Current Exhibitions

MURPH | Owen Sullivan

Project Space Gallery
On view: November 4 - December 6, 2025
Reception: Thursday, November 20, 5-7 p.m.
 

MURPH is a solo show of process-based animation by Owen Sullivan (SUNY Oneonta ‘25) selected from the Gallery's semesterly Project Open Call. This multimedia exhibition tells four stories across three unique sections, featuring three short films and a variety of fun, vibrant, and beautiful artwork. MURPH is the tale of an anthropomorphic dog who sets out to save the city he loves from total destruction at the paws of the uncontrollable, superpowered CATZILLA. It's a Western-style food showdown, inspired by the great spaghetti Westerns of the past; at the same time, it's the story of a young boy using his imagination to escape reality, transforming dull, everyday moments into larger-than-life, fantastical adventures. The show is designed to lift the veil on the animation process by showcasing the journey from initial idea to finished product and demonstrating the long history that has made animation such a beloved medium. It gives viewers a sense of the time, effort, and care poured into building animated worlds by displaying concept art, character sheets, and background paintings alongside the finished animations, demonstrating that great work is not done in a day. 

Poster design by Owen Sullivan and Connor Mead.

Over Water | Scherezade Garcia & Kyrin Hobson

Martin-Mullen Gallery
On view: October 21 – December 13, 2025
Reception: Thursday, November 6, 5-7p.m.

Over Water is a two-person show featuring new work by Scherezade Garcia (Brooklyn, NY, and Austin, TX) and Kyrin Hobson (Chicago, IL), who met while in residence at the Golden Foundation this past summer. Their work weaves together elegantly, insistently telling the history and impact of migration and colonization and building these themes in beautifully different directions, both in style and focus. Hobson is attentive to the embodiment of history and the lasting impacts of healthcare inequality and racialization. From her narrative paintings, which present the body as a physical manifestation representative of countless generations, to her expressionistic flesh prints with pooled auras of color, her interpretation of gesture, feminist and Afro-diasporic storytelling, and invocation of personal details summon the humanity behind history. Garcia, in kind, references the lasting effects of colonialism within the Caribbean and contemplates the fraught movement of communities across the water seeking safety or following dreams. Her intensely saturated canvases feature beatific figures that sink into a sea of color under a dark wash. While the precarity of immigration haunts the work, her self-assured inhabitants are floated by life preservers, filigree, flora, or Baroque headpieces paired with a steady, patient gaze. What is most striking, though, is the similarities in their work and practice. Both artists often leave their canvases loose, able to be wrapped up and carried away quickly if need be. Both focus on color, gesture, and gaze as their protagonists – all of whom are compounded presences – calmly go about their lives amidst a riot of color and activity. Their bold storytelling from the diasporic communities that saturate the US has led to undeniable works that both shout from the walls and conspiratorially beckon the viewer to their intimate spaces.

Interested in learning more about this topic? Check out some suggested further reading selected by Dr. Maria Chavez Daza (SUNY Oneonta, Africana and Latinx Studies).

Poster design by Connor Mead.

ARCHETYPAL SYMBIOSIS | JAMES R. MCILROY

Open Space Gallery
On view: April 5 – December, 14, 2025 
Reception: Thursday, April 24, 5-7 p.m. 
Generously supported through a paint donation by Golden Artist Colors, Inc., and by the SUNY Oneonta Alumni Association. 

Archetypal Symbiosis is a site-specific mural created by James R. McIlroy (SUNY Oneonta, ‘08) that spans the thirty-two-foot-long Open Space Gallery. It features a series of three stylized animals: a large, predatory cat, a heron, and a frog. These three animals reference the symbiosis of natural ecosystems where predators and prey fulfill important balancing roles, enabling the environment that allows for each other's survival. The bold lines, bright colors, and fluid filigree create a visually beguiling display that will be on public view on campus for nearly a year. McIlroy is a local artist who has created murals in Oneonta, Binghamton, Cortland, and Saratoga Springs, and who owns and is the lead artist at Wolfhound Studio, a tattoo studio on Oneonta’s Main Street. 

Poster design by Michael Conte.