Past Exhibits

Student Art Show

April 16 - May 5, 2025

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The public is cordially invited to an artist's reception on April 17 at 4:30 pm in the RC Art Gallery.

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Join us for the Residential College Student Art Show, a dynamic celebration of creativity, curiosity, and community. Featuring work from students across all levels of the RC Visual Arts Program, this exhibition brings together projects developed over the Winter 2025 semester in courses ranging from ceramics and sculpture to photography, printmaking, and environmental art.

Visitors can expect to experience a diverse array of media and ideas - hand-built ceramic forms inspired by ritual and storytelling, black-and-white and digital photography that captures human complexity and everyday beauty, and prints that explore texture, technique, and the political power of visual repetition. Sculpture students have transformed mixed media into bold, dimensional statements, while others have tackled the intersection of art and activism through socially engaged projects. From first-time makers to advanced artists refining their craft, each piece represents an individual journey through process, reflection, and expression.

Featured courses include:

• Introduction to Visual Thinking: Adventures in Creativity

• Art and the Environment: Environmental Alchemy

• Printmaking I–III

• Photography I–III & Socially Engaged Visual Art in Prison

• Sculpture I–III

• Ceramics I–III & Ceramics and Ritual: The Object as Protagonist

The RC Art Gallery, nestled in East Quad, serves as the perfect backdrop for this showcase of student talent. As part of the only U-M program that requires a fine arts studio course, the RC Visual Arts Program fosters both technical skill and conceptual depth. Whether you're here to support a friend, seek creative inspiration, or simply immerse yourself in student expression, we invite you to witness the power of art to transform ideas into tangible, thought-provoking form..

Breaking with Tradition

February 27-April 11, 2025

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The public is cordially invited to an artist's reception on March 28 at 4:30 pm in the RC Art Gallery.

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Artist John Rizzo will be exhibiting individual mixed-media sculptures that bridgeacross art, design, and craft. Using a combination of materials that are historicallyperceived as precious Johns’ work distorts, disrupts, and re-contextualizes perceptionsof materials and their values. His work is at once , colorful , playful , layered and deeplyself-reflective in its personal narrative.

John Rizzo is currently the Woodshop Manager and Adjunct Faculty Color and Materials MFA Department at the College for Creative Studies. John has lent his labor and teaching skills to a wide variety of community organizations and schools, including: MOCAD, Arts Place, Art on the Move, CAMP Detroit and People for Palmer Park Arts. John has displayed his works nationwide at various venues in addition to his dedication to art scholarship, teaching and academia.

Red Summer: Racial Violence in the American Landscape, 1917-1923

January 8 - February 21, 2025

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The public is cordially invited to an artist's talk on February 21 at 4:30 pm in the Art Gallery followed by a reception.

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The Red Summer portfolio represents the stories of various locations in the American landscape where racial violence (often characterized as “Race Wars” at the time) erupted between 1917 and 1923. These years of conflict reveal several aspects of racial anxiety that inform our contemporary experience, including, though not limited to; racism, fear of violent black revolt, lynching, poverty, mass incarceration, and competition for employment. The term “Red Summer” was first used by James Weldon Johnson to describe the violent attacks against black communities during 1919.  

Though the events of the early twentieth century seem to be remote and fading apparitions of an American past; my work is concerned with the power and influence of our shared historical narrative upon the present. The upheaval of Red Summer occurred approximately fifty years after the American Civil War, fifty years before the height of the Civil Rights Era, and three centuries after the first enslaved Africans arrived in English colonies that would become the United States. 

The project combines photographs of the contemporary landscape made at or near the site of racial conflict with fragmented selections of contemporaneous newspaper reporting (1917-1923). In many cases, the newsprint images include the surrounding stories or advertisements. The combination of the landscape photograph and the reproduction of newspaper fragments (which invade the contemporary with a narrative from the past), is a rupture and a conversation on the timeline between past and present. 

The conceptualization of “the veil” as expressed by DuBois, has been a visual metaphor for the representation of race within my work for several decades; particularly in the two projects known as, Schools for the Colored and Red Summer. The newspaper, in its role as a public record, commentary, and historic archive, is a veil of information through which most of the country as well as many in the international community, understood and misunderstood these events. 

Wendel A. White was born in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. He was awarded a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York and an MFA in photography from the University of Texas at Austin. White is currently Distinguished Professor of Art at Stockton University, NJ.

