Kohl Gallery
Located in Gibson Center for the Arts, Kohl Gallery is Washington College's flagship venue for visual arts programming
EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS:
The RADIANT MATERIAL exhibition features the work of regional contemporary artists Roxana Azar, Tommy Bobo, Daniel
Conrad, David Gladden, and Lindsay Packer - all of whom are working with light. Their
various practices investigate topics that include light as subject and material, the perceptual experience
of color and light in space and time, custom designed and experimental systems and
processes, innovative material exploration, and conceptual affinities with ideas drawn
from science and math. Offered in collaboration with the McLain Program for Environmental
Studies, light as a material focus for this expansive program is inspired by the Radiant Echo permanent light installation in the McLain Atrium of the Toll Science Center which
pays homage to Washington College’s history as a premiere teaching and research center
for American pyrotechnics. This expansive program includes the Radiant Echo Student
Photo Contest and Exhibition, performance, artist talks, and additional special programs
to be announced throughout the semester.
OPENING RECEPTION: September 15, 4:30-6:30pm, Kohl Gallery
Free and open to the public. Light refreshements will be served.
TOMMY BOBO Artist Talk: November 2, 4:30pm, Kohl Gallery
Free and open to the public.
Washington College Students!!!!
APPLY TO THE RADIANT ECHO STUDENT PHOTO COMPETITION!
RADIANT ECHO PHOTO CONTEST EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION: OCTOBER 27, 4:30-6:00pm, Kohl Gallery
Free and open to the public. Light refreshements will be served.
Contest winners will be announced.
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ONGOING VIRTUAL EXHIBIT:
On the Black History of Kent County and Washington College, by Jason Patterson
Washington College's First Three Black Graduates from left to right:
Thomas Edgar Morris, Class of 1962
Patricia Godbolt, Class of 1964
Shirley Dale Patterson, Class of 1965
This important project is the culmination of 2 years of work Patterson completed during his Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellowship at The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and the result of a year-long collaboration between Patterson, Kohl Gallery, and The Starr Center. The project was additionally awarded a 2020 Chesapeake Heartland Fellowship and the virtual exhibit is hosted and supported by Chesapeake Heartland.
About Kohl Gallery
Kohl Gallery fosters the study and understanding of art through a diverse range of exhibitions and public programs. Embracing its liberal arts context, Kohl Gallery presents fresh perspectives on historical and contemporary art and promotes interdisciplinary conversations about historical, social, and cultural issues of significance to Washington College, Chestertown, and beyond.
Each year, Kohl Gallery presents a series of curated exhibits that emphasize a broad range of aesthetic and intellectual concerns of relevance to our current society. Each spring, Kohl Gallery also hosts two student exhibits: the '100 Proof' juried student exhibition, and an annual senior capstone exhibition presenting the works of graduating Studio Art seniors.
Kohl Gallery organizes diverse programming throughout the academic year. With each exhibit, the gallery hosts a combination of artist talks, public receptions, and scholarly presentations. Kohl Gallery also partners regularly with Washington College classes and groups from the Chestertown community to create unique, interdisciplinary opportunities for engagement with the works on view.
Location
Gibson Center for the Arts
300 Washington Avenue
Chestertown, MD 21620
Kohl Gallery is located on the first floor of the Gibson Center for the Arts. Parking is available in the lot behind Gibson and in the lots next to the Roy Kirby, Jr. Stadium. Please use the spots marked Visitor if parking prior to 3pm.
Visitor Information
Kohl Gallery on Washington College's campus is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Walk-in Gallery Visitation Hours:
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 1:30-5pm
Wednesday 4:00-7:00pm
Saturday 12-3pm
COVID PROTOCOL:
*Masks are OPTIONAL in Kohl Gallery. This is subject to change based on Washington College COVID Policy.
General Information:
- Admission is free.
- Kohl Gallery is closed between exhibitions and during all college breaks.
- Photography may be permitted on a show to show basis.
- For security reasons, all bags may be subject to search upon entering the Gallery.
Accessibility:
Kohl Gallery aims to adhere to all ADA guidelines in its exhibit preparations and installations. For more information or to make an accommodation request please contact Gallery Director, Tara Gladden.
Contact Kohl Gallery
Tara Gladden
Director and Curator for Kohl Gallery
Email: tgladden2@washcoll.edu
Follow Us!
Follow Kohl Gallery on Instagram: @kohlgallery
Follow Kohl Gallery on Facebook: @kohlgallery
SPONSORS
Kohl Gallery is is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org)
ARCHIVE: PAST EXHIBITS AND PROGRAMS:
Kohl Gallery in conjunction with the Art + Art History Department at Washington College is pleased to present, nothing to do but be with ourselves, the 2022 Studio Art Senior Capstone Exhibition, on view from April 22 - May 13. An opening reception featuring short artist talks presented by each artist will be held on Friday, April 22 from 4:30-6:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. The reception and ongoing exhibition are free and open to the public. Join us to celebrate these artists' accomplishments. All are warmly invited to attend.
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Artist Talk by this years' Juror, Hae Won Sohn is supported in part by Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Maryland.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Each year students across the Washington College campus from all majors are invited
to submit their artwork for inclusion in this professional juried exhibition. Additionally,
this year's exhibition is being coordinated by Kohl Gallery Arts Management intern,
student Lillian Schimp. Congratulations to all of those participating in this year's
exhibition!
