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 was often illustrated with ‘tinted drawings,’ a specific form of manuscript illumination characterized by an inner luminosity, due to the translucency of the calfskin vellum surface and the spare handling of paint. Painter Sharon Lacey uses this medieval image cycle as a point of departure for a series of ink and watercolor paintings on full-size calfskins. These ‘tinted drawings,’ like much of her other work, […]

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 and equipment abandoned to the birds. This photographic series seeks to document the beauty in the decay. The machines, which once brought vitality to the city now monuments to its change.

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 image. These copies are imperfect likenesses, but they may be more accurate portraits. What we believe we know of Shakespeare is as clear as a cliché; what we actually know of him resembles these faces that stare out at us—secondhand, obscured and blurred by time. An exhibition of prints from photographer and MIT staff member Thomas Gearty, “Book Marks” brings together a gallery of fading […]

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 Room Columns

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 thousands of striking sketches and paintings he made during those years. Location: Main Gallery + Entrance Case

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 country, how will these evocative storefront typologies fit within or even influence this narrative of progress? Location: Reading Room Case