James Barnor, Drum Cover Girl Erlin Ibreck, Kilburn, London, 1966, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy Autograph ABP

For Immediate Release

Grand Rapids Art Museum Announces Fall/​Winter Exhibitions Spanning Photography, Immersive Video, and Landscape Painting

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Nov. 25, 2025 — The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is pleased to announce a dynamic lineup of exhibitions on view during the fall and winter seasons. The exhibitions include a showcase of leading Black photographers from across the African diaspora through more than 100 works; a Michigan Artist Series video installation of collaged archival and found footage; and a sweeping presentation of over sixty landscape, seascape, and skyscape paintings from the Museum’s permanent collection:

“This season at the Grand Rapids Art Museum brings together three exhibitions that each invite us to look closely at the world around us — through photographs that explore and celebrate everyday life, a video installation that spotlights a powerful cultural movement, and paintings that reveal the beauty and complexity of the natural landscape,” commented the Dean and Helga Toriello Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Jennifer Wcisel. ​“Together, they offer visitors a chance to slow down, reflect, and make personal connections across time, place, and medium.”
 
Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Wedge Collection in Toronto — a Black-owned collection dedicated to artists of African descent—As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic looks at the myriad experiences of Black life through the themes of agency, beauty, joy, belonging, subjectivity, and self-representation. Organized by Aperture, New York, the exhibition features more than 100 works by Black artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, the United States and South America, as well as throughout the African continent. 
 
The exhibition includes artists such as Stan Douglas, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Barkley L. Hendricks, Texas Isaiah, Liz Johnson Artur, Seydou Keïta, Deana Lawson, Jamel Shabazz, and Carrie Mae Weems. Through portraits, interior scenes, family gatherings, and everyday moments, the exhibition highlights beauty, connection, and the rhythms of life across cultures and geographies. 

In For Dancing in the Streets, artist and filmmaker Parisa Ghaderi presents a multi-channel video installation of found images and footage tied to the ongoing Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran, which began in 2022. Ghaderi layers these sources into an immersive environment that reflects on the female body and dance as a form of resistance in Iran over several decades.
 
Presented as part of GRAM’s Michigan Artist Series, the exhibition continues the Museum’s commitment to supporting and celebrating the work of artists living and working across the state.
 
Spanning GRAM’s entire first floor, The Matter of Awe: Landscapes in Art brings together more than sixty landscape, seascape, and skyscape paintings from the Museum’s permanent collection, alongside significant loans. Works by Childe Hassam, George Inness, H. Claude Pissarro, Thomas Hart Benton, Henri Rousseau, Pablo Picasso and others invite visitors to explore how artists across centuries and styles have engaged with the natural world.
 
The exhibition traces shifting approaches to the landscape and highlight the enduring appeal of nature as inspiration and subject.

Related Events:
Member Exhibition Opening
Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, 7 – 9:30 pm
7:30 pm Conversation with Dr. Kenneth Montague
Member Event
Museum members and their guests are invited to join us for an early preview of the exhibitions and a special conversation with Dr. Kenneth Montague, founder of The Wedge Collection. Enjoy hors d’oeuvres from San Chez Bistro, sounds by DJLedge, and a cash bar.

GRAM After Dark
Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, 8 pm – midnight
$20 Members, $25 Public
In celebration of As We Rise, join GRAM’s Visionnaires for a late-night takeover at the Museum. Explore the galleries after hours, dance to curated DJ sets, and connect with the city’s creative community.
 
Support:
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic is organized by Aperture and curated by Elliott Ramsey. Lead support for GRAM’s presentation is provided by Wege Foundation and James and Mary Nelson. Lead education programming support is provided by MillerKnoll Foundation.

Lead support for the Michigan Artist Series is provided by the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, with additional support from Wege Foundation, Beusse & Porter Family Foundation, and The Jury Foundation. 

Lead support for The Matter of Awe: Landscapes in Art is provided by Wege Foundation, Allen and Nancy Vander Laan, and James and Mary Nelson.

Additional support provided by GRAM Exhibition Society.

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.

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