91����

91���� 2-D Faculty Exhibition

• August 28-September 19, 2025
• Opening Reception – Thursday, August 28th, 4-7pm

Bannister Gallery opens the 2025-26 exhibition schedule with our Annual Faculty Exhibition, which offers an opportunity for the community to experience first-hand the artistic talent that is in residence at 91����. These faculty artists are integral to the current aesthetic and conceptual dialogues present in our studio art department. Their practices include research-based and interdisciplinary methods that are at the core of contemporary art. RIC’s faculty artists exhibit widely and receive prestigious awards, grants, fellowships, and residencies. As a result, they encourage students by their example to think across boundaries. Collectively, these distinguished, award-winning artists bring a unique vision to the region’s cultural tapestry. Participating in the exhibition are the following full-time and adjunct faculty artists:

• Philippe Dwyer
• Sarah Hardesty
• Liliya Krys
• Yingxue (Daisy) Li
• Paul Michael
• Amy Montali
• Michael Peery
• John Rapczak
• Rebecca Shipe
• Jason Travers
• Richard Whitten

In Bannister's Footsteps: A Contemporary Journey

• October 2-24, 2025
• Opening Reception – Thursday, October 2, 4-7pm
• Artist Panel – Thursday, October 23, 5-6pm

The Bannister Community Art Project (BCAP) was launched in 2021 to support a permanent installation of a life-sized sculpture of Edward Mitchell Bannister that memorializes the artist. The success of BCAP can be seen in several community projects in his honor that continue to engage the public in dialogue that encourages community partnerships and cross cultural relationships.

This exhibition continues with that intent, selecting five contemporary artists to carry on the spirit of Bannister through new interpretations of his life and artistic themes. Shawndavid Berry, Doug Cowan, Darrel Perkins, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, and Michael Talbot will each be contributing artworks to the exhibition, including at least one new piece directly inspired by Bannister’s legacy.

The Galileo Project: Works by Doug Bosch and Richard Whitten, Book Design by Nancy Bockbrader, Essays by Victoria Gao and Natasha Seaman

• November 6-December 5, 2025
• "Art of the Instrument Maker," Lecture by Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D., the David P. Wheatland Curator Emerita of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University – Thursday, November 13, 4 PM, ALEX AND ANI Hall 138, followed by:
• Reception - Thursday, November 13, 5-7 PM, in the gallery

In The Galileo Project, Nancy Bockbrader, Doug Bosch, and Richard Whitten have created a dialogue across media, time, and imagination—one that links contemporary art to centuries-old scientific inquiry. Drawing from the history and the visual language of the scientific instruments housed in the Museo Galileo, each artist interprets and reimagines these objects through the lens of their own practice. Bosch’s sculptures, tactile and purposefully imperfect, suggest objects suspended between function and fiction. Whitten’s intricate paintings create a catalogue of invented devices, each that inhabits a specific if unidentifiable place. Bockbrader’s hand-bound catalogue, with essays by curator Dr. Victoria Gao and Dr. Natasha Seaman, provides a satisfyingly unique companion for the exhibition. Together, their works blur the boundaries between art, science, and history.

Ed Andrews: Stratified Structures

• January 20-February 6, 2026
• Opening Reception - Thursday, January 22, 4-6 PM
• Artist Talk - Wednesday, January 28, 12:30-2:00 PM, ALEX AND ANI Hall 138

Curated by 91���� Professor William Martin, the work in this exhibition, “Stratified Structures,” is a natural extension of the work Ed Andrews has been creating over the past eight years.  In this new series of metal wall sculptures, Andrews continues to hone his process and to make new sculptures using a wide variety of colors and compositions. This exhibition takes place in conjunction with the unveiling of Ed Andrews' , Full Circle, commissioned by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts through the Allocation for Art for Public Facilities Act, that was newly installed on Craig-Lee Hall at 91���� in November 2025.

Elena Peteva: Material and Immaterial

• February 19-March 20, 2026
• CLOSING Reception - Thursday, March 19, 4-7 PM
• Artist Talk - Thursday, March 19, 5 PM, in the gallery

Elena Peteva’s drawings and installations embody individual, social, and global states. Subject and material come together as metaphors in distilled images and forms – a box with black smoke ominously rising, hands reaching into a dark tangle of lines, a large mound of charcoal. Her work creates a charged stillness that holds both the real and the ethereal, presence and absence. The viewer is invited into a contemplative space that unfolds visually, psychologically, and emotionally. This exhibition was curated by Richard Whitten, Professor of Art at 91����.