The University Gallery is a contemporary art gallery that serves the Art & Design Department, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, as well as the city of Lowell and the greater Merrimack Valley Region. The gallery hosts 4-6 major exhibitions each year, including the biannual B.F.A. show featuring the senior projects from the Art & Design studios. From emerging artists to seasoned practitioners with national and international reputations, the University Gallery's exhibition program showcases a broad variety of artistic approaches, media and content reflecting the curricula of the Art & Design program and enhancing the cultural environment of the community and surrounding area. 

The University Gallery is located on the 1st floor of Mahoney Hall at 870 Broadway Street, Lowell.

Gallery Exhibitions: Admission is free and opening receptions usually include a lecture by the curator or exhibiting artist.

Current Exhibit

Ann Gale
Faces + Figures

Exhibition runs: Sep. 4 – Oct. 9, 2019
Artist talk: Tuesday, Sept. 17, 3:30 p.m. Location TBA.
Reception: Tuesday, Sept. 17, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. in the University Gallery
These events are free, wheelchair accessible, and open to the public.

Ann Gale is an American painter based in Seattle, Washington, whose work features fractured segments of color that depict human figures.  Her paintings are fraught with psychological tension and she often spends months or even years with a single painting.  Gale shares an affinity with painters such as Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, and Antonio Lopez-Garcia. 

Gale paints people from direct observation, searching for what is apparent beyond the guarded and practiced stance of the individual. She focuses on measuring and distilling observations of light and form. In her recent work, she focuses on the psychological presence of her models and the intimacy revealed through the process of observation.  The image exists as an intricate composite of observations revealing the fragile and momentary nature of perception.   

Gale received her BFA from the Rhode Island College and her MFA from Yale University. She is a professor of painting at the University of Washington School of Art.  She won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and was elected into the National Academy of Art & Design in 2009. Ann Gale is included in the America Federation of Art’s current exhibition – “For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design, a traveling exhibition that will be at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Ct from Oct. 16, 2019 – April 12, 2020.

Gale’s work has been shown in galleries and museums across the United States including solo exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon and the Weatherspoon Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her work is represented by the Dolby Chadwick gallery, San Francisco.