Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Elena Peteva: Material and Immaterial

• February 19-March 20, 2026
• CLOSING Reception - Thursday, March 19, 4-7 PM
• Artist Talk - Thursday, March 19, 5 PM, in the gallery

Elena Peteva’s drawings and installations embody individual, social, and global states. Subject and material come together as metaphors in distilled images and forms – a box with black smoke ominously rising, hands reaching into a dark tangle of lines, a large mound of charcoal. Her work creates a charged stillness that holds both the real and the ethereal, presence and absence. The viewer is invited into a contemplative space that unfolds visually, psychologically, and emotionally. This exhibition was curated by Richard Whitten, Professor of Art at Rhode Island College.

Sarah Sense: Land, Lines, Blood, Memory

• March 26-April 24, 2026
• Artist Talk – Thursday, March 26th, 3-4 PM in ALEX AND ANI Hall 138
• Opening Reception – Thursday, March 26th, 4-6 PM, in Bannister Gallery

In Land, Lines, Blood, Memory, artist Sarah Sense (Chitimacha/Choctaw) combines her photographs of U.S. National Parks with old maps, images, and land records to explore place, history, and identity. Using techniques passed down by master weavers and learned from her grandmothers’ baskets, Sense creates visually spectacular and exquisitely crafted photoweavings that celebrate continuity and resilience across generations. This labor-intensive, hands-on process involves Sense traveling to archives and National Parks to photograph documents related to Native lands and the landscape itself. In the studio, she manipulates and waxes large photographic prints, then slices and weaves them with Chitimacha and Choctaw patterns. Ribbons unravel, cluster, twist, loop, and coil into the third dimension. Some rise upward like trees, and some plunge downward like waterfalls. By weaving various viewpoints on land, she questions the authority assigned to maps and photographs. Land, Lines, Blood, Memory is an act of restoration that honors the original human stewards of the land. Memory is not fixed or finished, but an ongoing process shaped by continued engagement, shared knowledge, and collaboration across generations. This exhibition was curated by Dr. Sara Picard, Rhode Island College Professor of Art History, and is supported by funding from the RIC Performing and Fine Arts Commission, the RIC Artist's Co-Op, the RIC Committee on College Lectures, and the Photography Network.

2026 Graduating Art Students' Exhibition

• May 7-22, 2026
• Opening Reception - Thursday, May 7, 4-7 PM, in the gallery

The Bannister Gallery is pleased to present its annual exhibition of work by graduating seniors in the Rhode Island College Art Department. Various studio concentrations represented include ceramics, metalsmithing, painting, printmaking, digital media, graphic design, photography and sculpture. Degrees earned through the Art Department include a B.S. in Art Education, a B.A. in Art History, a B.A. in Art Studio, and a B.F.A. in Art Studio, the latter of which requires students to develop a stylistically accomplished and conceptually focused body of work.