Summer Break Update
The Gordon Galleries will be closed to the public May 12, 2025 to August 26, 2025 for the Summer Break. We look forward to seeing you for the Fall 2025 exhibition season.
Coming Fall 2025
River of Earth: Meaning and Material in Self-Taught Art From Appalachia
On View: Sept. 5 - Dec. 13, 2025
The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries present works from the Self-Taught Art Collection that explore the materiality of self-taught art from the Appalachian region and the landscapes, spiritual currents, and folkloric traditions from which they emerge.
Parallel to the stream of millions of tons of coal that have flowed from the coalfields of central Appalachia to the Coal Piers of Lambert鈥檚 Point just south of the Gordon Art Galleries, this exhibition follows a metaphorical river of earth comprised of stone, clay, wood, fiber, plants, and animals that make up the landscape of the Appalachian Mountains.
Featuring works by Minnie Adkins, Bessie Harvey, S.L. Jones, Georgia Blizzard, Leroy Almon Jr., and over thirty other artists, the exhibition tells diverse and intersecting stories of the relationship between meaning-making and materials drawn from the mountain landscape.
The exhibition is free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m.
For updates, follow @oduarts and @gordonartgalleries on Facebook and Instagram, and learn more about the Gordon Art Galleries at听odu.edu/arts.
Gordon the Robot
Affectionately nicknamed "Gordon" after the art galleries' namesakes鈥擝aron and Ellin Gordon鈥攖his innovative telepresence robot allows remote visits from around the world.
Gordon can move around the space, raise and lower height, and zoom in on art. The remote driver can interact live with staff in the galleries and also invite friends, colleagues, and students to join their visit.
Follow @oduarts on听,听, and听听for updates.
Proceeds support arts programming and educational opportunities at 国产伦理.
Sept. 27, 2024 - May 10, 2025
MAMA-Girl!
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The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at 国产伦理 presents an art exhibition honoring the life and work of Eastern Shore artist and pastor Mary Elizabeth "MAMA-Girl" Onley (1953 - 2018). She grew up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the town of Painter, harvesting crops with her grandparents and cousins, and she enjoyed being outdoors, sharing family time, earning money, and meeting new people in Accomack County, Northampton County, and Maryland.
Her appreciation of agriculture and humanity and everyday scenes on the Shore, her confrontation of stereotypes, and her desire for people to love and strengthen one another are represented here by some 150 artworks and objects from MAMA-Girl鈥檚 studio, generously shared with the public by more than a dozen lenders including the Barrier Islands Center and residents of the Eastern Shore, along with others across Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
鈥淚f my hand can鈥檛 get in the glue, I鈥檓 in trouble.鈥 鈥擬AMA-Girl
Jan. 21 - May 7, 2022
Art from Guant谩namo Bay
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RESCHEDULED Opening Reception Jan. 27, 6 - 8 p.m.
Detainees at the United States military prison camp known as Guant谩namo Bay have made art from the time they arrived. The听Art from Guant谩namo Bay听exhibition features 101 of these evocative works, made by men held without trial, some for more than 15 years. The six artists include both current (Moath Al Alwi and Ahmed Rabbani) and former (Muhammad Ansi, Abdualmalik (Alrahabi) Abud, Sabri Al Qurashi, Mansoor Adayfi) detainees, none of whom have been charged with committing a crime.
Most pieces in the exhibition were taken from Guant谩namo by the detainees' attorneys for this showing and following a laborious process of searching, scanning, and analysis for hidden messages by Guant谩namo officials. A stamp reading "Approved by US Forces" signals that a work has been cleared, and the stamp's ink often bleeds through to the image on the other side, creating a ghostly mix of art and authority.
Art from Guant谩namo Bay听includes drawings and paintings as well as sculptures crafted with the few materials permitted to detainees, including model ships made from shirt scraps, prayer caps, razors, and mops. As former detainee Mansoor Adayfi explains in his New York Times essay "In Our Prison on the Sea," the sea "means freedom that no one can control or own, freedom for everyone." Although detainees were held close to the sea, tarps blocked their view until they were removed for four days in 2014 in anticipation of a hurricane; after that, Adayfi recalls, "all of those who could draw made drawings about the sea."
Follow @oduarts on听,听, and听听for forthcoming public programming.
Aug. 20 鈥 Nov. 9, 2024
Dane Winkler: The Hum
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The Hum is an exhibition of sculpture that explores passing time and transformation through reconstruction. The materials and themes for this body of work were sourced from the farmland in upstate New York where Winkler was raised. The gathering and alteration of these materials, both natural and person made - embodies a curiosity about place - looking into the past as well as the future, and his relationship with these sentiments. In this context the title does not refer to a vocal hum but instead mysterious reports throughout history of a low frequency sound felt in specific locations across the globe. The Hum is a sound, a feeling, and a question all at once. This body of work reflects on internal and external ideas about how family, agency, and wonder unite with these concepts.
MAMA-Girl! was featured in a recent WHRO Curate segment. Interviews with MAMA-Girl鈥檚 daughter Sandra White, son David Rogers, and exhibition curator Cullen Strawn give insight into Mary Onley鈥檚 work and the production of the exhibition.
About the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries
The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries exhibit works by nationally and internationally recognized self-taught artists, contemporary artists working in all media, and local and regional artists connected with 国产伦理.