Art of the Contemplative Commons
The art installed in the Contemplative Commons has been intentionally curated to promote student, faculty, and visitor well-being by integrating the nature-centered design of the Commons; promoting innovative thinking and experiential learning; and enabling cross-disciplinary participation and dialogue. The body of work also highlights pieces by locally-connected artists, alumni, and faculty of the University of Virginia and prioritizes access and inclusivity by engaging diverse audiences and artists.
Artists of the Contemplative Commons include: Mahari Chabwera, Dean Dass & Clay Witt, Asa Jackson, Alan Bur Johnson, Meg Hitchcock, Meghann Riepenhoff, Ana Rendich, and Jackie Watson. We've highlighted some of the work installed in the Contemplative Commons below. This is followed by a section on the immersive art installations at the Contemplative Commons, featuring works by Wolfgang Buttress and Matthew Burtner.
Dean Dass and Clay Witt
The Conference of the Birds, 2006. Intaglio, pigment, polymer emulsion, rust, and lapis lazuli gesso on walnut panel,
72 x 48"
The Conference of the Birds was created in 2006 by UVA Studio Art department alumnus Clay Witt and his mentor, former Professor of Studio Art Dean Dass. The piece reflects not only the creative practice of each accomplished artist, but also a unique teacher-student collaboration, making it an important part of each artist’s oeuvre.
Dean Dass
Dean Dass received his B.A. in 1978 from the University of Northern Iowa, where he studied art, philosophy and anthropology. He received his M.F.A. from The Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1980. Dean Dass taught studio art at the University of Virginia for 35 years (1985-2020). In 2003, he was nominated by students and received the All-University Teaching Award at the University of Virginia. He has been invited to participate in three National Print Invitational Exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and his works have been included in important juried and invitational exhibitions in museums in Poland, Brazil, England, Finland, the Netherlands, Egypt, as well as in many university and private galleries in the US and abroad. Dass has received the State of Pennsylvania Arts Council Individual Fellowship, the State of Virginia Commission for the Arts Printmaking Prize, the State of Virginia Commission for the Arts Individual Fellowship, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Individual Fellowship, in addition to many research grants from the University of Virginia. In 2007, Dass received a Sesquicentennial Research Fellowship from the University of Virginia that enabled him to work and travel for one month in Imatra, Finland and two months in Paris. Dean Dass Lives and works in Charlottesville, VA. Learn more.
Clay Witt
Clay Witt began his formal education in the arts with a BA at the University of Virginia. His thirst for deepening his artistic knowledge led him to pursue an MFA in painting and printmaking, which he earned from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 2001, Witt's talents earned him a Fulbright scholarship, marking a pivotal point in his career. This achievement facilitated a two-year apprenticeship with a master Arabic calligrapher in Damascus, Syria. Living and learning in the heart of the Middle East, Witt was absorbed in a unique cultural milieu that continues to influence his style today. Witt's works are held in collections across both the United States and Europe. Clay Witt Lives and works in Charlottesville, VA. Learn more.
Megan Hitchcock
Detail from The Sea, Parts I and II
Meg Hitchcock’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, text-based art, three-dimensional work and writing, reflecting her lifelong interest in spirituality, psychology, and literature. Hitchcock’s “text drawings” transform language into a visual medium, made from letters individually cut from one literary or sacred text and meticulously arranged to form intricate compositions spelling passages from another, inviting meditation on the layered meanings of both texts.
In The Sea, Parts I and II, Hitchcock draws from two ancient, epic texts with references to the ocean to recreate two contemporary poems exploring reverence for nature, spiritual harmony, and the restorative flow of water, in the form of horizontal vistas of the sea. The left panel (Part I) uses letters cut from The Aeneid by Virgil to recreate Diane Ackerman’s poem “School Prayer,” while the right panel (Part II) draws from The Odyssey by Homer to transcribe Jennifer Reis' “In Praise of the Beauty of Water Within.” Viewed from a distance, the diptych suggests the vastness of the ocean, its waves and rhythms echoing the sea’s surface. As one approaches, the abstract forms dissolve into letters, periods, and commas—offering a deeper, more intimate view of the text that is present in the work. The passage of time is implied, as one contemplates the careful cutting and placing of each individual letter, period, and comma, through Hitchcock’s deeply meditative and repetitive creative practice. The resulting work reflects on the restorative power of water, contemplative ritual, and the connections between ancient and contemporary narratives. Learn more.
