2025 Northwest Michigan Regional Juried Exhibition
January 24th — May 25th, 2025
The Dennos Museum Center invited artists in Northwest Michigan to submit up to two (2) artworks to be juried for the 2025 Northwest Michigan Regional Juried Exhibition. Held regularly at the Museum for over 30 years, the exhibition features artwork made by regional artists over the last year and juried by an arts professional outside of the region. A list of important dates and additional information can be found below:
Juror Statement
My first trip to Northwest Michigan was almost 15 years ago, when my now husband took me on a winter visit to share his love of all the region has to offer. The area’s natural beauty, abundant wildlife, and warm people drew me in; the artwork in this exhibition reflects those special qualities Northwest Michigan possesses. The generative spark of the creative act is often rooted in material or media fascination, dedication to craft and tradition, or catalyzing concepts which the artist infuses with innovation or invention. The authenticity of each artist is seen and felt in the robust creative practices evident in sixty-four artworks selected from almost three hundred entries. Each piece invited me to see the world from a unique point of view imbued with vitality and the tension between the tangible and the ephemeral. Whether through unusual color, light, pattern, texture, or space contrasting with a sense of play, mystery, narrative, or metaphor, these artworks suspend the viewer in a space of possibility and wonder. Prevalent themes are connections to the natural world, animals, and the human figure. Often these manifest as an admired subject like the majesty of a landscape. Other artists utilize symbolism to reveal new or deeper meaning through the juxtaposition of an animal in a surprising context or unexpected material. Often questions of identity, the body, and the Self emerge distilled by the artist so the viewers understand compelling aspects of the human condition with new eyes. This exhibition activates the imagination through traditional and contemporary craft and fine art practices serving as a wonderful cross-section of the artists and art from Northwest Michigan.
-Teresa Dunn
Awards
Best In Show - Rufus James, Class-Sick
Juror's Award 2D - Kurt Bullock, Seating Available
Juror's award 3D - Nekisia Davis, Poppy Field
Honorable Mention - Joyce Brodsky, Childless Cat Woman…My Ass
Honorable Mention - Conor Fagan, Pleiades
Honorable Mention - Logan Hudson, Winter’s Warm Embrace
Honorable Mention - Sally Rose, Summer Sieve
Volunteer's Award 2D - Jacquie Auch, The Look
Volunteer's Award 3D - Julie Kradel, Kinship
Teresa Dunn, Juror
Teresa Dunn is a Mexican American artist raised in a small town in Southern Illinois. Her identity, life, and art are influenced by her racial and cultural heritages and the complexities of being a brown woman in the Midwest.
Dunn received her MFA from Indiana University Bloomington in 2002. She is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Fellowship, was a Jacob K Javits Fellow, and was recently awarded grants from the Puffin Foundation Ltd and the Sustainable Arts Foundation.
Her most recent body of work “US” has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City, Michigan and First Street Gallery in New York and now at the Buckham Gallery in Flint. “US” will travel to Baber Gallery at Central Michigan University and El Corrido de Javier Salas Vera will be exhibited at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, both in 2024. Dunn was recently commissioned by Paloozanoire to contribute a painting to Black & Brown Faces, an exhibition of 15 Black and Brown artists at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Dunn’s series “Longing to Be” was shown in solo shows at The Marathon Center for Performing Arts (Ohio), the University of Alabama Huntsville and the Pendleton Center for the Arts (Oregon). Her series ”Cover the Waterfront” was exhibited in a one person show at the Zillman Art Museum (Maine) which was reviewed in Art New England. Recent group exhibitions include at National Arts Club and The Painting Center both in New York, “Disrupted Realism” featuring Anne Harris, juried by John Seed, at the Buckham Gallery, for which she was awarded second prize. Dunn’s solo exhibition “Étrange réalité” at Galerie l’Échaudé in Paris was reviewed in AZART and Miroir de l’Art and critic Vincent Delaury wrote the catalog essay. Dunn won Best in Show at the 2008 Biennial of Contemporary Realism at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Other achievements include inclusion in the inaugural Miami University Young Painters Competition. Notably Dunn’s work is included in John Seed’s sequel to Disrupted Realism, More Disruption: Representation in Flux from Schiffer Publishing. Other publications include featured cover artist in All SHE Makes inaugural print publication with interview by Teri Henderson and her essay and artwork were included in An Artist and a Mother a collection of writing and images from artist mothers by Demeter Press. Dunn attended the Vermont Studio Center and Cuttyhunk Island Artist Residencies. She has conducted many artist lectures including at the University of Washington Seattle and the Rome Art Program in Rome, Italy. Dunn’s work is in collections including the Dennos Museum Center, the Zillman Art Museum, Kinsey Institute, Venice Baroque Orchestra, and Wright State University Art Galleries. Teresa Dunn is Professor of Painting and Drawing at Michigan State University in East Lansing where she has taught since 2006.
