University Art Gallery
Exhibitions 2025-2026
Michael Mahoney – Paintings
August 25 – September 26, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, August 26, 4:30-6:00
Michael Mahoney is a painter based in Macomb, Illinois. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he is the eldest of ten children. His interest in art began early, and by high school he had committed himself to becoming a professional artist.
Mahoney earned both his undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts degrees in painting from Wayne State University in Detroit. Following his graduate studies, he spent five months in Italy studying its rich artistic heritage and producing new work. This formative experience continues to influence his practice.
Upon returning to the United States, Mahoney began teaching at several colleges and art centers in the Detroit area. He later accepted a full-time faculty position at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, where he taught for fifteen years. Now retired from academia, he works daily in his studio in Macomb, continuing his lifelong dedication to painting.
Danny Houk – Pawns
September 9 – October 3, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, September 9, 4:30-6:00
ANNEX GALLERY
My artwork often deals with language, humor, games, and systemic critiques. I enjoy making art containing contradictions and engaging tensions like playful and provocative, silly and serious, recognizable and surprising, quotidian and spectacle, high and low, handmade and manufactured, micro and macro, personal and universal, human and divine. Although my art is autobiographical, I hope viewers connect with its universal ideas.
Biennial Faculty Exhibition
September 15 – October 24, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, September 23, 4:30-6:00
Janson Franz – Figure Ensõ : Twenty-Two Years of Life Drawings
October 7 – November 14, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, October 7, 4:30-6:00
Jason Franz is a Cincinnati, Ohio based artist, educator, and director/cofounder of the nonprofit arts organization Manifest. He received a BFA degree from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1988, and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati in 1998, and taught at both schools as well as Xavier University from 1997 through 2012. He continues to exhibit his drawings nationally, and his work is held in multiple museum and private collections across the U.S. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife, Brigid O’Kane, and daughter, Alexandra Franz, who are both artists as well.
Ann Blaas – True Nature
October 28 – November 21, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, October 28, 4:30-6:00
ANNEX GALLERY
ANN BLAAS is a Chicago-born artist based in Chicago, IL. She received her MFA from Northern Illinois University 1996. (Under Gordon Dorn) She is an abstract painter/ educator. Her work alternates from painting on mylar, and canvas, as well as murals and drawings. Stylistically the work incorporates a graffiti styled abstraction with intuitive and repetitive gestural mark making that incorporates areas of tension and release along with poetical referential elements. Recent exhibitions include group exhibition at Beverly Art Center, Stardust: Cellular to Celestial, Two-Person exhibition, Shapes and Colors, at Studio Break Gallery ( Ann Blaas and Eric Ockrassa ), also, featured on two recent podcasts with David Linneweh on Studio-Break. Recent residency and exhibition at Fulton Mkt Kitchen, Chicago. Group mural Blast at Nicky’s in Beverly, Window Installation at Two Mile Coffee and feature on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight for Beverly’s Altwalk, curated by Sal Campbell during the pandemic- and looking forward to fall 2023 solo exhibition at Benedictine University in Lisle. She teaches Painting, Drawing, Studio Art & Contemporary Art at College of DuPage, Harper College, and Joliet Junior College.
Talent Grant / Tuition Waiver Exhibition
November 17 – December 12, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, November 18, 4:30-6:00
Andrea Kastner – Walking Distance
February 9 – March 27, 2026
Reception: Tuesday, February 10, 4:30-6:00
Andrea Kastner is a Canadian painter living and working in Binghamton, New York. Her work focuses on the overlooked corners of urban spaces and the sacred nature of rejected things. She has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, Governor’s Island, Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, and The Haliburton School of Art.
Tonja Torgerson – Plant/Person
January 20 – February 24, 2026
Reception: Tuesday, February 24, 4:30-6:00
Originally from the northern woods of Minnesota, Tonja Torgerson received her BFA from the University of Minnesota and MFA in Printmaking at Syracuse University. Her artwork is regularly exhibited nationally and internationally; and is included in private and museum collections, including the Weisman Art Museum and the Minnesota Museum of American Art.
Torgerson is an Assistant Professor and Section Lead of Printmaking at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. She has been a resident artist at Texas Tech University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, the Lawrence Arts Center in Kansas, Fogo Island in Newfoundland Canada, AIR: Artist Image Resource of Pittsburgh, and New York Mills in Minnesota. Her recent series Body Politic, a collaboration with Christa Carleton, was awarded funding from Indiana University, the Puffin Foundation, the Holter Museum, and the McKnight Foundation.
Christine Knize – Orchidelirium
March 3 – April 10, 2026
Reception: Tuesday, March 3, 4:30-6:00
Christine Knize, alumna of Tyler School of Art, BFA and Rhode Island School of Design, MFA, born in NYC, inherited her artistic talent from two generations of women artists. Her academic journey led her to spend three years in Italy and France, specializing in the Renaissance. Throughout her career, Christine maintained a dual focus on painting and photography. In 1986, Christine moved to Miami, where she established a paint decoration company which drew the attention of numerous celebrities. Notably, Christine dedicated years to the restoration of the Biltmore Hotel, where she meticulously revived the hand-painted finishes adorning the lobby and ballrooms. She also played a role in the initial renovations of Miami Beach Art Deco hotels, contributing to the preservation of historical landmarks. After three decades in Miami; Christine embraced a new chapter in Jacksonville, Florida, where she channels her artistic energy into creating large-scale canvases of orchids.
Ari Norris – The Enormity of an Atom
February 17 – March 13, 2026
Reception: TBD
ANNEX GALLERY
Originally from West Michigan, Ari Norris is an artist primarily working in sculpture. His work utilizes a variety of processes and materials in what generally result in the duplication of real-world objects, aimed at exploring the boundaries between the ordinary and the phenomenal. Norris received an MA from Northern Illinois University in 2021, and has exhibited solo shows in Chicago at David Salkin Creative, Artruss, and The Plan. Norris has been included in the 100th Show and West, Wester, Westest 4 at Left Field Gallery, Los Osos, CA, Purpose of a System is What it Does, at Sawhorse, Chicago, IL, Introspective Dream Assembly, at Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL, Shooting Pool with a Rope, at Baby Blue Gallery, Chicago, IL, the Midwest Sculpture Exhibition in Kokomo, IN, among other locations including Michigan, Missouri, New York, Florida, Texas, and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Solo exhibitions of the artist’s have been reviewed by both Chicago Spleen & Newcity, and his work has been included in print publications such as Chicago Gallery News. In 2025, Norris was awarded the Luminarts Visual Arts Fellowship.
Juried Student Exhibition
April 14 – May 8, 2026
Reception: Tuesday, April 14, 4:30-6:00
Mavigliano/Brabec Senior Art Prize
TBD: April-May, 2026