Charles Gaines - Anna Ballarian Visiting Artist

Exhibition: (on campus)

On view March 16 - April 10, 2026
University Gallery Grid Space
Booth Hall 2700
RIT Campus
(Parking in lot F, free on weekends/after 5 pm weekdays)

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Conversation with Charles Gaines and Ellen Tani
Artist Talk: (off campus)

Thursday, March 26, 2026
6:30 pm
Memorial Art Gallery Auditorium
500 University Ave
Rochester, NY
Free // All Welcome

*Ride the free RIT Shuttle from campus to MAG:
Departs RIT North Bus Shelter (MAGIC/Carlson) 5:30 pm
Departs MAG @ 8:00 pm, return to RIT 8:30 pm
(Admission to MAG is free for this event)

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In Dialogue: Collaborations with Charles Gaines
Film Screening: (off campus)

Friday, March 27, 2026
7:00 pm
Visual Studies Workshop
36 King Street
Rochester, NY
$10 Suggested Admission

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Charles Gaines is an artist, theorist, and teacher whose use of formulas and systems in art, starting in the early 1970s, created a pivotal bridge between conceptual art of the late 1960s and the critical postmodernism of the 1980s. 

Born in 1944, Gaines earned his MFA from RIT in 1967. In the 1970s, he began using mathematical systems to generate forms in his artwork, foregrounding indeterminacy rather than the artist’s subjectivity. Conceptual in nature, his work from this period merged representations of the natural world with the plane of a grid through a numerical plotting system; forms accumulate across a given series, illustrating an artistic process of abstraction rooted in information processing. A longtime faculty member at Fresno State University (1968-1989) and CalArts (1990-2022), Gaines has influenced generations of artists. His numerous honors include the Edward MacDowell Medal (2019), induction into the National Academy of Design (2020) and American Academy of Arts and Letters (2022), and an honorary doctorate from RIT (2023). An edited volume of his writings will be published this year.

Across a small selection of objects, the RIT exhibition loosely traces his career, showcasing his sustained interest in the tension between the logical and lyrical dimensions of systems through printmaking, drawing, and a rare, early painting unseen for over 50 years. Curated by Ellen Tani, Assistant Professor of Art History, and programmed in coordination with John Aäsp, this is RIT’s first exhibition honoring the celebrated alumnus and grounds a multi-venue collaboration with Memorial Art Gallery and Visual Studies Workshop.

Artworks are generously lent by Deborah Ronnen, Caitlin and Benn Kireker, Paul Garland (MFA ‘67) and Anne Hallinan-Garland, the Benjamin Wigfall Estate/Dolan Maxwell Gallery, and Charles Gaines Studio.

The exhibition and artist talk are supported by The Anna Ballarian Visiting Artist Series, The RIT College of Art and Design, Memorial Art Gallery, and Charles Gaines Studio.

Learn more about Charles Gaines and his practice here.