2023-24 Exhibitions

Closed September 3

More than 35 million people in the United States are food insecure, but contemporary issues preventing equitable access to food are extremely complex. Food Justice: Growing a Healthier Community through Art critically explores the human issues that can shape and influence positive change in food security.

Featuring 18 works by 15 contemporary craft artists, Food Justice offers the opportunity to visualize and explore the dimensions of national and regional food systems and the advocacy critically important for social change and community well-being. Because of the visionary, poetic, and transformative potential of art, visitors will see, feel, and understand the issues of food insecurity in new and meaningful ways and be moved to become part of the solution.

The show highlights a variety of techniques and forms that include innovative art expressions rooted in traditional craft materials, such as glass, wood, fiber, clay and metals, while exploring relationships with photography, installation art, print making, sculpture and plants. Participating artists include Gavin Benjamin, Jason Forck, George Bowes, Joan Iversen Goswell, Holly Hanessian, Michael Austin Diaz, Stefanie Herr, Amos Kennedy, Patty Kennedy-Zafred, Anna Metcalfe, Xena Ni, Mollie Ruskin, Jeff Schmuki, Wendy Deschene and Michael Logan Woodle.

This exhibition was organized by Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Closed November 22 – 26

Human bodies that are simplified, exaggerated, or distorted along with other elements such as fruit, vegetables, plants, and furniture have been the most recent focus of Yuji Hiratsuka. He is interested in expressing human conditions such as mood, feeling, and thought through ambiguous and whimsical figures. Moreover, his figurative images bear a slight resemblance to traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e prints which are frequently flat, bright, and decorative. The figures also express contemporary aspects of the Western Hemisphere. His multi-color intaglio prints are an expression of his native Japanese culture combined with his current life in America.

Yuji Hiratsuka was born in Osaka, Japan. He has a B.S. in Art Education from Tokyo Gakugei University and degrees in printmaking from New Mexico State University (MA) and Indiana University (MFA). He is currently a professor of printmaking at Oregon State University. Since 2010, he has had 13 solo shows in the US, Korea, Canada, and Northern Ireland. His work is in numerous public collections including The British Museum; Tokyo Central Museum; Panstwowe Museum, Poland; The House of Humor and Satire, Bulgaria; Cincinnati Art Museum; Cleveland Art Museum; Portland Art Museum; New York Public Library; The Library of Congress; and The Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art.

Exhibit extended through March 29, 2024! Closed for Spring Break, March 3 - 10. 

Randall Cleaver combines found and discarded objects to create his sculptures and automata. The found objects themselves become the source of inspiration as the various parts transcend their original use to become a new work of art. Cleaver’s working style is intuitive: he begins with a germ of an idea, and as it grows, different relationships are uncovered and the form of the work responds to these discoveries. He likes viewers to be amused and surprised by the pieces as they discover the various parts, interact with the animation, see the glow of the lights, or hear the clocks activate on the hour.

Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Randall Cleaver graduated from Penn State University with a BFA in Sculpture. As a sculpture student it was a natural thing to scour salvage yards and rubbish piles for art supplies instead of buying new. This attitude of reuse and adapting existing parts still plays a major role in his pieces today. Randall expanded his skills at the School of Horology where he learned to use a metal lathe and mill to make mechanisms for his kinetic sculptures.

Graphic Design 2025 is an annual exhibition displaying the best design, illustration, and web design work of graphic design majors in their final semester of study at Penn College. For the exhibition, design faculty select the top works developed by each student within their time at Penn College. The exhibition gives students a chance to present their work in marketing, branding, packaging, advertising, and design to industry professionals and the community.

Penn College graphic design students have consistently earned recognition through their submissions to regional, national, and international advertising design competitions, particularly in the student category of the AAF American Advertising Awards and AIGA Blue Ridge’s Flux Student Design Competition.

The Gallery at Penn College began hosting annual Graphic Design: Senior Portfolio Exhibitions in 2008.

Learn about the program and see the latest student portfolios:

Architecture & Sustainable Design features the projects of students’ architectural design work in their final year of study at Penn College. Each graduating senior was tasked with the design and development of a significant building in an urban setting. Students will present design process drawings, 3D models, and computer renderings depicting their comprehensive individual solutions.

The Penn College architecture programs have a long history and a strong reputation. Associate and bachelor’s degree graduates have gone on to pursue graduate studies at prestigious universities as well as attain employment in architecture, engineering, and construction companies across the US. These graduates are well-versed in sustainability, design, and technical knowledge and make significant contributions to the built environment and the field of architecture.

The Gallery at Penn College began hosting annual Architecture and Sustainable Design: Senior Capstone Projects exhibitions in 2019.

Special Hours:
Friday, May 10, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 12, 1 - 4 p.m.
Monday, May 13, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Explore the Penn College architecture programs: 
 

Closed July 3 – 7

The Gallery at Penn College is pleased the host Books Undone 2: the art of altered books. This group exhibition features 64 works by 41 artists from 20 states. 

Visual art and books have much in common: They express and evoke emotions, educate, share new ideas, tell a story, and more. Such shared virtues make the book, as an art medium, powerful and complex. Thanks to Scott McCarney’s thoughtful selections, we present Books Undone 2: a diverse and compelling juried art exhibition that captures our cultural time and place. Discover themes such as social injustice, climate change, the human experience, and more through beautiful book-based forms. From full-sized dresses that scrutinize domestic violence to book installations that examine wrongful convictions in our country, from erased books that bring awareness to the loss of natural ecosystems to sculptures that probe the loss of history, from digital-based works that explore identity issues to intricately twisted book pages that investigate motherhood, the work is varied in form and concept. 

Scott McCarney, Juror

Scott McCarney is an artist, designer, and educator living in Rochester, New York. He received formal design training at Virginia Commonwealth University in the 1970s, and earned an advanced degree in photography from the University at Buffalo/Visual Studies Workshop in the 1980s. His primary art practice has been in book form since 1980 and spans many media: from offset and digital printing to sculptural and site-specific installation. His works are widely distributed and can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. His teaching and lecturing itinerary is varied: in person (New Zealand, Korea, Mexico, and South America) and online. He retired in 2020 after 16 years of teaching in the College of Art and Design at Rochester Institute of Technology.