The Springfield Museums is pleased to announce two compelling exhibitions that invite visitors to explore shifts in place, identity, and perception through distinctive artistic voices. These exhibitions—One Foot in Two Places: Monotype Prints and Etchings by Olwen O’Herlihy Dowling and Landscapes in Flux: Studies of Place by David Gloman—will be on view in the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts beginning in late January and mid-February respectively.
“Dowling and Gloman in different ways are exploring ideas related to time, memory, and essence of place,” says Assistant Curator of Art Sophie Combs. “Dowling’s prints and etchings are an homage to her heritage and immigrant identity, creating visual parallels between Ireland and the United States. Gloman is interrogating what it means to exist in the world and how to feel grounded in it.”
Atmospheric, contemplative, and deeply rooted in lived experience, One Foot in Two Places presents a rich collection of monotype drypoint prints and intricate etchings by artist Olwen O’Herlihy Dowling. Born in Dublin, Ireland, and now living in Massachusetts, Dowling draws upon her dual sense of homeland and adopted home to craft landscapes that evoke both memory and presence. Her work meditates on natural environments—portraying the rugged terrains of Connemara, County Galway, alongside the serene scenes of North Chester, Massachusetts—offering a visual dialogue between two intertwined geographies. The exhibition unfolds January 31-October 4 in the newly renovated Collins Print Gallery. The artist will also be giving a Museums à la Carte lecture on Thursday, June 18th, at 12:15pm.
“This exhibition has allowed me to share my paintings of where I live in North Chester, Massachusetts and my time spent in Connemara, County Galway,” says Dowling. “I do know and understand that my Irish experience is based on memory and that my true life and love is that I am bound to America.”
Dowling’s career spans printmaking, painting, and years in professional theatre, and her art reflects a lifetime of creative exploration and interdisciplinary engagement. She is a long-standing member at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio in Florence, Massachusetts and a member represented by The Oxbow Gallery in Easthampton, Massachusetts. She has been affiliated with The National Association of Women Artists, The California Society of Printmakers, The Boston Printmakers, The Hilltown Arts Alliance. Dowling has exhibited in numerous galleries in the United States and Ireland especially Western Massachusetts, including The Lenox Gallery where she received Honorable Mention. She graduated from Smith College in studio art and biology and studied at the L’Ecole d’Art (Vallauris, France) and The Sun Valley Arts Program (Hailey, Idaho). Over the past decade Olwen has been a returning Artist in Residence at The Tyrone Guthrie Center in Newbliss, Ireland and a Fellow at The Virginia Center for the Arts. She was a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Grant for Creative Individuals in 2023.
On view February 21–September 20, Landscapes in Flux unveils a nuanced vision of New England through the paintings of David Gloman, an acclaimed artist and professor of drawing and painting. In this exhibition, Gloman returns to familiar locations—such as the Chesterfield Gorge and the Westfield River—observing them over time, through changing seasons and moments of light. His approach emphasizes visual distillation, stripping away extraneous detail to reveal the essence of a place and the fleeting sensations that define our experience of landscape.
Gloman’s artistic philosophy is inspired by the poet Wendell Berry, who writes, “And so, I go to the woods. As I go in under the trees, dependably, almost at once, and by nothing I do, things fall into place. I enter an order that does not exist outside, in the human spaces… I am less important than I thought. I rejoice in that.” Like Berry, Gloman seeks to enter this natural order, allowing the landscape itself to guide his work and embracing a humility that foregrounds place over ego.
Gloman was a resident artist at Amherst College where he taught drawing and painting. He received an MFA from Yale University School of Art and a BFA from Indiana University. He has participated in numerous national and international shows, and his work can be found in private, corporate and educational collections. Gloman is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and a Blanche E. Colman Award, among many others. The artist resides in Northampton, Massachusetts, with his wife and three children.
MassMutual is the season supporter of the Springfield Museums.
Image: Cashel, 2025, Olwen Dowling, monotype drypoint. Courtesy of the artist.