Shain Library First Floor Exhibition Area 

Claiming our Place in Education: The Continuous Evolution of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies

Claiming our Place in Education: The Continuous Evolution of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies an exhibition from the College Archives, celebrates 25 years of the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies and explores the rich history of women’s and gender studies at Connecticut College beginning in the 1970s.  Over this time it slowly but rightfully staked its place in both the College and the greater field of education.  In the 25 years since becoming a department, GSIS has developed a specialized and intellectual home for the study of gender, sexuality, and their intersections with race, nation, disability, and class.  This would not be possible without the work of dedicated faculty, staff, students, alumni, and speakers, all claiming their places in education.

Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room 

Guo Zhen: What is My Name?

Guo Zhen (b. 1955) pursued art from a young age, attending Shandong Art School in 1973 during the Cultural Revolution in China. She later studied at the prestigious China Academy of Art (CAA) from 1978 to 1982, receiving a rigorous training in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. After graduation, she was appointed as the first female faculty member in the Chinese Painting Department at CAA since the Cultural Revolution. She moved to the United States in 1986 and since 1988 has been living and working in New York. She has exhibited extensively in China and the United States as well as in Mexico, Germany, and Korea, among other countries.

The current exhibition at Connecticut College is the first to survey Guo Zhen’s 50-year journey as a Chinese and Chinese-American artist. Most of her early works exhibited here are being seen by the public for the first time, including rare sketches, drawings and paintings dating back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her later works present a radical break and departure from her earlier style, decrying and defying patriarchy and all forms of oppression, and exploring art as a tool of self-salvation and self-empowerment. 

Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives 

Wish You Were Here: A Collection of Boring Postcards

Drawn from a collection of over 200 postcards, this exhibition, curated by students in Professor Christopher Steiner’s advanced seminar on “Bad Art,” celebrates the lackluster aesthetics of the mundane. Taken as a whole, and looked at closely, these “boring” postcards offer an engrossing visual experience that puts into conversation sentiments of post-World War II optimism and an existential commentary on the desolation of modern existence. This exhibition showcases a collection of “Chrome Postcards” from the 1950s-70s. Named after Kodachrome film (which produced glossy surface color prints) these shiny, oversaturated full-color postcards feature popular tourist destinations, advertisements for household goods and appliances, and images of roadside attractions, museums, motels, restaurants, bars, gas stations, and highways.

Werner Pfeiffer: Books, Prints, and Typographic Experiments

Werner Pfeiffer is one of the most collected book artists in the College's Artists' Books Collection. This exhibit will show a wide range of material covering the span of Pfeiffer's career and showcasing his creative and often whimsical approach to texts and books.