Gordon Galleries Past Seasons

2023 - 2024 Season

Vague Appliances and Utilities

Works by Andrew Geddes
On View Sept. 1 - Nov. 11, 2023

Vague Appliances and Utilities

The focus of these assemblages and sculptures has evolved as a feeling not exclusively nostalgic but still rooted in playful optimism. It feels like play for me as I organize newly made and older castings with found forms by color and shape. My current process includes the creation of multiple geometric and irregular forms, cast in colored resin or thermoformed plastic. As I amass a varying collection of these molded and cast forms, a selective matching process develops. During this process, complimentary pieces are selected which resemble or represent a misshapen facsimile of commercial products, novelty items, or toys.

Solomon Enos: Papahanaumoku

Papahanaumoku

Works by Solomon Robert Nui Enos
On View Sept. 15 – Dec. 16, 2023

Solomon Robert Nui Enos is a Native Hawaiian artist, illustrator, and visionary. Born and raised in Makaha Valley (O‘ahu, Hawai‘i), he hails from the well-known Enos ‘ohana and has been making art for more than 30 years. Papahanaumoku references one of the foundational mo‘olelo or stories, telling of the mother, Papa, who birthed the islands, from Hawai‘i island to Kaua‘i and beyond. Works created for this exhibition offer a conceptual continuation of the peopling of islands, as the effects of climate change reshape our planet’s land masses, ecologies, and societies.

Fall 2023 Senior Exhibition: Preservation

On View Dec. 1 - 16

Fall 2023 Senior Exhibition: Preservation

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries are pleased to present Preservation, a two-person exhibition by Rayven Harris and Laura Koffman, graduating seniors from the ODU Art Department.

This show will include an installation by Koffman comprised of prints to honor a person she did not know personally who died as a result of police negligence. Harris’ work focuses on more personal connection to her deceased father. Installations by both artists share an exploration of death while preserving the memory of those who have been lost.

Rayven Harris was born in 1998 in Petersburg, Virginia and raised in the Chesterfield area. She is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on photography. Her work concentrates on how memories can be preserved through photographs. She will graduate from Old Dominion University with a BFA majoring in photography and then plans to pursue a career in art therapy. She currently lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia.

Laura Koffman was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina in 1992. Raised in Virginia Beach, she is a multi-disciplinary artist expected to complete her BFA with a focus in printmaking in December 2023. Her prints are informed by systems of power who negatively impact society, in an attempt to combat or counteract collective forgetting. She is a 2023 recipient of the Lorraine Fink Scholarship in Honor of Ken Daley. Koffman plans to pursue an MFA with hopes of becoming an art professor. She currently lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia.

Concrete Ocean: Works by Leigh Merrill

On view Jan.12 through Feb 17, 2024

Concrete Ocean

“Culling through thousands of individual photographs and videos I make of architecture and landscaping; I digitally assemble these sources to create my work. Some images have veracity, but more often, they suggest a visual hyperbole – an embellished scene circulating around a small object or detail. I am continually fascinated with photography’s ability to be evidence of existence – creating an image with seeming veracity – and simultaneously, a system to mediate and construct reality. I use photography to observe and then digitally combine my photographs to construct spaces that do not exist, allowing the creation of images that, through metaphor and illusion, reveal both the desire and simulacrum present around us and within photography itself.”

2024 Juried Student Exhibition

On view Mar. 1 through Apr 6, 2024

2024 Juried Student Exhibition

Featuring artwork from students actively working in the ODU Art Department Studio Arts programs, and selected by a juror who is an active professional within the Visual Arts.

Paintings from the Porch: Works by Jake McCord

On view Jan. 12 - May 4, 2024

Jake McCord Gallery

Jake McCord (1945 - 2009) of Thomson, Georgia grew up planting and picking crops on his family's farm. He later cut grass and drove a truck for that city, which recognized him as an exceptionally hard worker. In the mid-1980s McCord began to paint and took inspiration from his life and several television sets running simultaneously in his home. He installed paintings on his front porch for passersby to see and would allow them to be sold only after feeling they had been on view for the right amount of time. McCord described his depictions of people, animals, and scenes as jolly, which helped keep him company and which he hoped would help those who saw his work. This exhibition presents a number of those jolly paintings from the porch.