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
PRY is an environmental art exhibition in 2 locations by Baltimore-based artist, Stephanie Garon. It can be experienced inside Kohl Gallery and outside Semans-Griswold Environmental
Hall on a public walking path. It uses the invasive plant species Phragmites australis as subject and material to explore issues related to humanity's impact on the environment.
PRY is the third and last in a year-long series initiated by Kohl Gallery to present
art by artists working at the intersection of environmental and ecological issues
and is presented collaboratively by Washington College's Center for Environment and
Society, River and Field Campus, and Kohl Gallery. Both installations are free and
open to the public.
ARTIST TALK:
Garon will give a public artist talk on Thursday, February 10 at 6pm in Tawes Theatre in Gibson Center for the Arts.
This program is supported in part with funding from the Maryland State Arts Council
(msac.org) and the Kent Cultural Alliance (kentculture.org).
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
For over 10 years Mapping Meaning has brought together artists, scientists and scholars to explore new modes of acting
in the face of social and ecological emergency. This wildly interdisciplinary and
multi-generational collective supports the creative work and scholarship of those
pushing disciplinary boundaries.
Inspired by a photograph from 1918 depicting an all-female survey crew, the project encompasses experimental workshops, exhibitions and transdisciplinary research. To date there have been six workshops held at field stations in the USAmerican West. These interactive and field-based gatherings flourish at the intersections of art, science, and imagination and have featured time traveling pre-apocalyptic performances, storytelling walks, the study of edges and desert ecotones, the mapping of ant homes, reimagined sculptural leveling rods, emergent and site-responsive voice, song, poetry and breath cameras to name just a few. Over the past 2 years Mapping Meaning has also generated 4 issues of an interdisciplinary journal with our most recent focused on “Life after the Anthropocene.”
This exhibition, "Encounters and Entanglements: The Art of Mapping Meaning," features artwork from those within the collective to highlight ways experimental, process-driven methods as well as interdisciplinary and collaborative practices offer up avenues for agency and transformation: plants become sculpture and image; participatory performance doubles as community action; family history uncovers environmental legacy; birds communicate the future; poetry speaks new forms into being; and collaborative processes make and unmake worlds. Utilizing divergent approaches and a diversity of media, each artist or collaborative project examines the messy and complicated yet lively and beautiful encounters between people and more-than-human worlds. Together they reveal ways that our ecological condition is directly entangled with how we see ourselves as individuals and how as individuals we live in relationship with each other.
This program is supported in part by the Hedgelawn Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org) and Phi Beta Kappa, Washington College Chapter.
OPENING EVENTS: OCTOBER 20, 2021
All events are FREE and OPEN to the public.
MASKS REQUIRED FOR ALL IN-PERSON EVENTS
3pm: PERFORMANCE
Ros Murray: hi mountain, hi water
Location: Live broadcast from Ireland inside Kohl Gallery, ZOOM and streaming on
YouTube.
A starting point for "hi mountain, hi water" is the memory of a child calling and
waving ‘hi plane’ on the runway during the artist’s flight from Ireland to Montana
for Mapping Meaning 2018. What’s big enough to handle, but small enough to care about?
Ros Murray shares the absorption of her studio to connect psychological, geographic,
temporal, advocacy, and art making sites in Ireland (The River Barrow Valley in Carlow,
the Beara Peninsula in Cork), America (Montana, Los Angeles, New York, New Mexico
and the US Border) and England (The John Bowlby Memorial Conference 2018 London, New
Movements in Walking 2019 at Plymouth University), with the Kohl Gallery at Washington
College live through the online platform Zoom.
4:30pm: PANEL
Mapping Meaning: Praxis for Ecological Futures
LIVE, in-person with Mapping Meaning Members:
Krista Caballero, Carmina Sánchez-del-Valle, Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, faciltated by Kohl Gallery Director and Curator, Tara Gladden
Location: LIVE in Tawes Theatre in the Gibson Center for the Arts, 1st Floor
and streaming on YouTube.
6pm: PERFORMANCE
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky: How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins
Location: LIVE in-person in Kohl Gallery and streaming on YouTube
Employing photographs of Incan rocks as raw building materials, Skvirsky’s live participatory
performance doubles as a community action, with the audience assisting in the building
of an ephemeral Incan border wall within the gallery. The participatory performance
links popular narratives concerning the persistence of pre-Columbian identity with
current discourses about borders, migration, and nationhood.
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Jahan Bose's paintings, works on paper, performances, workshops, and installations are symbolic
narratives. She moves strategically across media and disciplines - often incorporating
science and policy into her work to address complex issues that address gender, women's
literacy and sexuality, and climate change. The sari is a recurring symbol in her
work, standing in for herself, the female body, and women's place in the world. Water
is also an enduring theme, speaking to life, climate, sustenance, death, and renewal.
She is a Bangladeshi and American artist, lawyer, mother, and activist on women's
issues and the environment.
Jahan Bose's Kohl Gallery exhibit, "RENEW," will include a selection of saris, paintings, prints, sculptures, artist books, and performance videos that represent her wide-ranging socially engaged practice and recent work exploring issues surrounding climate change within the context of COVID quarantine with communities in Bangladesh and Washington DC. The exhibit will be accompanied by an artist talk and a climate pledge workshop in which our community's pledges will create a new climate sari.
Learn more about Jahan Bose's work and community engaged process here:
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