Upcoming Exhibits

Beyond Fashion - The Exhibition 2025

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 to Friday, March 6, 2026

Vignelli Center for Design Studies sponsors an annual and much anticipated event, Beyond Fashion. A celebration of design and community, Beyond Fashion weaves together a diverse collection of garments crafted by select local designers and students from RIT College of Art and Design’s Metal and Jewelry Design and Industrial Design programs. 

This exhibition is curated by Gabrielle Payne and Kaitlyn Kavanaugh, RIT College of Liberal Arts, Museum Studies, BS 2026, and features original fashion designs from the 2025 event.

This year’s theme is ‘Vignelli Canon’ – a tribute to Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s design ethos. The work featured is inspired by artifacts from the Vignelli Center for Design Studies Archive. 

Inscription: The Process Work of Albert Paley

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 to Friday, March 6, 2026

University Gallery GRID Space

Albert Paley (b. 1944) is an American metal sculptor and the creator of RIT’s Sentinel. From large-scale public sculptures to intricate pieces of jewelry, Paley’s work in the RIT Archives spans more than six decades and a variety of mediums. Through glimpses into the most intimate stages of the artistic process, his lines, curves and angles can be traced through extensive paper trails. This exhibit celebrates the uniqueness of an artist’s active touch found in the connections between Paley’s fluid handwriting, the looseness of his sketches, and the sweeping curves of his metalwork. 

Acknowledgements 

This exhibit was co-curated by Emelia McCalla (Graphic Design BFA, ‘26) and Kaitlyn Kavanagh (Museum Studies BS and New Media Design BFA, ‘26) in collaboration with RIT Archives for John Monaco’s Spring 2025 MUSE-241 class. Graphic design was completed by Michelle Fu (Graphic Design BFA, ‘26) and Julian Howland (Graphic Design BFA, ‘26) for Command+g Design Lab. 

Charles Gaines - Anna Ballarian Visiting Artist

Monday, March 16, 2026 to Friday, April 10, 2026

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)

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

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

A pivotal figure in the field of conceptual art, Charles Gaines’ body of work engages formulas and systems that interrogate relationships between the objective and the subjective realms. Using a generative approach to create a series of works in a variety of mediums, he has built a bridge between the early conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s and subsequent generations of artists pushing the limits of conceptualism today.

Born in 1944 in Charleston, South Carolina, Gaines began his career as a painter, earning his MFA from the School of Art and Design at RIT in 1967. In the 1970s, Gaines’ art shifted dramatically when he explored the use of mathematical and numeric systems to create soft, numbered marks in ink on a grid, with each drawing built upon the calculations of the last. This methodical approach would carry the artist into the subsequent decades of his artistic journey.

Curated by Ellen Tani in collaboration with John Aasp, this small survey of work aims to share a glimpse of Gaines's early work, along with examples of his generative, conceptual process. Works in this exhibition are generously lent by Deborah Ronnen, Caitlin Forsyth Kireker, Paul Garland ('67 MFA), Ben Wigfall Estate/Dolan Maxwell Gallery, and the studio of Charles Gaines.

This exhibition and artist talk are made possible 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.

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