GAMBIER, OHIO, December 22, 2016 – Two Gund Gallery winter exhibitions – Aftermath: The Fallout of War and Black Women/Black Lives – feature renowned international artists and world-class collection works focused on human rights and political crises.

Aftermath: The Fallout of War addresses the physical and emotional conditions of civilian populations caught in war’s wake, and the impact of war on cities, homes, and the environment. It includes images from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Uprisings, Syria’s Civil War, returning American soldiers, and the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. Aftermath expands new territories largely unexamined in traditional war coverage through more than 90 photographs and videos by twelve artists, many from the Middle East, who combine a rigorous journalism with fine art sensibilities.

Artists include: Lynsey Addario, Jananne Al-Ani, Stephen Dupont, Jennifer Karady, Gloriann Liu, Ben Lowry, Rania Matar, Eman Mohammed, Simon Norfolk, Fara Nosh, Suzanne Opton, Michal Rovnar.

On view in the Gund Gallery’s Buchwald-Wright Gallery from January 20 through April 20, 2017.

The exhibition is organized by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida and made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Harn 25th Anniversary Fund, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Joanne L. and Edward R. Block Charitable Trust, with additional support from the Harn Curator of Photography Endowment.

Aftermath is on view August 16 through December 31, 2016 at the Harn Museum and, after the Gund Gallery, will travel to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, affiliated with Florida State University, from September 2017 through January 2018.

“Aftermath shows life and loss of many kinds, its lingering physical and emotional effects, and hope-filled survival tactics. In these, we are all susceptible and connected,” says Carol McCusker, the exhibition’s curator. “Each photographer claims an oblique, moral imperative that cautions viewers against binary thinking (us/them; good/bad), urging instead a wider consciousness and compassion toward the repercussions of war for all involved.”

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition and includes essays by Harn Museum curator Carol McCusker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dexter Filkins, Phil Klay, Aida Hozic, Terje Østebø, and Phillip Prodger, as well as poems by Lisa Suhair Majaj and Kirun Kapur. An opening reception will take place on January 20, 5:00- 8:00 PM after a 4:00 PM talk by the curator.

Also opening in January, Black Women/Black Lives explores the symbolic and narrative portrayal of Black women in art and material culture inspired by Civil Rights and black liberation movements of the 1960s through our own 21st century moment. Anchored by recent gifts from Gund Gallery Board Member David Horvitz ‘74 and his wife Francie Bishop Good to the Gund Gallery Collection, this Gund Associate (intern)-curated exhibition offers a gendered lens through which to view 20th century civil rights activism so that we may better understand the roots and the aspirations of the political consciousness generated by black liberation art, ephemera and digital culture today.

Artists include: Bob Adelman, Romare Bearden, Claire Beckett ‘00, Bruce Davidson, Wanda Ewing, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, Lorna Simpson, Renée Stout, and material culture from Interference Archive (Brooklyn).

“Aftermath and Black Women/Black Lives are presented at a vital moment. After a contentious election season we must take seriously the call to participate in responsible dialogue,” notes Natalie Marsh, Gund Gallery Director and Chief Curator. “On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a Monday (January 16), we open Black Women/Black Lives to the public. On that Friday (January 20), following the inauguration of a new American president, we invite our community to gather and consider both the history of the black experience in America and images that confront us with years of conflict in the Middle East.”

Two exhibitions opening in April expand on themes of human and civil rights and religious tradition by turning attention to Mexican history and individual identity and faith.

Zapatista: Imagery of the Peasant Revolutionary examines the use of Mexican folknationalist iconography in ephemera, films, and media interventions by the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN, or Zapatistas), a revolutionary leftist political group in the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas. This Gund Associate (intern)- curated exhibition features Zapatista imagery alongside selections of prints by masters of the Mexican public art projects of the early 20th century to explore the ideological links and blurred relationships between these politicized images, and to consider why the uniquely Mexican visual language of the Zapatistas resonates so strongly with other alternative interpretations of globalization and human rights movements. This exhibition will be on view April 24 through July 9 in the Buchwald-Wright Gallery at the Gund Gallery.

Marcella Hackbardt: True Confessionals includes work from a series of photographs documenting confessional booths in cathedrals and churches throughout Italian cities. The series began during the 2014 Kenyon in Rome program and continued through the Studio Art professor's subsequent year-long sabbatical. An interior inside an interior, the inherent intimacy of the confessionals is artisan-crafted in unendingly unique styles. Marcella Hackbardt’s photography is informed by objects and gestures infused with symbolism. The confessional is a site laden with meaning and intentionality, such as the hope or promise of forgiveness, and the quest for empathy and understanding. This exhibition runs from April 24 to May 28, 2017.

Both Zapatista and True Confessionals open with a reception on April 24, 5:00-8:00 PM, at which Kenyon also celebrates the opening of an annual student exhibition of the Studio Art department’s graduating seniors.