Reception to celebrate Jon Seals “Brackish Water” exhibit

YDS students, faculty, and staff are invited to a reception on Wednesday, September 10, to celebrate the new exhibition in the Croll Family Entrance Hall, Brackish Water, showcasing the work of artist Jon Seals ’15 M.A.R. 
 
The gathering will feature remarks by the artist and will run from noon to 1:15 p.m. in the Entrance Hall. Light lunch and other refreshments will be served.
 
Built from mixed media and materials gathered at ecologically imperiled sites, the exhibit’s plein air water-color paintings confront environmental collapse while inviting spiritual reflection. Each piece bears witness to fragile places: eroding coastlines, vanishing wetlands, and waters turned toxic. Together, they ask what it means to dwell amid such urgent fracture. The soil, sand, vegetation, and water used in the compositions come from the two regions Jon Seals calls home: Florida’s Gulf Coast near Tampa Bay and the Kankakee River Basin in northern Illinois and Indiana. 
 
Jon Seals is a multifaceted artist, educator, and curator with over 18 years of experience in the fields of art history, painting, drawing, curating, and teaching. At Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music he studied the intersections of religion and visual culture. Seals is Department Chair, Galleries Director, and Professor of Art and Digital Media at Olivet Nazarene University. Over the past decade he has curated several exhibitions with the ISM, showcasing the work of contemporary artists who engage with spirituality, environmentalism, and social justice, among other topics. Visit Prof. Seals’ website to learn more. 
 
If you plan to attend, please RSVP by emailing Lynn Haversat at lynn.haversat@yale.edu.

Featured image: Notes From Tampa Bay 4, Water from Tampa Bay, watercolor pigment on Arches paper, 36-inch circle, 2025