Guardians: Spirits of Protection

August 26 - November 2, 2024

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The public is cordially invited to an artist's talk on October 23 from 3:30 - 4:30 pm in the Keene Theater followed by a reception in the RC Art Gallery until 6:00 pm.

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This fall the Residential College Art Gallery presents Guardians: Spirits of Protection, an exhibition of figurative sculptures. The exhibition will open August 26 – November 2, 2024. 

Prof. Ann Savageau will be in residence in the Ann Arbor community and the Residential College from September 16–20 and October 20-25, 2024.

Guardians: Spirits of Protection is a poignant exploration of the healing power of art in the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy.  The seventeen life-size figures were created by UC Davis Professor Emerita Ann Savageau.  In the aftermath of the deaths of her three children in 2000, 2014 and 2017, Savageau spent 2 ½ years working on the guardians figures to explore the themes of loss, grief, healing and protection. 

“I chose the topic of guardians to explore my feelings and to think about how all of us need protection from what’s going on in the world,” Savageau said.

Made from found objects and flotsam from unknown places that washed up on the beach, the sculptures created by Savageau are composites of disparate castoffs, created in response to the tragic events in her life as well as to the pandemic, which began as she was working on the figures.

“The components of the figures are all things that are seen as worthless, with no value, that nobody else wants, but if you put them together, you have a new creation that is a composite of objects from different places.  You have created new value and invited viewers to see materials in a new way.”

“On a personal scale, ‘Guardians’ is about building a new life from loss,” said Savageau. “Creating this work helped me cope with my losses and grief. The meditative, incantatory process of building the figures enabled me to direct feelings of grief and loss to a more positive action. I found comfort in the care, thought, love and attention to detail I devoted to their creation.  Then came the pandemic and the death of millions around the world, and I knew I had to expand the figures to include everyone who was experiencing loss.” 

Ann Savageau is an artist, activist and educator who taught Studio Art at the University of Michigan Residential College from 1978-2002.  An early member of Prison Creative Arts Project, she taught a weekly art workshop at Jackson Prison for four years, and afterward, worked to secure the release of several members of the workshop.

RC Visual Arts Faculty Show

March 4 - April 4, 2024

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The public is invited to a closing reception for the artists on April 4th at 5:00 pm.

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About the Artists

Megan Gizzi (Lecturer I, Ceramics) 

Toby Millman (Lecturer, Drawing and Printmaking) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Hamtramck, working with printmaking, photography, collage, narrative and book arts. She earned her BA from Hampshire College and her MFA from Stamps School of Art and Design and is currently teaching printmaking and drawing at the Residential College.

Raymond Wetzel (Lecturer, Arts and Ideas in the Humanities, Visual Arts): Raymond (Ray) Wetzel has a broad experience as an artist, designer and teacher. He has worked as a set designer for dance companies and artists, an exhibition designer for museums and corporate collections, a cabinet and furniture maker, in addition to running his own exhibition and decorative design business.
He has taught at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., The Lloyd hall Scholars Program, the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor, and has worked with students from the Ann Arbor Public Schools as an artist in schools.
He currently maintains a practice as an artist, cabinet /furniture maker and educator. He is currently on the staff at the College for Creative Studies in the craft department where he has been an integral member since 1996.
Currently, along with his work at CCS, he is an art advisor at Wonderfool Productions. He is a former  Board Member for Wonderfool Productions and emeritus member of the Jury Advisory Committee for the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair in the Ann Arbor Community Mr. Wetzel has acted as an awards juror for numerous art organizations. Outside of the studio, he likes dogs, reading, and soccer a lot. 

Isaac Wingfield (Visual Arts Program Head, Lecturer, Photography): Isaac Wingfield is Lecturer IV in Photography in the Residential College at the University of Michigan and the Visual Arts program head. A graduate of Appalachian State University’s Watauga College, he completed his graduate studies in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. His research explores the impact of mass incarceration through images and the American landscape as the intersection between humans and nature.

The gallery is open from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday - Friday.

