Winter exhibitions

WE THE PEOPLE: American Art of Social Concern
January 20–March 25, 2018, Polk/Wilson Gallery

We live in a time of heightened awareness of the broad injustices within our society. Despite the fact that the United States of America was theoretically founded on the principle of equal rights for all citizens, the definition of those who were considered as citizens has shifted over history. Race, gender, and ownership of property have been some of the qualifiers used to deny people equal rights and protections under our Constitution.

Since the mid-19th century, artists have voiced the need for greater awareness and progress toward addressing social concerns such as sexism, economic inequality, and political corruption. The works of art presented in WE THE PEOPLE span from the McCarthy era of the 1950s and continue to the social issues of today.

The exhibition is drawn from the extensive permanent collection of the Ulrich Museum—now numbering almost 7,000 works of art—and is collaboratively curated and presented by Ulrich Director Bob Workman, WSU School of Art, Design & Creative Industries Assistant Professor Dr. Brittany Lockard and the eleven students in the Fall 2017 class Realism/Activism/American Art.

WE THE PEOPLE and its associated programs are made possible by contributions from Mickey Armstrong, The Gridley Family Foundation, John and Nancy Brammer, The Khicha Family Foundation, Dr. Sam and Jacque Kouri, Martin Pringle Law Firm, Ron and Lee Starkel, Clark and Sharon Bastian, Jane McHugh, Louise L. Beren, Eric Engstrom and Robert Bell, Sondra M. Langel, Liz and Bob Workman and an anonymous donor.

Additional generous support provided by Denise and Rex Irwin, Marcia and Ted D. Ayres, Charles E. Baker, Laurie and Mark A. Finucane, Justus H. Fugate, George and Eleanor Lucas, Dr. Pat Purvis, Dr. Dennis and Ann Ross, Don and Ellie Skokan, Dorothy Shannon, Stev Overstreet, John and Kay Morse, Bill, Julia and Luke McBride in honor of Bob Workman, and Dasa and Nalini Gangadhar.

Piero Golia: Solutions to Mortality
January 20–April 1, 2018, Grafly Gallery

The Ulrich Museum is home to over 600 works by the artist Charles M. Grafly that includes drawings on paper, paintings, plaster casts, and bronzes. Beginning in the fall of 2016, the Museum has invited artists to respond to this collection within the context of the Grafly Commission, wherein they will produce works that will help to place Grafly’s work in conversation with contemporary art.

Los Angeles-based artist Piero Golia engages with such themes as community, the absurd, and the prospect of chance. Much of his work in sculpture, painting and installation is infused with humor and a lyrical romanticism. During his Grafly residency he will respond to the namesake’s practice, while interrogating the site of the Grafly Gallery itself. The limits of the gallery’s architecture, its proximity to both the Grafly Sculpture Garden and the School of Art, Design, and Creative Industries, as well as its existence within an academic museum are all elements that will inform the artist’s creation of a new, site-specific body of work while he considers the reactions to it by those who will be the main viewers of the work: the students of WSU.