Meg Hitchcock
Meg Hitchcock is a New York-based artist whose work has been recognized with significant awards and distinctions, including a 2024 Pollock-Krasner Grant and a 2023 Gottlieb Foundation Grant. She has exhibited across the U.S. and internationally at institutions including MASS MoCA, the Currier Museum of Art, the CODA Museum (Netherlands), Virginia MOCA, the Crystal Bridges Museum, where she was included in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, and Les Yeux du Monde gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia. Learn more.
Asa Jackson
Daybreak (Dawn of Consciousness 2), 2024. Deconstructed corduroy pants, construction safety vests, deconstructed denim work garments, thrifted and dyed corduroy.
Asa Jackson’s multi-disciplinary practice explores the cross section of textiles from various countries, time periods, and personal histories, transforming fabric into visual narratives. His work acts as an anthropological study of collective and individual human experiences. By cutting and sewing fabrics together, Jackson metaphorically merges cultures, people and places into symbolically unified compositions.
For Daybreak (Dawn of Consciousness 2), Jackson drew inspiration from a site visit to this building, sourcing materials and meaning imbued with the spirit of contemplation and connection. “I was inspired to use garments from the construction crew to complete the piece, paralleling their efforts in completing the building,” he explains. “The foundation and backing of the work is supported by their clothing and vests, and their garments make their way into other elements of the piece.”
Jackson’s composition incorporates symbols and ideas garnered from his own practice of meditation. “A sunrise on the horizon represents both the literal and metaphorical dawn of a new day, an elevation of consciousness, and the expansion of one’s spirit,” he states. “The yellow sun symbolizes a source of illumination and awareness; blue waters represent fluid emotions and the subconscious; layers of sediment signify the physical body and nature of existence, and an implied shoreline reflects the balance between and meeting of these aspects of self.”
Asa Jackson
Asa Jackson is an artist and arts leader. He studied sociology at Boston University and has exhibited his work at MoCA Arlington, Virginia MOCA, and the Harvey B. Gantt Center. Jackson’s work is in the permanent collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and The Rockwell Museum. He co-founded the CAN Foundation in Newport News, VA and served on the board of the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Currently, Jackson is President and CEO of the McColl Center in Charlotte, NC. Learn more.
Ana Rendich
Spiritual Awakening II
Ana Rendich’s creative practice explores the world of interiority, the consciousness of the being, and interconnectedness through both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works. Her three-dimensional pieces demonstrate a masterful understanding of color, materiality, and spatial relationships, offering both aesthetic delight and intimate meditations on space, connection, and our shared humanity. Inviting contemplation, her work engages with the rhythms of the world around us.
For Spiritual Awakening, Rendich immersed herself in the architecture and intention of the Contemplative Commons, creating an installation of forty pieces in thoughtful dialogue with each other and their surrounding environment. “My creative process does not set out to make uplifting or happy art,” Rendich explains, “Instead, each piece was born that way. It is visually how I transformed the medium, the interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual realms. This has been a journey of interconnectedness with the nature and rhythms of the earth and the inherent spirituality of everyday existence.”
Ana Rendich
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rendich studied Scenic Design at Universidad del Salvador and Costume Design at the Instituto Superior de Arte at the Teatro Colón, one of the world’s premier opera houses. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally, including the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, the Katzen Art Center at the American University, Washington DC, the Siena Art Institute in Italy, and Les Yeux du Monde gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rendich now lives and works in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Learn more.
Meghann Riepenhoff
Ice #241 (-2-42°F, Colorado River, CO 12.19.21-12.21.21), 2021, Unique Dynamic Cyanotype, Triptych. Riepenhoff's piece, Ice #229 is also featured in the Contemplative Commons.
Meghann Riepenhoff’s camera-less cyanotypes are created in collaboration with the landscape and water sources, at the edges of both. Paper coated with homemade cyanotype emulsion are draped along the shore, across branches, or packed in snow. Rain and snow, tide and current, wind and sediment all leave physical inscriptions through direct contact with the photographic materials. The works in Riepenhoff’s related Littoral Drift and Ecotone stem from her fascination with the nature of our relationships to the landscape, the sublime, time, and impermanence. Her latest series, Ice, comprises works created in freezing waters. Photochemically, the pieces are never wholly processed, and will continue to slowly respond to the changing environments that they encounter over time. Riepenhoff's oeuvre is a record of its environment's state at a particular time, reflecting the ephemerality of weather conditions and the ever-changing nature of the Earth's climate at large. Every work implicitly asks viewers to consider their unseen impact on the shifting natural world around them, made visible through Riepenhoff’s photographic explorations.
