Art at Palmer Commons

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

"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.

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

January 10 - February 25, 2011    

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.

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.

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.