For the first time since 2016, the Grinnell College Museum of Art has curated a faculty exhibit. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Bucksbaum Arts Center, “Everything Left Unsaid” opened on Jan. 23 and will close March 30. The exhibit features the work of six Grinnell studio art professors — Andrew Kaufman, Jeremy Chen, Emily Yurkevicz, Nicky Tavares, Matthew Kluber and Robin Strangfeld, each of whom presented their work during two public talks hosted in the museum on Feb. 4 and Feb. 11.
The work of the six faculty members covers a wide range of disciplines, themes and artistic modes. Kaufman has two bodies of work on show — a set of four abstract paintings inspired by protests against the genocide in Palestine, and a set of photographs exploring digitally mediated portraiture. Chen’s work includes a collection of what he terms “commonplace books,” notebooks he filled between 1989 and 2025, along with a collection of mixed-media drawings. Yurkevicz combines fiber arts and sculpture in the three pieces she has displayed, dealing with queer female identity, labor and inherited memory. Tavares’ work involves a unique technique of screen printing onto 16 mm film and investigates the materiality of student loan debt. Kluber’s work combines 3D printing, painting and custom software with projection. Strangfeld, inspired by wind and ice maps, mixes the mediums of ceramics with painting and collage in the three pieces she has on display.
Kaufman said he found witnessing the breadth of his colleagues’ work inspiring and that creating artwork within a liberal arts environment fuels his process. “I use a lot of different disciplines,” said Kaufman. “When I make, I’m usually thinking about ideas first, right? And this place is an idea factory.”
Yurkevicz said, “I think it’s really nice to see how broadly we all work as artists and then sort of infer from that the varied perspectives that we bring into the classroom.”
Kaufman said that faculty exhibitions used to occur regularly, every five years or so. The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic along with the retirement of Director of the Grinnell College Museum of Art Leslie Wright, and the hiring of current Director Susan Baley caused a lapse in the faculty exhibitions. “It was brought up, oh, it seems like it’s about time to have a faculty show. And it was just coincidental that it fell on the 25th anniversary of Bucksbaum,” Kaufman said.
Despite the coincidental nature of the timing, the faculty and museum embraced the opportunity to celebrate Bucksbaum. “It’s a beautiful building, aesthetically,” said Yurkevicz.
“I am thankful that we have individual research labs that are close to teaching classrooms, so students can come over and check out what I’m doing,” said Kaufman. “There’s that back and forth that I think has never happened in any other place that I’ve taught or learned exactly.”
Kluber said that faculty exhibitions are a rare and exciting opportunity to see and hear about his colleagues’ work: “We have our department meetings, we talk about that stuff, and then we’re teaching and the rest of the time we’re exhausted.” He said he hopes the regularity of the pre-pandemic faculty exhibitions might return. “What usually happens in between [faculty exhibitions] is faculty members get a solo show so you can see more of their work. That’s kind of how we’ve done it in the past, so I’m hoping that that cycle happens again.”
Chen said he thinks the faculty exhibition represents a unique opportunity for students to access the creative work of professors beyond the classroom context: “I hope they come and see both exhibitions that are up because … we get a sense of what the professors are thinking about outside of what we’re teaching. It can be very different than what you see in class.”
