MIT Libraries

Wojnarowicz in Cambridge is a series of photographic portraits composed in response to David Wojnarowicz’s Rimbaud in New York series. It brings queer visibility into the public sphere, inviting viewers to consider identity—as something constructed, as something fluid and changeable—so that the current dialogue (and debate) about identity politics becomes more nuanced, more inclusive, more representative.

Reception: September 14, 2022, 4-6pm in Rotch Library Gallery

This exhibition is of paintings by MIT alumna Susan E. Schur. Her work utilizes various techniques of employing oil paint on paper and board to create works that provide exciting, multi-layer visual experiences, with each viewer becoming an active participant in the realization of the vision presented.

Soft City is a large-scale textile series that maps the urban fabric of Black neighborhoods in the Boston area. The tapestries map historic (redlined) and contemporary Black neighborhoods, including Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Cambridge.

Reception: March 11, 5-6pm

By combining the intensity of poetry with vivid imagery, The Poetry of Science aims to strengthen the voices and experiences of distinct communities of color, synthesizing a striking poetic and visual language.

The Shingles Nest is a small pavilion installation that inhabits the Rotch Library and serves as a reading corner; visitors are invited to sit inside and enjoy the privacy and warmth of the wooden cocoon.

What does it mean to remember? Sited in four Italian towns that have been indelibly changed by natural disasters, this exhibition explores the notion of architectural memory. Across Pompeii, Catania, Poggioreale, and Gibellina, each town...

Despite being known mostly for its strength in science and technology, MIT is home to many skilled artists who pursue their work inside and outside the Institute.

These works present a variety of thoughtful images reflecting their lives at home, in our community, and traveling.

The Irrawaddy River is the major waterway and largest river in Myanmar. It flows from north to south and it is used by Burmese people daily to take baths, do laundry, wash vegetables, and transport goods for trade and other commercial purposes.

Camila Chaves Cortes has taken three trips along the Irrawaddy watching the life, landscapes, and boats along the way. These inspired her to show these color photographs, cyanotypes, paintings, and a three-dimensional sculpture of one of the boats.

This exhibition is by Boston-based writer and artist and 2007 MIT alumni Will Dowd. These thirteen prints use the paintings of Vermeer—those paragons of visual perfection—to explore issues of sight and optics.

By manipulating these iconic artworks, Dowd allows viewers to see through his eyes—and visual impairment—thereby offering a fresh look at an old master.

The design studio “A Theater Without Theater” invited students to explore the architectural potentials of the theatrical. Discovering productive intersections with theater, students acquired a better understanding of architecture and the city.

This year the Grand Canyon National Park is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. This exhibit looks at four areas regarding this spacious ecological world wonder: geology, exploration, tourism and other impacts, and the woman “architect,”...

With a group of active practitioners composing the core of the architecture and design faculty, the coursework on display for this exhibit is centered on contemporary practice, and on the parallel investigation of context, use,...

This exhibit celebrates the centuries-old art of letterpress, brought to new life by members of the MIT community. The collection includes pamphlets written, designed, hand-set, and hand-printed by MIT students on the Beaver Press, a...

GIS & Data Lab is an exhibit that highlights the new lab space at MIT’s Rotch Library. The new GIS & Data Lab is now open on the 1st floor of Rotch Library and has...

The exhibit features six bodies of works that are inspired by a collection of 19th century books housed at MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections, as well as medieval books in the possession of libraries around the world.

There is a reception on Friday Sep 28 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in the main gallery space at the Rotch.

This exhibit features poster designs from Sonny Oram’s work in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. (June 2016 to present.) Oram’s posters present an eclectic graphic identity that reflects the broad scope of DUSP’s work....

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This installation is by Syrian artist Issam Kourbaj. It is displayed in conjunction with a symposium sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT titled Translating Destruction: Contemporary Art & War in the...

Author Function presents books, chapbooks, broadsides, and other printed matter from the collection of Professor Nick Montfort, SM ’98.

Treeness. They paint dead tree stumps orange (and also pink). They being some type of public works department and sometimes the trees were already dead and others newly rendered so by their cutting. I noticed...

Durdy Bayramov (1938-2014) grew up in an orphanage in Turkmenistan and overcame the significant challenges of his youth to become an acclaimed Eurasian artist and photographer. Through a prolific career as a painter that spanned...

The Psychomachia is a late fourth century text by Prudentius, in which the Virtues and Vices battle over man’s soul. These ‘soul battles’ are vividly depicted as nine combats in the medieval tradition. The Psychomachia...

In Lowell, Massachusetts, the old brick buildings often loom large in the background. Hidden behind the Lowell National Historical Park, a former generator room and machine shop has sat shuttered for three decades. Its machines...

The Undergraduate Architecture & Design Student Work Exhibit gives prospective students a visual sense of the types of classes and the variety of work they might encounter in the pursuit of an undergraduate  Architecture Major or...

Artist & Curator: Thomas Gearty Location: Main Gallery & Reading Room In old books, time and pressure cause ink from engraved portraits to seep into the surrounding pages and imprint a copy of the original...

Curated by Dr. Sharon C. Smith Location: Reading room walls & columns Joint reception with “Tangier”: November 17, 2016 at 7:30pm Description coming soon

Curated by Dr. Michael A. Toler Location: Main gallery Joint reception with “Retrospective”: November 17, 2016 at 7:30pm An exhibition of prints from the glass negatives collection of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan...

Location: Main gallery Opening reception: September 9, 2016 Curated by Dr. Sharon C. Smith A studio photographer by trade, Mike Walker approaches subjects with the intention of drawing something out that one might not see...

“Living on the Somerville/Medford line, I have been fascinated by the statues of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and various saints that often decorate the yards in the neighborhood. In an era where one’s religious conviction...

When talking about digital games, we often forget the materials that surround them – and the fact that playing those games always happens by means of interacting with physical objects. This exhibition is to remind...

Location: Rotch Main Gallery + Reading Room Columns “For these rodeo photographs, I concentrate on moments of strength, of spirit, of tenacity, wild. Most important to me are emotions that arise from interconnected relationships —...

This photography series highlights the advertising methods used for retail shops without large display windows in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. In the context of Rwanda’s “Vision 2020” of becoming a knowledge-based middle income...

DRESSES is a series that turns “digital collages into objects that can be seen, worn, and felt instead of living on a computer screen.” Special thanks to Derek Palmer Photography and Nadya Peek. Location: Reading...

For nearly ten years (1966-1975) Hanoi artist Lê Lam risked his life and lived in South Vietnam recording, in paint, the war which raged all around him. This exhibition contains more than twenty of the...

Photographs of Boston by Richard Yee November 22 – December 20, 2013 Richard Yee is an award-winning local photographer who has had several one-man exhibitions and whose work has been published in “China: Fifty Years...

An Uncertain Moment Laura Rushfeldt December 1, 2009 – January 29, 2010 This exhibition provides a photo chronicle of contemporary life in Kosovo. Kosovo’s political condition and its effect on the Kosovar people is complex,...