Celebrate the beauty of plants and photography! Join us to learn about cyanotypes, a special photographic process that uses sunlight, and make your own prints using botanical pictures, seeds, or plant matter. 

Registration is free but required to hold your place. No experience is required, and all materials will be provided. Participants are welcome to bring their own flowers or other materials to make the prints.

Please note this is scheduled as an outdoor workshop! We will meet in the Fenwick Library lobby before moving outside. In the event of rain or inclement weather, we will move indoors to Fenwick 2001.

This workshop is offered in conjunction with the opening of Fenwick Library’s Seed Library and the exhibition Cross-Pollination on view in Fenwick Gallery through April 25.

Location: Fenwick Library Atrium (rain location: Fenwick 2001)
Instructor: Liz Louise Johnson, MFA candidate & Fenwick Gallery GRA

Interested in growing your own food? Want to get into gardening? Join us for the opening day of the Seed Library at Fenwick Library!

The Seed Library is a Patriot Green Fund project meant to encourage gardening and growing your own food at home. Patrons take seeds from the library, grow them, then harvest, dry, and return the seeds.

Seed libraries have quickly grown in popularity around the country, being found in public libraries, community centers, community gardens, makerspaces, and university libraries. The concept of the seed library model is that the library is stocked with seeds, which patrons take, grow, and then return seeds to the library. The emphasis, however, is on the taking and growing of seeds and less on the drying and returning, given the experience of other seed libraries. They promote growing your own food, wellbeing, community, and learning in a hands-on way.

Join us at Fenwick Gallery for the opening of the Mason student-curated exhibition, Loving Krishna: Four Centuries of Indian Painting!

Students from the Art History 495/595 Curating an Exhibit course lead by Dr. Robert DeCaroli collaborated with the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art and Fenwick Library to create Loving Krishna: Four Centuries of Indian Painting. This exhibit presents photographic reproductions of Indian paintings from the sixteenth to nineteenth century that portray forms of divine love between the Hindu deity and his devotees.

How can a mask tell your story? How can you interject new meaning into discarded, recycled materials?

In this poetry and art workshop, artist Steven Luu will lead participants through the creation of collage self-portrait masks using recycled scrap paper, turning waste into treasure. 

Masks can represent concealment and revelation, enabling individuals to take on different roles and stories. They are a means to express, to act, and to be. Materials also carry significant meaning: discarded scraps of paper carry the stories and memories from different people and places. Through collage, we can remix these materials into new forms and memories, a meditative process that allows us to contemplate our own identities and experiences.  

Registration is free but encouraged to save your place. All materials are provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own discarded letters, photos, or other materials to incorporate into the collage.

Join artist Jorge Bañales for re(IMAGINE), a hands-on workshop inspired by the Fenwick Gallery’s current show, re[FORM]er, co-curated by Bañales and artist Steven Luu. 

This exhibit explores the power of materials to transport our memories. Bañales will guide participants through creating unique photo sculptures using disregarded 35mm negatives and photographic prints.

Photo sculptures transform familiar images into dynamic, dimensional art pieces, allowing participants to reimagine memories and meaning. Participants are encouraged to bring their own photographs to personalize the experience, though all materials will be provided.

The workshop will last approximately one hour, beginning with a tour of the gallery and an introduction by Jorge, followed by 45 minutes dedicated to crafting a photo sculpture.

Registration is free but encouraged to save your place.

Join Fenwick Gallery for a welcome back reception and celebration of RE(FORM)ER, a joint exhibition from artists Steven Luu and Jorge Bañales!  

From 5-6pm, stop by Fenwick Gallery (in Fenwick Library) to meet the artists, enjoy refreshments, and learn more the exhibit and upcoming events in the gallery.

From 6-7PM, the exhibit curators will lead a conversation and discussion of the exhibit in the Fenwick Library Main Reading Room (2001, 2nd floor).

This event is supported by the University Libraries, Mason Exhibitions, and Welcome2Mason.

Registration is free but strongly recommended.

Join us to celebrate the launch of Late Comeback Press's newest publication, Around & Around, and a closing reception for the exhibition blue, as a feeling. 

Around & Around is a comic about the anxiety around aging and feeling a stagnation in life. Designed as a closed accordion booklet that has no obvious beginning or end, it reads like an endless loop of thoughts.

The book was produced at George Mason University and printed in a combination of risograph, silkscreen, and letterpress in an edition of 100 copies, which will be available for sale at the reception. 

This event is free and open to the public—please register at the link below!

ABOUT THE PROJECT 

In Spring 2024, Late Comeback Press co-founders Rachna Soun and Caroline Kim served as artists-in-residence for AVT 446 // Dynamic Publishing, a course in Mason’s School of Art that introduces students to the art of publishing in collaboration with a visiting artist. During the semester, the students produced their own short comic stories and received regular feedback from Caroline and Rachna. The students also witnessed the artists produce Around & Around, from initial, loose sketches, to finished book.  

In parallel with the class and publication, Fenwick Gallery organized the exhibition blue, as a feeling, which presents selections from Late Comeback’s catalog with works from Soun and Kim, along with artists Janet Shin, Neil Neill, and Cam Del Rosario.

Join us for a translation workshop in celebration of the exhibition Metamorphosis, led by poet and translator Heather Green (Asst. Prof., School of Art).

Participants will consider a poem, originally written by Sappho in ancient Greece, then translated into Latin, more than a thousand years later, by Catullus. After reading these poems and discussing their history of metamorphosis across languages and time, participants will create their own translations, whether speculative, visual, or through a contemporary literary lens.

