CANTON -- The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery will feature three exhibitions of student art and art selections from April 28 to June 3. All shows are free and open to the public.

Students majoring in art and art history and enrolled in the Senior-Year Experience capstone seminar course will present their culminating works in the main gallery. The gallery will feature the works of Shelby Burkhardt of Warrensburg, New York, Rachael Faust of Raymond, N.H., Nathalie Nostrand of Hinesburg, Vt., Samantha Ormsby of Tupper Lake, Coral Peral Garcia of Spain, and Kiowere Rourke of Akwesasne.

In the small gallery, “Flipping the Script: The Female Body and the Politics of Representation,” curated by Rebecca Clayman, a senior art and art history major from Brooklyn, will examine how reclaiming the female figure as a visual icon can be a powerful political tool in exploring the complexities of women’s experiences.

Selected artworks drawn from St. Lawrence University’s permanent collection will explore stereotypical and, at times, exploitative representations of women’s bodies. Other images represent female autonomy and empowerment, challenging traditional depictions of women through an uninterrupted, confrontational gaze, as seen in work by Bill Gaskins and John Kacere. Works by Dottie Attie, the Guerrilla Girls, and Faith Ringgold make direct references to canonical images from art history as another form of resistance.

Finally, and in partnership between the Brush Art Gallery and the Department of Performance and Communication Arts, “Arguing with Images” will present selected photographs from the gallery’s permanent collection for viewers to reflect on the role of photography as a form of public discourse that conveys rhetorical perspectives and fosters civic arguments.

Jessica Prody and Erik Johnson, both assistant professors of performance and communication arts, had students in their Visual Rhetoric course chose images that range from the iconic to the obscure, from the humorous to the haunting, and from photojournalistic ephemera of news media to aesthetic objects of fine art photography. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the role of photography as a form of public discourse that conveys rhetorical perspectives and fosters civic arguments.

The exhibition will take place in the hallway gallery.

There will be an opening reception for all exhibitions beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 28. The Brush Art Gallery is open from noon-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from noon-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

For more information, call 315-229-5174, or visit www.stlawu.edu/gallery.