New exhibitions and opening celebration

The Rose Art Museum announces the opening of a new season of exhibitions, with a public celebration planned for Saturday, October 14, 6–9pm.

Body Talk, September 8, 2017–January 28, 2018
Body Talk addresses issues of beauty, attraction, and the dark side of eroticism, while tracing connections between early and recently acquired objects in the Rose collection. These works, which span nearly a century, include the Surrealist-inspired collages and paintings of Joseph Cornell, André Masson, and Max Weber, as well as contemporary sculpture, video, and multimedia works by Robert Melee, Jason Rhoades, Hannah Wilke, Laurel Nakadate, and others. Organized by Henry and Lois Foster Director Luis A. Croquer and Assistant Curator Caitlin Julia Rubin, the exhibition speaks to intimacy and loneliness, modesty and flamboyance, and the complex undercurrents of desire. Isolated, fragmented, and uncannily collaged—here, the body is revealed to be as much a source of agony as it is of ecstasy.

Buckdancer’s Choice: Joe Bradley Selects, September 8, 2017–January 28, 2018
In conjunction with his survey at the Rose Art Museum, Joe Bradley (b. 1975) has organized an exhibition of works drawn from the Rose Art Museum’s collection. Spanning more than a century, Bradley’s dig into the collection reveals a range of approaches to painting and sculpture, emphasizing materials and how artists use them while ruminating on themes of figuration and abstraction.

Rose Video 11: John Akomfrah, September 8, 2017–January 21, 2018
The 11th iteration of the museum’s Rose Video series features Auto Da Fé (2016), a two-channel video by John Akomfrah (b. 1957) which investigates historic migrations driven by religious persecution. The title of Akomfrah’s video means “Acts of Faith.” In powerfully lyric imagery, the work depicts scenes from eight migrations over the past four centuries, from the 1680 flight of Sephardic Jews from Catholic Brazil to present-day jihadist-driven migrations from Iraq and Mali. Akomfrah is the winner of the 2017 Artes Mundi. Organized by Caitlin Julia Rubin, Assistant Curator, Akomfrah’s presentation at the Rose represents the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in New England.

Kevork Mourad: Immortal City, September 8, 2017–January 21, 2018
Armenian-Syrian painter Kevork Mourad (b. 1970) fuses printmaking, animation, and collaborative performance to bear witness to painful and continuing histories. Immortal City responds to the ongoing devastation of Syria, in which over 400,000 people have died, more than 6.5 million people have been displaced, and untold destruction has been visited upon the country’s rich cultural heritage. In his allusions to calligraphy, textiles, and the ancient architecture of Palmyra, Bosra, and Aleppo, Mourad engages deeply with the historical texture of his homeland. His marks shift across boundaries of figuration and abstraction, creating an exquisite tension between the beauty of his own process and the relentless destruction and fragmentation that are his theme. Organized by Kristin Parker, Deputy Director, the exhibition and accompanying programs are funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Joe Bradley, October 15, 2017–January 28, 2018
Widely known for his powerful abstract paintings and spontaneous drawings, Joe Bradley (b. 1975) has distinguished himself among the artists of his generation with his mutable approach to artmaking, strategically creating bodies of work that seem both at odds with one another and, at the same time, develop a broad, fascinating oeuvre. The first large-scale museum exhibition in North America devoted to his work, Joe Bradley features two dozen paintings, including modular color-field paintings, grease-pencil drawings on canvas, and densely layered expressionistic abstract canvases that record the detritus and spontaneity of the studio environment, as well as numerous examples of engaging and intimate works on paper and recent experiments with sculpture. Joe Bradley is curated by Cathleen Chaffee, Chief Curator, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, and organized at the Rose by former Curator Kim Conaty.

Tony Lewis: Plunder, October 15, 2017–June 2018
Tony Lewis (b. 1986) debuts a new, site-specific mural for the outward-facing wall of the Rose’s Lois Foster Wing. Rising in loose arcs across the expanse of the Foster wall, a dense web of graphite-coated rubber bands and metallic screws forms a line drawing in the shape of a Gregg shorthand notation, the stenographic script similar to abbreviated cursive. Lewis, the recipient of the 2017–2018 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award, created this work in collaboration with Brandeis students, and, via stenographic symbol, their laborious process anchors the word plunder into the very support of the museum. Imbued with nuanced political overtones, Lewis’ work ruminates on a vocabulary of abstraction: both the connections between mark and meaning, and the systems of power that are equally revealed and disguised by language.

About the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University
Founded in 1961, the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is among the nation’s premier university museums dedicated to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting modern and contemporary art. A center of cultural and intellectual life on campus, the Museum serves as a catalyst for the exchange of ideas: a place of discovery, intersection, and dialogue at the university and within the Greater Boston community. Through its collection, exhibitions, and programs, the Rose works to affirm and advance the values of social justice, freedom of expression, global diversity, and academic excellence that are hallmarks of Brandeis University. Postwar American and international contemporary art are particularly well represented within the Rose’s renowned permanent collection of more than 9,000 objects.

Located on Brandeis University’s campus, the museum is free and open to the public. 

Press inquiries: Nina Berger, nberger [​at​] brandeis.edu / T 617 543 1595