Intermural

Olivia Guterson | Ann Arbor, MI

Olivia will create a large black & white collage drawn on the 117 Gallery walls. The public will have access to colored paint markers to fill in Olivia’s drawing. She will be present throughout the duration of the exhibition to work with the public.

“In Intermural I seek to pay tribute to the complexities of nature’s patterns by focusing predominantly in black and white for its stability, intensity, and honesty. With black ink, there is no going back. One line slowly evolves into an intricate commotion. My goal is document the beautiful chaos as I see it.”

About Olivia: Deeply influenced by the textures and landscapes of my childhood homes in New Mexico and Washington, I have developed a love for wandering to find art and patterns. I have always been moved to create and once I begin drawing my lines as a child, I never really stopped. I tend to focus on the contrast of black and white; busy and still; quiet and loud. Through my work, I hope people take a moment to look a little deeper. Things are more than they appear at first glance. Everything is ephemeral.

Eliza Fernand | Grand Rapids, MI

Eliza will create a large scale fabric collage, applying fabric pieces direct to a large canvas piece that will cover the 117 Gallery wall. The public will find materials that they can add to the piece as they see fit. Eliza will be present throughout the duration of the exhibition to work with the public. 

“My intentions as an artist and teacher are reusing discarded materials for art, empowering communities through teaching self-sustaining skills, creating socially engaged projects that demystify the practice of artists, and encouraging cross-media collaboration. For the past seven years, I have been investigating the traditions and techniques of quiltmaking, and conceptualizing my research through interactive, collaborative projects that take form in video, sculpture, photography, installation, and murals.”

About Eliza: After receiving a BFA and the Departmental Award in Sculpture at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland Oregon, Eliza Fernand has spent the last eleven years attending artist residencies in a nomadic cross-country career that recently led her back to her home state of Michigan in 2014. Exhibiting her work nationally, notably at HATCH Gallery in Oakland, CA; A.I.R. Gallery in New York, NY; Gallery Homeland in Portland, OR; and Harmony Murphy Gallery in Los Angles, CA; she has also painted large-scale public murals in multiple cities, and was invited to do a solo exhibition at The Art League Gallery at the South Bend Museum of Art in Indiana in 2015. Fernand co-founded Shared Space Studio, a community art space in rural West Michigan, where she worked as the Artist Residency Director and Facilitator for five years, and concluded the project by curating an exhibition of 27 Shared Space resident artists at The Fed Galleries at Kendall College of Art and Design in 2016. Her work often includes the community and is centered around teaching and organizing.

Natalie Berry & Trevor Stone | Ann Arbor, MI

Lavinia Hanachiuc | Ann Arbor, MI

About Lavinia: Lavinia Hanachiuc is a Romanian-born ceramic artist and fine art photographer. Her work originates from an organic mélange of eastern European folklore and superstitions, Latin blood and memories from a childhood lived under an oppressive political regime. Her work is always following the materials and it’s at times very short lived , designed to interact with the audience at community events . Hanachiuc has resided in the United States since completing her Fine Art University studies in Bucharest , Romania and she has continued to create art and teach the thrill of chasing ideas and making beautiful objects to a wide audience . She is based in Ann Arbor , Mi.