Leah DeVun, Visibility, 2022, Archival Inkjet Print, 16 x 22 inches Edition of 3 + 1AP, Courtesy of the artist & Mrs. Gallery

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- In September, The Center for Women in the Arts at Douglass announced award-winning photographer, scholar, and Rutgers Professor, Leah DeVun as the 2024-2025 Lebowitz Artist-in-Residence at Rutgers University. DeVun’s exhibition, Leah DeVun: Resemblance is currently on view until March 14, 2025 in the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries, Douglass Library.

Through photographs of her trans partner and their son, DeVun’s work offers a window into queer life challenging public discourse that often centers on anti-LGBTQ pain and violence. The series invites viewers to reflect on the concept of resemblance and its ties to family. Her work has received critical acclaim, including being a finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Prize and featured in the Alone Together: Critical Mass 2023 Top 50 exhibition at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.

During her residency, DeVun will engage with students, present public programming, and lead this year’s Gender & Arts Learning Community– Imaging Queer and Trans Lives– in collaboration with artist and RU graduate, Em Gallagher. Learning Community students will participate in an exhibition the final weeks of the spring semester. The exhibitions will be accompanied by an online catalogue in summer of 2025.

The Mabel Smith Douglass Library is located at 8 Chapel Drive in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Free and open to the public: Monday-Thursday 9:00am-8:00pm; Friday 9:00am-6:00pm; subject to libraries’ operating schedule.

The Center for Women in the Arts at Douglass provides experiential arts offerings to students at Rutgers’ Douglass Residential College that advance the work and ideas of exceptional women and gender diverse artists and arts professionals through exhibitions, year-long campus residencies, and other arts opportunities. Funding provided by Juliette Mittendorf Hill Fine Arts Endowment, the Estelle Lebowitz & Ann Beneduce Lebowitz Memorial Fund, and the Mary H. Dana Fund. The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series and the Lebowitz Artist-in-Residence are presented in partnership with Rutgers University Libraries and the Art & Design Department, Mason Gross School of the Arts.