Art gallery openings, gallery talks, films and artist panels are some of the events hosted by the OU Art Gallery. Below are all of those upcoming events along with additional information about each one. All gallery events are free and open to the public.

Artist
Lecture

March 14th

Noon

Mary Fortuna & Adrian Hatfield in Conversation with Dick Goody

Join us in the gallery for a conversation with Mary Fortuna & Adrian Hatfield led by Dick Goody.
Panel
Discussion

January 24th

Noon

AAH Alumni Panel Discussion

Ever wonder what life is like after school? Come here these graduates talk about how they built an art career through exhibition, curation and graduate school! Panelists will include: Brianna Hayes, Bella Kubo, Gerald Collins and Alexandra Brueggeman.
Opening
Reception

January 20, 5-7pm

5-7pm

Nostalgia & Outrage Opening Reception Postponed Due to Severe Weather. Revised Opening Reception: January 20th, 5-7PM

Opening Reception Postponed Due to Severe Weather. Revised Opening Reception: January 20th, 5-7PM
Opening
Reception

December 7th

5-7pm

Senior Thesis: Fall 2023 Exhibition Opening Reception

Join us for the opening reception for the Senior Thesis exhibition.
Panel
Discussion

Thursday, October 12

7 p.m.

Panel Discussion. “Contemporary Photography and the Black Atlantic Diaspora.”

Located in the Art Gallery. A two-part event opening with Dr. Kenneth Montague, a Toronto-based dentist, art collector, and the founding director of Wedge Curatorial Projects, speaking about his collection of Black Atlantic photography. A panel discussion featuring Wendel A. White, Dr. Montague, and Samantha A. Noël, PhD, Associate Professor of Art History and the Hawkins Ferry Endowed Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art at Wayne State University, will follow. For even more event info click Here
Braun
Lecture

Thursday, November 16

5 p.m.

Braun Lecture. “Wendel A. White: Reflections in the Archives” presentation with Deborah Willis, PhD, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Event made possible by the generous support of the Jean S. and Fred M. Braun Memorial Lecture Fund, the Department of Art and Art History, and the Division of Student Affairs and Diversity. For even more event info click here.
Artist
Lecture

Friday, September 8

5 p.m.

In Conversation. Wendel A. White in conversation with Kenya Tyson, JD, Executive Director, The Black Massacre Project.

Conversation to be followed by public reception and exhibition opening. Event made possible by the generous support of the Barry M. Klein Center for Culture and Globalization, with the assistance of the Department of Art and Art History. For even more event info click Here
Lecture

Tuesday, April 4

Noon

Antiquity and the Shock of the New: 40 years of discoveries that made archaeologists change our thinking

Join us for the farewell lecture by Susan Wood, Professor of Art Hisotry.
Lecture

Tuesday, March 21

Noon

Walking Gallery Lectures

Joint us in the Oakland University Art Gallery for walking lectures by the artists featured in the "Outside Work" exhibition. It will take place over two days with each artist talking and answering questions about thier work. March 21st-Meaghan Barry, David Lambert, Colleen Ludwig. March 23rd-Cody VanderKaay, Ryan Standfest, Karen McGarry.
Artist
Lecture

Thursday, February 23

3:30-4:30PM

Libby VanderPloeg

Join us for a presentation by Michigan-based artist & illustrator Libby VanderPloeg in the Gold Rooms B & C in the Oakland Center. Event made possible by Art Bridges.
Lecture

Wednesday, March 8

Noon

Retracing the Milestones of the Alabama Civil Rights Trail : An Outsider’s Travelogue

In preparation for “Visual Culture and the African American Experience,” a special topics course to be offered in fall 2023 by the Department of Art and Art History, Professor Baillargeon traveled to Alabama to tread in the footsteps of the civil rights trailblazers. This new course will coincide with an exhibition featuring the African American artist Wendel White, which will be on view at the Oakland University Art Gallery September 8–November 26. Join Professor Baillargeon as he recounts his journey of discovery retracing the milestones of the Alabama Civil Rights Trail. Dr. Baillargeon wishes to thank the University Senate Research Committee and the Department of Art and Art History for their funding of this research initiative.
Artist
Lecture

Monday, March 27

6:00-7:00PM

Trenton Doyle Hancock: A Jean S. & Fred M. Braun Memorial Lecture at Meadow Brook Hall