2024 Spring Senior Exhibition: It’s My Party

On view Apr. 26- May 4, 2024

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries proudly present It’s My Party… by graduating seniors of the ODU Art Department. On view from April 26th, 2024, to May 4th, 2024, with an opening reception on Thursday, April 25th from 6 to 8pm. The exhibition features 12 artists whose range of media and methods confront their pasts to show a developing future. Through painting, 3D media, photography and animation, these artists offer a collection of work that demonstrates themes ranging from vulnerability and identity to societal and environmental concerns.

Vague Appliances and Utilities

Works by Andrew Geddes
On View Sept. 1 - Nov. 11, 2023

Vague Appliances and Utilities

The focus of these assemblages and sculptures has evolved as a feeling not exclusively nostalgic but still rooted in playful optimism. It feels like play for me as I organize newly made and older castings with found forms by color and shape. My current process includes the creation of multiple geometric and irregular forms, cast in colored resin or thermoformed plastic. As I amass a varying collection of these molded and cast forms, a selective matching process develops. During this process, complimentary pieces are selected which resemble or represent a misshapen facsimile of commercial products, novelty items, or toys.

Solomon Enos: Papahanaumoku

Papahanaumoku

Works by Solomon Robert Nui Enos
On View Sept. 15 – Dec. 16, 2023

Solomon Robert Nui Enos is a Native Hawaiian artist, illustrator, and visionary. Born and raised in Makaha Valley (O‘ahu, Hawai‘i), he hails from the well-known Enos ‘ohana and has been making art for more than 30 years. Papahanaumoku references one of the foundational mo‘olelo or stories, telling of the mother, Papa, who birthed the islands, from Hawai‘i island to Kaua‘i and beyond. Works created for this exhibition offer a conceptual continuation of the peopling of islands, as the effects of climate change reshape our planet’s land masses, ecologies, and societies.

Fall 2023 Senior Exhibition: Preservation

On View Dec. 1 - 16

Fall 2023 Senior Exhibition: Preservation

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries are pleased to present Preservation, a two-person exhibition by Rayven Harris and Laura Koffman, graduating seniors from the ODU Art Department.

This show will include an installation by Koffman comprised of prints to honor a person she did not know personally who died as a result of police negligence. Harris’ work focuses on more personal connection to her deceased father. Installations by both artists share an exploration of death while preserving the memory of those who have been lost.

Rayven Harris was born in 1998 in Petersburg, Virginia and raised in the Chesterfield area. She is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on photography. Her work concentrates on how memories can be preserved through photographs. She will graduate from Old Dominion University with a BFA majoring in photography and then plans to pursue a career in art therapy. She currently lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia.

Laura Koffman was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina in 1992. Raised in Virginia Beach, she is a multi-disciplinary artist expected to complete her BFA with a focus in printmaking in December 2023. Her prints are informed by systems of power who negatively impact society, in an attempt to combat or counteract collective forgetting. She is a 2023 recipient of the Lorraine Fink Scholarship in Honor of Ken Daley. Koffman plans to pursue an MFA with hopes of becoming an art professor. She currently lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia.

Concrete Ocean: Works by Leigh Merrill

On view Jan.12 through Feb 17, 2024

Concrete Ocean

“Culling through thousands of individual photographs and videos I make of architecture and landscaping; I digitally assemble these sources to create my work. Some images have veracity, but more often, they suggest a visual hyperbole – an embellished scene circulating around a small object or detail. I am continually fascinated with photography’s ability to be evidence of existence – creating an image with seeming veracity – and simultaneously, a system to mediate and construct reality. I use photography to observe and then digitally combine my photographs to construct spaces that do not exist, allowing the creation of images that, through metaphor and illusion, reveal both the desire and simulacrum present around us and within photography itself.”

2024 Juried Student Exhibition

On view Mar. 1 through Apr 6, 2024

2024 Juried Student Exhibition

Featuring artwork from students actively working in the ODU Art Department Studio Arts programs, and selected by a juror who is an active professional within the Visual Arts.

Paintings from the Porch: Works by Jake McCord

On view Jan. 12 - May 4, 2024

Jake McCord Gallery

Jake McCord (1945 - 2009) of Thomson, Georgia grew up planting and picking crops on his family's farm. He later cut grass and drove a truck for that city, which recognized him as an exceptionally hard worker. In the mid-1980s McCord began to paint and took inspiration from his life and several television sets running simultaneously in his home. He installed paintings on his front porch for passersby to see and would allow them to be sold only after feeling they had been on view for the right amount of time. McCord described his depictions of people, animals, and scenes as jolly, which helped keep him company and which he hoped would help those who saw his work. This exhibition presents a number of those jolly paintings from the porch.


