University of Illinois Springfield - Visual Arts Gallery

05/06/2026

“Up to Eleven” is still on view through Thursday, May 7! Stop by to see this incredible work. Congratulations to our students on this fantastic exhibition!

The students are listed below in order of the images as they appear:

Tiama Elfgen
John A. Toelle
Kat Brinkman
Lilith Nadine
Cheyenne Meneghetti
Edith Raskin
Kristyn Durbin
Cooper D. Marx
Gavin Bayne
Luke Butcher
Honoka Adachi

04/22/2026

“Up to Eleven,” an exhibition featuring artworks by senior visual arts majors at UIS, is now on view!

“Up to Eleven” is located in two locations on campus: the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, located in the Health & Sciences Building, Room 201, and the Access Gallery, located in the central lobby of the Visual & Performing Arts Building.

JOIN US for the exhibition reception ✨this Thursday,✨ April 23, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm!

Featured artists include Honoka Adachi, Gavin Bayne, Kat Brinkman, Luke Butcher, Kristyn Durbin, Tiama Elfgen, Cooper D. Marx, Cheyenne Meneghetti, Lilith Nadine, Edith Raskin and John A. Toelle.

Work featured in image by Honoka Adachi.

04/10/2026

The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Program is proud to present “Up to Eleven,” an exhibition featuring artworks by senior visual arts majors at UIS. This exhibition represents the culmination of years of artistic development, bringing together an ambitious and interdisciplinary body of work that pushes creative limits and celebrates the transition into professional practice. The exhibit will open on April 20 and runs through May 7. A reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on April 23. All gallery events are free and open to the public.

“Up to Eleven” will be located in two locations on campus: the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, located in the Health & Sciences Building, Room 201, and the Access Gallery, located in the central lobby of the Visual & Performing Arts Building.

The exhibition emphasizes ambition: turning it up, pushing it further and exploring what is possible when creative boundaries are challenged. Through collaboration, the artists have strengthened both their individual practices and the exhibition as a whole.

“Up to Eleven” features a wide range of multimedia works, including sculpture, graphic design, commercial design, animation, illustration, painting, installation and ceramics. The exhibition highlights the largest graduating class from the Visual Arts program in recent years, reflecting a dynamic and diverse group of up-and-coming artists.

Featured artists include Honoka Adachi, Gavin Bayne, Kat Brinkman, Luke Butcher, Kristyn Durbin, Tiama Elfgen, Cooper D. Marx, Cheyenne Meneghetti, Lilith Nadine, Edith Raskin and John A. Toelle.

03/10/2026

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is closed this week for Spring Break, but we’ll reopen next week.

When we do, don’t miss 'Belly', a solo exhibition by artist Rita Grendze, currently on view in the gallery.

Constructed from grocery bags collected during the pandemic, the installation transforms everyday materials into oversized, sagging vessels that evoke empty stomachs and changing bodies. The work explores the tension between nourishment and scarcity, asking how hunger—whether physical, emotional, or existential—settles into the body over time.

The exhibition remains on view through April 9.

03/03/2026

Now on view at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery: 'Belly,' a solo exhibition by artist Rita Grendze. A public reception will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, March 5. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

'Belly' features an installation constructed from grocery bags collected during the pandemic, reassembled into oversized, sagging vessels that evoke empty stomachs and changing bodies. The work explores the tension between nourishment and scarcity and asks how hunger, whether physical, emotional or existential, settles into the body over time.

This exhibit runs through April 9.

Grendze is a sculptor and installation artist whose work draws on gathered materials and the contextual meanings embedded in place. Raised between rural Rosenfeld, Manitoba, and suburban Lakewood, Ohio, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in fiber from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. As a Fulbright scholar, she spent a year in Latvia studying symbolism in folk costume—research that continues to inform her practice.

Grendze has taught at institutions including the Maryland Institute College of Art, Jersey City University and Waubonsee Community College. Since relocating to the Chicago area in 2001, she has contributed to community arts programs and arts organizations throughout the region. Her drawings, sculptures and large-scale installations have been exhibited widely, including at the Latvian National Library, and are held in both private and public collections such as the National Museum of Applied Arts in Riga and the Schingoethe Center at Aurora University. She lives and works in Geneva, Ill.

