“Nostalgia and outrage” is a state of mind. The title of this exhibition materialized when Mary
Fortuna and Adrian Hatfield sat down to talk about their lives, past and present, and the way
they make their work. Pairing the two ignited a mutual spark about their feelings concerning
our world and their attitudes towards greed, apathy, and the relief of absurdity in the face of
the changing conditions in which we all find ourselves. In viewing their work, we are invited to
experience veiled optimism in the face of the challenging array of life-changing social and
environmental circumstances affecting us. They impart the wisdom that we are not alone in our
universal outrage and nostalgia and that we still have the opportunity to make the sacrifices
that are required to foster a gentler, more healing world. So often these contexts appear
insurmountable, but here, in Fortuna’s fetishistic flourishes and Hatfield’s hallucinatory
slapstick harbingers, hope, humor, and despair are overlaid with their immersive, astute
metaphysical buoyancy.
In the Press
The Oakland Post
January 25, 2024
The snow, sleet and even power outages might have pushed back the opening to “Nostalgia & Outrage,” but Oakland University’s newest art exhibition was finally unveiled to the public on Jan. 20, 2024. Curated by the OU Art Gallery’s Director, Dick Goody, “Nostalgia & Outrage” features works from Michigan artists Adrian Hatfield and Mary Fortuna.
Detroit Art Review
January 31, 2024
Nostalgia and Outrage, an exhibition of artworks by fiber artist Mary Fortuna and multi-media collagist Adrian Hatfield, opened on January 19 at Oakland University Art Gallery in spite of Michigan’s typically lousy winter weather. The paintings, textiles, toys, mobiles and dioramas on display address death, mass extinction, disaster (both personal and societal) and general apocalypse–doomsday themes that might seem gratuitously gloomy for this dark time of year. But instead, this lively–even cheerful—exhibition reminded me of the well-known aphorism: “The situation is hopeless but not serious.”
