Michal Chelbin, Alicia, Ukraine, 2005, chromogenic print, 10/10.Gift of Pier 24 and the Pilara Foundation [2025.1.81.] / Photo of image in SMCMoA by Francis Tatem
Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art Announces Two Student-Curated Exhibitions for Fall 2026
“Choreographies of Calamities: Art Hazelwood and the Media of War” and “Fix Your Face: Representations of the Female Gaze” explore questions surrounding war, media, representation, identity, and power.
Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art (SMCMoA) will open two student-curated exhibitions this September, bringing together works from the museum’s Permanent Collection to explore contemporary questions surrounding war, media, representation, identity, and power.
The exhibitions, Choreographies of Calamities: Art Hazelwood and the Media of War and Fix Your Face: Representations of the Female Gaze, were developed by students enrolled in Spring 2026 CORE 370: Curating the Museum. Working with museum curator britt royer, students across academic disciplines engaged in collaborative research, object selection, and exhibition development, gaining hands-on experience with the curatorial process.
The exhibitions will open to the public on September 16, with an opening reception at SMCMoA on September 17 from 5 to 8 p.m. Art Hazelwood, alongside student curator William Fraser, will lead a tour of Choreographies of Calamity on October 1, 10–11 a.m.. Hazelwood will also be featured as part of a panel highlighting homeless rights on November 18, 3–7 p.m..
Choreographies of Calamities: Art Hazelwood and the Media of War
Choreographies of Calamities: Art Hazelwood and the Media of War features 17 prints created by San Francisco-based artist and activist Art Hazelwood (b. 1961) primarily in response to the Iraq War in the early 2000s. This exhibition examines the intersections of militarism, media sensationalism, and political propaganda, inviting viewers to consider how war is represented, justified, and consumed in the United States.
Produced across four printmaking processes—engraving, etching, linocut, and screenprinting—Hazelwood draws on the democratic history of printmaking as a means of challenging dominant narratives surrounding war and engaging broad audiences. His practice combines meticulous detail with satire and grotesque imagery to examine the political rhetoric and systems of power that shape public perceptions of conflict.
“The minuteness, obsessiveness required were the perfect match for my wish to focus anger at details of this monumentally hubristic war.”
—Art Hazelwood
Central to the exhibition are ten engravings from Hubris Corpulentus, a series responding to the Iraq War. As Hazelwood explains, “The minuteness, obsessiveness required were the perfect match for my wish to focus anger at details of this monumentally hubristic war.”
Choreographies of Calamities invites viewers to reflect on how images influence our understanding of conflict and how artists can use visual culture to question systems of power. More than two decades after many of these works were created, Hazelwood’s prints continue to resonate amid ongoing warfare and the evolving ways audiences encounter news and representations of violence.
About Art Hazelwood
Art Hazelwood (b. Concord, Massachusetts, 1961) is a San Francisco-based artist, printmaker, educator, and political activist with a BA in Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1983. Hazelwood’s multidisciplinary practice includes creating prints, political posters, artist books, paintings, murals, and public art. For more than two decades, Hazelwood has collaborated with homeless rights organizations, using his work to bring visibility to housing insecurity and social inequality. His commitment to socially engaged art has also included work with unions, political art collectives, and community organizations. Through the San Francisco Poster Syndicate and other collaborative projects, he has used public-facing printmaking to address issues ranging from student debt and homelessness to political repression and authoritarianism. Hazelwood teaches drawing and art programs across various educational settings, including San Quentin State Prison.
Fix Your Face: Representations of the Female Gaze
Fix Your Face: Representations of the Female Gaze invites viewers to consider the power dynamics of looking and the ways images shape perceptions of identity, agency, and vulnerability. Bringing together eleven works by nine women artists, Fix Your Face unites the media of photography, printmaking, and painting to examine the concept of the gaze and the relationship among the viewer, the subject, and the artist.
Focusing on the ideas of agency and social dynamics, the exhibition draws on the British film theorist Laura Mulvey’s concept of the “male gaze,” which describes how visual media have historically portrayed women as passive or sexualized objects. Fix Your Face considers an alternative: the female gaze, which can emphasize agency, emotional depth, and the complexity of individual experience. By placing the viewer at the center of these questions, the exhibition offers a timely opportunity to reconsider the power dynamics embedded in images and the role each of us plays in shaping what—and whom—we see. Together, these works challenge viewers to consider how their own perspectives influence the act of looking. Fix Your Face asks: Who is seen, who is invisible, and how can changing the gaze change the way we understand one another?
“I learned to critically analyze a piece of media even if I didn’t initially understand it,” says Cole Erdmann ’28, a student in CORE 370, the course in which students were involved in the curatorial process. Erdmann says he found himself shaking off the notion that “I just don’t have the mindset to interpret and appreciate artistry.” And he was particularly drawn to Marion Palfi’s photograph In the Shadow of the Capitol. “This still image is so full of personality and emotion that it feels alive.”
Featured artists in the exhibit include Jackie Nickerson, Nicola Constantino, Johnna Arnold, Michal Chelbin, Barbara Ravizza, Barbara Warren Ebersole, Kathe Kollwitz, Louise Hervieu, and Marion Palfi. The three photographs by Jackie Nickerson, along with works by Constantino, Arnold, and Chelbin, will be on view for the first time as part of a recent gift from the Pilara Family Foundation and Pier 24.
Installation image of the exhibition Fix Your Face: Representations of the Female Gaze, curated by students in CORE 370. Photograph courtesy of Francis Tatem.
About Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art
Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art (SMCMoA) is a landmark in Northern California art, with a permanent collection of over 5,000 objects. Inspired by its founder, Brother Cornelius Braeg, the museum cares for the nation’s most comprehensive collection of William Keith paintings. The museum offers educational and programming opportunities, featuring rotating exhibitions twice a year, for the College and the surrounding community. SMCMoA is located across the street from the Soda Activity Center at Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, California. Programs and admission are free for all. Public tours begin on Thursday, September 24, and will be offered on select Thursdays at 11 a.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. through December. The Museum of Art will be closed Wednesday, November 25, through Sunday, November 29, for Thanksgiving. Please contact Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art at (925) 631-4379 or email museum@stmarys-ca.edu for further details. More information can be found at stmarys-ca.edu/museum or by following us on social media @smcmoa.
About Saint Mary’s College of California
At Saint Mary’s College of California, we inspire minds, engage with the world, and create opportunities for students to find their lives transformed. With small class sizes and professors who know you by name, the Saint Mary’s experience empowers students to thrive—whether you’re an undergraduate or a professional looking for the next step in your career. Founded in 1863, the University is proud of our Lasallian heritage and how it fuels teaching and learning in an inclusive and wonderfully diverse community. More than 3,600 Gaels study on our Bay Area campus nestled in the rolling hills of Moraga, just 23 miles east of San Francisco. US News and World Report puts SMC among the top five regional universities in the West. You’ll also find Saint Mary’s highlighted in the guide Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges—the first Catholic college and the first university in California to make the list.
