Human Rights Institute Gallery
Human Rights Institute Gallery
Spring 2025 Gallery Exhibit
Join the Human Rights Institute for both the Artist Talk and Opening Reception for our Spring 2025 Exhibit!
Journey of Growth was created by artist Weiling Pan, and she will discussing her works in the VISER Lab of the Nancy Thompson Learning Commons at 3:15 pm on Thursday, Feb 20.
The reception will take place afterwards in the Human Rights Institute Gallery from 5 - 7 pm.
Nearly everyone who comes to the Human Rights Institute at Kean University remarks on how unusual and remarkable it is to have a gallery dedicated to human rights.
“We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”
-John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
Art informs our world and expands our sympathies; it exhilarates us, provokes us, soothes us and inspires us by transcending the boundaries of language, geography, society and religion. It serves as a common thread that pulls us all together, while simultaneously encouraging an individuality of thought, understanding and reaction to complex issues.
Exhibitions presented in the Human Rights Institute Gallery are designed to help visitors experience issues from a variety of perspectives, while motivating them to become active participants in civil society.
Past Exhibits
Fall 2024 Exhibit
Wigstock Beauty in Diversity
by Pierre Dalpé
About the exhibit: As a Canadian photographer, Dalpé captured individuals and their bright personalities in his personal exploration of the Wigstock festival - which began in Manhattan from 1984 through 2001. His captures took place during the festivals peak. The moments of joy and community in these photos evoke a sense of coming together in strength and pride.
Spring 2024 Exhibit
Athena LaTocha: Mesabi Redux
About the exhibit:
Athena LaTocha (Lakota and Ojibwe) created the works in her Mesabi series on-site at iron deposits in the Mesabi Mountain Range of northern Minnesota, which is known to the local Ojibwe as Misaabe-wajiw, “Giant Mountain” or “Sleeping Giant.” The range is the site of the one of the world’s largest open-pit iron ore mines. LaTocha cast iron reliefs during a month-long residency, coordinated by the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids and supported by the Minnesota Museum of Mining in Chisholm, where iron mining started in the 1880s and continues today.
Fall 2023 Exhibit
WE DECLARE by Ricardo Roig
WE DECLARE, a mural honoring the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by Artist-in-Residence Ricardo Roig, will feature many leading human rights activists. Highlights will include human rights advocates from New Jersey; influential Human Rights Institute Annual Conference speakers; and commanding historical figures, who made the creation of this document and its enactment, their life’s work.
The United Nations describes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives from different legal and cultural backgrounds across many regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels.
Visit the un.org for more information on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Spring 2022 Exhibit
PULSE Nightclub: 49 Elegies
About the Exhibition
PULSE Nightclub: 49 Elegies is a series made to honor and commemorate with a monoprint each of the 49 people massacred at the LGBTQ PULSE nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016. Artist John Gutoskey began this series in early July of that year and completed the 49th print in early October 2016. This exhibit addresses not only the loss, the grief and the aftermath of this tragic event, but also intersects with current issues of gun violence, homophobia, Hispanophobia, violence against people of color and the transgender community, and LGBTQ rights.
About the Artist
John Gutoskey is an artist, designer, printmaker and collector. Early in his career, John worked as a costume designer and as a specialist in costume crafts. He worked on productions in New York City and across the United States in theater, opera, dance, film and television. He also taught classes in millinery, mask making and fabric dyeing at the University of Michigan’s Department of Theater. In the 1990s, John went back to school and became certified in various forms of therapeutic bodywork and meditation. At this same time, he returned to his studio with a newfound interest in making art on his own terms, and it resulted in an outpouring of new work. Exploring the media of printmaking, assemblage and “found” objects, he was inspired by the works of Joseph Cornell, Betye Saar, Lucas Samaras, outsider art, Art Brut and religious art to evolve his own unmistakable style: a perfect mirror for his gregarious, highly animated personality. The obsessive collector in Gutoskey met the trained visual artist half-way.
John earned his BFA in theater design with a minor in sculpture from Webster University in St. Louis, and his MFA from the University of Michigan’s Penny Stamps School of Art & Design where he studied printmaking & installation. He also received a certificate in LGBTQ Studies from the University of Michigan’s Department of Women’s Studies.