This event is FREE, open to the public, and will be held in historic Meadow Brook Hall. A cocktail reception of light refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will take place at 5:00 PM, followed by the lecture at 6:00 PM. For more information on Trenton Doyle Hancock and to RSVP, visit here PLEASE RSVP for this event as seating is limited. This event is also made possible by Art Bridges.
Opening
Reception

December 2

5-7pm

Senior Thesis: Fall 2022 Exhibition Opening Reception

Join us for the opening reception for the Senior Thesis exhibition.
Lecture

Tuesday, November 1

Noon

Emotional Labor, Precarious Employment, and Artists in Digital Media

This lecture will discuss Sam Srauy’s research on precarious labor and “invisible labor” of PoC in the video game industry. He’ll argue a present danger to artists and other content creators is the precariousness of the jobs available, but also the expected (and uncompensated) emotional labor expected in the creative industries, especially in an age of social media. Wilson Hall Room 124
Artist
Talk

Tuesday, October 4

Noon

Tony Matteli Artist Talk

Tony Matelli (b. Chicago 1971) is an American artist working predominantly in the field of sculpture. The artist frequently focuses on themes of time, ambivalence, banality, and wonder. In Matelli’s work the physical laws of objects are often reversed, upended or atomized, and with these deft manipulations of matter and gravity come profound reorientations in perspective and ultimately, state of being. Tony’s work is in numerous public collections internationally, and recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; The Davis Museum, MA; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. A mid-career survey, Tony Matelli: A Human Echo, premiered at the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark in 2012 and traveled to the Bergen Kunstmuseum, Norway on 2013. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, and is represented by Marlborough Chelsea, New York. tonymatelli.com Located in Wilson Hall in Room 124
Opening
Reception

September 9, 2022

5-7pm

Critical Voices: Selections from The Hall Collection Opening Reception

Join us in celebrating the opening of Critical Voices: Selections from The Hall Collection curated by Leo Barnes.
Opening
Reception

April 15

5-7pm

Senior Thesis: Winter 2022 Exhibition Opening Reception

Join us for the opening reception for the Senior Thesis exhibition.
Artist
Zoom
Lecture

Thursday, March 10

Noon

Mark Thomas Gibson: A History of Obfuscation

Mark Thomas Gibson’s personal lens on American culture stems from his multipartite viewpoint as an artist, as a black male, a professor, and an American history buff. These myriad and often colliding perspectives fuel his exploration of contemporary culture through languages of painting and drawing, revealing a vision of a dystopic America where every viewer is implicated as a potential character within the story. To attend this Zoom lecture click hereMEETING ID 916 1752 9782, PASSCODE 160785
Zoom
Artist
Lecture

March 16, 2022 at Noon

Noon

Jean S. and Fred M. Braun Memorial Lecture: Paul Elliman "No one to drive the car"

Paul Elliman. Paul (1961, UK, North Wales) lives and works in London. His work follows language through many of its social and technological guises, in which typography, human voice and bodily gestures emerge as part of a direct correspondence with other visible forms and sounds of the city. His work has been exhibited internationally in many solo and group exhibitions, including Century City, the inaugural exhibition for Tate Modern, London (2001), Performa 09, New York (2009); Ecstatic Alphabets, MoMA, New York (2012) Body Alive with Signals, Objectif Antwerp (2014); As You Said, a solo survey exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, (2017); Beautiful World Where Are You? Liverpool Biennial (2018), Post Opera at TENT, Rotterdam (2019). He was appointed to the Yale faculty in 1997 and is currently a senior critic in graphic design. To attend this Zoom lecture click hereMEETING ID 942 2175 1152, PASSCODE 941610
Artist
Zoom
Lecture

Thursday, February 24

Noon

Mary Ellen Bartley: Book Work

My photographs explore the tactile and formal qualities of the printed book and its potential for abstraction. Books have been my primary subject since 2004 and I’m continually fascinated by their physical structure and position as objects of material culture. Each series employs a new strategy to create still-life arrangements with a collection of books gathered for particular traits or their place in a specific library or archive. I often fully or partially obscure the identity of the books I use, which serves to underscore my mistrust of narratives and preference for slow careful observation of the objects themselves. To attend this Zoom lecture click here MEETING ID 970 0446 1095, PASSCODE 023301
Panel
Discussion

