators and students will find useful new resources including guides on our terminology and how Greek vases are used in archaeological study. Those interested in integrating digital methods in their own research might benefit from reading the body of publications or consulting the Linked Open Data bibliography.

Kerameikos.org is a deeply collaborative project. Though based at the University of Virginia, the team comprises researchers and experts from across the USA, Greece, China, Germany, and beyond. If you notice something on the site that needs adjusting, correcting, or adding, they welcome your feedback.

Calling all Art Department alumni!

The department is hosting a reception on Saturday, June 6, 2-4pm in Ruffin Hall for our alumni, faculty, staff, and faculty emeriti. Please come catch up with us. Drink a cup of coffee or tea (by JoyBrew!), eat cake (by Cake Bloom!), and view the current Ruffin exhibition, Time Spent, Time Taken.

Time Spent, Time Taken was co-curated by current PhD candidates Alex Del D**o and Leo Palma, and is comprised of work by 2026 Studio Art graduates and Aunspaugh fellows. This event will serve as the closing reception for this exhibition, so don’t miss your chance to see this year’s students’ work!

*Closest parking in Culbreth Garage

Saturday, June 6 2-4PM
Ruffin Hall
179 Culbreth Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903

Department Grad Student Caroline Carter featured prominently in Cav Daily article about Fulbrights:

Caroline Carter, a PhD candidate in Mediterranean Art and Archaeology and IKY-Fulbright Scholar, took the open study/research route. IKY refers to her position as a Fulbright Scholar who is also supported by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. Carter currently lives in Athens, studying caves as places of worship in Greece from 750 BC to 300 BC. She emphasized her research as working towards understanding the historic relationship between humans and the natural environment.

Carter said she separates her day-to-day research into three categories — library research, local museum visits and fieldwork in caves. She said Fulbright stipend funding makes a lot of her fieldwork research possible as it subsidizes miscellaneous costs such as rental cars. She said the Fulbright program has also allowed her to build relationships with Greek institutions and scholars to get a firsthand view into Greek archaeology.

The application process for Carter was spread out among multiple years, as she said she knew for years prior to her application that she wanted to pursue the Fulbright U.S. Student Program award. Still, she said it was not an easy process, and she relied on many different people at the University from her PhD advisor to Ashoo and Gump to help her complete the application.

“You can't just get a Fulbright by applying overnight. You need so much help. And U.Va. was really helpful to make sure that I put my best self forward,” Carter said.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2026/05/students-and-alumni-receive-fulbright-us-student-awards-for-research-and-teaching

Ruffin Gallery at the UVA Department of Art presents Time Spent, Time Taken, a group exhibition featuring work from 2026 Studio Art Graduates and Aunspaugh Fellows. This exhibition is Co-curated by Alex Del D**o and Leo Palma, PhD Candidates in Art and Architectural History.

Time Spent, Time Taken developed from conversations between student artists, faculty, and curators about time and what it means to make something from it. Across the show, time morphs and melds, sometimes abandoning any sense of narrative or linearity. Drawing on durational places and things such as historical sites, family photographs, and personal stories, these artists offer glimpses into moments that have already happened, while also showing how those occurrences continue to matter and shape the way we move forward.

The works in this exhibition also reflect on how time can be shaped as a mode of engagement. They ask for patience, attention, and care: some pieces invite viewers to linger and look closely; others ask us to sit with uncertainty or discomfort. In each work, there are marks that were revised, materials that were reworked, and ideas that changed shape along the way. These works remind us that making art takes time, and that time leaves a visible trace.

Together, the exhibition reflects on what it means to remember, to notice, and to carry experiences forward. As this group of artists reaches the end of their undergraduate and fifth-year studies, this exhibition honors the time they have spent here and looks ahead to what they will make, where they will go, and how this experience will continue to shape their work.