2024 Spring Senior Exhibition: It’s My Party

On view Apr. 26- May 4, 2024

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries proudly present It’s My Party… by graduating seniors of the ODU Art Department. On view from April 26th, 2024, to May 4th, 2024, with an opening reception on Thursday, April 25th from 6 to 8pm. The exhibition features 12 artists whose range of media and methods confront their pasts to show a developing future. Through painting, 3D media, photography and animation, these artists offer a collection of work that demonstrates themes ranging from vulnerability and identity to societal and environmental concerns.

  • ALLiGATER HELLHOUND
  • DesignHer: Works by Contemporary Women Graphic Designers
  • Nothing to See Here
  • Sam Bartlett: Low Stakes, Plywood Cutouts & Everyday Comix
  • 2023 Juried Student Exhibition
  • Spring 2023 Senior Exhibition: Liminality

  • Life and Limb: Works by Matt Sesow
  • Betwixt Intermixed / Luminescent Effervescant Iridescent / Tandem and ‘tween
  • Sauce: The 2021 ODU Arts Alumni Exhibition
  • OTW IRL: The Fall 2021 Senior Exhibition
  • Art from Guantanamo Bay
  • TGIF2F: The 2022 ODU Art Department Faculty Exhibition
  • 2022 Juried Student Exhibition
  • Best If Used By: The Spring 2022 Senior Exhibition

  • Jennifer Little: Divided States of America
  • Alone|Together: Fall 2020 Senior Exhibition
  • Andy Harris: Bikes, Brands, Words, and Wheels
  • 2021 Juried Student Exhibition
  • Sanguine: Spring 2021 Senior Exhibition

  • Geometric Aljamía: A Cultural Transliteration
  • Recent Acquisitions: Works by Yuki Hiyama
  • The 22nd Annual Banjo Gathering
  • Let Them Eat Cake: A Second Helping
  • Eye to Eye: ODU Portraits by Glen McClure
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • To Life! Works by Lorraine Fink
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Graphic Design Exit Review
  • Spring Senior Exhibition

  • Art Department Faculty Exhibition
  • Black Gods of the Metropolis: The Drawings of J. Alan Cumbey
  • Shift, Sift, Swoosh Bods: Levester Williams
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • Drifter History: Works by Chris Mahonski
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Graphic Design Exit Review
  • Spring Senior Exhibition
  • Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Artmobile
  • Banksy's Haight Street Rat
  • Graphic Design Exit Review

  • Antiquary: Works by Morgan Herrin
  • The Art of Trains
  • Transit: The Art of Revelation in the Paintings of Susanna Coffey
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • Flux: Works by Colleen Toledano
  • The Jules Olitski Project
  • Graphic Design Exit Review
  • Spring Senior Exhibition
  • Juried Student Exhibition

  • Encore: Alumni Exhibition
  • PRESSing Matters: Cross-Collaborations and Explorations in Literature, Art, and Politics, in conjunction with the 39th Annual Literary Festival: Strange Bedfellow: Politics and Literature
  • Landscapes of the Collector: The Best of the Baron and Ellin Gordon Collection of Self-Taught Art
  • Affairs of State: Photography by Tim Davis and Michael Mergen
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • Continuum: Works by Anne Smith, Melissa Hill, and Sarah Irvin
  • Broken Land | Still Lives: Eliot Dudik
  • Graphic Design Exit Review
  • Spring Senior Exhibition
  • Glass &
  • Juried Student Exhibition

  • Faculty Exhibition
  • Canvas of My Soul: Paño Drawings by Chicano Prisoners
  • House not a Home: An Installation by John W. Ford
  • The Orthodox Icon: A Variety of Ways to Depict a Sacred Image
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • Water Stories: Conversations in Paint and Sound - Paintings by Anne Neely, Soundscape by Halsey Burgund
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Shakespeare and the Americas: A Look Back to the World of "The Tempest"
  • The Art of Derek Webster: Selections from the Marilyn Houlberg Collection
  • Graphic Design Exit Review
  • Spring Senior Exhibition
  • Slavocracy