Thursday, November 18

4PM

Hirsch Pescovitz Collection Panel Discussion

Participants in the discussion include exhibiting artists Philip Campbell and Constance Edwards Scopelitis; Mark Ruschman, senior curator at the Indiana State Museum, in conversation with Dick Goody, Director of the OU Art Gallery. The Gallery is located in 208 Wilson Hall. This is a FREE EVENT and open to all.
Reception
and
Talk

Saturday, September 25

4PM

Pontiac in Black Brown and Blue: Exhibition of Images by Graham Cassano

Come and support Oakland University Professor Graham Cassano at this co-sponsored event with the Oakland History Center. Reception and Talk at the Oakland History Center.
Artist
Zoom
Lecture

Thursday, October 28

Noon

David Opdyke: Art In Global Warming: Evidence, Fear, and Compassion

Born in post-industrial Schenectady, New York in 1969, artist David Opdyke makes artwork that explores globalization, consumerism, and civilization’s abusive relationship with the en- vironment. His work is held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and The Washington Conven- tion Center in DC. In October 2020, Monacelli Press/Phaidon published a book based on his large-scale postcard project This Land, including essays by Lawrence Weschler and Maya Wi- ley. He lives and works in Ridgewood, Queens.
Faculty
Travel
Talk

Wednesday, September 29

Noon

Western Remains: Disaster Tourism in the American West

Ryan Standfest is an artist and publisher whose work is informed by historical patterns of socio-economic decline. He has exhibited nationally and abroad, and since 2010 has been the editor and publisher of Rotland Press, which presents satirical publications of a culturally relevant nature. His publications and prints are in numerous collections, including The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France Prints and Photographs Department, And the Harvard University Library. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, Painting and Drawing
Virtual
Exhibition

April 21st, 2021

April 21st, 2021

Senior Thesis: Winter 2021 Virtual Exhibition

Featuring: (BA, Graphic Design) Mark Darren Angsioco, Brandon Bolleber, Gage Bucchare, Enna Castro, Samiha Chowdhury, Benjamin Colangelo, Nichole Crook, Briana Dennis, Leo Gallucci, Gabriella Garcia, Grace Gilson, Lauren Greear, Daniel Grot, Noah Hirsch, Anna Karcher, Ashley Lee, Tyler Main, Maggie Malfroid, Shannon Mcauliffe, Lauren McGhee, Nicole Miller, Alexander Mikonczyk, Jodi Mitchell, Brody Morgan, Joel Naren, Matthew Nimtz, Eduardo Rojas Jaime, Kyle Schomaker, Andrew Sperber, Sydney Summa, Mason Turrell, Aubrie Urban, Todd Watzke, Sarah Wojno, Cynthia Wong, Jamie Yates. (BA, Studio Art) Gabrielle Bourgeois, Madison Briggs, Brittney Caudill, Luna Gilpin, Nicole Jendrusina, Madeline Long, Olivia Schmick, Corinne Vens
Online
Lecture

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

3:00pm

Indigenous Archives & Food Sovereignty

A conversation about seeds, food, collections, art, and the Indigenous communities who make and steward them. To attend this Zoom lecture pre register here. This lecture is Co-sponsored by: College of Arts & Sciences; Departments of English; History; Art & Art History; Women and Gender Studies; Sociology; Anthropology; Social Work, and Criminal Justice; and Kresge Library
Online
Artist
Lecture

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

11:30am

Professor Colleen Ludwig Worlds Collide: Research In Progress

Join us for a noontime Zoom talk as Colleen Ludwig, Associate Professor fo Studio Art, Reviews her research progress at Michigan's Taubman School of Architecture in the Digital and Material Technologies program. Here is a world where software is named for animals like Rhino, Grasshopper and Python. Natural materials like wood and clay are shaped by robots. Building blacks are influenced by algae, mushrooms and living plantscapes. Nature and Technology collide all while researchers/designers rethink the built environment in the face of climate chaos, a global pandemic and the quest for social justice. To attend this Zoom lecture click here Meeting ID 947 3976 0937 Passcode 656879
Online
Artist
Lecture

