For our Summer/Fall 2025 season, Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) are pleased to present two exhibitions which explore and expand upon representations of marginalized bodies while complicating boundaries of power, protest, and visibility.

Our Medford galleries will feature Beverly Semmes: Boulders/Flag/Flip/Kick, an ambitious one-person exhibition from Tufts/SMFA alumna Beverly Semmes (BA/BFA ’82), who has built an extensive art practice in sculpture, painting, film, performance, and fashion that probes the paradoxes and complexities of the body and its representation.

At TUAG / Boston (SMFA at Tufts), How do you throw a brick through the window…, a multi-year research initiative comprised of a symposium, artist-led workshops, and exhibitions, co-organized by TUAG with John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC), will invite artists Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma to engage with the radical questioning of Korean American writer, artist, and musician Johanna Hedva: “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?” Written in the aftermath of the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests, Hedva’s 2016 text “Sick Woman Theory” reverberates in the wake of 2020 protests for racial equity and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We invite you to learn more about Beverly Semmes: Boulder/Flag/Flip/Kick and How do you throw a brick… below and to browse our current and upcoming exhibitions at artgalleries.tufts.edu.

Tufts/SMFA alumna Beverly Semmes (BA/BFA ’82) has built an extensive practice in sculpture, painting, film, performance, and fashion that probes the paradoxes and complexities of the body and its representation.

Best known for her oversized dress sculptures, begun in the early 1990s—followed by her FRP (Feminist Responsibility Project) series of over-painted pornographic images and clay sculptures—Semmes has played with the scale, exposure or covering, and abstraction of the female form for over three decades.

Opening July 29 at TUAG / Medford, Beverly Semmes: Boulders / Flag / Flip / Kick presents the most comprehensive survey of Semmes’ work to date: beginning in her student days at Tufts, where she tested ideas of ephemerality, scale, and representation in the itinerate installation Boulders, to her most recent fabric installations, ceramics, and paintings that continue to explore issues of female visibility and presence.

Boulders/Flag/Flip/Kick  is curated by Dina Deitsch with the artist and Camilo Alvarez.

Read the full Press Release here.

How do you throw a brick through the window… presents new commissions and recent works of art exploring how individuals with disabilities navigate forms of protest despite the normalization of ableism in public spaces.

Opening at TUAG / Boston September 2, and on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) February 28–October 25, 2026, the exhibition is part of a two-year research initiative co-organized by TUAG and JMKAC that began in 2024.

How do you throw a brick through the window… features the work of seven artists—Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma—who engage the radical questioning of Korean American writer, artist, and musician Johanna Hedva: “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?,” from their 2016 text “Sick Woman Theory.” 

The exhibition is co-organized by TUAG Curator Laurel V. McLaughlin and JMKAC Associate Curator Tanya Gayer in dialogue with the artists.

The accompanying symposium for HDYTB and pre-exhibition programming at TUAG were supported by a curatorial research fellowship from The Andy Warhhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for Laurel V. McLaughlin. Access for programming support for the exhibition is provided by an anonymous donor. 

Read the full Press Release here.

Generous support for TUAG’s Fall 2025 exhibitions and programming is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.