Exhibitions at CASE Gallery
Exhibitions at CASE Gallery
CYNTHIA MAILMAN: ORIGINS OF GOD
Coming soon, in honor of the 45th anniversary of The Sister Chapel, Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum presents Cynthia Mailman’s series Origins of God. Origins of God is a visual and verbal dialogue across thousands of millennia, in which primordial and prehistoric imagery is paired with modern concepts and quotations. After creating a female incarnation of God for The Sister Chapel in 1977, Cynthia Mailman began to investigate the ancient representations of female deities that were later devalued and subordinated as mere “goddesses.” Mailman’s Origins of God began as a book but became an ongoing series that centers on modern conceptions of a male creator-god, biased interpretations of prehistoric artifacts, and contemporary challenges to women’s bodily autonomy.
Cynthia Mailman was born in the Bronx, New York, to Russian immigrant parents. She graduated from the School of Industrial Arts (now the High School of Art and Design) in Manhattan, earned a B.S. in Art and Art Education at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and completed an M.F.A. at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She was a founding member of SOHO 20 Gallery (est. 1973), an artist-run feminist cooperative in New York City, and has had over two dozen solo shows, in addition to participating in numerous group exhibitions. Mailman taught visual art in the New York City Public School system; at Livingston College, Rutgers University; and at Queensborough Community College, City University of New York, Queens. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Akron Art Museum; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York; Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University; Staten Island Museum; Rowan University Art Gallery; Dow Jones; Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; and Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, New Jersey. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art News, Arts Magazine, Soho Weekly News, The Feminist Art Journal, Staten Island Advance, and other publications.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR ART AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
The Center for Art and Social Engagement is a program of Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum at Westby Hall. It serves as a venue for investigating social issues through arts-based methods. Anchored by a permanent display of The Sister Chapel, a historic collaborative feminist installation, the Center draws inspiration from the cooperative spirit of the women’s art movement. Programming at the Center encourages interdisciplinary collaborations that explore diverse and timely social issues through multidisciplinary practices, broadly conceived to include a variety of mediums such as photojournalism, film and video, historical ephemera, faculty and student research presentations, info-graphic presentations, STEM/STEAM installations, and public programming.Follow us on Instagram @rowanartcase.
The Center for Art and Social Engagement Gallery
Westby Hall, First Floor, Room 110
237 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ 08028
The CASE Gallery has open hours during the academic year. Please note that the CASE Gallery closes during summer months, spring break, and winter break. View our visitor information page for additional information about planning your visit.
About The Sister Chapel
The Sister Chapel was conceived in 1974 by Ilise Greenstein, who envisioned a monumental “hall of fame” in which women’s achievements would be presented from a female perspective. Greenstein’s participation in several feminist consciousness-raising groups and all-women activist organizations prompted her to question the enduring androcentric view of history. Using a nominal pun on the Sistine Chapel, she proposed a secular, nonhierarchical alternative to the patriarchal system embodied in Michelangelo’s renowned ceiling fresco.
Select Past Exhibitions at CASE
The Center for Art and Social Engagement is a program of Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum at Westby Hall. It serves as a venue for investigating social issues through arts-based methods. Anchored by a permanent display of The Sister Chapel, a historic collaborative feminist installation, the Center draws inspiration from the cooperative spirit of the women’s art movement. Programming at the Center encourages interdisciplinary collaborations that explore diverse and timely social issues through multidisciplinary practices, broadly conceived to include a variety of mediums such as photojournalism, film and video, historical ephemera, faculty and student research presentations, info-graphic presentations, STEM/STEAM installations, and public programming.