INFORMATION FOR
The William Paterson University Galleries present Pattern Recognition, a solo exhibition by acclaimed New York–based artist Rita MacDonald, which will be on view from April 8 through May 28, 2026, in the South Gallery of the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts. MacDonald was awarded the 2025 Grand Prize in the University Galleries’ national juried printmaking exhibition, Ink, Press, Repeat.
The exhibition brings together MacDonald’s meticulous works on paper with a newly created, large‑scale, site‑specific wall mural, offering visitors an immersive encounter with her distinctive visual language. Drawing from domestic architecture and everyday objects, MacDonald explores how repetition, pattern, and perception shape our understanding of place and memory.
Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m., with a few additional hours as advertised. Admission is free.
An artist talk and opening reception will take place in the South Gallery on Friday, May 8, with Rita MacDonald in conversation with Ellen Hoobler, PhD., director of University Galleries, from 4:30–5:00 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 5:00–6:30 p.m.
MacDonald describes herself as an artist who creates “very large temporary wall drawings and very small pencil drawings on paper”—both of which are featured in Pattern Recognition. Across scales and media, her work investigates the tension between abstraction and recognition, inviting viewers to oscillate between seeing pattern as pure form and as fragments of familiar, lived experience.
Inspired by Minimalist artists such as Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, and Frank Stella, MacDonald employs geometric and striped motifs derived from interior architecture and textiles. Through repetition and subtle distortion, these motifs become both decorative and destabilizing, encouraging multiple, concurrent readings.
Curated by Ellen Hoobler, PhD, with prior assistance from acting director Cate Griffin, the exhibition focuses primarily on new graphic works on paper, complemented by a mural painted directly on the gallery wall. The mural underscores MacDonald’s long‑standing engagement with public and site‑responsive work.
Also on view is a series of woodcut prints developed during MacDonald’s residencies at the Institute for Electronic Arts (IEA) at Alfred University in 2021 and 2024. These works merge traditional printmaking with digital technologies: original drawings are transformed into digital files, laser‑cut into Baltic birch wood, and printed using a traditional press.
Returning to wood as both material and metaphor, MacDonald also presents drawings of wood floorboards that document the floors of places she has lived. By flattening pictorial space and emphasizing grid structures, these works highlight what the artist describes as “the friction between abstraction and recognizable observation.”
MacDonald has completed major public art commissions for the NYC Arts for Transit Program (Avenue J station on the Q line, mosaic), the Alliance for Downtown New York’s Re:Construction Program at the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, and Google offices, among other locations.
Also on view from April 13 to May 8, 2026, Here/Now: A Juried Exhibition of Student Artwork showcases new work by students from the William Paterson University Art Department.
This exhibition is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair accessible, and large‑print educational materials are available.
For additional information, please contact the William Paterson University Galleries at 973‑720‑2654.
