2023 Exhibitions
Buckham Gallery presented ten visual art exhibitions featuring work by local, regional, and national artists who make significant statements in their chosen discipline and provide relevant arts programming. 2023’s exhibitions featured four large group shows, one small group, and 20 concurrent and carefully paired solo artist presentations. This included 576 artworks by 147 visual artists, stipends to artists, 15 artist talks.
January 13 - February 11, 2023
Guen Montgomery’s installation, Crawl Space, explores the trait of ‘trouble discarding rarely used possessions.’ Montgomery makes prints because it centers on touch. Both the actual, literal, pressured touch of fur or fabric matrix to paper, and the sense of longing to touch that comes from the printed illusion of fur or fabric.
Whitney Sage’s exhibition, Portraits of Home, presents the neighborhoods of Detroit and Highland Park with nostalgia through the language of meticulously rendered monochromatic ink drawings on watercolor paper and aquaboard panels.
Stephanie Serpick’s oil paintings in Interior Visions explores themes of isolation, grief, especially as it was magnified during the pandemic.
Guen Montgomery’s installation, Crawl Space, explores the trait of ‘trouble discarding rarely used possessions.’ Montgomery makes prints because it centers on touch. Both the actual, literal, pressured touch of fur or fabric matrix to paper, and the sense of longing to touch that comes from the printed illusion of fur or fabric.
Whitney Sage’s exhibition, Portraits of Home, presents the neighborhoods of Detroit and Highland Park with nostalgia through the language of meticulously rendered monochromatic ink drawings on watercolor paper and aquaboard panels.
Stephanie Serpick’s oil paintings in Interior Visions explores themes of isolation, grief, especially as it was magnified during the pandemic.
February 18 - March 18, 2023
Jeanne Ciravolo’s Tokens and Traces seeks to amplify the narrative of female protagonists by using practices normally associated with women's domestic labor. Ciravolo uses these collages of painted paper fragments, paper towels and other found pieces to paint, print and layer, creating texture within her forms and a sense of repair and re-envision, both traditionally female practices.
Kimberly LaVonne’s exhibition Between Here and There explores efforts to maintain and strengthen her connection with her Panamanian heritage. The pieces are inspired by forms found in Pre-Columbian Coclé pottery, however she uses the outside of these pieces as the canvas with which to showcase her images. LaVonne uses the many images in her pieces to invoke the sights, sounds and feelings of being in Cuidad del Saber, in hopes that it will create a dialogue between herself and her ancestral home.
Danielle Mužina’s exhibit A RECKONING IN PINK questions gender performance in relation to gender roles within our contemporary society. Mužina uses patterns and layered colors to create these imagined landscapes that connect to the very real anxieties and pressures Mužina and many people experience everyday.
Jeanne Ciravolo’s Tokens and Traces seeks to amplify the narrative of female protagonists by using practices normally associated with women's domestic labor. Ciravolo uses these collages of painted paper fragments, paper towels and other found pieces to paint, print and layer, creating texture within her forms and a sense of repair and re-envision, both traditionally female practices.
Kimberly LaVonne’s exhibition Between Here and There explores efforts to maintain and strengthen her connection with her Panamanian heritage. The pieces are inspired by forms found in Pre-Columbian Coclé pottery, however she uses the outside of these pieces as the canvas with which to showcase her images. LaVonne uses the many images in her pieces to invoke the sights, sounds and feelings of being in Cuidad del Saber, in hopes that it will create a dialogue between herself and her ancestral home.
Danielle Mužina’s exhibit A RECKONING IN PINK questions gender performance in relation to gender roles within our contemporary society. Mužina uses patterns and layered colors to create these imagined landscapes that connect to the very real anxieties and pressures Mužina and many people experience everyday.
March 24 - 25, 2023
Build Your Own Collection (B.Y.O.C.)- Buckham hosted an exhibition of 199 works of art by 67 artists. At the event, 150 attendees received refreshments, live music, and an opportunity to purchase artworks in support of Buckham and the artists. All sales were split 50/50, and Artists were happy to sell their work. This event was not only a great deal of fun and profitable, it gained exposure for Buckham’s programming to new audiences
Build Your Own Collection (B.Y.O.C.)- Buckham hosted an exhibition of 199 works of art by 67 artists. At the event, 150 attendees received refreshments, live music, and an opportunity to purchase artworks in support of Buckham and the artists. All sales were split 50/50, and Artists were happy to sell their work. This event was not only a great deal of fun and profitable, it gained exposure for Buckham’s programming to new audiences
April 7 - May 17, 2023
Sam Morello Selected Works As Buckham neared its 40th year as a nonprofit arts organization, we honored one of our founders, Sam Morello, with an exhibition of selected works from his career as an esteemed printmaker and artist.