Thursday February 4, 2021

7:30PM

Yumeji Modern: Designing the Everyday in Twentieth-Century Japan

This year's Braun Lecture features Nazomi Naoi, talking about 20th century graphic design in Japan. Join us for the Zoom Braun Lecture here. Meeting ID:951 8217 2466 Passcode:097932
Online
Artist
Lecture

Wednesday February 3, 2021

Noon

Jeanette May

Jeanette May is a photo-based artist using a critical, sometimes playful, approach to investigate representation. Early training as a painter is evident in her carefully arranged compositions and rich color palette. May’s photographs are constructed, staged, lit, and carefully considered. Her recent still life projects confront the anxiety surrounding technological obsolescence. May received her MFA in Photography from CalArts and her BFA in Painting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has been awarded grants, fellowships, and residencies from the NEA Regional Artists’ Projects Fund, Brooklyn Arts Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and Ms. Foundation. Her work is exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, including New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Milan, Athens, Barcelona, and Shanghai. May lives in Brooklyn, NY. Visit her website at www.jeanettemay.com. To attend this Zoom lecture, register here
Online
Artist
Lecture

January 20, 2021

Noon

Christiane Feser

Christiane Feser works in ongoing series of unique three-dimensional photo objects that are assemblages of repeated forms and shadows represented through photography and construction. Simultaneously representational constructions and optical experiments, they lead us to question what has form and what is a representation of that form. The repeated forms are assembled in dense patterns and collectively evoke an abstract work that seems filled with an organic energy. Ultimately the work is sculptural, expanding our visual vocabulary and our perception of dimensions. Feser was born in Würzburg, Germany in 1977. She studied photography at the Offenbach University of Art and Design in Germany. Feser recently had a retrospective of her career to date at the Opelvillen, Rüsselheim, Germany and was included in the 2018 exhibition Cut! Paper Play in Contemporary Photography at The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Brown University, Rhode Island, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, DZ Bank Kunstsammlung, Frankfurt, Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar, Sentrum für Kunst and Medien, Karlsruhe, Fundacion Juan March, Madrid, CCPC-Cisnero Collection, New York and Fotografische Sammlung Schloss Kummerow, among others. The artist lives and works in Frankfurt, Germany. Visit her website at www.christianefeser.de. To attend this Zoom lecture, register here
Online
Artist
Lecture

December 3, 2020

Noon

Ryan Mendoza

Ryan Mendoza (b. 1971, New York City) is an American artist who lives and works between Berlin, Germany, and Sicily, Italy. Ryan’s work has been exhibited widely in numerous exhibitions throughout The United States,England,Germany,Belgium,the Netherlands, Italy,The Czech Republic,and Japan.In 2016 Ryan was ranked as one of the 500 Most Successful US artists born after 1966 by Artnet. Visit his website at ryan-mendoza.com. To attend this Zoom lecture, register here.
Online
Artist
Lecture

Thursday, November 12

Noon

The Intersection of Transient and Permanent with Raheleh Filsoofi

Filsoofi is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her work utilizes ancient and contemporary art media: ceramics, poetry, ambient sound, and video to address issues regarding the human condition to provide a holistic sensory experience for viewers. Filsoofi is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Art. Visit her website at rahelehfilsoofi.com. To attend this Zoom lecture, please pre-register here.
News

Friday, September 11 at noon

The Art Gallery is re-opening to the public with "Moving Forward" Exhibition

Lecture

Thursday, April 2

5pm

Peter John Brownlee: Reframing the Past to Address the Present: Another Look at Nineteenth-Century American Art and Visual Culture

Examining works featured in the exhibition as well as a number of others, this talk traces the interrelated development of an infrastructure for art in the United States during the nineteenth century and the social and political character of the artistic production it facilitated. Considering how and where Americans encountered art and how they saw themselves and their historical past in paintings and other images, the talk raises questions both about the subjects that found representation in the nineteenth-century visual field and those that were only alluded to or excluded altogether.
Lecture

Wednesday, March 10

Noon

Kidada Williams: Confronting the Deforming Mirror of Truth: African Americans,Racist Violence, and Counter-Histories of the Nation

The histories Americans love to tell ourselves about the nation look very different from the perspectives of African Americans lashed by racist violence.
Lecture

