The sculpture “The Messenger” by Gabe Allan sits tucked away by the UVA Bookstore. It is often overlooked, but for some it is a favorite piece of art on Grounds. (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
If you’re looking for art at the University of Virginia, you probably already know about The Fralin Museum of Art, the exhibit spaces at the Rotunda, the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library and the Ruffin Art Gallery.
But beyond museums and official exhibits, there’s far more art to explore across Grounds – if you know where to look.
Second-year student Charlotte Walden admits that her favorite piece, a sculpture called “The Messenger” by Gabe Allan, was unbeknownst to her until one of her UVA professors pointed it out.
“I didn’t even know the statue was here,” Walden said. “I didn’t ever notice it because it’s kind of … out of the main Central Grounds area.”
It sits quietly beside a busy road near the UVA Bookstore, somewhere most students don’t traverse on their way to class. But after she discovered “The Messenger,” it became her favorite piece to see on Grounds – because even though she overlooked it before, it ended up standing out against the other statues she sees around the University.
“Aesthetically, it’s really interesting, because it has this sort of like, coarser, more uneven texture for a sculpture. And I think that … is juxtaposed with the Thomas Jefferson statues we see all over Grounds,” Walden said.
The abstract sculpture depicts a kneeling man who appears to be pulling apart his chest to reveal his heart. It also provides a different message than those historical monuments might have, one that she thinks any UVA student can relate to.
Second-year student Charlotte Walden found a relatable message in the sculpture. “The main message is growth through suffering. Whatever you’re going through, no matter how hard, you will persist, you will get through it, it’ll make you a better person,” she said. (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
“The main message is growth through suffering. … Whatever you’re going through, no matter how hard, you will persist, you will get through it, it’ll make you a better person,” she said.
Fourth-year student Connor Smith has also found a commemorative artwork that he connected to personally. Through his studies at the University, he has grown close with the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers near the Rotunda.
Working with the Descendants of Enslaved Communities at the University, he has conducted genealogical research that ultimately allowed him to see names he first read on a computer screen become “those names set in stone in the wall of the memorial,” he said. For him, it “brings [the history] to reality to have that in front of you.”
He, along with tour guides, encourages “people on the tour to touch the wall, touch the names,” Smith said. “It becomes very interactive and inviting to realize the history.”
Another memorial, more tucked away behind Nau Hall, is one that UVA art history professor Christa Robbins wants to share. It’s called the “Catherine Foster Memorial,” and it’s a piece Robbins is particularly drawn to.
The Catherine Foster Memorial casts a shadow on the original dimensions of Foster’s house. UVA art professor Christa Robbins appreciates its function as public art to connect to the history of its location. (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
The Catherine Foster Memorial was dedicated in 2011 to commemorate the life of Catherine Foster, a free African American woman who owned property near the University and worked as a seamstress, providing services for faculty and the then-all-male student body. In 1833, she purchased property just beyond the southern edge of the University that was inhabited by her descendants until 1906. It also honors the history of the formerly enslaved community adjacent to UVA known as Canada.
When speaking about the Catherine Foster Memorial, Robbins says it has the potential to make us think how Grounds “relates to the town because it really does potentially bridge UVA and its surrounding community.” (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
“It’s an interesting piece of landscape architecture that casts a shadow on what would be the original dimensions of [Foster’s] house. And there’s a little bit of an excavation that you can look down into the original foundations of her house,” Robbins said.
She appreciates its purpose as public art to connect to the history of its surroundings, and how it is a space that functions “not just as something that’s restricted to the past, but also as it relates to the present,” she said. Its minimal design allows a viewer to contemplate the history it presents. However, it also makes the memorial less obvious to the public eye.
Sometimes art on Grounds isn’t obvious until viewers shift their perspectives, architecture and art professor Sanda Iliescu said. Iliescu pointed to a part of the Architecture School building, the East Addition designed by Professor WG Clark, that always catches her eye.
“A room can be interesting,” she said. “It can be looked at as a piece of sculpture.” She sees the revolving square door leading into the review rooms in the East Addition as statues and their windows as eyes to the outdoors. “For me, architecture is loveliness – the light, joyful feeling of being uplifted, or the opposite,” Iliescu said.
This revolving, square door is one of the more unique aspects of the East Addition of the Architecture School. To art and architecture professor Sanda Iliescu, it is art. “It [has] beautiful wood contrasting with a pool of concrete. … This is like a sculpture.” (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
To Iliescu, the buildings students walk past daily can be pieces of art themselves. All it takes is a different perspective, like looking at rain drops on the windows of her school’s building.
“Look at the raindrops. Isn’t that beautiful? The way they shine in the light. … They’re like little diamonds on the window.”