John is the owner and operator of the A2 Print Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan which opened in the fall of 2015.
Fall 2022 Exhibit
AFTERMATH
AFTERMATH
War is Only Half the Story Curated By Sara Terry and Teun van der Heijden
The end of war does not mean peace. It is simply the end of war, the end of death and destruction. Every story of war includes a chapter that almost always goes untold – the story of the aftermath, which day by day becomes the prologue of the future.
AFTERMATH vividly blends human rights issues and Sustainability, the Galleries theme for the 2022-2023 academic year. Drawing inspiration from the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, the Galleries and the Human Rights Institute recognizes the importance of a sustainable world. AFTERMATH brings to the table, discussions on nearly all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals including poverty, hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, and peace, and justice and strong institutions. War and conflict cause suffering, violence, social unrest, destabilizes institutions, and disrupts the economy. In a global economy, war in one region creates a ripple effect across all nations. Isolated destruction is no longer the way of the world. Following conflict and war, displaced persons are forced to migrate to another country. Transportation and digital infrastructure is often times destroyed or badly damaged creating economic havoc. Food distribution and access to medical assistance are deeply impacted, leaving people without proper nutrition and health care.
AFTERMATH offers viewers the chance to see what happens in the wake of war. It provides a moment of reflection that leads to a deeper understanding of the human connection. To live in a sustainable world means to have awareness of the root causes of humanities issues and the willingness to make the world a better place for all. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
The Galleries at Kean and the Human Rights Institute honor the participating artists from around the world who captured moments of hardship, death, survival, happiness amidst chaos, and humanity as it refuses to give up.
Participating Artists
Rodrigo Abd, Juan Arredondo, Nina Berman, Pep Bonet, Andrea Bruce, Monika Bulaj, Christopher Capozziello, Bharat Choudhary, Lara Ciarabellini, Kathryn Cook, Tinka Dietz, Gwenn Dubourthoumieu, Philippe Dudouit, Christine Fenzl, , Danny Wilcox Frazier, Stanley Greene, Natela Grigalashvili, Jim Goldberg, Elizabeth Herman, Jessica Hines, Olga Ingurazova, Boryana Katsarova, Isabel Kiesewetter, Andrew Lichtenstein, Luca Locatelli, Martino Lombezzi, Paolo Marchetti, Diana Markosian, , Brian Mccarty, Justyna Mielnikiewicz, Davide Monteleone, Maria Morina, Carlos Javier Ortiz, Louie Palu, Adam Patterson, Javad Parsa, Helena Schatzle, Andrew Stanbridge, Simon Brann Thorpe, Ami Vitale, Oksana Yushko, Michaël Zumstein
About the Curators
Sara Terry is an award-winning documentary photographer and filmmaker. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Aftermath Project, a non-profit grant and educational program that supports photographers covering post-conflict stories and disseminates their work. The Aftermath Project develops new conversations in the photojournalism and documentary photography worlds about the importance of aftermath issues. An accomplished speaker on aftermath and visual literacy issues, her lectures include the TedX talk “Storytelling in a Post-Journalism World.”
Teun van der Heijden is a graphic designer and co-founder of Heijdens Karwei, a graphic design agency, and a professor of Visual Design and Hybrid Media at the LUCA School of Arts in Genk, Belgium.
References
What is the Cost of War in Countries Around the World? Visionofhumanity.org
3 Examples of Countries Recovering from War Today - The Borgen Project – borgenproject.org
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals#history
Spring 2021 Exhibit
Come Together
Click here to watch the Capturing Change Artist Panel
Come Together, a visual conversation about the global #Blacklivesmatter movement’s impact in New Jersey and NYC, is an exhibition that creates engagement through artistry. Talented photographers from New Jersey and the greater New York area have captured and preserved unique moments of the #Blacklivesmatter movement.
Exhibition curated by Lynette Zimmerman, Keyaira Boone ’14, and Cristina Fittipaldi ’14, ’19
March 4- May 7, 2021
Featured Artists : Austin J. Cuttino, Jordan Galiano, Robert Gerhardt, Cesar Melgar, Sir Moore, Jazzlyn Ortega, Danielle Scott, Kareem Wilder
