January 16th –March 30, 2025

Opening Reception

Thursday, January 16th, 2025 5-7pm

This exhibition explores the artistic interpretations of dusk, twilight, and night, emphasizing the shift in perception and the emergence of sublimity as daylight fades. Curated by Dick Goody, it features eighteen international contemporary artists: Amy Bennett, Dominic Chambers, Rosson Crow, Jenna Gribbon, Marcus Jahmal, Anna Kenneally, Ragnar Kjartansson, Hein Koh, Sean Landers, Claire Lehmann, Chris Martin, Catherine Opie, Alex Prager, Ulf Puder, Danielle Roberts, Guðmundur Thoroddsen, Salman Toor, and Austin Martin White.


These artists encompass a range of philosophical ideologies in their exploration of themes in the transition from day to night. Nightshade: The World in the Evening, includes work that settles into the domestic sphere, the arena of the panoramic landscape, the realm of ritualistic endeavors, and the metaphysical ethos of uncharted spirituality.


We are proud to announce that this exhibition will see the American debut of Icelandic artist, Ragnar Kjartansson’s, Hvad har vi dog gjort for at ha’ det så godt / What Have We Done to Deserve This, 2023, a single-channel video; duration: 11:05 hours, commissioned by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark.


The transition from day to night acts as a catalyst for introspection, vulnerability, and a heightened awareness. Darkness offers a space for encountering the sublime, a concept that challenges our understanding of the world and exposes us to feelings of awe, mystery, and even fear. The ambiguity inherent in dimly lit scenes invites the viewer to actively participate in constructing meaning, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. Many works engage with personal narratives, memories, and historical events, highlighting their resonance within the context of nightfall.


In these hovering penumbral images, we are transported to the vast after-hours province of the mind’ eye, drawn away from the knowable towards a suppositional, more fluid suggestibility. This exhibition provides a sense of shelter under which new possibilities, change, and resolutions are made manifest.

-Dick Goody


Above still image from Ragnar Kjartansson, Hvad har vi dog gjort for at ha’ det så godt / What Have We Done to Deserve This (detail), 2023, single-channel video, duration: 11:05 hours. Commissioned by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark.© Ragnar Kjartansson; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik.

In the Press

Oakland University News
January 10, 2025
Beginning January 16, the Oakland University Art Gallery will present “Nightshade: The World in the Evening,” an exhibition that invites viewers to contemplate the feelings of mystery, awe and fear that emerge when daylight fades. Curated by OU Art Gallery Director Dick Goody, the exhibition features 18 international contemporary artists who encompass a range of philosophical ideologies in their exploration of themes in the transition from day to night.
The Oakland Post
January 22,2025
Daytime is full of chaos — you have your nine-to-five, family troubles, work drama, dealing with the political climate, traffic, etc. However, at night there is a different shade of the world that is being showcased. A quieter, more susceptible world. This is the emotion that Oakland University Art Gallery Curator, Professor Dick Goody, is trying to articulate to OU art students and the OU community at large.
Detroit Art Review
February 12, 2025
Nightshade: The World in the Evening at the Oakland University Art Gallery explores the shadowed world as light declines to dark. It’s a liminal space – not quite here, not quite there — that ushers us into the absorbing night and the “emergence of otherworldliness,” as the introductory panel tells us on entering the gallery. This group show of 18 international contemporary painters will be up through March 30.