Fenwick Gallery at George Mason University is pleased to host “Conjuring Presence,” an exhibition of visual art and poetry featuring Mason students, faculty, and alumni. The exhibition will run in Fenwick Gallery and online from October 20 through December 11, with a literary reading and an artists’ panel to be announced at a later date.

Curated by Mason faculty member and artist Jessica Kallista, “Conjuring Presence” asks both artists and audience to think critically and examine many manifestations of presence: What does it mean to join our creativity as we co-sense and conspire together for the sake of enlivening our imaginations and our communities? What does it mean to become mindful of the need to work against erasure when we understand who is not present and why? Who decides whether some people are or are not allowed to be present to occupy spaces in the arts and academia? How do we acknowledge the past, work for a just future, and still ground ourselves in the present? How might we work to conjure presence?
The artists and poets featured in “Conjuring Presence” were paired and asked to consider these questions throughout the collaborative process. In doing the work of considering, questioning, and challenging the status quo with radical honesty and presence of mind, together they embrace the power to envision, freedom dream, and co-create otherwise worlds into existence.
This exhibition is co-curated by Heather Green (Asst. Professor, School of Art) and Stephanie Grimm (Art and Art History Librarian and Fenwick Gallery Manager), with exhibit support from Chen Bi (Fenwick Gallery Graduate Assistant). Exhibition support is generously provided by the University Libraries, School of Art, and Creative Writing Program at Mason.
“Conjuring Presence” will be on display in Fenwick Gallery and online. Fenwick Gallery is located in Fenwick Library on Mason’s Fairfax campus. The gallery is open during Library business hours; see the Library’s website at http://library.gmu.edu for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
For more information on this exhibition at Fenwick Gallery, contact Stephanie Grimm, Art and Art History Librarian, at sgrimm4@gmu.edu.