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The Herter Art Gallery will present, “Resistant Rhythms: The Graphic Works of Alexis Kuhr,” a posthumous retrospective of the former UMass faculty member’s work curated by her colleague Young Min Moon, Jan. 30-Feb. 25, with an opening reception scheduled for Jan. 30 and a curator’s talk set for Feb. 12.

Kuhr arrived at UMass Amherst in 2014 as chair of the Department of Art after serving 16 years on the faculty at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She died at age 68 in October 2023. In the three and a half years under her leadership the UMass art department underwent a profoundly positive change, and she was highly regarded for her exceptional integrity, judgment and superb interpersonal skills.

As an educator, Kuhr was also equally effective, inspirational and widely appreciated. As chair of the department, she continued to fully engage in teaching, learning about students and improving the curriculum. She challenged her students to critically engage with ideas, materials and processes of art practice, as well as the current sociopolitical climate. Following her death, a scholarship was established in Kuhr’s memory to support MFA students in art in their second or third year of the program with financial need, as determined by the university. Those interested in donating to the scholarship’s fund may do so via the UMass Foundation’s Minutefund site.

In her art practice, Kuhr explored the possibilities of abstraction in painting, drawing and printmaking for three decades. In her most recent ink paintings on paper, she combined abstraction with the vernacular language of comics in response to communal fears, anxieties and collective traumas of our times. These works reflected her critical consciousness of the present and the generosity of her spirits, says Moon, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art.

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Throughout her career, Kuhr explored the protean potentials of abstraction through different modes of expression. She considered abstraction a valuable tool enabling us to gain a nuanced understanding of the world. As she described it, it was a means to investigate “how we know and ascertain meaning.” The centrality of graphic practices distinguishes Kuhr’s art from her generation of artists who shared this commitment to abstraction.

This posthumous exhibition aims to shed light on Kuhr’s prolific, variegated, and virtuosic graphic works, selected from hundreds of drawings and works on paper in graphite, ink and graphite and oils on panels. 

The opening reception on Thursday, Jan. 30 is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. The curator’s talk featuring Young Min Moon will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12, with a reception to follow.

The exhibition has been funded by the UMass Arts Council and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. 

The Herter Art Gallery, the oldest exhibition space on the UMass Amherst campus, is open weekdays 11 a.m.-4 p.m., and on Saturdays from1 p.m.-4 p.m. The gallery is closed on Sundays and on state holidays. More information about the gallery and its exhibitions can be found at www.umass.edu/herterartgallery.