September 10 – November 22, 2026

Opening Reception September 10, 5-7pm

Participating artists: Linus Borgo, Matthew Brannon, John Bradford, Marcus Brutus, Amanda Church, Victoria Dugger, Christine Forrer, Emily Harter, Seonna Hong, Hydeon, Mary Jones, Haley Josephs, Jordan Kasey, Pow Martinez, Ali Miller, Maureen O’Leary, Rachael Phillips, Elizabeth Schwaiger, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Tristan Unrau, Eric White, Bradley Wood, and Areum Yang.

An inalienable universal right, the pursuit of happiness, strives and thrives under the umbrella
of liberty, and if our intentions are well-placed, aspirational outcomes can begin to grow and
flourish. The quest for contentment, pleasure, or joy is as much about desire, hope, and
anticipation as it is about the effort required to meet its fulfillment. In short, labor is required.
To reach the pinnacle of happiness, all the essentials (food, safety, shelter) must be established
first through the challenging act of being a responsible human being. To a degree, compassion
and civility are other prerequisites. It is in the scrutiny of such details that we discover and
capture the subject matter surrounding the pursuit of happiness. This exhibition explores the
way artists mirror and picture the requirements and travails of contemporary life in the quest
for the best possible outcomes.

This project is held in conjunction with Oakland University’s multidisciplinary celebration of the
250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. A collaboration between multiple
departments and programs on campus as well as off-campus partners, it encompasses Oakland
University’s Strategic Vision 2030. Focusing on five pathways — Our People, Student Success,
Discovery, Stewards of Place, and Sustainable University — the goal is to further elevate
Oakland’s educational excellence and foster deeper community engagement in the ongoing
cultural and economic development of the region and state.

Above image

Haley Josephs
Stargazer (detail), 2018
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Barrett Gallery

The Department of Art, Art History and Design and the College of Arts & Sciences at Oakland University is proud to present the work of the department’s 17 graphic design and 14 studio art seniors to celebrate the culmination of their Bachelor of Arts degrees

Opening Reception April 16th 5-7pm

BA in Studio Art– Jaclynn Bracey, Maria Burton, Reese Chammas, Hannah Glarner, Charlie Goss, Thy Hoang, Nicole Houston, Jay Lobsinger, Hannah Muglia, Isabell Owens, Lauren Pease, Henry Tussey, Jeremiah White, Aidi Yin.

BA in Graphic Design– Matt Ammons, Arthur Beire, Catherine Bivens, Felix Carbary, Dennis DiMaggio, Maxwell Epperson, AvA Guest, Brooklyn Kayson, Vaughn Kujawksi, Kyndall Leek, Darian “Lynxeau” Mallett, Kristin Nika, Macray O’Brien, Abby Oleski, Jordan Smith, August C. Wicker, Emily Wyszynski.

Above image: Kei Ito, Eye Who Witnessed, 2020–21 (detail)

Opening Reception

Opening reception has been rescheduled for Thursday, January 22, 5:00–7:30 p.m.

Join us at 5:30 p.m. for a walkthough by the curator

Artist panel will be rescheduled to a later date.

“Past Is Present: Memorializing the Hibakusha Experience”

Featuring Kei Ito, Katy McCormick, Migiwa Orimo, and elin o’Hara slavick.

Event made possible by the generous support of The Judd Family Endowed Fund and the Barry M. Klein Center for Culture and Globalization

Featuring

The Wilmington College Peace Resource Center

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection

Including historical works by Japanese artists Domon Ken, Dosho Taro, Fukuda Sumako, Fukushima Kikujirō, Itō Takeshi, Iwamiya Takeji, Kimura Gon’ichi, Kita Kazuaki, Kurosaki Haruo, Matsuda Hiroshi, Matsushige Yoshito, Murasato Sakae, Nagata (Atsushi) Tōzō, Onuka Masami, Sasaki Yuichiro, Tōmatsu Shōmei, and Yamahata Yosuke.

Also featuring thought-provoking contemporary artworks by Kei Ito, Myong Hee Kim, Katy McCormick, Migiwa Orimo, and elin o’Hara slavick.

Created in partnership with the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College, Ohio, Memorializing the Hibakusha Experience features the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection, the brainchild of Quaker nuclear abolitionist Barbara L. Reynolds (1915–1990), who settled in Hiroshima throughout the 1960s. Comprised of photographs, publications, artifacts, and other materials of Japanese origin—the likes of which has no parallel outside of Japan—this singular archive was assembled in support of Reynolds’s advocacy, which strove to eradicate nuclear arms by shining a light on the plight of the hibakusha (A-bombed survivors).