Small Works - National Juried Exhibition- Often, large artworks dominate and attract the attention of the art world because of their instant impact. However, smaller artworks are powerful in a more quiet way; they draw viewers in for a close, intimate experience and prove that something small can make a big impression.
Teeth & Hair, a national juried exhibition of visual art featuring, using, or about teeth or hair and their enduring cultural significance. Lore and symbolism surrounding teeth & hair permeates every culture– Subjectively, teeth and hair can be perceived as beautiful, grotesque, or abject.
Sam Morello Selected Works As Buckham neared its 40th year as a nonprofit arts organization, we honored one of our founders, Sam Morello, with an exhibition of selected works from his career as an esteemed printmaker and artist.
Small Works - National Juried Exhibition- Often, large artworks dominate and attract the attention of the art world because of their instant impact. However, smaller artworks are powerful in a more quiet way; they draw viewers in for a close, intimate experience and prove that something small can make a big impression.
Teeth & Hair, a national juried exhibition of visual art featuring, using, or about teeth or hair and their enduring cultural significance. Lore and symbolism surrounding teeth & hair permeates every culture– Subjectively, teeth and hair can be perceived as beautiful, grotesque, or abject.
May 26 - July 1, 2023
Aisha Changezi, Oasis of Symmetry, of particular interest are Islamic geometric patterns and feeling lost in the symmetry, the earthy color palettes, and the ebb and flow of angular and biomorphic shapes all coming together in perfect harmony.
Adrian Hatfield, Late Stage Block Party, makes work examining the visual language strategies of science, pop culture and fine art history in conveying unfathomably huge subject matter. The paintings convey those experiences in tension: dread, splendor, joy, terror, wonder and the absurdity of human inaction.
Ryan Lewis’s Everted Sanctuaries is a series of stop-motion animated videos exploring the topic of introversion. An animator, artist, and design educator based in Kalamazoo, Lewis transforms found objects to reveal complexities that often go unnoticed below the surface. Everted Sanctuaries communicate about the complex needs of introverts.
Aisha Changezi, Oasis of Symmetry, of particular interest are Islamic geometric patterns and feeling lost in the symmetry, the earthy color palettes, and the ebb and flow of angular and biomorphic shapes all coming together in perfect harmony.
Adrian Hatfield, Late Stage Block Party, makes work examining the visual language strategies of science, pop culture and fine art history in conveying unfathomably huge subject matter. The paintings convey those experiences in tension: dread, splendor, joy, terror, wonder and the absurdity of human inaction.
Ryan Lewis’s Everted Sanctuaries is a series of stop-motion animated videos exploring the topic of introversion. An animator, artist, and design educator based in Kalamazoo, Lewis transforms found objects to reveal complexities that often go unnoticed below the surface. Everted Sanctuaries communicate about the complex needs of introverts.
July 14 - August 12, 2023
Photographer Robert Beras, In A Dream,combines and mixes images of cars, animals, and urban landscapes through digital manipulation and retouch. Thus creating a new place that is eerily familiar, like a dream.
Maria Lux, Nature is Healing, is a research-driven artist who centers her work on animals and their relationship to human knowledge. Lux works across disciplines, building projects from specific topics investigating animals in correlation to the larger scientific, ecological, and cultural systems that they are a part of. Her newest installation, Nature is Healing, addresses the earth’s hypothetical recovery from nuclear disaster.
Andrew Rieder’s Vocation as Vacation explores the concept of work ethic and the various ways in which it is quantified. His mixed-media paintings utilize imagery from activities that can be considered "leisurely labor" (fitness and strongman competitions as well as pick-your-own fruit). These images question whether or not an activity needs to seem undesirable to a participant in order to qualify as "work".
Photographer Robert Beras, In A Dream,combines and mixes images of cars, animals, and urban landscapes through digital manipulation and retouch. Thus creating a new place that is eerily familiar, like a dream.
Maria Lux, Nature is Healing, is a research-driven artist who centers her work on animals and their relationship to human knowledge. Lux works across disciplines, building projects from specific topics investigating animals in correlation to the larger scientific, ecological, and cultural systems that they are a part of. Her newest installation, Nature is Healing, addresses the earth’s hypothetical recovery from nuclear disaster.
Andrew Rieder’s Vocation as Vacation explores the concept of work ethic and the various ways in which it is quantified. His mixed-media paintings utilize imagery from activities that can be considered "leisurely labor" (fitness and strongman competitions as well as pick-your-own fruit). These images question whether or not an activity needs to seem undesirable to a participant in order to qualify as "work".
August 23 - September 30, 2023
Denise Burge’s Sunstroke addresses how our ideas about certain places represent a sort of cultural fantasy, a romantic collage of impressions and desires which ossify into a psychological 'space' that in fact is no place at all. She works in the fabric medium because of the theatrical nature of the painted quilt. The work often looks like it was painted—but much of it is pieced and embroidered.