02/02/2026

Please join us next week for an evening of conversation and art with Sherwin Ovid.

As part of the ECCE Speaker Series, Ovid will discuss themes of migration and cultural connection with curator Marissa H. Baker. A reception in the gallery follows.

🗓 Feb. 11
🕕 Talk: 6–7 pm | Brookens Auditorium
🕖 Reception: 7–8:30 pm | UIS Visual Arts Gallery

Free and open to all!

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Springfield Area Arts Council through state
funds provided by the Illinois Arts Council.

01/20/2026

“What is the Poesis of Dis-Possession? Cartographies of Spirit and Signal,” an exhibition featuring the work of Trinidad-born, Chicago-based artist Sherwin Ovid, is now on view at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. "What is the Poesis of Dis-Possession? Cartographies of Spirit and Signal" is curated by Marissa H. Baker.

The exhibition presents recent works by Ovid that prompt the viewer to reconsider how the Caribbean has been historically imagined and represented as a region. Ovid layers forms and materials evocative of sea creatures, the invisible network of submarine internet cables and coordinate systems of cartography to examine how the movement of people and digital signals might constitute new but invisible forms of relation across the Caribbean and its diaspora.

Ovid is a visual artist who works with experimental processes and nontraditional materials to create unexpected images. He is an assistant professor of instruction in the Art, Theory, Practice Department at Northwestern University. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute and an Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Illinois Chicago, where he was an Abraham Lincoln Fellow.

Ovid’s work has been supported by numerous grants and awards, including the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Foundation Achievement Award, the Baker Faculty Research Grant at Northwestern University, Make a Wave Award from 3Arts and as a Field Trip/Field Notes/Field Guide Fellow at the University of Chicago.

Ovid has exhibited his work widely, including at the Chicago Cultural Center; Demon Leg Gallery, New York; Cleve Carney Museum of Art; Lubeznik Center for the Arts; National Museum of Mexican Art; Gallery 400, University of Illinois Chicago; Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; MANA Contemporary, Chicago; Haitian American Museum of Chicago; Chicago Artists Coalition; Prison Neighborhood Arts Project, Chicago; and Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago. Ovid’s work has been featured in Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta’s 2021 film “Candyman”, Lee Daniel’s 2024 Netflix feature “The Deliverance” and Lena Waithe’s Showtime drama “The Chi.”

01/09/2026

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present “What is the Poesis of Dis-Possession? Cartographies of Spirit and Signal,” an exhibition featuring the work of Trinidad-born, Chicago-based artist Sherwin Ovid. The exhibition opens Jan. 12 and runs through Feb. 19.  
In conjunction with this exhibition, the artist will explore the themes of migration with curator Marissa H. Baker, visiting art history faculty in the Visual Arts Program, as part of the Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series. The lecture will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 11 in Brookens Auditorium on the lower level of Brookens Library. The discussion will examine how art helps explain the experiences of people from the Caribbean who move to other parts of the world while maintaining connections to their culture.

Immediately following this conversation, the UIS Visual Arts Gallery will host an exhibition reception from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.  

12/01/2025

The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) Visual Arts Gallery is proud to celebrate its 50th anniversary with its annual silent auction and benefit. This annual fundraising event features a diverse collection of original art, reproductions, decorative objects and crafts donated by artists and com...

11/20/2025

🎉 Our 50th Anniversary Silent Auction is LIVE! 🎉
https://www.32auctions.com/uisvisualartsgallery2025

Help us celebrate five decades of the Visual Arts Gallery at UIS by supporting the gallery’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

Browse incredible works donated by artists from Springfield and beyond, and place your bids today. Every bid supports the gallery as we prepare for our exciting move to the Performing Arts Center this fall.

👉 Bid now and help shape the next 50 years!

Silent auction 'UIS Visual Arts Gallery: Silent Auction & Benefit' hosted online at 32auctions.