Image: Rose Art Museum, Waltham
The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University will mark the opening season of three exhibitions with a public celebration on September 9, bringing together Jenna Gribbon’s first major solo museum presentation, a survey of mid-century abstraction, and an exhibition examining artificial light as an artistic medium.
The Fall Exhibitions Celebration will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the museum in Waltham, Massachusetts. The evening is free and open to all, with visitors invited to explore the galleries, meet members of the Brandeis community, and attend a programme centered on art, conversation, and community. Light bites and refreshments will be provided.
The central artist presentation, ‘Jenna Gribbon: Entwined,’ is on view from August 19, 2026, through January 3, 2027. It brings together more than 40 paintings made between 2001 and the present, including new works created specifically for the exhibition. According to the museum, Gribbon’s intimate portrayals of family, friends, and loved ones examine the relationship between love, desire, identity, and the act of painting.
Gribbon’s practice is grounded in figurative painting and frequently considers the dynamics of looking. Her paintings of people close to her—including her partner, Mackenzie Scott, and her son—address intimacy, visibility, and the agency of those represented. A recent profile of the artist described the Rose presentation as tracing her artistic evolution across 25 years. Gribbon has said that connection is a longstanding concern in her work and that she is interested in how the viewer, artist, and subject are implicated in the act of looking.
Running alongside ‘Entwined’ is ‘ChromaForm,’ on view through June 6, 2027. The exhibition focuses on a pivotal period in mid-20th-century abstraction, when artists moved away from the gestural intensity associated with Abstract Expressionism toward approaches based on perception, geometry, and color. Its works use crisp lines, shaped canvases, and chromatic relationships to investigate how meaning can emerge through visual experience. The museum’s presentation includes Leon Polk Smith’s ‘George Washington Bridge #2’ from 1979.
The third exhibition, ‘En/Lighten: Material & Metaphor,’ also runs through June 6, 2027. It explores the ways contemporary artists have used artificial light as an expressive medium with emotional, political, and metaphysical dimensions. The museum identifies Dan Flavin’s ‘Untitled’ from 1970, made with blue and red fluorescent lights and fixtures, among the works associated with the presentation.
Founded in 1961, the Rose Art Museum describes itself as a venue for modern and contemporary art, presenting thematic exhibitions, surveys of artists, and new commissions. Its collection contains more than 9,000 objects and is particularly strong in American art of the 1960s and 1970s. The September 9 celebration will be held at 415 South Street in Waltham; the museum’s regular hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
