This Friday, Oct. 25, “Portals” opened its doors to the public in a grand reception worthy of much praise. “Portals” is the Brandeis Alumni Art Gallery’s most recent exhibition, highlighting a continuum of artists across 50 years of Brandeis history. Tama Hochbaum ’75, Bekka Teerlink ’00 and most recently Ally Sukay ’24 post-baccalaureate ’25, presented a large corpus of their works. The exhibition is currently open to the public at the Faculty Club. Instead of describing each artist individually, it may be better to consider these artists as they are in relation to the University. Whether these talented alumni left Brandeis recently or years ago, we — the Brandeis community — can understand their works better through the lens of their experience at Brandeis. Without a doubt, the artist that has captured the most recent Brandeis experience is Ally Sukay, who finished her post-baccalaureate program in 2025. 

As we step into a small cafe, soft smells of coffee and pastries, bitter and sweet, greet us. The soft furniture sits on hard ground that carries our feet to a table. Our eyes move upwards and we see three students, all Brandeis students like us, either working, conversing or softly touching. Sukay presents us this beautiful moment in “Cafe on the Common,” a 2024 piece originally inspired by a screenprint she made. A convincing and unique colorist, Sukay’s large-format oil painting describes the genre of Brandeis life exterior to campus. We all know Cafe on the Common on Main Street in Waltham, yet Sukay brings it to life in shades of pink and green. Restricting herself to these two colors allows for a deep exploration of representation and environment. The pink may appear overwhelming but actually softens as it touches the green hues of plants, seats and street signs. 

While this may appear overwhelming, the foliage of the greens cascades down to organize the painting as leaves touch the frame. Tama Hochbaum expresses these similar floral works in her new series “The Return: Drawing on Photography” in which she takes inspiration from the garden: composites of photos printed on paper, digitally drawn to highlight the formal aspects of the photographic quasi-mosaic that pieces itself together before the viewer in deep purples, bright warm oranges and soft greens. Many of her works can be seen in this exhibition, all of them showcase composition as an integral part of the pieces but also the ensemble of these works at the Faculty Club. Hochbaum’s work is an important view of photography and is rendered incredibly well. While these works may not be immediately recognizable as Brandeisian, it is important to remember that these photographs, as Hochbaum describes, are reflections of life and of herself — and as we peer into these reflections, framed by florals, we see ourselves as a composite of experiences.

Bekka Teerlink’s work may be the most enigmatic of them all, as translucidity, ephemerality and figure mix together in song-like domestic landscapes. As archways permit the figures to move through spaces, Teerlink casually makes connections between the physical passage and a psychological movement between what could be space. While roofs of these works fade into constellations, whirlpools and the skyline, soft parquet floors remain in a careful reconstruction of the space. While we move through space, we perform the action of these figures no longer anchored in reality.

The Brandeis Alumni Art Gallery is one of the many spaces on campus where you can see not only art, but also the true uniqueness of a space dedicated to representing the Brandeis community. As many of us prepare to graduate amidst times of uncertainty, it is refreshing to see that the Brandeis community remains strong in its fervent support of our futures. 

— Editor’s Note: Mikey Terrenzi ’26 is a Student Ambassador to the Brandeis Alumni Arts Association and did write this article.