Shanna Merola’s images in We All Live Downwind are culled from daily headlines – inspired by global and grassroots struggles against the forces of privatization in the face of disaster capitalism. The scenes have been carved out of dystopian landscapes in the aftermath of these events. Merola is a visual artist, and her sculptural photo-collages are informed by the stories of environmental justice struggles past and present.
Emily Orzech’s Bedside was catalyzed by her late partner’s illness and is interested in the liminal spaces we inhabit in the process of illness and caregiving. Using a process of layering upwards of thirty coats of screenprint on panel, sometimes adding graphite between the printed layers, Orzech selectively sands away the print, revealing the layers below. In this way she works using both additive and subtractive methods.
Denise Burge’s Sunstroke addresses how our ideas about certain places represent a sort of cultural fantasy, a romantic collage of impressions and desires which ossify into a psychological 'space' that in fact is no place at all. She works in the fabric medium because of the theatrical nature of the painted quilt. The work often looks like it was painted—but much of it is pieced and embroidered.
Shanna Merola’s images in We All Live Downwind are culled from daily headlines – inspired by global and grassroots struggles against the forces of privatization in the face of disaster capitalism. The scenes have been carved out of dystopian landscapes in the aftermath of these events. Merola is a visual artist, and her sculptural photo-collages are informed by the stories of environmental justice struggles past and present.
Emily Orzech’s Bedside was catalyzed by her late partner’s illness and is interested in the liminal spaces we inhabit in the process of illness and caregiving. Using a process of layering upwards of thirty coats of screenprint on panel, sometimes adding graphite between the printed layers, Orzech selectively sands away the print, revealing the layers below. In this way she works using both additive and subtractive methods.
October 6 - November 4
Buckham Fine Arts Project to launch 40th Anniversary Season: 2023 - 2024 with three exhibitions: Tom Nuzum, Tai Lipan, and Kiara Machado. Entering the gallery today, viewers will move through the past experiencing co-founder Tom Nuzum’s iconic acrylic paintings, then into the present experiencing Tai Lipan’s layered mixed media works which explore the enormity of time and Kiara Machado’s Llamáme Por Mi Nombre includes large-scale figurative paintings expressing the bold beauty of Central American culture.
Buckham Fine Arts Project to launch 40th Anniversary Season: 2023 - 2024 with three exhibitions: Tom Nuzum, Tai Lipan, and Kiara Machado. Entering the gallery today, viewers will move through the past experiencing co-founder Tom Nuzum’s iconic acrylic paintings, then into the present experiencing Tai Lipan’s layered mixed media works which explore the enormity of time and Kiara Machado’s Llamáme Por Mi Nombre includes large-scale figurative paintings expressing the bold beauty of Central American culture.
November 10 - December 2
Teresa Dunn is a Mexican-American artist raised in rural Illinois. Her identity, life, and art are influenced by her racial and cultural heritages and the complexities of being a brown woman in the Midwest. Her paintings, US ,bring voice to stories that people of color and immigrants want to share about themselves through visually poetic realities.
The annual group show is a tradition for the Buckham Arts Collective. This year, New Work, features works of various media by Artist Collaborators of the Buckham Fine Arts Project.
Teresa Dunn is a Mexican-American artist raised in rural Illinois. Her identity, life, and art are influenced by her racial and cultural heritages and the complexities of being a brown woman in the Midwest. Her paintings, US ,bring voice to stories that people of color and immigrants want to share about themselves through visually poetic realities.
The annual group show is a tradition for the Buckham Arts Collective. This year, New Work, features works of various media by Artist Collaborators of the Buckham Fine Arts Project.
December 8 - January 13
Contemporary Realism is the work of Todd Burroughs, Frits Hoendervanger, Armin Mersmann, and Robert Schefman who are working in our time and strive to understand both the potential of Realism and its pitfalls. Their hope is that the viewer takes a good look at this work, for there is more to it than just good painting.
In addition to the in-person opportunities to experience creative expression, Buckham presented all of its exhibitions online through viewing rooms hosted on the website, extending accessibility to exhibitions. BFAP recorded 11 zoom artist conversations hosted on YouTube and continues to receive views, extending accessibility and building new audiences.
Contemporary Realism is the work of Todd Burroughs, Frits Hoendervanger, Armin Mersmann, and Robert Schefman who are working in our time and strive to understand both the potential of Realism and its pitfalls. Their hope is that the viewer takes a good look at this work, for there is more to it than just good painting.
In addition to the in-person opportunities to experience creative expression, Buckham presented all of its exhibitions online through viewing rooms hosted on the website, extending accessibility to exhibitions. BFAP recorded 11 zoom artist conversations hosted on YouTube and continues to receive views, extending accessibility and building new audiences.
