For Immediate Release

Grand Rapids Art Museum and Ox-Bow partner to present summer artist lecture series

Series brings visiting artists from the Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency to Grand Rapids June 28, Aug. 2, and Aug. 23 

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Grand Rapids, Mich., June 27, 2025 – The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) announced today the GRAM & Ox-Bow 2025 Summer Lecture Series, a new series co-created with Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency in Saugatuck, Michigan. Taking place in GRAM’s Cook Auditorium on Saturday, June 28, Aug. 2, and Aug. 23, the series features six artists from across the United States participating in the Ox-Bow summer residency program:

“The Grand Rapids Art Museum is thrilled to partner with Ox-Bow to bring these incredible artists to Grand Rapids,” commented GRAM Director and CEO Cindy Foley. ​“Ox-Bow has a rich history of cultivating and nurturing artists at all stages of their careers, and this series includes some of the most noteworthy contemporary artists working today. We hope our guests walk away from these conversations feeling curious, energized, and inspired.”

Ox-Bow Executive Director Shannon Stratton added, ​“Ox-Bow is excited to partner with GRAM to bring important voices in contemporary art to the public. Our faculty and visiting artists are some of the most respected and innovative in the field, and being able to share their work and voices beyond our studios is truly a gift.”

During their visit, guests are encouraged to explore GRAM’s exhibitions on view in the summer months—David Hockney: Perspective Should Be Reversed, Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation (May 31 – Nov. 2, 2025) and David Lubbers: Haunted Terrain (May 6 – Aug. 3, 2025).

The GRAM & Ox-Bow 2025 Summer Lecture Series is generously supported by the Holly Palmer Foundation.

About the Artists
Edie Fake is a painter and visual artist whose work examines issues of trans identity and ​“queer space” through the lens of architecture and ornamentation. His collection of comics, ​“Gaylord Phoenix,” won the 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. Fake’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and he is currently represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Broadway Gallery in New York.

Laurel Sparks is a painter whose work intersects queer craft, textile, occult and abstract histories. Esoteric correspondence systems are encoded in patterns and glyphs that reflect mysteries of macro and micro cosmologies. In tandem, elements of decoration and artifice pay homage to queer and feminist counterculture expressions. Awards include a MacDowell Fellowship, Elizabeth Foundation Studio Intensive Program at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Fire Island Artist Residency, SMFA Alumni Traveling Fellowship, Berkshire Taconic Fellowship, and an Elaine DeKooning Fellowship. 

Mari Eastman’s work emerges from a pictorial study of images from magazines and the internet which become intertwined with personal narratives, executed in an intentionally loose manner. Eastman has exhibited nationally and internationally. 

Lisa Williamson creates works that are visually precise, physically resonant, and highly attuned to the spaces in which they are exhibited. Regarding precision as an expressive gesture and calibration as a mode of production, the artist’s expansive approach to color and meticulous attention to surface softens the line between abstraction and figuration, painting and sculpture, language and object. 

Brendan Fernandes is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Brendan’s projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest and other forms of collective movement. Brendan is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program and a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship. He is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and Susan Inglett Gallery in New York. 

Soo Shin is an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist employing a diverse range of materials — ceramic, brass, concrete, wood, and seawater — to evoke themes of connection, spatial displacement, and longing. She is the recipient of the fellowship at Djerassi Artist Residency; the individual artist grant at the Illinois Arts Council; and the Vilcek Foundation fellowship at MacDowell Artist Residency. 

About the Grand Rapids Art Museum  
Connecting people through art, creativity, and design. Established in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, the Museum is internationally known for its distinguished design and status as the world’s first LEED® Gold certified art museum. Founded in 1910 as the Grand Rapids Art Association, GRAM has grown to include 6,700 works of art, including American and European 19th and 20th-century painting and sculpture and more than 3,000 works on paper. Embracing the city’s legacy as a leading center of design and manufacturing, GRAM has a growing collection in the area of design and modern craft. 
 
For museum hours and admission fees, call 616.831.1000 or visit artmuseumgr.org.

About Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency
Located in Saugatuck, Michigan, Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency connects artists to a network of creative resources, people, and ideas, an energizing natural environment and a rich artistic history and vital future. It offers a wide range of opportunities for artists at all stages in their career, with year-round programs that cater to degree-seeking students, professional artists, and those new to the field. Ox-Bow is a protected place where creative processes break-down, reform, and mature.

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