McDonough Museum of Art opens 2022 with four new exhibits

January 14, 2022

Four new exhibitions that explore the COVID-19 pandemic, childhood, identity, and intimacy will open the McDonough Museum of Art’s 2022 spring season beginning Friday, January 21, at the museum. The exhibits will be open to the public through March 5 and will feature the works of Matthew Kolodziej, Piotr Szyhalski, Donald Black Jr., and Carnegie Mellon University’s M.F.A. class of 2023.

Kolodziej’s paintings explore themes of time, dislocation, and the forming of perceptions using references to architecture and archaeology. Currently a professor at the University of Akron, Kolodziej has been exhibiting his work since the mid-1980s in galleries and museums around the country and abroad, including recent solo exhibitions at the Carl Solway Gallery and The Painting Center in New York. His work has also been represented in group exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rockford Art Museum, the Akron Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland. Kolodziej will give an artist talk on his exhibit “Open Storage” January 27 at 5:10 PM in the McDonough Museum of Art lecture hall (room 3000).

Szyhalski is a professor of media arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He was the recipient of the 2009–2010 and 2017–2018 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Visual Artists. His work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the International Center of Photography, the New York Expo Film Festival, Siggraph, ISEA Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. He created his exhibit “COVID-19: Labor Camp Report” at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The artwork started as a single drawing before being turned into Szyhalski’s daily practice of reconciling and recording the thoughts, feelings, and changes occurring in the world around him.

Black Jr.’s exhibit "A Day No One Will Remember" is a series of photographs created in Black’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio that show ordinary days that are filled with childhood play, imagination, creative expression, and innocence. The images represent the balance against the mental suffering that takes place when personal trauma overwhelms a person. Black will give an artist talk on his exhibit February 23 at 5:10 PM in the McDonough Museum of Art lecture hall (room 3000).

Carnegie Mellon University’s M.F.A. class of 2023 exhibition is titled "There are seams in purgatory.” The group, which is comprised of Sarah Bowling, Laura Hudspith, Rosabel Rosalind, Rebecca Shapass, and Caroline Yoo, engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue that spans sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, and performance.

An opening reception for all of the exhibits will be held January 21 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM at the museum, which is open 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday. Admission to the reception and the exhibits is free.