Join us for a gallery talk on Tuesday, March 19th at 5pm with Andrew Coombs, Shanna Fliegel, Jeff Forester, and Jon McMillan – four of the artists featured in Elemental. Ridderhof Martin Gallery will be open all day Tuesday prior to the talk as part of the NCECA conference being hosted in Richmond, VA March 20-23, 2024.
Join us in the duPont gallery on February 22, 2024 from 5-6pm for an Artist’s Talk with Taylor Anton White. Taylor White graduated from the Studio Arts program at UMW in 2017 and has since gained international recognition for his artwork.
The University of Mary Washington Galleries is pleased to present the group exhibition Elemental.
Elemental features six artists who investigate the natural elements through various aspects of material, process, form, and content. Brought together through creative and personal connections, these makers showcase a broad array of ceramic expression while also calling attention to humankind’s connection to the natural world.
Although each artist shares conceptual starting points, they approach material and idea through different lenses, further illustrating the complexity and salience of the theme. Andrew Coombs’ vessels reference water through form and function while using fluid glazes and inspiration from ancient Iranian plant imagery for their surfaces. Shanna Fliegel probes notions of the Anthropocene to create richly layered images on clay forms that are simultaneously ancient and futuristic. Jeff Forster’s sculptural remnants evoke geologic time through the interplay of ceramic materials with fire and human forces. Jon McMillan abstracts elements from terrestrial and atmospheric sources, recombining them to create ambiguous sculptures with multiple connotations. Brooke Noble’s porcelain pillows blend references to flora and fauna to investigate everything from environmental concerns to societal cross currents. Kristina Stafford brings together earth and sky, with exposed terra cotta juxtaposing references to plant life, cloud forms and the built environment. Using a diversity of approaches, these artists explore the multi-faceted relationship between humans and nature through a variety of ideas, methods and modes of expression.
Elemental is curated by Jon McMillan. It is a concurrent exhibition during Coalescence, the 58th annual conference of the National Council of the Education for the Ceramic Arts, March 20-23, 2024 in Richmond, Virginia.
The University of Mary Washington Galleries is pleased to present the solo exhibition Origins: Taylor Anton White.
Internationally acclaimed artist and UMW alumnus Taylor Anton White (BA 2017) creates bold, absurdist abstractions rooted in spontaneity, action, and play. For the Richmond-based artist’s first exhibition on campus since graduating, Origins: Taylor Anton White includes explosively drawn and painted pieces that pull from techniques and concepts honed during his time at Mary Washington. White’s exuberant brushstrokes and stark black oil stick drawings of cartoon figures vibrate against formally constructed surfaces, tapping into both the noise and compulsion of contemporary life.
Origins: Taylor Anton White is part of the annual Origins series, celebrating UMW Studio Art Alumni.
This exhibition was curated by the University of Mary Washington Galleries Fall 2023 Interns:
Gabriella Alexander, Calvin Harned, Logan Kniebbe, and Rowan Tully
A special thanks to Maureen Paige ’70 for lending these works to the University of Mary Washington Galleries
“Twenty years ago, a young man, who all his life was to answer with color, arrived in Paris.”
– Elisabeth Bollee de Vautibault, A Wife’s View (1959)
Julien Binford (American, 1908-1997), came to pursue a career in the visual arts after attempting to join the medical field. When showing great promise in drawing, he was encouraged to enroll at the Art Institute of Chicago, which would ultimately prove vital to his life and career as it allowed him to work in Paris in the 1930s. While abroad, Binford met his wife, French writer Elisabeth Bollee, who would abandon her life as a Countess to move back to Virginia with him in 1935. While living in Virginia, Binford was inspired by his surroundings and produced a great number of works. He later became a professor of art at the then Mary Washington College in 1946, and in 1956 he co-founded the University’s Galleries’ Exhibition Program. He would retire from Mary Washington College in 1971 to focus on his art, until passing away in 1997 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Throughout his career, Binford displayed a devotion to color that would heavily influence his artistic output. Despite his range in medium and depiction of various subject matters, his commitment to color persisted. The pieces selected for this exhibition include sketches and unfinished works that are connected by that commitment.
“We should not want it to be forgotten that the symbols of a painter are not those of a statesman, a scholar, a philosopher, or a poet. His symbols are not words, but colors.”
– Julien Binford in Connoisseurship, Research, and Gallery Work (1971)
For this exhibition, the selected works have been grouped together based on content matter. We encourage you to see the similarities in these pairings, and how Julien Binford’s skillful use of color is utilized depending on his choice of subject.
Learn more about Julien Binford’s ad campaign for Webster Tobacco and his technique for a selection of pastel sketches.
Learn about Julien Binford’s origins, which led him to studying in Paris, France in the 1930’s.
After his time abroad, Julien Binford settled in Virginia. See some of the works inspired by the state.
