Post published:October 24, 2024

Exhibition Features Work of Some of the Newest Faculty Members

The works of the newest faculty members to Michigan State University’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design (AAHD) are now on display in an exhibition, titled Vitalize, through Friday, Nov. 22, at (SCENE) Metrospace, located at 110 Charles Street in downtown East Lansing. An opening reception for the Vitalize exhibition is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 25, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Collage of five vertical artistic panels with the word 'VITALIZE' in bold, white text across the center. The panels feature diverse textures and designs: abstract black and white stripes and shapes, a textured pink and beige wall, a colorful geometric pattern with blue and purple lines, a stylized portrait of a person with a paper strip over their eyes, and a grayscale stone sculpture with fruit. — The *Vitalize* exhibition runs Oct. 25-Nov. 22 at (SCENE) Metrospace, 110 Charles Street, East Lansing.

The faculty members whose work is featured in the Vitalize exhibition include:

Andrea Allen, Assistant Professor of Art Education who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2024.
Gustavo Uriel Ayala, who received his MFA in Studio Art from Michigan State University in Spring 2024 and joined the AAHD Department as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2024.
CaraMia Bertoni, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2023.
Chloe Pascal Crawford, Assistant Professor who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2023.
Lorelei d’Andriole, Assistant Professor of Electronic Art and Intermedia who joined the AAHD Department in 2021.
Barbara Pearsall, Assistant Professor who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2024.
Emily Potts, Assistant Professor who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2024.
Nathan Prebonick, Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Foundations who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2023.
Rafael Villares Orellana, Assistant Professor of Sculpture who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2024.
Jamie Weinfurter, Assistant Professor who joined the AAHD Department in Fall 2024.

These newest faculty members to the Department of Art, Art History, and Design bring new energy through their creative voices and work to the Michigan State University campus and the greater Lansing community.

Working in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, new media, and printmaking, these faculty members explore, through their artistic work, themes of memory, sense of place, disability, loss, grief, and healing as well as the relationship between humans and the natural world.

The Vitalize exhibition is introspective and reflective, calling on the viewer to contemplate systems in society and personal narratives. It is layered with sensitivity and poignance that unearths realms of human experience. Together, there is strength in stories.