Participating artists include: Spirit Chavis, Chloe Clayborne, Tracy Echais, Tina Fout, Kat Hart, Brianna Lebron, Logan Luke, Lillian McCluer, Kenneth Nguyen, Adele Park, Grace Parlee, Wright Quist, Jonathan Rimmington, Reese Robers, Dutch Senft, Bee Smith, Avarice Stankiewicz, Gabi Thornton, Natalia Wunder

On View May 16 - June 6, 2026
Gallery open Mondays-Fridays, 9am-5pm

Press Contact: Stephanie Germosen Salazar Ruffin Gallery Coordinator University of Virginia Art Department [email protected]

Final projects by students in Akemi Ohira’s Life Drawing and Printmaking classes!

UVa Studio Art graduate and former Aunspaugh Fellow Autumn Samone will have an open studio and pop-up exhibition on Thursday 14th May, as part of her Freeman Fellowship at Visible Records in Charlottesville.
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Autumn will also have a two-person exhibition this September with prominent Greek artist Antonakis, at Cynefin Athens gallery in Greece.
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Please come out and support her work, either in Charlottesville or Athens later this year!

The Tali | Sandhills: Prints from Ikuntji Artists exhibition is presented by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in collaboration with Ikuntji Artists. It is co-curated by Roseranna Larry (Chairperson, Ikuntji Artists) and Ainsley McGowan (fourth-year art history major, the University of Virginia). Through the support of the UVA Arts Council, Ainsley McGowan had the opportunity to travel to Ikuntji Artists in the summer of 2025 and learn from Chairperson Roseranna Larry and Manager Dr. Chrischona Schmidt. McGowan’s Distinguished Majors Program project was advised by Assistant Professor Henry Skerritt and Professor Douglas Fordham.

The Exhibition brings together the work of eight artists from Ikuntji Artists, the first Aboriginal art center established for women, by women in Central Australia. Located at Ikuntji/Haasts Bluff, 230 km (143 miles) west of Mparntwe/Alice Springs, the art center has a long history of being a source of cultural strength, creativity, and connection to Ngura (Country).

Since its beginnings as a women’s center in 1992, Ikuntji Artists has supported artists to share their stories, knowledge, and lived experiences through painting and printmaking, grounded in deep cultural traditions. This exhibition reflects that history. It brings together works by eight artists, each hailing from distinct Countries, to show a shared connection through the land—especially the red sand.

Tali | Sandhills refers to the landscapes of the red desert, and encompasses the land, the roads, the food, and the journeys people take across it. Co-curator of the exhibition Roseranna Larry explains: “We chose the topic of the Tali because they remind us of where we come from and where we are living now. They hold our history—how the old people traveled across the land for hunting and for lookout, moving through the red sand from the west all the way to Ikuntji/Haasts Bluff. When we paint these stories, we think of the old people, the land they came from, the journeys they traveled.”

https://kluge-ruhe.org/all-exhibitions/tali-sandhills/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=05.07.26(late)&utm_content=version_A

Prof. Francesca Fiorani is editor of a special issue of the journal Opus Incertum (2027) on the theme of Painting and Architecture (14th-17th Century). The full call for proposal is here:

https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/oi.

This special issue of the journal is devoted to the interactions between the physical space of buildings and sites and the virtual space of site-specific visual images. While the painted representation of urban settings, architecture, landscapes, and buildings as backdrops to scenes has been amply examined, essays in this volume engage with visual images that that have been purposefully planned and designed to actively interact with the physical space in which they are contained. Consideration is also given to programmatic iconographies the meaning of which is amplified by the real space of the architecture, as well as to modalities by which architectural spaces are enhanced by their wall decoration. Essays may analyze site-specific images in any media—glass, tapestry, painting, tarsia, mosaic—and from any geographical area in Europe and around the Mediterranean, spanning from the late middle ages to the seventeenth century, that interact with urban spaces, or with secular or religious buildings, or with ephemeral structures, always keeping front and central their relation with the physical space. These images may represent architectural spaces, landscapes, buildings, lands, and territories, in any form or system of representation—perspectival views, bird's-eye views, or plan views.

She would love to hear from UVA alumni, students, and faculty if your current research touches on this theme.