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Palmer Commons

Art at Palmer Commons

See What University of Michigan Artists Create

Palmer Commons is home to a large permanent collection of University of Michigan student artwork. We firmly believe that art is the soul of our vibrant Michigan community and are extremely proud to be able to support our local artists and provide a home for some of the incredible creative endeavors that are happening all around us. Our collection is composed of many different kinds of work but mainly focuses on paintings and other two-dimensional work.

Through Water - Student Art Exhibition

We currently have a piece of art from student Alyss Munson on display on our 4th floor Atrium. It will be up from March 17 - 31. 

Artist Statement from Alyss Munson:

I look to explore my personal experiences by reflecting my subconscious through mixed media including primarily painting, printmaking, and fiber arts. Constantly thinking about bodies of water, their inhabitants, and my dreams, I am inspired to make surrealist work about the interactions connecting them all. 

 

Exhibition Statement:

James Charles Morris Art Exhibition

Please join us for an art exhibition of select works by Detroit artist, James Charles Morris. The exhibition will be on the 4th in the Atrium of Palmer Commons from 2/13/23 - 3/9/23.

Student Art Exhibition

Come to the Windows Lounge on our 3rd floor Plaza level of Palmer to see Rachel Deveyra's art exhibition. It will be up from November 1 - 18, 2022. Below is an artist statement from Rachel. 

 

Loving into Death Exhibition

Loving into Life & Death Exhibition

This student artist exhibition will be in our Windows Lounge on the 3rd floor, Plaza Level from September 1 - 22, 2022.

Artist, Brianna Fox, is a multidisciplinary artist from Detroit, who focuses on Illustration. Her work is influenced by the media she consumes, as well as the community around her. In her own words, "I like to build off of strong experiences whether that be fiction or nonfiction."

Musings of a Latina Art Exhibition

Now until March 31, we are excited to present Musings of a Latina, an exhibition by Gabby Moreno, in Windows Lounge on our 3rd floor.

About the Artist 

My father was born in Mexico and I identify strongly with the culture. Mexican cinema from the Golden Age is an interest of mine that frequently manifests in my paintings and drawings. Equally interesting to me is Argentine Tango, a dance that I have enjoyed since childhood. My paintings and drawings will also reflect this obsession of mine. 

Palmer Art Submissions

Palmer Commons is looking for student art to fill our buildings! If you are interested in showing your work in a Palmer Commons space, or have other art-based ideas for any of the spaces, please apply below! Acceptance is rolling, and open to a wide variety of medium, so submit anything you're passionate about and we'll be in touch!

Palmer Art Submission Application

Past Exhibitions

See past exhibitions that were on display in the Windows Lounge on the 3rd floor

Current Exhibitions

See current exhibitions on display in the Windows Lounge on the 3rd floor

Transformations

Palmer Commons invites you to take a look around our Windows Lounge at our newest exhibition, Transformations. These oil paintings come from Jim Cogswell’s Intro to Painting: Organizing Visual Space class at the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art and Design. Students were assigned a project that required them to make a collage out of anything they wanted and transform it into a painting. This is the result: six incredibly unique, dazzling pieces.

Bodies of Michigan

Palmer Commons invites you to look around our Windows Lounge and explore our latest exhibition, Bodies of Michigan. The show presents an array of work from University of Michigan student artists, showcasing some of the many ways in which students on campus perceive and interact with the human body. Each work explores the diversity and uniqueness of friends, family, peers, and strangers alike as well as different methods of representing them, evoking themes ranging all the way from friendship to fear of clowns in a variety of different media and styles.

Wolverine Press & Printing Services Exhibit

The Wolverine Press & Printing Services exhibit is a small exploration into official University of Michigan imagery from the 1950s and 1960s. The images included were printed from the original letterpress blocks used by Printing services to produced pamphlets and other assorted documents, and include the Peach Mountain Observatory radio telescope, dental diagrams, images of campus from that period, and more. The exhibit can be found near the 3rd floor Info Desk.

Color Woodcut Print Exhibition in the 4th Floor Atrium

From now until December 2nd, we are showcasing works from the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design's print making class, Color Woodcut Print with Endi Poskovic. In this course, students explore color in relief printmaking and create unique prints and multiples utilizing both digital and analog input. Class demonstrations introduce making and printing images in color from a variety of relief surfaces and cover a range of single and multi-plate methods.

