Grinnell College's Faulconer Gallery will open two exhibitions on Nov. 14 with ties to the college's permanent art collection: "Body/Image," curated by Dan Strong, and "Ukucwebezela: To Shine," curated by Grinnell College alumna Elizabeth Perrill.

"Body/Image" is an exhibition of works by 16 artists represented in the college's collection whose subject matter is the human body. According to Strong, associate director of the gallery, the contemporary images on view "demonstrate the human body as imperfect, individual, self-destructive, and self-creative." Strong selected the works from recent acquisitions, including gifts from Grinnell College alumni and purchases through the Marie Louise and Samuel R. Rosenthal endowed fund to support the college's art collection.

"Ukucwebezela: To Shine" is a collection of contemporary Zulu ceramics, curated by Perrill who was inspired to study African art in the college's collection while a Grinnell student. She later developed her own collection as part of her art history research in South Africa. "To Shine" refers to the careful burnishing preferred by Zulu ceramists. All of the works in the exhibition were crafted within the past 20 years, and three are from the college's collection.

Egazini Outreach Project
Burling Print & Drawing Study Room
November 4 – December 19, 2008
Linocuts by artists in the South African Egazini Outreach Project will be on display at Burling Print & Drawing Study Room through mid-December.

The Egazini Outreach Project in Grahamstown, South Africa, operates in a facility once occupied by apartheid riot police that has been transformed into studio space for local artists and crafters.

The 28 linocuts by Egazini artists on display tell stories of everyday life: struggles for equality and justice, work, and leisure activities in the new South Africa.

The prints are exhibited at Grinnell College, Nov. 4 – Dec. 19, courtesy of Sragow Gallery in New York City.

Linocut: "Take Care of One's Belongings" by Linga Diko

Letters to the North Pole
November 24- December 19, 2008
Print & Drawing Study Room
Burling Library

Chris Farstad '09 Gallery Talk/Reception: December 5, 4:15 pm

"Letters to the North Pole: Photographs from the Grinnell College Art Collection" focuses on the photographic portrait as the other in society and is designed to engage the viewer in the creative process through letter-writing and free-association. Curated by Chris Farstad '09.

Print and Drawing Study Room hours are Sunday - Friday: 1- 5PM or by appointment. Closed Saturdays and during college breaks.

Kenji Kanesaka. Brigitte Bardot - Press Conference for "Que Viva Maria!" potograph, c1964. Grinnell College Collection of Art.

Tracy Hicks: still/Life
Noyce Science Center
second floor, northwest corner

View the installation

Dallas artist Tracy Hicks created still/LIFE in response to the severe endangerment of approximately one third of the earth's 6000 known amphibian species within the last ten years due to adverse ecological change. The piece is intended to provide a space for intellectual as well as articstic reflection on the fate of species. and raises the questions: what does it mean to preserve? Why do we preserve some things and not others?

The Faulconer Gallery invited Tracy Hicks to Grinnell to create still/LIFE in conjunction with the 2008 Tall Grass Bioneers Conference (October 31 - November 2, 2008). His visit was sponsored by the Faulconer Gallery, Biology Department, and Chemistry Department.

No live animal specimens were used in the making of the installation, with the exception of one preserved frog and a few insects, all of which died of natural causes.

Tracy Hicks, still/LIFE, 2008. 19th/20th century preservation jars, water, alcohol, mineral oil, phosphorescent dyes, fluorescent dyes, colored pigments, rubber, glass, wood.

Civil Rights Marches: Photographs from 1965-1967 by John F. Phillips '67
John Chrystal Center Gallery
September 19 - December 19, 2008
With other Grinnell College students, John F. Phillips '67 participated in and photographed civil rights marches in Selma, Montgomery, New Haven, Washington, DC, and Toronto. His photographs reveal this remarkable era in history with dignity and, often, tenderness. All works are a recent gift to the Grinnell College Art Collection.


View more images.
John Phillips, Holding Hands Playground racial integration protest march, SDS project, New Haven, Connecticut, 1965. Grinnell College Art Collection.

Previous Exhibitions
Purchase an exhibition catalog

1999-2000: Re-Structure, American Spectrum, Ghost Dance
2000-2001: Corot to Picasso, Power of the Word, Patient Process, Will Pergl, and more
2001-2002: Energy Inside, Sandy Skoglund, Estonian Art, Prairie Suite, Iraqi Art, and more
2002-2003: Positional Play, Italian Drawings and Prints, Brazilian Art, Tom Huck, and more
2003-2004: Roots of Renewal, John Wilson, Keith Achepohl, Master Quilts, and more
2004-2005: Mark Lombardi, Goya, Kentridge, Swedish Photography, and more
2005-2006: Danish Photography, An Impressionist Eye, Japanese bamboo, and more
2006-2007: Breuer photography, Indigo Quilts, works from the Grinnell College Collection, and more
2007-2008: Installations: Seven International Artistst with Roots in Morrocco; Little Allende, America; Subject Space: Interiors; The Stamp of Self Help Graphics; Where Are You From? Contemporary Art From Portugal/De Onde Vens? Arte Contemporânea de Portugal and more
2008-2009:The Return of the Yellow Peril: A Survey of the Work of Roger Shimomura, 1969-2004; A Constructed Balance: Photographs by Emily Grimes


To receive occasional email announcements send a message to


gallery-join@lyris.grinnell.edu