Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries

MAMA-Girl!

On View: Sept. 27, 2024 - May 10, 2025

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at Old Dominion 91¶ÌÊÓƵ presents an art exhibition honoring the life and work of Eastern Shore artist and pastor Mary Elizabeth "MAMA-Girl" Onley (1953 - 2018), free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition will remain on view through May 10, 2025.

You are invited to explore a diverse collection of some 150 artworks and objects from MAMA-Girl’s studio, generously shared with the public by more than a dozen lenders including the Barrier Islands Center and residents of the Eastern Shore, along with others across Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

MAMA-Girl left a lasting impression on so many who enjoyed her company and collected her work. If you would like to join in the tribute, you may share your MAMA-Girl remembrances at  or mail them to: Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, 4509 Monarch Way, Norfolk, VA 23508.

Juried Student Exhibition

On View March 7 - April 5

"When asked to curate this exhibition, I came to the assignment with little preconception of what art I might encounter or, indeed, what type of show might come out the other end of the hand wringing and mental gymnastics. It quickly became apparent from the large quantity of high-quality work submitted that one could assemble many different fascinating shows. The talent runs deep here at ODU, and it is clear that the Art Department is fostering a hotbed of material and media investigation and cross-pollination.

On my digital wander through the many excellent student entries, I found myself drawn again and again to those works that in some way delivered insight into the lives of their makers. Through their faces, their fascinations, and their fears, the artists in this show give us a peek into their proverbial fridge and a boo when we see ourselves reflected in the chrome. In this sense, the concept of portraiture is vast and can be one useful lens to understand the interstitial bonds between the works here.

Upon repeated examination, other enticing connections and contradictions emerged. Whether captured in a frozen pose or rendered in the glow of active labor, some subjects yearn for eye contact while others shyly avoid your gaze. A wise horse peers into your soul while a drunken octopus passes out amidst a scene of modest debauchery. Introspective self-portraits make close company with constructed iconographies of reified Big Macs and glistening nuggets in a pointed reminder that we are what we eat.

Several artists take us on realtor’s tours through their banal yet oddly vulnerable domesticated spaces while others take us by the hand and lead us into the forest to romp and frolic with mushroom friends. Fantasies of disparate utopian models float above works grounded in the current desire for grim political resistance. Both paths serve as a form of healthy escapism from a sense of helplessness in the face of the firehose of cruelty and cultural negativity.

Lastly, I have always been captivated by the attention demanded by tiny objects. I included a collection of finely crafted small works that I imagined as talismans endowed with the power to protect. I grouped these tiny treasures with a pair of impeccable renderings of the coughed-up contents of people’s pockets. In some ways, even in the total absence of corporeal representation, these tiny objects and meticulous drawings are the most revealing portraits in the show.

I hope that you choose your own adventure as you traverse the exhibition and find works that bring you joy while challenging your beliefs and bias."

- Benjamin Wright, Artist | Curator | Educator, Chair of Visual Arts: Governor's School for the Arts

For updates, follow @oduarts and @gordonartgalleries on Facebook and Instagram, and learn more about the Gordon Art Galleries at odu.edu/arts.