U.Va. to Celebrate Final Friday on the Arts Grounds Aug. 26

August 22, 2011 — Art will be the topic of conversation Aug. 26 on the University of Virginia's Arts Grounds as the U.Va. Art Museum, Ruffin Gallery and the School of Architecture's Dean's Gallery host receptions featuring their current exhibits.

U.Va. Art Museum

Visitors to the U.Va. Art Museum's Final Friday reception will enjoy three exhibits: "Figure Study: The Fourteenth Street School and the Woman in Public," "Variety, Archeology and Ornament: Renaissance Architectural Prints from Column to Cornice" and "The Dancer and the Dance: Prints, Drawings and Photographs."

Urban realism, with a touch of Renaissance idealism, was the bread and butter of the Fourhteenth Street School, a group of New York artists who made their mark between the world wars. The "Figure Study" exhibit draws on the museum's collection of paintings, prints and drawings by these artists.

"Variety, Archeology and Ornament" focuses on the crucial role of prints in the transition from manuscript to printed architectural treatises during the Renaissance. The exhibition re-evaluates the role of ornament, primarily through a series of architectural prints that played a conspicuous role in determining the concept of the five orders of architecture between approximately 1515 and 1550.

Guests also will be able to view the recently opened "The Dancer and the Dance." Through the work of artists spanning many centuries to the present, the exhibition explores themes of motion, materiality and temporality.

Admission to the museum's Final Friday reception, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., is free for members and U.Va. students, thanks to Arts$, and is $3 for non-members. For information, call 434-924-3592.

McIntire Department of Art's Ruffin Gallery

Curated by Graduate School of Arts & Sciences' art history doctoral student Michael Maizels and May graduate Brittany Strupp, the "Untitled" exhibit pairs up-and-coming artists from the mid-Atlantic region with emerging scholars, critics and curators.

The Final Friday opening reception, beginning at 5 p.m., will include a gallery talk by the curators and appearances by several of the artists and catalog contributors. For information, call 434-924-6123.

School of Architecture's Dean's Gallery

The U.Va.. School of Architecture will host a closing reception for "Contain," by artist Kay Wood, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Wood turned the most ubiquitous modern-day container – the plastic shopping bag – into objects of beauty that are investigations of dialogues between the interwoven narratives of material, process, place and cultural context.

Created using a combination of altered netting, knotting and basket-weaving techniques, the "Container" series re-contextualizes these discarded and disparaged items.

Free parking for all three receptions is available in the Culbreth Road Garage, with additional parking for the museum in the A6 lot next to Madison Bowl on Rugby Road. For information, call 434-982-2921.

Media Contact

Jane Ford

U.Va. Media Relations