The RSM Art Gallery is a cultural and educational resource for the entire Bentley community. Located in the Bentley Library, the gallery sponsors six to eight exhibits per year, highlighting the work of New England artists working in a wide range of media. The RSM Art Gallery is free and open to the public when the library is open. For more information about the gallery please contact Danielle Krcmar, Curator of the RSM Art Gallery via email dkrcmar@bentley.edu or phone 781.891.2233.
About the Exhibit
Ellen Wetmore’s Grotesques drawings require the preliminary production of batches of marbled paper. The artist drips liquid acrylic paint in a bath of water thickened with methyl cellulose and then manipulates the paint drops to create interesting shapes and patterns. Then she gently sets a piece of alum-soaked paper into the water to make a unique print, each one looks like a psychedelic marble slab. Wetmore’s rules for her process dictate that she draws the first thing she sees on the paper without any preplanning. This visual pattern recognition is known as pareidolia- a situation in which someone sees a pattern or image of something that does not exist, such as seeing a face in a cloud. The imagery in the drawings is fantastical, influenced by her deep study of ancient Italian grotesques paintings, which consist of loosely connected motifs that often incorporate human figures, birds, animals, and monsters. The saturated palette of the papers combined with the black ink nods to comic books from the 1960s and 70s. Wetmore uses archival waterproof ink to make her Grotesques drawings, the fixedness of the material demonstrates her commitment to uncovering and building the uncanny realms within them.
Past Exhibits
2024
Face to Face
A selection of portraits created by Artists working at Vinfen’s Gateway Arts in Brookline, MA
February 29–April 5, 2024
Landscapes and Lives Partitioned: Witnessing the Borderlands
Shelley K White
January 16–February 24, 2024
2023
2023 International Education Photo Contest Winners and Finalists
November 14, 2023–January 12, 2024
Conjuring
Charles Suggs
September 28–November 3, 2023
Evolution
John Guthrie
May 13–September 15, 2023
From Silk to Cement
Installation by by Ariel Basson Freiberg
March 9–April 28, 2023
A River Twice
Painting by Bradford Johnson
January 25–February 26, 2023
2022
2022 International Education Photo Contest Winners & Finalists
December 7, 2022–January 25, 2023
We Are The FOOS
Jonathan Yu “Haiki” BS ’18, MBA ‘19
October 20–November 27, 2022
Touching the Pond
AJ Rombach
September 15–October 14, 2022
Boston in 100 words
March 22–May 3, 2022
Beyond the Page/2020–2022
Paintings by Dana Clancy
February 2–March 11, 2022
2021
Black @ Bentley ~ Shared Stories
June 21 - October 15, 2021
2020
2020 International Education Photo Contest Winners and Finalists
November 6, 2020 - January 15, 2021
HOKU
Kiana Kanoa ('20), Founder and Editor in Chief
March 5 - April 18, 2020
LUMEN
Paintings by Roz Sommer
January 13 - March 2, 2020
2019
2019 International Education Photo Contest Winners and Finalists
November 8, 2019 - January 8, 2020
Vague Space
Casey Hayward
October 2 - November 5, 2019
Underline: within, and beneath, the wandering lines
Elisa H. Hamilton
August 6 - September 27, 2019
The Bentley Student Experience
Bentley University Archives
June 24 - August 2, 2019
Line as Language
Milisa Galazzi
April 25 - June 13
Other Worldly: Paintings by Nancy Hayes
March 15 - April 19, 2019
Saturation: Paintings by Christina Chang
January 14 - March 8, 2019
2018
2018 International Education Photo Contest Winners and Selection of Finalists
November 8, 2018 - January 9, 2019
Photographs by Kyle Eyma
October 5 - November 5, 2018
The Hidden World of the Nearby: Photographs by John Wawrzonek
August 20 - September 30, 2018
In A Different Light
Arnie Casavant
April 27 - June 7, 2018
Leading & Learning: A Century of Women at Bentley
Bentley University Archives
March 14 - April 22, 2018
Color – Light – Passion
Paintings by Debra Kennedy
January 20 - March 2, 2018
2017
2017 International Education Photo Contest Winners and Selection of Finalists
November 15, 2017 - January 12, 2018
Paintings and Sculpture
Robert Collins
October 5 - November 10, 2017
The Birds, The Bees, Curiosities . . . and Books!