PAPER PROTEST

January 17 - February 16, 2024

Justseeds Artists' Cooperative - www.justseeds.org

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Paper Protest is an exhibition of approximately 100 prints by members and collaborators of Justseeds Artists' Cooperative. The themes of social and environmental justice connect the work in the exhibition, which includes three collaborative print portfolios, a selection of digital prints from Justseeds’ free graphics library, a number of works from local Justseeds members (Bec Young – Detroit & Nicole Marroquin – Ann Arbor/Chicago) as well as a smaller selection of prints from other members.

The public is invited to a closing reception for the artists on February 16th, from 4:30-6:00 pm.

Artist Talks: Nicole Marroquin, February 13th, 2:30 pm. Bec Young, February 14th, 5:30 pm.

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About Justseeds

With members working from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, Justseeds operates both as a unified collaboration of similarly-minded printmakers and as a loose collection of creative individuals with unique viewpoints and working methods. We believe in the transformative power of personal expression in concert with collective action. To this end, we produce collective portfolios, contribute graphics to grassroots struggles for justice, work collaboratively both in and outside the co-op, build large sculptural installations in galleries, and wheatpaste on the streets—all while offering each other daily support as allies and friends.

History

Founded in 1998, and originally the graphics distribution project of Josh MacPhee, Justseeds made the transformation into a worker-owned cooperative in 2007 – the original network being largely in place through past collaborations and friendships. In May 2010, Justseeds moved our distribution center from Portland to a new and larger base in Pittsburgh. We operate an online store and wholesale distribution center, as well as an active, multi-voice blog detailing current art and resistance projects around the world.

The gallery is open from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday - Friday.

BREATHE

October 20 - November 21, 2023

Katie Tremel - www.katetremel.com

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The Residential College Art Gallery will present BREATHE, an exhibition of illuminated ceramics by Ann Arbor artist Kate Tremel, from October 20 through November 21.  Tremel, who teaches ceramics at the Penny W Stamps School of Art and Design, describes her work in the following way:

“My pots are made with a wooden paddle and round stone. They are slowly raised by beating, turning, and drying the clay repeatedly until the walls are thinly stretched and the form is filled with life. I pierce the fragile, unfired walls of the vessel with a tapered tool and then painstakingly carve the holes with a thin blade. The piercings give visual access to the interior of the form and create a tension with the fragility of the ceramic material. When the pot is illuminated the light fills the vessel and physically embodies the energy that it contains. The piercings allow this energy to flow beyond the walls of the form and into the surrounding space. The soft patterns of light are an exhalation, filling the dark room with a sense of quiet repose.  I invite you to stop and take a breath.”

The public is invited to an opening reception for the artist on October 20, from 4-6 pm, and the public is invited.

The gallery is open from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday - Friday.

Play is Work 

Curated by Ray Wetzel & John DeHoog

September 5 - October 14, 2023

Katie Hudnall - katiehudnall.com
Ellie Richards - ellie-richards.com
Toomas Toomepuu - toomastoomepuu.com

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Work is play.

Creativity is a process. Not a task. Process through practice pursues a multitude of possible outcomes with less than certain outcomes. The creative process is continuous, branching, converging, delivering new connections and creative expressions, conceptual and formal.  The point of process is play.

Play allows humans to delve into uncertainty without fear of failure. Understanding process and engaging practice is how we manifest something new, original, and personally meaningful. It is a continuation of the human experience, various and wonderous.

Machine learning programs (AI) search databases for the most fitting data that can be accessed for the assigned task.  The genii released from the bottle. A wish, a task fulfilled without the need for connection to the physical world of human imagination, sensory input, dreams, and the infinite number of uncertain ways a connection can be made. A task is a task.

These 3 artists all have found a way to transform the medium they work in through the application of their practice as a continuing process of play as work. Play is hard work. 

Sometimes it’s the careful analysis of the position of colors and shapes on a surface that moves and transforms as it changes the shape, form, and function of an object.

Sometimes it’s the remarkable concatenation of shapes and objects, recognizable yet seemingly so haphazardly assembled that it transforms the narrative for each individual who sees it. 

Sometimes it’s the sublime variations in form, shape, and colors that recombine over and over in related yet impossibly different ways.

Sometimes…

Come see for yourself as the work of Ellie Richards, Katie Hudnall and Toomas Toomepuu is presented at the Residential College Art Gallery this fall.

The artists will be present on October 11 for a presentation and Q & A at Eastern Michigan University. Come meet them and join the discussion as they discuss the relevance of creative play and process in their work.

The gallery is open from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday - Friday.