Opening Reception: The Patient Looks Back — Portraits of My Therapist

Name: Opening Reception: The Patient Looks Back — Portraits of My Therapist
Start: 2026-09-24T17:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-09-24T19:00:00
Location: Palmer Gallery, Vassar College

click to enlarge

Joyce Polance

Pink Plaid, oil on canvas, 2025, 40 x 30 in.

When: Thu., Sept. 24, 5-7 p.m.

Event Contact Phone 845-437-5370

[email protected]

Event Contact URL offices.vassar.edu/campus-activities/palmer-gallery

Join artist Joyce Polance for the opening reception of The Patient Looks Back: Portraits of My Therapist at Vassar College’s Palmer Gallery. The exhibition presents portraits painted from photographs taken during monthly in-person therapy sessions, reversing therapy’s usual direction of attention by turning the patient’s gaze toward the therapist. Working in oil with her fingers, Polance builds and disrupts each image through repeated layering, pressing, and removal. The reception takes place Thursday, September 24, from 5–7 PM. The exhibition remains on view September 17 through October 10, with an artist talk on October 3 from 4–5 PM.