Six free exhibitions on display this spring at Wesleyan University's Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery and the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center

Middletown, Conn.—Wesleyan University welcomes the general public to view six free exhibitions this spring in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery and the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center. Please see below for more information about each of the the exhibitions and COVID safety guidelines.

On the Wesleyan campus in Middletown, Connecticut, the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery is located at 283 Washington Terrace, and the gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday from Noon to 5pm. The College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center is located at 343 Washington Terrace, and the gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from Noon to 4pm. Admission to both galleries is free and open to the public.

About the Exhibitions

Brandon Ndife: Down to the Spoons and Forks
Tuesday, February 1 through Sunday, March 6, 2022
Main Gallery, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
Curated by Associate Director of Visual Arts and Adjunct Instructor in Art Benjamin Chaffee

Built domestic objects are combined with organic matter in this newly created series of sculptures by Brandon Ndife. Additively-composed of castings that appear as assemblages of found objects, Ndife refers to the work as “code switching” rather than a trompe l'oeil. Sited between decay and regrowth, his sculptures speculate on historical conditions that constitute the present and/or displace possibilities that might lie in a future past.

Brandon Ndife (b. 1991 Hammond, Indiana) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union and an M.F.A. from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. Solo and two-person exhibitions have included MY ZONE, Bureau, New York, 2020; Minor twin worlds with Diane Severin Nguyen, Bureau, New York, 2019; Ties That Bind, Shoot the Lobster, New York, 2018; Just Passin’ Thru, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, 2016; and Meanderthal, Species, Atlanta, 2016. Group exhibitions have included New Museum Triennial: Soft Water Hard Stone, New Museum, New York, 2021; Cascadence, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, 2021; Winterfest, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, 2021; Material Conditions, Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, 2020; and Fixing the “not... but,” LC Queisser, Tbilisi, 2019. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York, 2022. Write-ups of his work have been featured in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Interview Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Mousse Magazine, and Flash Art.

Dana DeGiulio: Live or Die
Tuesday, February 1 through Sunday, March 6, 2022
Main Gallery, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
Curated by Associate Director of Visual Arts and Adjunct Instructor in Art Benjamin Chaffee

Dana DeGiulio is a painter whose project pits action and materiality against image. Her work in video, drawing, installation, painting, writing, and teaching is about edges and touch and attention, and tries to ask the means what the ends are. The work has appeared in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, artforum, Contemporary Art Daily, Mousse, Erev Rav, Chicago Art Writers, and other publications. In 2019, her book Nefertiti for the Blind was released by Attendant. DeGiulio has been an itinerant professor of visual art for the last thirteen years, and currently teaches at New York University, Columbia University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She works at home in Brooklyn next to the window.

Strong Bodies for the Revolution: Pursuing Health and Power in the People’s Republic of China
Wednesday, February 16 through Friday, May 13, 2022
College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center

How did the government of the People’s Republic of China mobilize its people to implement public health campaigns and improve the health of hundreds of millions of people? The College of East Asian Studies presents an exhibition featuring a collection of propaganda posters donated by the family of Ruth and Victor Sidel. During their travels to China, the Sidels acquired more than 55 posters, most of which illustrated the underlying principles that governed Chinese public health policy during tumultuous years of revolution. ​This exhibition, curated by faculty and students, showcases common themes in the posters that contribute to a larger narrative on modern health practices in China. Co-sponsored by the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life; the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; the Fries Center for Global Studies; the Department of Government; the History Department; the Science in Society Program and Black Box Labs; and the Wesleyan University Library.

The College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center is curated by Associate Director of Visual Arts and Adjunct Instructor in Art Benjamin Chaffee and Exhibitions Manager Rosemary Lennox.

Diane Burko: Visualizing Environmental Change
Thursday, February 17 through Thursday, March 3, 2022
South Gallery, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery

Diane Burko works at the intersection of art and the environment with an artistic practice that is devoted to bringing the challenges of climate change to light. Having spent over four decades exploring monumental and geological phenomena in a wide range of works from painting to photography to video, in 2006 she devoted herself exclusively to the exploration of environmental issues. Her artworks integrate experiences of on-location explorations and scientific data and resolve themselves into captivating climate-conscious works that encourage critical thinking about the role humans are having on the environment.

This exhibition is presented by the College of the Environment as part of their 2021–22 Think Tank theme “Visualizing Environmental Change.” Co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the Samuel Silipo ’85 Distinguished Visitor’s Fund; the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; and the Science in Society Program.

Senior Thesis Exhibitions
Tuesday, March 22 through Sunday, April 24, 2022
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery

Featuring works by seniors in the Art Studio Program of Wesleyan’s Department of Art and Art History. Exhibitions change each week.

Tuesday, March 22 through Sunday, March 27, 2022
Featuring works by Romina Beltran Lazo, Jared Christopher, Nina Criswell, Daniela Sweet-Coll, Karen Xu, and Yao Zhu.

Tuesday, March 29 through Sunday, April 3, 2022
Featuring works by Eli Baden-Lasar, Mia Gleiberman, Julia Kan, Kelsey Morgan, Haishi Teng, and Forrest Walker.

Tuesday, April 5 through Sunday, April 10, 2022
Featuring works by Dotan Appelbaum, Helena Girardoni, Niamh Henchy, Ina Kim, Mi Wiralpach Nawabutsitthirat, and Olivia Thanadabout.

Tuesday, April 12 through Sunday, April 17, 2022
Featuring works by Joseph Cohen, Nomi Kligler, Morgan Maben, Elisa Pettinato, Mia Sakamoto, and Carmen Scott-Henning.

Tuesday, April 19 through Sunday, April 24, 2022
Featuring works by Rhea Aggarwal, Vida Behar, Jonah Newmark, Maia Panlilio, Magine Slonaker, and Benjamin Vuchetich.

Senior Thesis Showcase
Tuesday, May 3 through Sunday, May 22, 2022
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery

Zilkha Gallery showcases the work of the Class of 2022's thesis students in the Department of Art and Art History's Art Studio Program. The exhibition presents a work by each of the seniors from their Senior Thesis Exhibition. Works shown are in drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and architecture.

COVID Safety Guidelines

The general public is welcome to view exhibitions in both the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery and the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center. All patrons must adhere to and follow the University COVID-19 safety guidelines. Wesleyan requires all visitors to be fully vaccinated including booster shots. All visitors will need to provide proof of having been fully vaccinated. Masks are required in all University buildings regardless of vaccination status. Indoor performances as well as special events, including opening receptions in the galleries, will be open to Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff. Vaccinated visitors may attend outdoor events and outdoor activities unmasked. Patrons under the age of five are required to wear a mask at outdoor events. Due to current CDC age limits on vaccinations, individuals under the age of five will not be permitted at indoor exhibitions.