Hear about Julien Binford’s relationship with spirituality, and one of his most well known projects.
Julien Binford, Untitled (Madonna and Child), oil pastel on board, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP122.
See more of Julien Binford’s work, including a moment where some of them were nearly destroyed.
Julien Binford, Untitled (man in purple), oil pastel on board, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP123.
See Binford’s experimentation with non-figurative works, labeled in this exhibition as his abstractions.
Julien Binford, Untitled (blue and beige abstraction), pastel on paper, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP201.
Learn about the life of Elisabeth Bollee de Vautibault, the former Countess who moved halfway across the world just to be with Julien Binford.
Julien Binford, Untitled (blue and beige abstraction), pastel on paper, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP201.
Below are all of the works featured in this exhibition. We invite you to both consider Binford’s total use of color, as well as individually appreciating pieces you are drawn to.
Please click to view the full images.
After returning stateside in 1935, Binford and his wife, Elisabeth Bollee, settled in Powhatan County, Virginia. Upon arrival, the couple purchased the ruins of the Old Foundry, an early 19th century structure constructed along the banks of Fine Creek. Elisabeth described the state of the house as “a windy shack with no water, no lights, and no heat located on Lee’s Landing Road northeast of the Foundry.” Over the next few decades, the couple undertook massive reconstruction projects, effectively making the Old Foundry their permanent residence.
Julien Binford, Untitled (Richmond state library sketch in green), graphite and oil pastel on paper, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP018.
While living in Powhatan County, Binford’s surroundings became his primary artistic inspiration. Most notably, he fostered a strong relationship with his African American neighbors, using them as the subject for his works on numerous occasions. The Virginian terrain additionally became an important source of inspiration for Binford’s artwork. This is displayed in the sketch of the Rappahannock River, as well as other sketches selected for this exhibition that feature prominent buildings from Washington D.C.
Julien Binford, Untitled (sycamores at the Rappahannock River), pastel on paper, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP169.
In 1950, the Virginia State Library commissioned Binford to paint a mural for their newly erected building. The work, which faced the entrance of the library and occupied approximately 14 square feet, depicted the enactment of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. The two drawings of colonial figures shown here are preparatory sketches for the mural, which has since been relocated to the Library’s Records Center.
Julien Binford, Untitled (Richmond state library sketch in red), graphite and oil pastel on paper, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP046.
Beginning in 1946, Binford established a relationship with the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia that would last for over 25 years. As a professor of Studio Art, Binford was deeply dedicated to his students, and was considered to be the school’s “most motivational figure” of the 1940s. As stated on the University of Mary Washington website; “Fellow faculty member Edward Alvey, Jr. wrote that Binford was a warm, friendly, natural person. He painted with a sensitivity and devotion, establishing a feeling of rapport between the artist and the viewer. His work has a freshness and originality that well exemplifies Binford’s own zest for life and his desire to share its beauty with others.”
In a tribute to Julien Binford, dated September 5th, 1997, an unnamed relative wrote “I know that he brought joy to the heart of his God, as well as to the hearts of who saw his work, especially the painting in Shiloh Church.”
Binford was a Southern Baptist and, when he moved to Powhatan County, integrated himself into the African American Baptist community and was both devoted to and inspired by the beauty of the rural culture. In the late 1930’s, Binford was commissioned by Shiloh Baptist Church to paint The Lord Over Jordan, a mural over the church’s baptistry that depicts Christ’s baptism. As payment, Binford accepted donations of produce in the place of money.
Julien Binford, Untitled (Madonna and Child), oil pastel on board, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP122.
Binford’s use of color reflects his religious devotion as well as his storytelling technique – his dark reds and blacks emphasize the sacrifice made by Christ. This can be observed from his work Untitled (Madonna and Child), shown above. While the subject matter is often depicted as a joyous occasion, Binford’s use of dark red invokes the inevitability of Christ’s death. The use of foreboding colors is continued in Untitled (Crucifixion), which displays Christ suspended on a cross stained with his own blood and flanked by a pitch black sky.
Julien Binford, Untitled (Crucifixion), oil pastel on board, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP124.
The remaining works in this exhibition are uncategorized and represent varying stylistic periods in Binford’s career, but not all of Julien Binford’s works survive today. Late in his life, the artist began struggling with the aesthetic quality of some of his pieces and decided to take action. Maureen Paige ‘70, Binford’s former student and studio assistant, describes an instance of the artist burning a number of his older works in a bonfire. Although urged by those around him to preserve his works, an unknown number were lost. However, upon request, Binford agreed not to destroy additional pieces if disclaimers were written on the back. For example, the piece to the left has “Not to be sold as a Julien Binford work” written across the back of the board.
Julien Binford, Untitled (figure in red shirt), oil paint on board, promised gift of Maureen Paige, L.2023.MP213.
