Featuring :: EVERYBODY in The Land of Here and Now

This summer, instead of hosting resident artists at our studio, we brought the studio into the gallery with an exhibition called The Land of Here and Now: Five Years of Artists at Shared Space Studio.

We invited all of our 34 past resident artists to show their most exciting work in a big, beautiful gallery in downtown Grand Rapids. After months of planning, we have 28 stellar artists in the show with work that runs the gamut from video loops, to performative costumes, to geometric wall pieces, to framed photographs, to paintings and projections. As a collection, the body of work formed and performed within this space is complex and unique. This exhibition brings together this diverse group and showcases the spirit of collaboration and creative placemaking. Honoring the studio itself, and the town of Pentwater, The Land of Here and Now includes a re-creation of the studio space plastered in contributions left by all past residents, and a work space for co-facilitators Eliza and Mary. In the tradition of including the public in our process, there will be performance and interactive programming for the run of the show, from June 9th to July 23rd, 2016.

The Land of Here and Now is a title borrowed from our favorite local folk hero, Swift Lathers. Lathers (1889-1970) wrote and published the worlds smallest weekly newspaper for 40 years, homesteaded in the Silver Lake Dunes, and was famous for hitchhiking everywhere he went and wearing a peculiar outfit every day. The Land of Here and Now is the title of his fifth book, which was known to be published, but all copies have since been lost to time.

Images Courtesy of Kendall College of Art and Design