About the Exhibition
What happens when artists refuse to follow the rules of their craft? Against the Grain brings together seven artists who take familiar materials in surprising new directions. Visitors will encounter contemporary quilts, tapestry and weaving, sculptural wood, relief carvings, woven sculptural forms, and monotype prints, each one pushing past what these materials are "supposed" to do.
The result is an exhibition full of texture, color, and invention. Come see how far a quilt, a loom, a block of wood, or a printing plate can go when an artist decides to work against the grain.
Exhibit Dates
July 25– October 3, 2026
Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5pm
Gallery Reception
August 16, 2–4pm
Join us for a gallery reception and meet the artists. Free and open to the public.
Exhibition Statement
Working against the grain comes out of the language of woodworking, describing cutting against wood grain, which yields a rougher, harder cut. The notion of "grain" is inherent in materials like cloth, with its framework of warp and weft, and is intrinsic to the disciplines of sewing, weaving, and carving. Printmaking likewise has an inherent procedural imperative. To go against the grain means to push back against the normal, expected way of doing things.
This exhibit features work by seven visual artists who, as the exhibition title implies, don't follow the expected course. Together they illustrate a dynamic range of ideas and celebrate materiality.
Working in this manner implies difficulty and resistance and suggests actions that conflict with common practice. All seven exhibitors explore their materials and methods in unexpected directions, pushing back against conventions and entrenched expectations of how their materials are employed, and what ought to result.
Artists
Sarah Bearup-Neal, contemporary quilts
Barbara A. Bushey, contemporary quilts
Nancy McRay, weaving
Nick Preneta, wood
Sandy Rice, portraits
Shanna Robinson, woven sculptural forms
Angela Saxon, printmaking/monotypes
Sarah Bearup-Neal
Sarah Bearup-Neal stands on the shoulders of countless makers who thought the quilt was more than a utilitarian, household object. These makers worked against the grain, against entrenched thinking about textiles, and found in the quilt a template for making something beautiful and compelling, both familiar and amazingly new.
Barbara A. Bushey
The Soul Syndicate is a 10-piece powerhouse ensemble known for their electrifying live performances that blend funk, soul, and dance music into an unforgettable concert experience!
Nancy McRay
Nancy McRay is a fiber artist living in Northern Michigan, inspired by Lakes, Trees and Canyons. Building on the foundation laid by groundbreaking fiber artists Silvia Heyden and Sheila Hicks, she pushes the limitations and opportunities implied by the art of tapestry, breaking the rules when it suits her. She does not seek to faithfully follow a cartoon or copy a painting; instead, she expresses her ideas in ways that can only be woven.
Nick Preneta
Wood is Alive. Nick Preneta works with wood to understand its form and structure, to find joy in simple nuances as it dries, twists and cracks, and to experience a wisdom that is familiar but far from him. A sculptural wood artist, he lives in Northport, MI with his wife and two teenage children.
Sandy Rice
We attempt to make sense of our dreams, to hold onto our memories, because these may hold the key to understanding the passage of time and the losses it entails. Sandy Rice's finished works are artifacts of this struggle: living in a corporeal body subject to time's ravages, impermanence, and its opposite: oblivion. Her award-winning work has been shown in international competitions for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, and Barret House Galleries in New York. A lifelong Detroit-area resident, she holds an MFA from Wayne State University and a BFA from Eastern Michigan University.
Shanna Robinson
Endlessly inspired by the world outside, Shanna Robinson draws from local, repurposed and commercially available materials to make things that feel familiar but cannot be identified, evoking beings we might see in the wild but cannot place. She wants her work to invoke recognition and dislocation, provoke more questions than answers, and become something new to each viewer. By combining natural and human made materials, she hopes her reverence for the more-than-human world will inspire that reverence in others.
Angela Saxon
Angela Saxon's artwork expresses the passage of time within a subject matter that is fluid and dynamic: breathtaking moments when a wave breaks, translated into layers of color and shape to evoke that experience of observation. Primarily a printmaker and painter with a BFA from Indiana University, she lives and works in northern Michigan in a studio surrounded by meadows and pastures, goats and cows, beauty and inspiration.