  • Borderland: Works by Kent Michael Smith
  • Food, Family, and Feelings in the Book of Sarah: The Visual Autobiography of Sarah Lightman, in conjunction with the 37th Annual Literary Festival: The Hungry Heart is Telling You
  • Out of the Vault: Seldom-Seen and Unseen Treasures from the Self-Taught Collection
  • Shaped Polarities: Works by Fiona Ross and Alan Rosenbaum
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • The World Outside
  • Visions of the Sacred and the Profane
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Spring Senior Exhibition
  • Passerby: An A.B. Jackson Retrospective
  • Summer Senior Exhibition

2013 - 2014

  • The Big Story: The Art of Levent Isik, Ronald Sloan and Derek Webster
  • Kindred Spirits: ODU Art Faculty in collaboration with the Chrysler Museum of Art
  • Fall Senior Exhibition
  • Between Lagan and Derelict: Sculpture by David McQueen
  • Fire and the Resurrection of Mr. Imagination
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Spring Senior Exhibition
  • Adjunct Faculty Exhibition
  • Unclassified: The Military Kid Art Show
  • Summer Senior Exhibition

2012 - 2013

  • The Combat Paper Project
  • Mother, Maiden, Courtesan: Woman and Her Image in Art
  • Photographs With Teeth, in conjunction with the 35th Annual Literary Festival: Words With Teeth
  • East/West: A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking
  • Fall Senior Exhibition: XVI
  • David Page: God and Lunchmeat
  • Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books
  • The Big Story: Work by Levent Isik, Ronald Sloan, and Derek Webster
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Mount
  • Spring Senior Exhibition: Amalgamation
  • Making and Meaning: ODU Art Department and Chrysler Museum Collaboration

2011 - 2012

  • Into the Mainstream: Chrysler Museum Collaboration
  • Lebende Bilder: New Photography by Yola Monakhov
  • Faculty Exhibtion
  • Katie Hudnall: The Texture of Imperfection
  • Issues of Style in Self-Taught Art
  • Fall Senior Exhibition: Spectrum
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • 30 Americans
  • The Face of the Ghetto: Pictures of Jewish Photographers from Lodz Ghetto 1940 - 1944
  • Andrew Breitenberg: SELAH

2010 - 2011

  • Robert McCullough: A Retrospective Exhibition
  • Lori Nix: The City and Other Stories
  • War: Armed Conflict and its Legacy in Contemporary Self-Taught Art
  • The Green Canvas: The Artist as an Environmental Activist - Posters by Hoseob Yoon
  • "Magic Dirt" National Juried Exhibition
  • Big Print Show
  • Self-Taught Artist in Context: Influences of American Culture
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Beyond the Veil: New Work by Domenica Arcuri Webb
  • Now and Zen: Recent Work by Lorraine Fink and Janet Shaughnessy

2009 - 2010

  • Michel Ryan: On the Road at the Water's Edge
  • Faculty Exhibition
  • Wild Things: The Outrageous, Wonderful, Hilarious, and Untamed
  • Dormitorium: An Exhibition of Film Decors by the Quay Brothers
  • Recent Acquisitions
  • String Monuments: An Installation by Annette Lawrence
  • Margo Blank
  • Repurposes
  • Book of Daniel
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • One Hundred Birds in Homage to the Phoenix: Chinese Screen

2008 - 2009

  • Stories from the Earth: Voices of Contemporary Ceramic Artists
  • Interrupted Life: Incarcerated Mothers in the United States
  • Uncommon Power: The Eye of the Self-Taught Artist
  • Stefan Sagmeister
  • Graduate Student Thesis Exhibition
  • Tannaz Farsi: Echomaker
  • Nikki Blair: Recent Works
  • In-Depth: The Hand of the Self-Taught Artist
  • World War II International Posters
  • Juried Student Exhibition
  • Jogakbo: Traditional Korean Patchwork
  • Vetri//Alt: Glass Alternatives

2007 - 2008

  • Faculty Exhibition
  • Collective Wisdom
  • Stephen Cartwright: Perigree
  • Greta Pratt: American Identity
  • Kenneth FitzGerald: The Kenneth FitzGerald Album (Extended Play)
  • First Annual Juried Student Exhibition
  • Virginia Governor's School Exhibition
  • Origins: Select Paintings by Fay Zetlin