Join us for the Livestream Opening Night Event: Exhibition Curator Megan Paqua in conversation with Curator of Education Michelle DiMarzo.
Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt explores the enduring fascination with ancient Egyptian art and culture (dubbed “Egyptomania” by 19th-century Europeans) through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative art from the early 19th century to the present day. These objects, from the humble to the refined, from the shamelessly commercial to the Afrofuturist, represent the range of artistic responses to – and misconceptions about – ancient Egyptian visual culture.
Paradoxically, this enthusiasm for Egyptian symbols and motifs contributed to the erasure of the ancient Egyptian people themselves, as their beliefs and customs became exoticized in popular memory. The exhibition will examine how these objects reflect the phenomenon of “Egyptomania” over the last two centuries and will position their oversimplified or stereotypical narratives in conversation with current archaeological understandings of ancient Egyptian culture.
Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt is curated by Megan Paqua (adjunct instructor of ancient Egyptian archaeology and art history and Fairfield University Art Museum Registrar) and will be on view from September 18 - December 12, 2026 in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries.
To register for the in-person event at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, click here. To register for the reception that will follow the lecture in Bellarmine Hall, click here. Shuttles will be available between the Quick Center and Bellarmine Hall.
Sponsored by Michael T. Vigario, ‘08, M & T Bank, Wealthspire Trust, Aquarion Water Company, and the Delamar Southport.
Charles-Théodore Frère, Along the Nile, ca. 1870, oil on panel. Fairfield University Art Museum, Gift of Michael T. Vigario’08, 2023, 2023.11.01