Exhibitions Archive 2020 – Present

Arcadia Exhibitions is pleased to present “Jane Geayer: Selections from the Permanent Collection” in the Rosedale Gallery from June 16 – October 5, 2025. The works on display represent the artistic legacy of Jane Geayer (1935–2000), a 1956 graduate of Beaver College whose career as a studio artist, teacher, and designer spanned nearly four decades. 

These paintings were selected from the array of pieces provided to the University by Geayer’s estate after her passing. This collection, which includes examples of landscapes and abstract compositions, surveying Geayer’s entire career, reveals an artist of great intellectual dexterity, capacity, and curiosity.

Though widely recognized for his compelling commercial illustrations in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, ProPublica, and Wired, “No Particular Order” focuses on Shrestha’s personal creative output.

In Shrestha’s illustrations the viewer is confronted by volatile and divisive subjects, such as urban warfare, terrorism, displacement, racism, and xenophobia. Through his use of simple shapes, clean lines, a sparse, sometimes monochromatic palette, and subtle juxtapositions, Shrestha depicts these topics with a kind of subdued, almost mundane stillness. In this way he provides viewers with an opportunity to consider something dark and horrific in a manner that provides a psychological space for contemplation and dialogue.

Kip’s practice has been informed by skills gained working as a cabinet maker, machinist, and clockmaker, including his 18 years as a restoration woodworker and technician for the five-story Wanamaker Grand Court Organ as well as his work maintaining the Philadelphia City Hall Tower clock. These vocations have given Kip intimate access to idiosyncratic, non-public spaces that have helped cultivate the tone and tenor of his work.

Construction on Kip’s project, which was conceived as both a residency and installation, began the first week of June and will proceed on site through the end of August.

The project is curated by Richard Torchia and supported by a grant from Edna W. Andrade Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation.

An end of year exhibition highlighting the work of Arcadia’s graduating art seniors is a tradition that dates back to the Department’s move to the Glenside campus from Jenkintown in 1935. Over time the opening of the exhibition has evolved into a celebration for the entire campus community, marking the end of Arcadia’s Thesis Week, which includes presentations and displays from every major..

Arcadia Exhibitions is pleased to present “Kitty Rauth: The Mirror Room,” from March 18 through October 11, 2024 in the Harrison Gallery, University Commons.

In their recent work, the Chicago-based artist uses cast sugar, often formed to replicate decorative glassware, as a poetic material to engage in conversations around classed systems of etiquette, racialized labor, and the body politics that surround the marketing and production of the product.

LECTURE RECORDING

Curated by Grace Harmer, “A Strong In-Your-Face Word” joins a host of exhibitions and events in Philadelphia organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1974 citywide exhibitions and programming entitled “FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts,” led then and now by Philadelphia artist Diane Burko and artist, curator, writer, and activist Judith K. Brodsky.

The title “A Strong In-Your-Face Word,” inspired by a 2008 essay by Martha Rampton, hints at the deeper sociopolitical and gender equity goals that the term feminism has come to represent in the second decade of the 21^st century. The artworks in this exhibition critically engage the nuances of second-wave feminism while concurrently exploring the ideological frameworks redefining the movement in the present. Recognizing the historical limitations of the term feminism in capturing diverse identities and experiences across gender, race, and cultural backgrounds, these works aim to broaden the scope of the movement embracing the need to redefine feminism since the original “FOCUS” exhibition.

Installation view, “A Strong In-Your-Face Word: Works from the Brodsky Center at PAFA”, Spruance Gallery, photo: Sam Fritch

Featured artists include Emma Amos, Eleanor Antin, Nancy Azara, Zoë Charlton, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Liz Collins, Betsy Damon, Mary Beth Edelson, Lauren Ewing, Chitra Ganesh, Sharon Hayes, Harmony Hammond, Joyce Kozloff, Yolanda López, Diane Neumaier, Farah Ossouli, Nell Painter, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Joan Semmel, Sylvia Sleigh, Joan Snyder, Nancy Spero, May Stevens, Athena Tacha, June Wayne, and Martha Wilson.

Chitra Ganesh (American, b. 1975), “Delicate Line (Corpse She Was Holding),” 2009–2010 (detail). Monotype with two-color silkscreen, two-color linoblock dusted with blue glitter, one-color linoblock dusted with gold glitter, and one-color glued plastic jewel on Arches 88 paper. 22 x 28 inches. Edition of 20. Published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia. Copyright the artist and the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia. Photography courtesy of the artist and the Brodsky Center at PAFA. Photo by Peter Jacob.

Judy Brodsky taught at Arcadia University from 1972 to 1978. On the occasion of “FOCUS,” Brodsky and the then Art Department Chair Jack Davis brought to Philadelphia the exhibition “Lee Krasner: Selections from 1946–1972,” and invited Krasner (1908–1984) to lecture on campus. In 1986, Brodsky became the founding director of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper at Rutgers University, which was later renamed Brodsky Center in her honor. The Brodsky Center joined PAFA in 2018. Dedicated to printmaking and papermaking residencies for women and artists of color, it has pioneered institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion, and continues to foster innovative ideas and narratives.

Opening event for A strong in-your-face Word

Gallery Talk

Arcadia Exhibitions is pleased to present “Student Biennial 2024”, on display January 16 – February 18, 2024 in the Harrison Gallery. This exhibition is the tenth in a series at Arcadia featuring works by current students juried by an esteemed visiting arts professional. Any Arcadia student registered for classes during the Fall 2023 semester was eligible to submit up to three works for consideration.

This year’s juror is Samantha Mitchell, the lead curator/production manager at Center 4 Creative Works, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. In advance of the exhibition, Mitchell will be giving a lecture on her artistic practice in the Great Room, University Commons on November 6, 2023 at 4:30 PM, followed by a reception in the Harrison Gallery. Students interested in submitting works to the Biennial are urged to attend.

Mitchell selected 36 entries by 30 artists from a pool of 100 submissions by Arcadia first-years, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The works selected include digital and film photographs, paintings, prints undertaken in a variety of techniques, several examples of functional ceramics, poster designs, collage, an artist book, as well as drawings completed in graphite, and colored pencil.

About the Juror

Samantha Mitchell is an artist, writer, and arts educator based in Philadelphia. She was born in New York City and graduated from Oberlin College in 2008. She lived and worked in Illinois, Utah, California, and Oregon before enrolling in the MFA program of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, graduating in 2012.

Aside from her work in the studio, Mitchell is co-founder and director of THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, a publishing and curatorial project that foregrounds work by neurodivergent artists. She is the Lead Curator/Production Manager at the Center for Creative Works, a studio for adults with developmental disabilities. She worked as a managing editor for Title Magazine, a publication devoted to writing on the arts in Philadelphia, for five years, and contributes writings to Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Sculpture Magazine, and Brut Force. Mitchell is a member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, a national collective of artist-run galleries.

Her work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Snyderman-Works, Avery Gallery, AUTOMAT, Grizzly Grizzly, Schau Fenster (Berlin) and the International Print Center (NYC), and is part of the permanent collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Woodmere Museum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.