Ruffin Gallery at the UVA Department of Art presents Time Spent, Time Taken, a group exhibition featuring work from 2026 Studio Art Graduates and Aunspaugh Fellows. This exhibition is Co-curated by Alex Del Dago and Leo Palma, PhD Candidates in Art and Architectural History.
Time Spent, Time Taken developed from conversations between student artists, faculty, and curators about time and what it means to make something from it. Across the show, time morphs and melds, sometimes abandoning any sense of narrative or linearity. Drawing on durational places and things such as historical sites, family photographs, and personal stories, these artists offer glimpses into moments that have already happened, while also showing how those occurrences continue to matter and shape the way we move forward.
The works in this exhibition also reflect on how time can be shaped as a mode of engagement. They ask for patience, attention, and care: some pieces invite viewers to linger and look closely; others ask us to sit with uncertainty or discomfort. In each work, there are marks that were revised, materials that were reworked, and ideas that changed shape along the way. These works remind us that making art takes time, and that time leaves a visible trace.
Together, the exhibition reflects on what it means to remember, to notice, and to carry experiences forward. As this group of artists reaches the end of their undergraduate and fifth-year studies, this exhibition honors the time they have spent here and looks ahead to what they will make, where they will go, and how this experience will continue to shape their work.
Leo Palma is a third-year PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Architectural History. His research focuses on the art of post-war Italy, examining questions of identity, materiality, and cross-temporal references in the visual language of experience.
Alex Del Dago is a Ph.D. Candidate in Art & Architectural History at the University of Virginia. He studies and works in the field of Modern & Contemporary American Art, with an emphasis on gender and sexuality, labor history, and figurative art. He is currently writing his dissertation, which examines how queer artists in the twentieth-century United States deployed representations of laboring bodies to address the alienation experienced by gay and working-class communities.
Participating artists include: Spirit Chavis, Chloe Clayborne, Tracy Echais, Tina Fout, Kat Hart, Brianna Lebron, Logan Luke, Lillian McCluer, Kenneth Nguyen, Adele Park, Grace Parlee, Wright Quist, Jonathan Rimmington, Reese Robers, Dutch Senft, Bee Smith, Avarice Stankiewicz, Gabi Thornton, Natalia Wunder
ON VIEW May 16 - June 6, 2026
Gallery open Mondays-Fridays, 9am-5pm
PRESS CONTACT Stephanie Germosen Salazar Ruffin Gallery Coordinator University of Virginia Art Department ruffin-gallery@virginia.edu
Image: Chloe Clayborne, Courtesy of the artist