Harmonizing with the historical works, the exhibition also prominently features artworks by five contemporary artists, whose work retains the urge to memorialize the hibakusha experience. Each of these contemporary artists has devoted many years probing how to negotiate the fraught subject of the nuclear holocaust, while exemplifying how the past continues to shape the present.

Conceived to mark the 50th anniversary of the Peace Resource Center established in 1975 and the 80th commemoration of the A-bombing of Japan, this is the first showing of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection outside of its home institution.

Claude Baillargeon, Curator

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, London, April 23, 1962

Additional public programming

Curator’s talk, Wednesday, February 11, 12:00 p.m.

Presentation to take place in the Oakland University Art Gallery

Claude Baillargeon, Professor of Art History, Oakland University

“Barbara Reynolds’s Antinuclear Activism and the Genesis of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection”

Dosho Taro, Barbara Reynolds, Hiroshima, 1969

Interdisciplinary symposium, Friday, March 20, 9:15am-3:45pm in the Oakland University Art Gallery

“Plumbing the Depths of A-Bomb Sufferers’ Trials and Tribulations”

Event made possible by the generous support of The College of Arts and Sciences, Cultural Ambassador Faculty Grant, The Barry M. Klein Center for Culture and Globalization, The Judd Family Endowed Fund.

Tōmatsu Shōmei, Hibakusha Kataoka Tsuyo, Nagasaki, 1961

Regrettably, the OUAG had to cancel this semester’s Senior Exhibition due to the building closures on campus. We had high hopes that we were going to be able to share another outstanding student exhibition with you all. But due to recent developments over the weekend with the University’s ongoing work on the high temperature hot water (HTHW) system repair project. We must remain closed to the public.

Featuring

B.A. Graphic Design: Felix Carbary, Dennis DiMaggio, Ava Guest, Maya Katsuda, Hannah Lesner, Sidney Mell, Kristin Nika, Abby Oleski, Andreas Payton, Kadin Price, Logan Shook, August Wicker.

B.A. Studio: Maria Burton, Tayelor Chase, Hannah Muglia, Aidi Yin.

September 11-November 16, 2025

Opening Reception

Thursday, September 11, 2025 5-7pm

Featuring

Alia Ali, Craig Calderwood, Matthew Craven, Natasha Das, Lisa Corinne Davis, Tomory Dodge, Mark Joshua Epstein, Alexa Guariglia, Hassan Hajjaj, Jocelyn Hobbie, Spandita Malik, Ozimoma Onuzulike, Rachel Perry, Anne Samat, Antonio Santin.

System and Sequence: Pattern and Ornament in Contemporary Art brings together a diverse range of artists who use pattern to create works that are both visually captivating and deeply thought-provoking. Drawing on cultural, psychological, and aesthetic influences, these artists transform structures and ornament into powerful vehicles for storytelling, personal reflection, and commentary on societal issues. From intricate geometric designs to organic, flowing forms, the works in this exhibition extend beyond decoration to explore themes of identity, harmony, contrast, order, and chaos.

The elegant device of repetition prompting the viewer to engage on multiple levels, encouraging introspection and offering a deeper understanding of how patterns shape our perceptions and experiences. Whether through cultural references, optical illusions, or explorations of geometry, these works invite reflection on the systems we encounter daily influencing our world in both seen and unseen ways.

In acknowledging the blurred boundaries between sequence and ornament, it also focuses on the broader concept of pattern as ingrained repeated cycles that choreograph our visual and sensory experiences. These works challenge our understanding of repetition, imbuing ornamental elements with conceptual depth and meaning, enhancing their aesthetic value.

System and Sequence: Pattern and Ornament in Contemporary Art invites viewers to look beyond surface beauty, engaging with the profound implications woven into the fabric of repetition and design. Whether questioning societal norms, exploring psychological effects, or unraveling hidden narratives, this exhibition harnesses the power of pattern to provoke critical reflection on the forces that shape our world.

-Leo Barnes

Opening Reception

Thursday, April 10th from 5-7pm

Featuring

B.A. Graphic Design: Geraldo Diez, Leka Djekovic, Ryan Harney, Dylan Hecker, Megan Judy, Elinor McGrail, Taylor McKinley, Zachary Oberdier, Adrian Parra, Nuhadra Rasho, Nuhra Rasho, Destiny Rushing, Kayla Smith, Cheyenne Witcher.

