Finding the Level

the Spring '26 Alice C. Cole '42 Studio Project Grant Exhibition

Olivia Gorman '22 | Ry Watkins '23

Jewett Art Gallery

Jan. 20 - Feb. 20, 2026

gallery with a blue wood room at left and a wall height piece of canvas illuminated from behind at right; the room has sand spilling out of its entrance

Finding the Level is an exhibition of new work by Olivia Gorman ’22 and Ry Watkins ’23. Both artists were recipients of an Alice C. Cole ’42 Studio Project Grant in 2024.

The height of water in a container or a landform rises or falls in response to changes in its environment, and water changes to take the shape of its enclosure. And water in adjacent areas is always connected: change one and you change its neighbors as each individual body of water seeks level across the whole.

While being level implies a settled, static state, finding level is a process of change, a series of questions and answers leading towards a kind of equalization.

The Alice C. Cole '42 Studio Project Grant provides project-based support to recent Wellesley College graduates for the development, production, and exhibition of new work in painting and sculpture, whatever those disciplines may mean to the artist. The fund enables promising recent graduates to set aside time for artistic development as well as to purchase materials, rent studio space, or access facilities for the creation of new projects.

Olivia Gorman '22

large canvas stretched across the corner of a gallery with horizontal lines all over its surface that have light shining through from behind

Olivia Gorman’s work is an exploration of mark-making and labor. Scaling up a mode of working begun while she was a student at Wellesley, her wall-sized canvas is marked by subtraction. Removing threads from the surface allows light to shine through; the lines on the surface are an accumulation of visible traces of work. A viewer standing close enough to the piece finds their field of vision filled, allowing for a meditation on the interconnected nature of work, value, process, and the ever-changing places these themes hold in a viewer’s life.

close up on angled canvas with threads removed to create horizontal lines with light shining through them from behind

close up on canvas with threads removed to create horizontal lines with light shining through them from behind

large canvas stretched across the corner of a gallery with horizontal lines all over its surface that have light shining through from behind, viewed from the left

Ry Watkins '23

wood paneled room with sand floor; various objects are hung on the walls and rest in the sand

Ry Watkins’ installation is an immersive environment that explores the multivalent relationship between Black Southerners and water. Watkins engages a multitude of media to reference the historical, cultural, and personal ways that water flows through the life and history of the Black American South. Each object within the installation carries its own story, but as each stream leads to a river, together they create a larger experience that invites a viewer to feel the ways water impacts the history of a region or a people, while understanding that such immersion only comes from the kinds of deeply specific stories that gave rise to each individual element of the artwork.

close up on a collaged quilt depicting a family scene

close up on an assemblage with knotted twine, fabric, cowrie shells against wood paneling

close up on silver branches with fishing lures hanging from them; wood paneling in the background

rectangular blue room with open door, showing wood paneled interior, sand floor, and various objects installed on the walls and floor of the space

person with curly pulled-back hair and glasses smiling in front of a large canvas

Olivia Gorman '22

Olivia Gorman is a Brookline, MA-based artist. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2022 with a double major in Studio Art and Women’s & Gender Studies. She works as a studio assistant for several local artists and has recently started working in art handling and installation. Her studio practice centers around the mark and how it engages with labor, materiality, and transparency of process.

person with curly black hair and large pink glasses on a white background

Ry Watkins '23

Ry Watkins is a New York-based artist. They graduated from Wellesley College in 2023 with a degree in Studio Art and are currently a candidate for Master of Fine Arts at Pratt School of Art. Their practice begins with the sensory landscape of the American South: its textures, rhythms, and complex visual languages. Collage provides a framework for them to build realities and articulate a nuanced Black Southern experience shaped by the archive, lived memory, and contemporary digital Black culture.

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