Picturing Places and Spaces

Japanese woodblock print of a massive eagle swooping down over a snowy coastal landscape with a mountain peak.

Marbled blue and white glass vase decorated with snow-capped mountains and a snow-covered pine tree.

Since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, people across the world - and in the University of Michigan-Dearborn community - have become intensely aware of the spaces of their homes and the mental and spiritual respite offered by the outdoors, whether they be nearby walking paths or public parks. We have started to return to the familiar places and routines of daily life, but many of us dream of traveling again to exciting cities, national parks, or famous sites around the world.

In longing for travel, we imagine seeing new worlds or seeing our own worlds with fresh eyes. This exhibition explores both real and imagined places and spaces as depicted by a selection of international, national, and local artists from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

The interpretations of lived and conjured worlds are grouped thematically to facilitate your journey through the gallery. Rather than snapping photos during your travel in this space, we hope you will take with you the varied perspectives offered by the artists in the exhibition.

The exhibition is divided into six themes:

Famous Places: Artists in this section represented places celebrated in their worlds, focusing on their historical importance or their beauty.
Familiar Places: Rather than choosing a famous city or vista, the artists in this section represented the places they experienced every day.
Sites of Solitude: Artists in this section created landscapes that encourage the viewer to pause and to contemplate.
Restless Places: Transformation of place is clear in this group of images that focuses on the elements of nature: earth, water, fire, and wind.
The Idea of Place: Artists in this section refer to places around them, but they chose an abstract approach.
City Spaces: The energy of city spaces is captured by artists in this section, including the contributions of African Americans and immigrants that call attention to the humanity of spaces in a large city.

This exhibition is the culminating experiential learning project of the following students enrolled in the Art History Capstone Seminar taught by Professor Susan Erickson during the Fall 2021 semester: Lubna Al Nasri, Ethan Arnold, Stephanie Bender, Frank Carter, Nicole Gonzales, Diana Guzman, Mallory Lloyd, Hairaty Mahamadou Alhassane, and Brittanie Sharp. Works from the permanent collection of the Stamelos Gallery Center are featured in the exhibition along with Asian paintings and prints made possible through a generous loan from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor.