This installation brings together work by the acclaimed potter Maria Martinez and multimedia artist Rose B. Simpson, whose sculpture “Seed” is the first new addition to Vassar’s campus art in nearly 20 years.

Titled For Maria, this exhibition honors Maria Martinez as both an artistic innovator and a guiding presence for future generations, including Simpson. This Spotlight exhibition brings together three of Rose B. Simpson’s preliminary drawings for the new campus sculpture, Seed, a pair of lithographs of her restored and painted ’85 El Camino titled Maria, and black-on-black pottery by Tewa artists Maria and Julian Martinez. It highlights the shared Pueblo lineage between the two artists, emphasizing matrilineal knowledge, clay-based practices, and design elements drawn from the surrounding landscape. Simpson’s works act as emissaries, grounded in ancestral traditions and shaped by personal and cultural memory, as they carry the past forward and open new directions for the future.

Organized by Summer Curatorial Student Assistant, Katherine Bernstein, Vassar College, Class of ’27. Support for Spotlight is provided by Mary Ellen Weisl Rudolph ’61, P’98 and James N. Rudolph P’98.

MODfest 2026