Tuesday, March 10

Noon

Randall Wyatt: Shamelessly White: Antiblack Representation In Popular Media

This lecture uses critical whiteness theory to analyze the portrayal of African Americans in the hit Showtime drama Shameless. I argue that the show gives visibility to poor urban whites while only casting a familiar, stereotypical view of Blacks that ultimately renders them unseen.
Lecture

Tuesday, February 18

Noon

Joohee Yoon: Up Down Inside out

JooHee Noon is an illustrator and printmaker who creates drawings with bold colors and laters of textures to tell stories. Her work has been featured in the The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. Her impressive client roster also includes Warby Parker, Topic Media, Mailchimp, Lincoln Motors, and Groundwood books. In addition to her editorial work, JooHee creates her own books, and gives talked and workshops around the world. The talk is sponsored by the Judd Family Endowed Fund.
Lecture

Wednesday, March 4

Noon

Chris Dingwall: American Painting in the Age of Emancipation

How can a painting illustrate historical change? This talk explores the problem of painting in the age of emancipation, when American artists tested the aesthetic form and social role of their art in response to the unfinished revolution for African American freedom.
Lecture

Thursday, February 20

Noon

Roy Finkenbine: What's Missing from the Picture

The era of American history, 1850-1940, represented in the Nancy and Sean Cotton Collection was an especially turbulent time. Yet, there are major gaps in who or what are portrayed in these works of art. Notably absent are people of color, immigrants, the Civil War, and the “dark side” of a rising industrial America.
Opening
Reception

Friday, April 17th

5-7pm

Winter Senior Thesis 2020

The senior thesis exhibition features the graduating studio art and graphic design students.
Opening
Reception

Friday, January 10

5-7 p.m.

American Paintings from the Nancy and Sean Cotton Collection, 1850-1940

This exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts and made possible by the Nancy and Sean Cotton Collection. This is one in a series of American art exhibitions created through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership formed by the Detroit Institute of Arts as part of the Art Bridges + Terra Foundation Initiative. Generous support is provided by the Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation.
Opening
Reception

Friday, December 6

5 - 7 p.m.

Fall Senior Thesis 2019

The senior thesis exhibition features the graduating studio art and graphic design students.
Lecture

Thursday, October 24

Noon

Mindfulness Meditation for Lines of Flights of Fancy

What if paradise is right here and right now? Proponents of mindfulness meditation believe so. Drawing on a so- ciological perspective, George Sanders explores whether the faddishness of mindful living is diluted by self-help gurus and corporate managers. Or, is mindfulness a reasonable strategy for coping with a highly rationalized and frenzied society?
Lecture

Wednesday, October 16

Noon

The Problem of Heaven: How to Get from Here to Eternity

The Problem of Heaven: How to Get from Here to Eternity is a lecture by Mark Rigstad, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Department of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics.
Special
Lecture

Tuesday, October 8

Noon

Behind the Scenes: Pondering Paradise

All religions have some concept of a paradise; one from which we came, one to which we return. How are these concepts of paradise the same, and how do they differ? Dr. Engle will take us on a theological and artistic trek “behind the scenes.”
Lecture

Monday, October 7

Noon

Language and Archive: Nicole Killian

Nicole Killian's work uses graphic design, publishing, video, objects and installation to investigate how the structures of the internet, mobile messaging, and shared online platforms affect contemporary interaction and shape cultural identity from a queer perspective. They are interested in the repetition, looping, and dissemination of content.
Lecture

Wednesday, October 2

Noon

Singing to Utopia: Lesbianism, Feminism and Music

In the late 1960s to 1970s, the United States was in the midst of social turmoil. Despite the number of social movements seeking equal rights and opportunities, women who identified as lesbian found themselves shut out of the movements they thought would accept them. Making music the core of their community, this is the story of how lesbian separatists used song in an attempt to create a utopia.
Lecture

Thursday, September 26

Noon

Controlling Threats

What individuals perceive to be the threats in need of most urgent attention can in fact be stand-ins for deeper, less manageable dangers. This presentation outlines four strategies individuals often use to attempt to manage perceived (substitute) threats. While these efforts may be partially satisfying, insofar as they allow individuals to feel a sense of control, I argue that the four strategies are ultimately disappointing and often morally and politically damaging.