Meghann Riepenhoff
Riepenhoff received her BFA from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA; and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, CA. Her work has been featured in the de Young Museum, San Francisco CA (2023); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA (2022); Portland Art Museum, OR (2021); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2020); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2018); New York Public Library, NY (2018); Denver Art Museum, CO (2018); Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL (2017); and the Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA (2017), among other institutions. Public collections holding her work include the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Worcester Museum of Art, MA; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
In 2018, Riepenhoff was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. She has additionally been a recipient of a Fleishhacker Foundation Grant (2015), and artist residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sasusalito, CA; and Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. Her work has been the subject of two monographs: Littoral Drift + Ecotone (2018) and Ice (2022), both published by Radius Books. Riepenhoff lives and works in Bainbridge Island, WA. Learn more.
Jackie Watson
ADAGIO, 2025. Oil on Canvas, 72” x 96”.
A meditation on soul, solitude, experience and trust, Adagio embodies a space where ideas move freely - an extension of the spirit, unbound by time or restriction. It carries a sense of permanence yet remains transitory, leaving behind a lingering vibration that exists beyond the tangible. A quiet energy hums beneath its surface, evoking a gentle balance of stillness and movement.
Jackie Watson
Jackie Watson is a Charlottesville-based artist known for her richly-layered oil paintings on canvas. She received her B.F.A. in Painting from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1985 and her MFA from Hunter College in New York in 1987. Watson has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions at prestigious galleries in both the US and abroad. Her work can be found in significant collections including but not limited to that of The London Company, Richmond, Virginia; the International Petroleum Corporation, Dubai, UAE; Grupo Albion, Madrid; Scudder, Stevens and Clark, Boston, MA. Learn more.
Immersive Installations
NINFEO
By Wolfgang Buttress, 2024. Multimedia. Immersive sound and light piece located on the first floor of the Contemplative Commons off the Gallery.
In fall 2024, international artist Wolfgang Buttress came to Contemplative Sciences Center for the commissioning of his latest piece, NINFEO, an immersive sound, light, and sculptural experience housed on the first floor of the Contemplative Commons. NINFEO contains 3,320 laser-etched illuminated crystal blocks inspired by the water lilies of the Dell Pond. Buttress installed an infrared camera which tracks the movement of fish, flora, and currents in the Dell and trigger a responsive light and sound system that infuses the installation. Inspired by Monet’s Ninfee e Nuvole and the Villa di Liva in Rome, each crystal block is unique and the composition of light is ever-changing. NINFEO can be experienced whenever the Contemplative Commons is open. See more on NINFEO here.
Wolfgang Buttress
Wolfgang Buttress is an award winning artist working within public and private space. His multi-disciplinary studio is based in Nottingham, UK and consists of some of the best multi-disciplined designers, architects, engineers, makers and musicians from around the world. They also work with a close family of incredible collaborators including scientists, structural engineers, fabricators, lighting specialists, film makers, people movement specialists and more. Wolfgang’s more recent public works seek to create a sense of wonder, connecting the visitor to nature using live, data-driven immersive sound, light and scent experiences.
Reef Resounding
By Matthew Burtner, 2025. Multimedia. Conservatory, Studio 4B, Contemplative Commons.
Reef Resounding is an immersive light and sound experience created by UVA Professor of Music Matthew Burtner. The piece features midnight sounds of oysters and data sonification of reefs on the Virginia’s Eastern Shore connected to the light display in the room. On the fourth floor of the Contemplative Commons, the Conservatory is a light and sound studio designed to exhibit works such as Professor Burtner’s Reef Resounding, but the room is also used by the Contemplative Sciences Center’s Research wing. The current hours that the Conservatory is open to the public can be found on its webpage here.
Matthew Burtner
A member of the Faculty Research Council for the Contemplative Sciences Center, Matthew Burtner is the Eleanor Shea Professor of Music at the University of Virginia. An Alaskan-born composer, sound artist and ecoacoustician whose research explores embodiment, ecology, polytemporality and noise, his music has been performed in concerts around the world and featured by organizations such as NASA, PBS NewsHour, the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the BBC, the U.S. State Department under President Obama, and National Geographic.