Diversity and Inclusion

“Stony Brook University is fully committed to providing a just, equitable, and humane campus community through our service, activism, and pedagogy in both individual and collaborative efforts.” –Judi Brown Clarke, PhD, Chief Diversity Officer

The Zuccaire Gallery supports Stony Brook University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, including the fight against racial and social injustice, through our exhibitions and programs that offer a forum for the exploration and discussion of the relevant issues of our time.

Past Exhibitions & Programs

Revisiting 5+1
Revisiting 5+1 is a reflection on the historic 1969 Stony Brook University exhibition entitled 5+1. Revisiting 5+1 features work by the original six artists, all of whom were Black men, with an addition of six Black women artists, all trailblazers at a time when their work in abstraction was challenged by both the mainstream art world and Black art institutions. Photographs and archival materials exhibited alongside the work provide additional contextual history from this era of student protests and racial justice on campus.

Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water
Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water is a group exhibition focused on environmental justice and the vital importance of water. The exhibition presents seven women artists whose work addresses topics such as the Shinnecocks' historical ties to water and oyster farming, community access to clean water, carbon absorption by the oceans, glacial melting, and the social impact of climate change.

DOS MUNDOS: (Re)constructing Narratives
Opening July 2021, DOS MUNDOS features 12 artists of color that center stories at the fringe of public attention: hidden sanctuaries, subcultures, painful identities, far-away homes, spirituality, transcendence, broken promises, and all too easily ignored social ecologies. A SUNY traveling exhibition organized by En Foco, programming will include artist talks and panel discussions.

Mis/Communication: Language and Power in Contemporary Art

Opening November 13, 2021- February 2022, Mis/Communication features video, sculpture, print, and interactive media artworks by contemporary artists who explore the power of language in a cultural context. Artwork by mostly young and emerging artists examines issues such as the global predominance of English and the societal tendency to censure other languages, dialects and linguistic practices.

RECKONING: Faculty Exhibition 2020
Online Exhibition, Fall 2020
Featuring the work of Stony Brook University’s world-renowned faculty artists, RECKONING presents artwork created in 2020 that expresses a range of individual and collective experiences we are living through and the underlying conditions that have brought us to this crossroads.

ARTISTS AS INNOVATORS: Celebrating Three Decades of NYSCA/NYFA Fellowships
October 26, 2019 – February 22, 2020

ARTISTS AS INNOVATORS featured works by 22 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellows including Elia Alba, Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers, Ross Bleckner, Chitra Ganesh, Faith Ringgold, Dread Scott, Shinique Smith and Fred Wilson. The works on display showed how the fellows addressed pressing and often controversial issues through their art, including racism, gender equality, sexual orientation, immigration, and globalization.

Programming included Hip-Hop Meditation with Toni Blackman, a performance by Carmelita Tropicana, a Salon Talk on Women Leadership in the Arts, and a Short Film & Artist Talk with Howardena Pindell.

THE VIEW FROM HERE: Contemporary Perspectives From Senegal
July 18 – October 12, 2019

THE VIEW FROM HERE offered a wide panorama of art practice from the perspective of artists—individuals who uncover aspects of their own identity as they reflect on contemporary life in Senegal. Collectively, their work acted as a portrait of how one African country can inspire creative minds, balancing universal questions with local characteristics.

Programming included an Artist Talk with Laylah Amatullah Barrayn in dialogue with Professor Abena Asare. Her work featured in The View From Here documented daily life, religion, and panoramic vistas in Senegal. Barrayn’s work will also be featured in the upcoming exhibition Dos Mundos: (Re)constructing Narratives opening July 2021 at the Zuccaire Gallery.

ICONICITY
January 26 – February 23, 2019

ICONICITY brought together contemporary artworks to examine the concept, construction, and mythology of the icon.

Programming included Artists In Conversation with American Artist, Dread Scott and Jenny Polak moderated by Professor Stephanie Dinkins. The four artists discussed the visual language of borders and technology as they relate to issues of race and identity to an audience of students, faculty, and community members.

RACE, LOVE, AND LABOR
September 12 – October 21, 2017

RACE, LOVE, AND LABOR featured photographs by over twenty artists of color from the artist-in-residency at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. “It is impossible to separate the history of photography from the history of labor, love, and race in America… A critical function of photography, through a vast range of aesthetics, is the labor of becoming and the work it entails—on the land and within our inner worlds,” Sarah Lewis, exhibition curator. Programming included lectures and discussions about the themes of race, love and labor in photography and everyday life.

NOT READY TO MAKE NICE: Guerrilla Girls in the Artworld and Beyond
September 13 – October 22, 2016

A major presentation of the Guerrilla Girls, this exhibition illuminated and contextualized the important historical and ongoing work of these highly original, provocative and influential artists who champion feminism and social change. The Guerrilla Girls have been powerfully and consistently active since first breaking onto the art scene in 1985. The exhibition included an artist talk by a founding member of the Guerrilla Girls as part of the Provost’s Lecture Series. Click here to watch the full artist talk.

Isabel Manalo: SKIN CODES
November 7 – December 12, 2015

Isabel Manalo is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose work addresses ideas of power and identity as defined by race, ethnicity, geography and class. Combining photography with drawing, painting, sewing and writing, her work embraces visual clues and coding. Manalo’s latest works respond to trends in social media surrounding potent issues such as racially charged police violence in the United States and the refugee crisis in Syria. The exhibition included work from these series, as well as a new large stitched wall piece she created specifically for the Zuccaire Gallery’s expansive space.