The snow, sleet and even power outages might have pushed back the opening to “Nostalgia & Outrage,” but Oakland University’s newest art exhibition was finally unveiled to the public on Jan. 20, 2024.
Curated by the OU Art Gallery’s Director, Dick Goody, “Nostalgia & Outrage” features works from Michigan artists Adrian Hatfield and Mary Fortuna.
“We got together and talked about the show in May [of 2023] and we did an interview. I didn’t have a title for the show, but it came out during the interview — we were interested in the idea of ‘nostalgia and outrage,’” Goody said.
The interview — which is available for purchase in a pamphlet showcasing the artist’s work in the exhibition — covers the artists’ personal and creative histories, along with how their works came to be.
“There are commonalities with both of you, aspects that overlap, for instance, you’re both interested in natural history. You’re both at times irreverent, and you’re both fetishistic with your motifs. What other concerns do you think you share?” Goody asked the artists in the interview.
“We both have a sense of humor and we’re both anxious or pissed off at the state of the world. A lot of art historical references show up. We’re sort of pinging all over the place,” Fortuna said.
“I think we both use storytelling or narrative as a hook. We both use archetypal characters in our work,” Hatfield said.
One of Hatfield’s most striking works in the exhibit is a multifaceted cultural-collage painting, where there are two main subjects and points of interest. One, is DC Comics’s, Swamp Thing, stopping a moving car — whose headlights illuminate the creature but also penetrate the scene as a whole. Second, is the Titanic sinking into the ocean, with people in lifeboats helplessly watching as the metal behemoth succumbs to the depths of the Atlantic.
Fortuna, on the other hand, is a sculptor who deals with the surreal. Her work deals with a lot of real-life — reptiles, arachnids, human body parts, birds — that borders on the absurd sometimes.
“I was given the freedom to, anything I wanted to put in motion I could put in motion and if I could get it done and get it up on the walls — Dick wasn’t saying no to anything he was just encouraging, encouraging, encouraging,” Fortuna said.
These two artists might have a few things in common thematically, but why connect them in this way? Why at OU?
“Putting these two together is really a way to reconnect with the Detroit art scene,” Goody said.
Fortuna, who now lives in Traverse City, and Hatfield, who is a professor at Wayne State University both commented on how OU benefits from all of this positive exposure through the arts.
“Oakland has also been putting on some of the best shows in the Detroit area for as long as I lived here… Looking at either beautiful or aesthetically interesting things, if it can challenge you to think about things differently, that’s a bonus,” Hatfield said.
“Under the guidance of Dick over all these years it’s extraordinary. [He] has done an amazing job for the students, for the artists, for gallery visitors, for everybody,” Fortuna said.
Goody took me behind the scenes of the gallery, literally. Behind the fake walls of the exhibition, there are hundreds of art pieces — sculptures, masks, paintings, etc. It was a look into not only the gallery’s history but OU’s history.
“We don’t have enough space, we’re a museum because of all of this stuff. It gives a bit of dimension… The idea is to bring people and art together,” Goody said.
We slipped into his office, where he remarked on some of the paintings’ stories. One piece has bits of road scraped off from Michigan Avenue, which Goody remarked, glows in the dark.
“It’s a cultural space, it’s a hub for discourse,” Goody said.
We went back out into the white room — filled to the brim with art — once again. It finally hit me that after covering the gallery for the past semester this place really is a treasure at OU. Everyone should be here and experience both nostalgia, outrage and every other emotion.
Those interested in the exhibit can visit the OU Art Gallery Tuesday through Sunday from 12-5 p.m. in room 208 of Wilson Hall until Mar. 24.
