Lane Hall Exhibit Space

two images of art. The first is a painting of an abstract figure titled Panthropos by Rafael Neis. The bottom image is a photo of a person in a pond, called "Pond Games" by Anne Vetter

The Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Women’s and Gender Studies Department present a regular schedule of art exhibitions in Lane Hall’s lobby, an intimate space, conducive to seeing, reflection, and study.

Exhibitions feature works in a variety of media, by artists from near and far who are united in their exploration of topical issues and themes that hold meaning for the study of women and gender. Exhibitions are selected through a nominations process and review committee of WGS and IRWG representatives. Nominations come from U-M faculty in an annual call.

Current Exhibit

Rafael Neis: KIN: Us and Our Kinds

Anne Vettter: Love is Not the Last Room

September 17 - December 6, 2024

In Fall 2024, the Lane Hall exhibit space will feature works by two exciting visual artists: Rafael Neis and Anne Vetter. 

Neis’s exhibition, “KIN: Us and Our Kinds” assembles a menagerie of queer beings who dwell outside of normative gender and species categories. Across painting, drawing, and print, images of rogue zoology and extravagant gender congregate and commune. “KIN” engages ancient texts and comics, as well as a love for process and mark-making, and a disregard for the putative boundaries between abstraction and figuration.

Vetter’s photography exhibition, “Love is Not the Last Room” is made in collaboration with the artist’s family—their parents, their brothers, and their partner. It is an examination of play and leisure, tension and freedom. Through photographs, Vetter processes how they learned to relate in their most intimate connections, and how they relate now. This project explores queer familial relationships, and uses Vetter’s own gender fluidity as a lens to examine the gendered experiences of their family members.

Neis and Vetter’s exhibits will be on view through December 6, 2024. A reception with the artists is planned for September 17 from 5-6:30 PM in the exhibit space. An artist's talk by Anne Vetter will preceed the reception, from 4-5 PM in 2239 Lane Hall.

The fall exhibits are presented by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Department of Women's & Gender Studies, the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, and the CEW+ Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund.

Located on the first floor of Lane Hall (204 S. State Street), the Exhibit Space is free and open to the public, M-F, 9am-4pm.

University of Michigan instructors can email LaneHallExhibits@umich.edu to request a group tour or schedule a class visit.

Pictured above: Panthropos (acrylic on canvas, 30 in. x 24 in., 2024) by R. Neis, and Pond Games (photograph, pigment print, 40 in. x 30 in., 2022) by A. Vetter.

About the Artists

photo of Rafael NeisRafael Neis is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and scholar who lives and works in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their work focuses on the themes of animality, gender, and kinship, as well as on the relationship between materiality and form in the artmaking process. Neis’s art practice ranges across painting, comics, and installation, and is intertwined with their writing and scholarship. Their artwork has featured in various publications, with their comics column, "Those Rabbis!" published in The Huckleberry Notice. Neis’s paintings and works on paper are held in private collections and their mural work can be found in The Huckleberry Explorers Club in Detroit.
Website: rachelrafaelneis.com / Instagram:@ postrafelite

 

photo of Anne VetterAnne Vetter (b. 1994) lives and works in California and Massachusetts. They are a Jewish-American artist. Their work is focused on play, family systems, performance, and the fluidity of identity. Their current project Love is not the Last Room is made in collaboration with their family- parents, brothers, cousins, and partner- and explores gender and attachment. Vetter also photographs and writes for magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and the Washington Post Magazine. 
Website: acvetter.com / Instagram: @annevetter

 

 


Past Exhibits

My Gender States
January 23 - August 13, 2024
Conceived with text by Rogério M. Pinto
Design and construction of original sculptures in collaboration with Sarah Tanner. Photographs by Emerson Granillo, David Newton and Nicholas (Niki) Williams.

Sarah Buckius: !!!techn010ffspring!!!
August 15 - December 15, 2023
This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.
Watch the artist's talk in Lane Hall

Portraits of Feminism in Japan
An exhibit cosponsored by the Center for Japanese Studies, IRWG, and the Department of Women's & Gender Studies.
Featured artists: Elaine Cromie, JenClare B. Gawaran, Takatoshi Hayashi, ivokuma (いぼくま), Nami Kaneko (金子奈美), Kang Jungsook, Lisa Taka Miyagi, Nancy Nishihira (西平・ナンシー), and Shigeki Shibata (柴田滋紀). Curation team: Allison Alexy, Bradly Hammond, Grace Mahoney, and Alexandria Molinari.
January 12 - August 4, 2023
Visit the exhibit website

I have a crisis for you: Women Artists of Ukraine Respond to War
An exhibit curated by Grace Mahoney and Jessica Zychowicz, featuring work by Kinder Album, JT Blatty, Oksana Briukhovetska (MFA, Stamps School of Art and Design), Oksana Kazmina, Sonya Hukaylo, Svetlana Lavochkina, Kateryna Lisovenko, and Lyuba Yakimchuk.
August 25 – December 15, 2022
Visit the exhibit website

Invisible Women: Portraits of Aging in Ukraine
Photographs by Ashley Bigham, Assistant Professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University. Watercolors by Grace Mahoney, doctoral student in Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan. 
April 28 – August 18, 2022

New York City’s Vanished Cafeterias
photography exhibit by Marcia Bricker Halperin
January 16 - December 1, 2020

Selections from "Whose Streets? Our Streets!": New York City, 1980-2000
photography exhibition was curated by Tamar W. Carroll, Meg Handler, Mike Kamber and Josh Meltzer with support from the Bronx Documentary Center and the Rochester Institute of Technology
September 3 - December 13, 2019

she was here, once
Multimedia exhibit by Nastassja E. Swift
January 9 - August 2, 2019

Maya Healers: A Thousand Dreams
Photography exhibit by Fran Antmann
September 4 - December 7, 2018

Labors of Love and Loss
Mixed media exhibit by Marianetta Porter & Lisa Olson
January 29 - July 13, 2018

Chicana Fotos
An exhibit of Chicana photography documenting the 1970s by Nancy de los Santos
October 6 - December 13, 2017

Moving Through the Centuries: The Empowerment of U-M Women Through Physical Activity
historical photography & archive exhibition
January 12 - June 30, 2017

Swallowed Whole: A Visual Journey Through Traumatic Injury and Recovery
Works by Heidi Kumao
photography & video exhibition
September 1 - December 20, 2016

Above Ground - 40 Moments of Transformation
photography exhibition of Young Feminist Activism in China
January 26 - July 1, 2016

Stories of Mothers Lost
The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood
August 10 - December 11, 2015