Hartnett Gallery
Current Exhibition
Trans Futurity
Artists: Curated by Bethany Fincher, Emily Broad, Bridgette Fleming- Artist include: Rian Ciela Hammond,H Boone, Eli Brown, Rio Sofia, and Abdi Osman
Dates: July 30- September 12
Reception & Artist Talks: September 11, 5:30 - 7:30 P.M.
- Exhibition Statement
Trans Futurity draws inspiration from the inciting claim of the 2025 Science Fiction Research Association Conference: "Trans people are (in) the future."
Inspired by artist Alisha B. Wormsley's proclamation, "There are Black People in the Future," this statement's simple descriptive structure paradoxically underscores the force and radicality of such a claim. A statement of fact rather than a rallying cry, "Trans people are (in) the future" boldly indexes and makes a dual truth claim about an existent future: trans people are there in that future, and they are that future.
Accordingly, the works in this exhibition take "the future" not as a distant or determined destination, but as a matter of potential futurities that are actively molded in the present and uncovered in the past. The strategies that fulfill this claim include hacking and recoding the inherited tools of colonial technoscience, as seen with Rian Ciela Hammond's multimedia exploration of steroid hormone production; finding and cultivating affinities across species, as with Eli Brown's speculative survival kit and interactive database; and—as embodied by Rio Sofia's autobiographical work-playing and performing across the vulnerable but vitalizing spectrum of possibilities that is opened up by the prefix trans-.
Against ahistorical presumptions that gender variance is "new," these artists draw on archives to reenliven the trans futurities that have been erased. Abdi Osman's Plantation Futures, inspired by Katherine McKittrick's essay of the same name, explores how the logic of plantations continually shapes the present and uses parafictional photography to "plot" Blackness and gender outside of carceral norms. Trans ROC Speaks and H Boone create their own idiosyncratic archives, the former through an oral history of lived experiences and local activism, and the latter through scans of the artists' trans friends recombined and 3D-printed into posthuman sculptures. The works in Trans Futurity show how the essentializing categories of race, gender, sexuality, and nature are mutually constituted in the interest of consolidating power, profit, and the privatization of the earth. Together, they combat these processes of isolation to stake a claim for a future rooted in care and coalition—a future no less than trans*
Upcoming
Past Exhibitions
Senior Thesis Show
Artists: Midas Briggs, Ella Smith and Fatale Seck
Student Juried Show
Artists: Various Artists
Approaches to Portraiture
Artists: Images by Nigel Maister, Curated by Maister and Emily Broad
Dates: January 21 - February 21, 2025
Information
- Hartnett Gallery Mission
Enrich the campus and local community by providing opportunities in the Campus Center to experience diverse expressions of culture through visual art
Cultivate skills related to exhibition, curatorial, and preparator practices
Facilitate sustainable opportunities for artists/students through the creation, presentation, and understanding of contemporary art via exhibitions and educational programs
- Contact Us
For the Hartnett Gallery: hartnett@mail.rochester.edu
For other inquiries: wcsa@rochester.edu
- Hours of Operation
For the Harnett Gallery's standard hours, please see Wilson Common's building hours. The standard hours are only during an exhibition. The Gallery is closed when there is no exhibit on display or event scheduled. Hours may change or fluctuate during academic breaks.
- Gallery Space Information
Installation and De-installation Timetable
- The dates scheduled for an exhibition need to include time for the installation and the deinstallation of the exhibition.
- Installation can be expected to take one to three days for less complicated projects. More complicated installations will need to budget more time.
- At the end of deinstallation Hartnett must be returned to the condition it was in at the beginning of the exhibition period.
- If works are not conventionally framed or mounted all aspects of their installation must be pre-approved.
- The Hartnett Advisory Board must give approval prior to installation if any work fits the following criteria:
- Weighs more than 50 lbs.
- Has a dimension exceeding 40”
- Requires any extraordinary management or installation (i.e. suspended from the ceiling)
- Is to be placed on the balcony
Wall Treatment
- Exhibitions must request permission to paint the walls from the Hartnett Advisory Board
Important prohibitions
- The use of double-stick tape or any means of adhesion apart from the use of Quakehold® or GlueDots® (brand specific) is prohibited.
- No exhibition is allowed to block the entrance to the Gallery or the stairs inside.
- The floor cannot be painted or altered.
- Sharpies/permanent markers, ink, watercolor, or stickers are not allowed to be placed directly on Gallery walls.
Lighting
- Lighting cannot be adjusted without proper training from the Advisory Committee.
- Submitting a Proposal
The Hartnett Gallery Advisory Board welcomes proposals for events/performances/exhibitions to be hosted in Hartnett Gallery. Events and performances are encouraged to occur in the space during an exhibition, assuming an exhibition's set up can accommodate your proposal's needs. All events, performances, and exhibitions must be sponsored by a University of Rochester department or student organization. If your department or student organization is interested in hosting an event or exhibition in the Gallery, you can fill out the Hartnett Gallery Proposal Form.
If you have any questions please reach out to Aaron Delehanty