Reclaiming Narratives: Rowan’s Art Gallery & Museum Announces 2025-2026 Exhibitions

The Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum announced the four exhibitions slated for the 2025-2026 season that explore the healing power of art through diverse approaches to portraiture and figuration. Themes from this year’s exhibitions include African folk culture, the Black LGBTQ experience and the past’s impact on the present as told through the lens of four independent artists.

“Each guest artist applies a different process in creating a narrative around the subjects in their work,” says Mary Salvante, Director and Chief Curator for the Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum. From sculptures derived from found objects and collage, to painting and digital tapestries embedded with “codes,” each exhibit showcases a unique and different artistic medium for visual and deeply moving storytelling.

Committed to presenting diverse forms of contemporary art with thought-provoking and relevant content, the Art Gallery & Museum serves as a vibrant cultural destination for the Rowan community, South Jersey and the surrounding region.

All exhibits are FREE and open to the public at 301 High Street in Glassboro.

2025-2026 Exhibitions Details:
vanessa german | Breathe from the Diaphragm: our eyes are in our lungs
September 2 - November 1, 2025

This exhibit offers respite from the external volatility in the world today. With work that focuses on selflessness, love, and the alignment of heart and mind, this exhibition serves as a platform to explore the healing power of art and the journey back to wholeness. Establishing her own self-taught approach and distinctive artistic language, German’s influential practice employs mineral crystals, beads, glass, found objects, and other sourced material to create expressive figurative sculptures that resound through the physical and metaphysical worlds. German has been featured in multiple museum exhibitions, and her work is held in many prestigious collections across the country.

An opening reception and artist talk will be held on September 10. Reserve your seat here.

Qualeasha Wood | code_anima
November 10, 2025 - January 10, 2026

In this exhibit, explore identity, physical and digital boundaries, and the process of individuation through analysis of complex and socially accepted paradoxes. The digital collages of her tapestries are embedded with a “code,” serving as a symbol for the inner workings of the dual experiences felt by Black people and the multifaceted online identities that mirror or oppose their physical existence. Born and raised in Long Branch, New Jersey, Wood has exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries, and her work is included in many public collections. She is currently represented by Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, UK.

Devan Shimoyama
January 26 - March 21, 2026

Devan Shimoyama is a visual artist who works primarily in painting and self-portraiture, with works inspired as much by classical mythology as by the culture of his youth. Through his depictions of the queer black male form, Shimoyama investigates the politics of queer culture while navigating his own personal narratives. Shimoyama was born in Philadelphia and lives and works in Pittsburgh. He is currently represented by De Buck Gallery in New York, and is the Cooper-Siegel Assistant Professor of Art in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

Jazlyne Sabree | The Spectrum of Resilience
April 6 - July 30, 2026

The Spectrum of Resilience reveals moments of strength, tenacity, vigor, and adaptation as experienced by members of the African Diaspora and the artist’s own African ancestry and genealogy. Resilience is expressed in the collage work that captures the authentic spirit of the subjects while calling for acceptance of their ancestral history in a time when their truths are being erased and distorted. Jazlyne Sabree is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Greater Philadelphia area. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in many museums and galleries.

For more details, visit go.rowan.edu/artgallery