Annie Silverman
August 17 - October 1, 2017
Bentley University Staff Art Exhibition
June 15 - August 11, 2017
The Bentley Student Experience
Bentley University Centennial Exhibit - Bentley University Archives
April 25 - June 11, 2017
My Brother’s Black Body
Exposition of Photographs by Malakhai Pearson
April 10 - April 21, 2017
Ghost Space
Josephine Burr
March 12 - April 6, 2017
The Bentley Campus: From Boston to Waltham
Bentley University Centennial Exhibit - Bentley University Archives
January 17 - March 2, 2017
2016
2016 International Education Photo Contest Finalists & Winners
December 5, 2016 - January 8, 2017
Genetic Passages: The Genotype Phenotype Project of Helen Donis-Keller
October 27 - December 2, 2016
Bentley Leaders
Bentley University Centennial Exhibit - Bentley University Archives
August 22 - October 24, 2016
Linear Expressions
Francis Domec
June 23 - August 12, 2016
Inspirations
Linda Collins
May 1 - June 17, 2016
Welcome to the Crowd
Miranda Updike
April 2 - April 29, 2016
Scholarship Paintings: The Work of Maurice M. Lindsay
February 5 - March 30, 2016
2015
2015 International Education Photo Contest Finalists & Winners
November 16 - December 22, 2015
Convoy
Cody Justus
August 24 - November 6, 2015
Subservience
Tony Schwensen
May 8 - July 24, 2015
Jackie Robinson Collection with Dr. Stephen Schlein
April 22, 2015
Wakaya Fish, Nudi's & Other Creatures
Joshua Boger
February 18 - April 25, 2015
2014
The Virtual Wall: A 25th Anniversary Commemoration of the Fall of Communism in Germany
November 17 - December 17, 2014
Cityscapes and Landscapes
Erik Pettersen
June 16 - July 14, 2014
Counterpoise
Jim Cain
April 7 - May 16, 2014
you will love this some day
Tim McCool
February 24 - April 4, 2014
Selected Works from Bentley University Artist-In-Residence Alla Lazebnik
January 15 - February 21, 2014
2013
White Terror
Huaiyu Chou
November 25, 2013 - January 10, 2014
Making Visible the Invisible: Library Data Transformed
October 21 - November 22, 2013
The Majesty of Subtle Ascents
Stephen St. Francis Decky
July 22 - October 18, 2013
Liminal Spaces
Laura Fischman
May 20 - July 12, 2013
Making Home
Heidi Hogden
April 15 - May 17, 2013
Salon
Garett Yahn
March 8 - April 12, 2013
Helen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights
January 22 - February 22, 2013
2012
New Venue
Amy Williams
December 10, 2012 - January 18, 2103
A Few More Paintings
Thomas Willis
November 5 - December 7, 2012
Inter(play)
Leah Craig, Joe Joe Orangias, and Joanna Tam
October 1 - November 2, 2012
Seeds and Spores
Kat Ely
August 28 - September 28, 2012
Drawings from the Concurrent Influence Series
Ani Avanian
July 10 - August 23, 2012
Studies of the Old Masters
Muriel Donovan ('50)
May 31 - June 30, 2012
Pyramid Dark-Side Down
KD Resseger
April 12 - May 24, 2012
land/marks
Andrea Sherrill Evans
February 7 - April 8, 2012
2011
So Long, It's Been Good to Know Ya
Rachel Grobstein
December 4, 2011 - February 3, 2012
Blossom
Joo Lee Kang
November 7 - December 1, 2011
Arto Fantasma
Jason Scuilla
October 3 - October 31, 2011
Who We Are What We Do: The Best Practices' Way
Joanna Tam and Chris Ford
September 7, 2011
The End of the Line
Omer Hecht
July 25 - August 26, 2011
In the Flow
John Redick
May 25 - July 23, 2011
Change in Temperature
Eileen Wagner
April 12 - May 20, 2011
Recent Work
Maggie Connors
March 2 - April 7, 2011
Conversations With No One
Ty Paulhus
January 24 - February 24, 2011
2010
MORRIX
Jim Morris
December 6, 2010 - January 19, 2011
Formlessness
Lynda Schlosberg
October 26 - November 30, 2010
Sweetness
Soojin Kim
September 21 - October 21, 2010
The Nature of Things
Myrosha Dziuk
August 5 - September 16, 2010
Fancy Plants, Whirling and Twirling
Lisa Houck
-and--
Fancy Plants, Grocery Store Botany
Andrea Golden
June 3 - July 30, 2010
Bentley University Community Art Exhibition
April 20 - May 28, 2010
Recent Work
Michele L’Heureux
March 16 - April 9, 2010
One Woman, Many Perspectives IV
Marian Christy
February 17 - March 12, 2010
2009
Recent Work
Mark Johnson
December 14, 2009 - February 12, 2010
FOUND
Martin Cain
November 11 - December 10, 2009
Rabbit Tales
Patti Singer
September 30 - November 6, 2009
Large Photo Collage
Jonathan Sahula
August 19 - September 25, 2009
Reflections II / Papercuts
Leslie Miller
May 6 - July 21, 2009
Abstract: Thought or Theory
Richard Kattman
March 25 - May 1, 2009
Paintings
Brigitte Keller
February 11 - March 18, 2009
2008
Body of Water
Stacey B. McCarthy
December 4, 2008 - February 5, 2009
Borderlands
Elizabeth LeDoux
October 30 - November 28, 2008
Art Politics: East and West
June August
September 25 - October 24, 2008
Treescapes
Terry Boutelle
July 30 - September 22, 2008
Recent Work
Jim Cain
May 8 - July 18, 2008
Recent Work
Ann Turley
April 2 - May 5, 2008
Bentley College Community Art Exhibition
February 20 - March 28, 2008
Recent Photographs
Carl Tremblay
January 16 - February 15, 2008
2007
Surface Effect
Gerald Rojek
December 4, 2007 - January 11, 2008
Antarctica, Whales and Ice
Lisa Goren
October 16 - November 28, 2007
Landforms and Fairy Tales
Nancy Jenner
July 23 - September 16, 2007
Flashbacks/Paintings
Matthew J. Keenan
April 23 - June 29, 2007
Explorations
Marianne Rowe
March 14 - April 12, 2007
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