B.A. Studio:Tobi Asong, Derrick Brown, Diamond Coleman, Aubrie Earl, Cameron Greene, Link Heiberger, Luke Hunker, Katie Kraemer, Dylan Leask, Sada Reed, Jenna Roeske, Annie Vokes, Eden Wiik.

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.

Opening Reception

Thursday, December 5th from 5-7pm

Featuring

B.A. Graphic Design: Nicole Alessi, Cecilie Buie, Cristina DeLaRosa, Damon Grant, Lily Harrison, Katherine Highland, Syeda Hussain, Myles Johnson, Elliot Merkel, Curtis Reichenbach, Hannah Roy, Dominic Rush, Annie Vokes.

B.A. Studio: Courtney Blackett

This exhibition presents an extensive survey of abstract paintings from the past twenty-three years by Jim Chatelain, a key participant in Detroit’s storied Cass Corridor artistic milieu. Chatelain is a painter who subverts the conventions of painting and collapses standard notions of good taste with a beguiling body of work that is by turns crude yet sophisticated, grotesque yet elegant, concrete yet elusive, provocative and humorous.

Jim Chatelain came to prominence during the 1970s within the group of artists, poets, writers, and musicians who lived and worked in the neighborhood known as the Cass Corridor (rechristened as Midtown) around Wayne State University in Detroit, where he studied painting and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1971. The artistic achievements of the Cass Corridor community would become the focus of the exhibition Kick Out the Jams: Detroit’s Cass Corridor 1963-1977 presented at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (1980-81). In 1978, Chatelain’s figurative paintings were included in “Bad” Painting, Marcia Tucker’s influential group exhibition for the New Museum, New York. His work is in numerous private and public collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Flint Institute of Arts, the Cranbrook Museum of Art, and Wayne State University, and it was the subject of a major survey held at Center Galleries, College for Creative Studies, in 2003. In 2017, Chatelain exhibited in the multi-part exhibition Cass Corridor: Connecting Times, curated by Corridor artist Nancy Mitchnick, at the Simone DeSousa Gallery (now Matéria), in Midtown Detroit. A monograph of Chatelain’s figurative paintings, HELP IS ON THE WAY, was published by the Detroit-based Rotland Press this year, accompanied by a survey exhibition of those works at Paul Kotula Projects in Ferndale, MI. 

Jim Chatelain currently divides his time between metro Detroit and Delhi, NY.

This exhibition was curated by Ryan Standfest. A full-color catalog will be available with an in-depth interview with Jim Chatelain.

Related Exhibition Programming in the Oakland University Art Gallery:

September 7th from 5-7pm Opening Reception

September 26th at Noon: Exhibition walkthrough with curator Ryan Standfest

October 30th at Noon: “Dealing With It: The Other Tradition in Art,” a lecture by Dan Nadel, Curator-at-Large, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles. Made possible with generous support from The Judd Family Endowed Fund

November 6th at Noon: Jim Chatelain in Conversation with Ryan Standfest

Opening Reception

Thursday, April 11th, 5-7pm

Featuring

B.A Graphic Design: Darm Alfreeji, Meg Banes, Cameron Belcher, Brittany Bell, Gabriella Caldwell, Tristan Clor, Marisa Cohen, Paris DeForest, Josue Garcia, Taylor Goddu, Tori Harm, Gillian Henderson, Autumn Hesse, Sophie Hume, Delaney Jacob, Mano Khan, Samantha Koneval, Dez LaCourse, Anthony Leal, Soila Magucha, Isabella Medina, Jordan Morgan, Eve Orza, Santino Pacitto, Mariana Pena-Cardenas, Ashley Perry, Da’Naja Quilter, Ashley Quinn, Tyler Vincent Ramirez, Lisa Suski, Moregan Szumanski, Valentina Tersigni, Anh Tran, Christian Udeozor-Nweke, Bryant Williams.

B.A Studio Art: Emily Anslow, Charles Conant, Lili Englehart, Mary Hall, Millie Hebel, MaKayla Kirby, Annie Lukowski, Alyssa Murdoch, Jenna Murray, Araiza Ramirez, Jeff Robinson, Nakia Shaw, Caitlin Weishaar.