Gallery Events

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

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 their work. March 21st-Meaghan Barry, David Lambert, Colleen Ludwig. March 23rd-Cody VanderKaay, Ryan Standfest, Karen McGarry.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 environment. His work is held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and The Washington Convention 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

JooHee Noon is an illustrator and printmaker who creates drawings with bold colors and layers 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

What if paradise is right here and right now? Proponents of mindfulness meditation believe so. Drawing on a sociological 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?

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.