NEWSLETTER
Rochester, NY, April 29, 2025—The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) is pleased to present Collection in Context: Bethany Collins, on view May 3 – November 30, 2025, in the Forman Gallery. Artist Bethany Collins stencils, erases, and obscures historic literary and musical works to illuminate the past and spotlight the development of racial and national identities.
This focused exhibition features three of Collins’ powerful artworks that draw on source materials including the ancient Greek play Antigone, an American Civil War battle song rewritten by Union troops in 1862, and a series of advertisements placed in Southern U.S. newspapers in 1865 by those seeking lost family and friends in the aftermath of emancipation and the Civil War. The exhibition places MAG’s recent acquisition, Antigone: 1998 / 1973 / 2021 / 1912 (2023), in context with Collins’ broader body of work.
About the Artist
Bethany Collins has exhibited at venues including the Seattle Art Museum, Frist Art Museum (Nashville), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AK), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Collins was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and currently lives and works in Chicago.
More information about the exhibition can be found here.
About the Memorial Art Gallery
The Memorial Art Gallery showcases art from antiquity to the present day, including the outdoor public Centennial Sculpture Park. In addition to its permanent collection, MAG offers a year-round schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, after-hours social events, and family activities. Learn more about the Memorial Art Gallery here.
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 11:00 am–5:00 pm, Thursdays & Second Fridays, 11:00 am–8:00 pm. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Admission: $20; senior citizens, $18; college students with ID and children 6–18, $9. Always free to members, University of Rochester faculty, staff, students, and children five and under. Half-price general admission on Thursdays 5:00–8:00 pm is made possible by Monroe County. Discounted admission tickets are available when purchasing online. For more information, call 585.276.8900 or visit mag.rochester.edu
Press contact: Paige Engard, Marketing & PR Specialist: 585.474.7695 / pengard@mag.rochester.edu
ASSOCIATED IMAGES:
Photo 1: Bethany Collins, detail of Antigone: 2021, 2023, graphite on Somerset paper. Marion Stratton Gould Fund, 2024.45 ©Bethany Collins. Photo courtesy Alexander Gray Assoc.
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