The Family That Prays Together Gallery

The Family that Prays Together is a new show by Stamps student Beth Reeck. It features ten large works on paper that portray the life of a family of Praying Mantises. The show is currently on display in the 4th floor atrium.

Humanize the Numbers Show

Humanize the Numbers is an ongoing project at the University of Michigan that connects incarcerated men and women in Michigan state prisons with hundreds of students, artists, researchers, and activists in and around Ann Arbor. 

The project exhibited here is a collaboration between two RC Fall 2015 classes: Beg. Drawing (RCARTS 288) and Documentary Theater (RCHUM 334).

 

The show will be on display from 2/8 until 3/7 in the 4th floor atrium.

2.99e8 Gallery

The 2.99e8 Gallery is the current and most recent gallery at Palmer Commons.
aug·men·ted re·al·i·ty (n)

A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

2.99e8 is a video gallery of work by students of the Stamps School of Art and Design, disguised as a photo gallery. Using your mobile device, you can scan the images displayed in order to view the videos. Exhibit will be in the 4th floor Atrium of Palmer Commons until December 1, 2015.

Endless Summer Art Exhibition

No classes, no professors, no deadlines: what do we make when we don’t have to make anything? The summer time is often a respite from the click clack keep going don’t stop don’t sleep schedule of the fall and winter months, a period when the students of the Art School skitter off in all directions. We are condemned to that most binding punishment: absolute freedom. When we aren’t made to create art, are we still compelled to? What themes and ideas do we have the motivation to pursue?

Printing Making Exhibit

Printmaking takes on many forms and statements, each an expression of an idea or feeling. The collection of prints created by students of Endi Poskovic displayed on the Fourth Floor gallery at Palmer Commons help to express many different focuses and techniques celebrated in the art world. Come visit the colorful exhibit and see the creativity and innovation of printmaking students at the Stamps School of Art & Design! January 2015 - June 2015.

Current Exhibit Image

Permanent Collection

Palmer Commons permanently holds many large oil paintings created by students in Jim Cogswell's Intro to Painting course at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. These paintings are displayed throughout the building and are one of the great strengths of our collection. Their color, form, and texture lends a vital dynamism to our space, and their impressive scale and presence must be experienced in person.

Permanent Collection Image

Yousuf Seyam Exhibit

"Art has been a truly transformative force in my life.

Even though art is subjective, I feel that if one keeps an open mind, one can find beauty in any medium. Therefore, my goal in each of these paintings is to motivate and inspire others to experiment with movement and spontaneity in art like I have.

Yousuf Seyam Exhibit Image

James Niemi Exhibit

A three time ArtPrize fine artist working and living in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

January 10 - February 25, 2011    

James Niemi Exhibit Image

Idá Abreu Exhibit

In April 2010, Palmer Commons had the pleasure of hosting the artwork of Cape Verdean artist Idá Abreu, whose work concerns social issues in Cape Verde as well as the role of language in transnational identity. Abreu and his work were able to come to the University of Michigan thanks to the Center for World Performance Studies and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Idá Abreu Exhibit

Chris Jordan: Running the Numbers

Chris Jordan is an artist and cultural activist whose work explores contemporary mass culture by connecting the viewer viscerally to the enormity and power of humanity’s collective behaviors. Running with Numbers looks at contemporary western culture through statistics. For example, Toothpicks depicts one hundred toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.

The campus-wide exhibition was held October 26 – November 20, 2012.

Chris Jordan: Running the Numbers Image

Language: The Human Quintessence

The centerpiece of our collection is a large mural on our fourth floor. Mark Tucker, Art Director for a neighborhood student program, the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program, and founder of Festifools, a popular local event, invited students to design and create a 1,235-square foot mural. This mural is now installed in the 4th Floor Atrium at Palmer Commons, a location visible from many positions both inside and outside the building. Tucker explains that in designing the mural, several students were guided by the theme of language.

Language: The Human Quintessence Image

Past Exhibit: Printmaking

Printmaking takes on many forms and statements, each an expression of an idea or feeling. The collection of prints created by students of Endi Poskovic displayed on the Fourth Floor gallery at Palmer Commons help to express many different focuses and techniques celebrated in the art world. Come visit the colorful exhibit and see the creativity and innovation of printmaking students at the Stamps School of Art & Design!

Print making