University Hall Gallery
Image Caption: Tess Martin, Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter (2022), video and sound, 2:14
RPM: Room to Breathe
9.5.23–10.28.23
Public Reception: 9.29.23 from 5-7PM
Artists include: Brit Bunkley, Heather Cassano, Abigail Hendrix, Jodie Mack, Kym McDaniel, Tess Martin, and Vito A. Rowlands
RPM (Revolutions per Minute) is an arts festival dedicated to media arts, short-form poetic, personal, experimental film & video, essay documentary, animation, sound art, media installation and audiovisual performance. RPM celebrates cutting edge experimental media art that expands our experience and understanding of what moving image and sonic art can be.
This year's exhibition, titled Room to Breathe, was co-curated by Samuel Toabe,
Director of University Hall Gallery, and Wenhua Shi, Associate Professor of Art and Art History. A total of seven video installations were juried from forty-seven submissions. The exhibition explores the possibility of the exhibition space to act as a site or a sanctuary for energizing, renewing, and meditating.
The main festival dates, September 27 - October 1st, features an intensive series of screening programs (a total of 10) along with other exhibitions. RPM23 will screen over 80 short pieces by artists and artist groups who represent more than 17 countries.
Each year in the festival, one or two programs are dedicated to pioneers in the field. Past festivals featured Sol Levine, Barbara Hammer, Luther Price, Peggy Ahweshand, and Janie Geiser. This year a solo retrospective program of Vincent Grenier is scheduled for September 27th, for 7PM at The Brattle Theatre. RPM23 is held at UMass Boston, Goethe-Institut Boston, CAMLab FAS Harvard, and the Brattle Theater in Cambridge.
A Brief History of RPM:
RPM was born in 2013, co-curated by Dajuin Yao and Wenhua Shi. The exhibition RPM: Sound Art China, which featured 30 sound artists, was held at Colgate University, in Hamilton, NY and at Experimental Intermedia, NYC. The following year, the exhibition traveled to Shanghai, Hong Kong and continued to expand its media art landscape. In February 2019, RPM relocated to Boston.
On visiting University Hall Gallery:
The University Hall Gallery is located on the first floor of University Hall in room 1220.
We are open Monday through Saturday 12pm–5pm and by appointment.
If you plan to visit with a group, please email us at UHGallery@umb.edu at least two days in advance to confirm.
About the gallery:
The University Hall Gallery at UMass Boston was founded in the Fall of 2016. It produces exhibitions and events for the Art Department with a mission to make artwork accessible for the public and students across disciplines with an emphasis on pluralism and fostering visual literacy.
For more information, email us at: UHGallery@umb.edu or call us at 617.287.5707