Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Mabel Bowdle’s art exhibition. Mabel Bowdle’s exhibition is on view in the FAB gallery throughout the week, 05/04/2025 – 05/10/2025.

“In my own work, I take a multi-media approach to explore the complexities of American identity, particularly the question of whether understanding one’s ancestry strengthens or complicates our sense of self. By combining personal memories, research into American history and immigration, and conversations with peers and community members, I engage deeply with these questions. This exploration has taken shape through experimental filmmaking, blending abstraction, painting, and fading visuals with oil paintings to create a cohesive cardboard installation. The film is projected on a makeshift marionette stage, surrounded by tartan drapes, inviting viewers into an immersive experience.

Through this curated environment, I hope to encourage viewers to reflect critically on what America means to them and to explore their own sense of identity within the broader American context. Ultimately, I seek to enrich our culture, fostering a sense of peace and common ground, one rooted in understanding, shared stories, and a collective effort to heal the divisions that persist. I believe this exploration, grounded in history, personal experience, and the work of influential artists, can help us begin to break free from the cycles of disconnection and alienation that so many of us feel. It is my hope that this journey will inspire a more mentally and physically sustainable future for our country, one built on empathy, dialogue, and shared humanity, and reconnect with our collective consciousness.”

The reception will be held at 5:30pm on Friday, 05/09/25.

On behalf of the Art Department and Climate Action Plan Committee, a birding and photography trip will be held on Saturday, May 10^th 2025. The destination will be the Lillian Anderson Arboretum; this foray into the field is timed to coincide with peak bird migration. We will depart from Red Square a little after 7:00 AM and return around 10:00 AM. Binoculars will be provided; to guard against ticks, please wear long pants (tucked into socks). A definitive list of participants must be produced prior to the event, so an RSVP is required: please contact Richard Koenig <rkoenig@kzoo.edu> by noon Friday, the 9^th of May, if you intend to join us.

Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Laetitia Loo’s art exhibition. Laetitia Loo’s exhibition is on view in the FAB gallery throughout the week, 05/11/2025 – 05/17/2025.

“In this body of work, I am depicting objects and landscapes through an exploration of loss, grief, and nostalgia. Each piece builds upon the others through a cohesive colour pallette and aims to explore different facets of loss and my own interpretations of the growth and processing that comes with loss, whether it be death, a loss of relationship, or a loss of a place. My goal with this body of work was to depict my own experiences in hopes that someone could look into the vignettes and see aspects of themselves in both the brighter and darker elements. The process of painting itself has always been a very therapeutic process for me, and in creating works about my feelings of loss, it felt like putting pieces of my emotions and thoughts onto canvas with each brushstroke. The sculptural elements I included in this body of work also featured a time consuming and meticulous process which felt true to the other works. It was also an addition of something more tangible and reaching out from the flat 2D plains that I was confined to. Grief to me is a cyclical thing. You’re never free of it completely, it merely transforms itself into different versions as you process. Sometimes it is messier and raw while other times it’s simply nostalgia with edges that are tinged with blue.”

The reception will be held at 3:30pm on Tuesday, 05/13/25.

Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Megan McGarry’s art exhibition, “Ellipsis.” Megan McGarry’s exhibition is on view in the FAB gallery throughout the week, 05/18/2025 – 05/24/2025.

“In my artwork, I experiment with themes of color, shape, and space to create abstract works that are collaged and sewn together. My work is primarily process based and the final pieces are never planned out, the pieces tend to make themselves as I work. I experiment with my materials and approach my art with a “what if…” headspace. Through this mixing of color combinations, shapes, sizes, and layers I create these abstract environments and I am able to create my own ecosystem of collaged paintings that mimic ideas of landscapes and natural environments.”

The reception will be held at 3:30pm on Thursday, 05/22/25; alongside Annabel Bee’s reception.

Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Annabel Bee’s art exhibition, “Let Go of Hope.” Annabel Bee’s exhibition is on view on the FAB balcony throughout the week, 05/18/2025 – 05/24/2025.

“Throughout this body of work I work through my own capitalistic nihilism mainly through portraiture, exploring the human body’s interactions with a quickly industrialized world. Through works of acrylic paint, oil pastel, and knitwear I explore themes such as environmental detachment, nakedness, consumption and compulsion, and human evolution. The title ‘Give Up on Hope’ alludes to the persistant ennui of the working class, yet also to the Buddhist idea that one should let go of any hope that material goods will bring satisfaction in order to find true contentment.”

The reception will be held at 3:30pm on Thursday, 05/22/25; alongside Megan McGarry’s reception.

Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Jackson Willits’ art exhibition. Jackson Willits’ exhibition is on view in the FAB gallery throughout the week, 05/25/2025 – 05/31/2025.

“My work takes the various traditions of portrait and landscape paintings and incorperates abstract line drawings into their compositions complicating the painted forms and bringing out the abstract qualities in the paintings. By overlaying purly abstract designs over top of my figures they are deconstructed and redefined into simple aesthetic forms. This form of representation connects with themes of human control over nature and natural elements. The Abstractions themselves seek to take over the natural forms and make them idealized in a humanly artificial way.”

The reception will be held at 3:30pm on Tuesday, 05/27/25.

Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Aiden Morgan’s art exhibition, “(dis)comfort.” Aiden Morgan’s exhibition is on view in the FAB gallery throughout the week, 06/01/2025 – 06/07/2025.

“I am in pain. Regardless of when you are reading this statement, I am in some form of pain or discomfort. I have stopped wishing for the day where I will go back to “normal.” You may read that and feel sad, or upset, or feel the urge to tell me to keep trying and keep pushing. However, realizing that a future where I feel well again may never come has been freeing in a sense. I no longer wait idly for something to change, now I find ways to persist despite my pains. Through my art, I try to convey the battle between comfort and discomfort, both mental and physical.

I hope to make people feel less alone. I hope to connect with others and form a community- to give others the words and/or iconography to identify and better understand themselves. Thank you for being here, stay tenacious.”

The reception will be held at 3:30pm on Thursday, 06/05/25.

Join the Art Department for a reception celebrating Natalie Martinez’s art exhibition, “Through the Lens of Darkness and Loss: A Tribute to My Father.” Natalie Martinez’s exhibition is on view in the FAB gallery throughout the week, 06/08/2025 – 06/14/2025.

“With this artwork, in order to explore the idea of processing grief through nature, I draw from my own experience with loss. The images within this work are intentionally kept dark, reflecting the weight of loss while also using the nature depicted in the images to represent the beauty that can come from this sadness. Grief is an unfortunately inevitable, raw, and a deeply human aspect of life, but with this work I hope to create a meaningful tribute to my father as well as a visual discussion on the reflection of grief and the beauty in cherishing a loved one’s memory.”

The reception will be held at 3:30pm on Monday, 06/09/25.