Alum Explores the Power of Memory in Hewitt Gallery Exhibit
Open gallery
Through October 14, MMC’s Hewitt Gallery of Art presents Rituals and Rupture, a five-piece solo exhibition by Kallie Cassidy ’25. Developed during her senior year at the College, the work explores how everyday routines, such as eating, grooming, and sleeping, are imbued with memory and often become sites where the desire for control collides with life’s unpredictability. Using experimental materials pulled from her own day-to-day—bedding, coffee grounds, oatmeal, and strands of hair—along with watercolor pigment and delicate shafts of cheesecloth, Cassidy created flowing forms that suggest transformation as well as impermanence. (Learn more about the pieces.)
A process-based artist, she gleaned new insights the deeper she dove into the project. “When I first started, I was mainly exploring things in my surroundings and the memories they carry,” Cassidy said. “But as I went on, I began thinking about materiality and setting and the weight that certain objects have—how some are heavier than others.”
As she investigates the power of memory in her art, she has also been reflecting on her years at 71st Street, which she describes as pivotal to her life and career. Fresh off receiving a BA in Art History and a BFA in Art last May, she began working toward an MFA in Fine Arts at Brooklyn College this month, in a program known for its internationally recognized artists. She’s also looking forward to creating and finding new outlets for more of her evocative, interdisciplinary work. Her optimism about the future was made possible by MMC, she said, where she found support and space to grow and was encouraged to build relationships with artists throughout the city.
“I thought I was going to be really nervous about graduating, but I’m so thankful that Marymount and my professors really prepared me for postgraduate life,” she said. “And with all the connections I’ve made through the College and my internships, it still feels like I’m in a very close-knit community, which is something I was nervous about losing.”
Cassidy grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, and enrolled in the Studio Practices concentration as a freshman, with no intention of becoming a professional artist; though she had a passion for drawing, she planned to work as an art teacher. That changed in her sophomore year after she took a Survey of Western Art course. Not only did she fall in love with Art History, eventually adding it as a second major, but learning about artists and art movements inspired her to devote new energy to her own work.
“Before I took the course, my perception of Art History was very limited—I thought we’d focus on the artists you always hear about, the ones I learned about in high school,” she said. “I thought I was going to hate it. But it showed me that Art History is much broader than I thought and can be taught from so many different perspectives.”
She was encouraged along the way by faculty mentors, including Professor and Chair of Art and Art History Hallie Cohen, Associate Professor of Art Beth Shipley, and Professor of Art History Adrienne Baxter Bell, Ph.D., who were impressed with her natural skills and desire to evolve.
“From her first year at MMC, Kallie demonstrated exceptional talent, determination, and work ethic,” Shipley said. “Moving deftly from drawing to sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, video, performance, and painting, she increasingly embraced experimental practices and discovered new ways to integrate her evolving social and political ideas.”
That growth is evident in pieces such as Cassidy’s Ode on Melancholy, selected for the 2024 Junior Art Majors Exhibit. Inspired by Navajo sand paintings, it evolved from plaster casts to charcoal drawings and video performance, an “astonishing trajectory from simple beginnings to a complex and elegant work of art that embodied interdisciplinary practice with precision and aesthetic clarity,” Shipley said.
Cassidy’s art has been featured in several Hewitt Gallery group exhibitions, including 2024’s Echoing Identities: Light and Form and Mind, Body, Spirit: A Collection, as well as the annual It’s a Happening: Arts in The Judy showcase. Her sculpture Apricity was featured in Shardeology: Making with the Future in Mind, at The Factory in Long Island City last year.
MMC faculty also nurtured her interest in curation. Working with Alex Alvarez ’23, Cassidy co-curated Making Visible: Migration and Identity, a 2023 group exhibition at the Hewitt Gallery, in which nine immigrant artists examined issues of assimilation, adaptation, cultural identity, and representation. Last spring, Cassidy and Cohen, who serves as the Hewitt Gallery’s director, co-curated The Body Politic: Women, Earth, and the Environment, a showcase of 11 women artists’ work exploring their engagement with the natural world. The opportunities arose after Cassidy expressed interest in researching themes of immigration and migration, as well as eco-feminism, the topic of her senior Art capstone.
“Art has proven to be an invaluable educational tool for me,” Cassidy said. “It can be a great way to open up conversations about what’s going on politically and socially.”
Cassidy still hopes to teach at the college level one day and support young artists just as her MMC professors have supported her. In fact, she was drawn to Brooklyn College’s MFA program partly because of its emphasis on teaching assistantships.
And, as the fall semester gets underway, she advises new and returning MMC students to simply follow their interests. That approach, she said, allowed her to grow more confident and learn to trust that her instincts would steer her in the right direction.
At the same time, she also encourages them to remain open to trying new things, from classes outside their major—she found inspiration in film and science classes—to clubs and activities outside their comfort zones. “You’ll find that you’re always drawn to something for a reason,” she said. “You might not understand it in the beginning, but you’ll eventually figure it out in the end.”
Published: August 29, 2025
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