LOCATION: Fenwick Library Main Reading Room (2001)

Registration is free but required. All supplies will be provided!

Join us for a conversation with Jennifer Lillis, one of the artists featured in the Fenwick Gallery exhibition Metamorphosis!

• 11:00AM-1:00PM: Coffee and casual conversation in Fenwick Gallery

• 1:30PM-3:30PM: Paper Casting Workshop at Mason School of Art, Room 1009 (Printmaking & Book Arts Studio)

All snacks and materials are provided. Participants are also welcome to bring their own 3D object to cast (natural materials like wood and stone are recommended).

Registration is free but required. Sign up below!

Join us for a celebration of the exhibit "Flow of Tradition: Chinese Folk Art in the Lunar New Year" in Fenwick Gallery!

Hosted by Drs. Lijun Zhang (Asst. Professor, Department of English) and Hongmei Sun (Assoc. Professor, Modern and Classical Languages), this event will feature a short presentation from the exhibit's curators, Drs. Lili Zhu and Tao Pang, followed by a light reception, tea ceremony, and crafts and activities.

This event is co-sponsored with Fenwick Gallery and Mason Libraries, the Department of English, the Folklore Program, Folklore Roundtable, and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages.

Full schedule and activities TBA.

Registration free but recommended.

What’s life like after art school? Join us for a conversation and live comics reading with three Mason alumni: Lee Strawberry (BFA '19), Ash Smith (BA '22), and Sylvia Rossi (BFA '23)! Attendees will learn a little more about being working cartoonists, and how these creators keep their practice going.

Following the discussion, Sylvia Rossi will lead a comics workshop and Risograph printing demonstration from 12-1:30PM.

Registration recommended, no experience needed. Snacks and supplies will be provided.

This event is sponsored by Mason Libraries, Mason Exhibitions, and University Life.

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Lee Strawberry (BFA New Media, 2019) is a Virginia-based artist who uses artwork as a diary to record memories and emotions. View more of Lee's work at leestrawberry.com or @commandurr14 on Instagram.

Ash Smith (BA Drawing, 2022) is an illustrator and comics artist based in Virginia, mixing magic with the mundane. See more of Ash's work at amasmith26.wixsite.com/octopars or on Instagram @octopars.

Sylvia Rossi (BFA Printmaking, 2023) is a DC-based cartoonist/comic artist and printmaker. Find Sylvia's work on Instagram @veronikaspoons.

Fenwick Gallery is excited to host PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE, an exhibit featuring work from Chicago-based small press comics publisher Perfectly Acceptable Press. This exhibition explores the contemporary landscape of Risograph printing, presented through a broad overview of Perfectly Acceptable’s full archives and an in-depth exploration of one book: the award-winning comic Grip by Lale Westvind. 

Join us at 1:00PM for an opening reception in Fenwick Gallery, followed at 1:30PM by an artist talk with Matt Davis, founder and operator of Perfectly Acceptable Press. A short Risograph workshop will follow in the School of Art Printmaking and Book Arts Studio. Registration is free but strongly recommended.

Join us for a closing celebration of Chen Bi’s mural project at Fenwick Gallery!

“We Crawl with Four Paws: The Pretenders in a Catopia” has been a summer-long project from artist Chen Bi, an MFA candidate in Mason’s School of Art and graduate assistant for Fenwick Gallery.

Bi will give a short artist’s talk about her process and the story behind the mural project and answer audience questions. Light refreshments will be served.

Join us for an evening of poetry and art!

In conjunction with the exhibition Cities and Memory, Fenwick Gallery and Mason Exhibitions will host a poetry reading and discussion of ekphrasis, considering the relationships between the verbal and visual arts. Cities and Memory features the visionary architectural drawings of James Rossant, paired with poetry from his daughter, Juliette Rossant.

Ekphrasis: A Celebration of Poetry and Art will feature short readings and conversations with Mason faculty and Juliette Rossant, followed by a reception in Fenwick Gallery.

This event will be held in person at Fenwick Library on GMU’s Fairfax campus. We will begin at 7:00PM in Fenwick Gallery with a welcome and review of the exhibition, followed by the readings and a reception in the Fenwick Main Reading Room from 7:30-8:30PM.

Registration is encouraged for this event: sign up here!

Visiting artist Abdulrahman (Abi) Naanseh will be joined by Dr. Yasemin Ipek from Global Affairs, Dr. Bassam Haddad from Middle East and Islamic Studies, and Dr. Lisa Marie Gilman from English and Folklore for a discussion about Syria’s current and historical conflicts, paths forward, and how Abi’s artworks may illustrate these discussions.

Abi Naanseh is Mason Exhibitions and the School of Art’s Artist Protection Fund Fellow-in-Residence. The Artist Protection Fund sponsors artists in threatened countries and places them with host institutions in safer countries. He will share what led him to flee Syria, and the stories and experiences that inspire his Arabic calligraphy artworks.

Fenwick Library Main Reading Room on Wednesday, November 16, 6-8pm

RSVP: go.gmu.edu/naansehfacultypanel

Event Schedule:

5:30pm-6:10pm - View the exhibition downstairs
6:15pm-7:15pm - Presentations start in Main Reading Room upstairs
7:15pm-8:00pm - Open discussion and Q&A

Join us in Fenwick Gallery for a welcome reception and meet & greet with artist Abdulrahman Naanseh! Light refreshments will be provided.

Fenwick Gallery is located in the lobby of Fenwick Library, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA. The closest parking garages on campus are the Rappahannock or Shenandoah visitor parking decks.