WILSON, N.C. — September 29, 2025 — Barton College will welcome home alumnus Benjamin Hawley as the fall 2025 artist-in-residence at the Barton Art Galleries. His exhibition, “A sentence that cannot be taken in or forgotten,” will be on view Oct. 23–Nov. 26 in the Case Art Building.
Hawley, who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Barton College in 2017, will return to campus Oct. 20–Nov. 1 to mentor students, share his studio practice, and engage with the Wilson community. Based in Boston, Hawley creates paintings that explore how memory and observation transform familiar forms into new meaning.
The public is invited to a reception on Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 5–7 p.m., with a gallery talk at 6 p.m. Additional residency events include community workshops on Saturdays, Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, from 10 a.m.–2 p.m., and a coffee chat on Wednesday, Oct. 30, from 4–5 p.m. All events are free of charge, and the community is encouraged to attend.
The community workshops, titled “Abstraction from Observation,” will focus on transforming still-life subjects into abstract interpretations through composition and color. Participants are asked to bring basic supplies, including charcoal and paper, paint (oil or acrylic), brushes, and rags for wiping out.
Please contact Maureen O’Neill, director of exhibitions and educational programming at the Barton Art Galleries, at [email protected] or 252-399-6476, with any questions about the workshops or required materials.
About the artist —
A Wilson native now based in Boston, Hawley earned his Master of Fine Arts in painting from Boston University in 2022, where he received the Joseph Ablow Memorial Painting Prize. His work has been featured in exhibitions at Kathryn Markel Gallery, The Painting Center, and Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York; Gallery 263 in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Grant Wahlquist Gallery in Portland, Maine. His paintings have appeared in “New American Paintings” (MFA Annual #177), “ArtMaze Magazine,” and “Artsin Square Magazine.”
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