The John J. McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State University's Center of Contemporary Art, will open five dynamic exhibitions featuring guest artists Julia Betts, Anna Chapman, Abby Cipar, Will Hutnick and Sidney Mullis. 

These exhibits will be on display beginning Tuesday, January 21 through Friday, February 28. The artists will also be giving lectures as part of the Department of Art Lecture series in the McDonough Auditorium. 

Betts' exhibit, "The Damns are Broken," explores the human body as a fragile vessel yearning to break through boundaries and let its identity come forward. She will be giving her lecture Wednesday, February 5, at 5:30 PM.

Chapman's exhibit, "Underworld/Otherworld," focuses on death and grieving. Her lecture will be Wednesday, January 22, at 5:30 PM. 

Cipar states that her artwork exhibit presented in "Sometime, Somehow, For You," is "performing as stand-ins for my own, trans-nonbinary body." Her lecture will be Wednesday, February 12, at 5:30 PM. 

Hutnick's exhibit, "QUEER HORIZONS," is focused on the intersection of the natural environment, digital spaces and queerness. He will give his lecture Thursday, February 27, at 5:30 PM

Mullis' installation, Caught Skies and "Pillowed Pines," "is a make-believe forest. It is an invented landscape to think about childhood selves and to find where they retreat to in adulthood. The forest—often considered a transformational space in children's stories—is built of many parts that come together as sculptural installations," Mullis said.

Her lecture will occur Thursday, February 20, at 5:30 PM. 

A closing reception for all five exhibits will be held Friday, February 28, from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the McDonough Museum.

Entry to the exhibits and reception is free and open to the public with available parking in the Wick Avenue Deck (M30) for $5 fee payable in cash only.

The McDonough Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. 

You can take a look at all five pieces in the slideshow above.