Current Gallery Hours:
Monday – Saturday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sunday – Noon to 4:00 pm
Closed Holidays and for Occasional Events
Admission: Always free!
ON EXHIBIT NOW:
Eileen Kelly Retrospective opens August 29th, Fisher Room Gallery
Frankfort resident and artist Eileen Kelly had an early fascination with the arts and design. At 19, her design for a women’s fashionable shoe was manufactured “under mysterious circumstances”. She married soon after and explored drawing and painting with her sons. In her 40’s, Eileen pursued art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, Manhattanville College in Harrison, New York, and the Silvermine Art Center in New Canaan, Connecticut. She studied with watercolorist, Charles Reid, Russian iconographer Vladislav Andreev, watercolorist Roland Roycraft and artist Charles Murphy. Eileen will celebrate her 96th birthday this year, and we are thrilled to host this retrospective exhibit of her work from the past several decades. From pastels to oils, still life to landscape, Eileen has a diverse range of subjects and styles – each brought to life by her keen eye for composition and seemingly effortless brushstrokes.
This exhibit opens August 29th in our Fisher Room. Reception details will be forthcoming.
2025 Annual All Media Juried Exhibit opens September 12th, Beck and Borwell Galleries
Our annual juried show highlights impeccable work across a range of media. Independent jurors select works submitted from across Michigan, and awards are presented in several categories. Don’t miss this exceptional exhibit!
Opening reception is September 12th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Refreshments will be served; admission is free.
This exhibition is possible thanks to our sponsor and Community Pillar Business Member, State Savings Bank
UPCOMING EXHIBITS:
Elemental opens October 17th, Beck and Borwell Galleries
Earth – Fire – Air – Water: in this dynamic exhibition we explore the elements as they inspire artists’ work in a variety of media.
Featuring Doug Staples (Lawrence, MI), Kristianne Tefft (Midland, MI), Marilyn Hoogstraten (Grawn, MI), Shelly Stevens (Mt. Pleasant, MI), and Tom Tomasek (Ovid, MI)
Opening reception is October 17th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Refreshments will be served; admission is free.
This exhibit is possible thanks to our sponsor, Manitou Restaurant
2025 Winter Member Exhibition opens December 5th, Beck and Borwell Galleries
This OAC member showcase features an all-media exhibit just in time for holiday gift-giving. One of our largest exhibits, the Winter Member Show is a great kick-off to the holiday season. Join us for this special exhibit featuring paintings, sculptures, ceramics, fiber, wood and more by our talented member-artists.
Opening reception is December 5th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Refreshments will be served; admission is free.
Current OAC Members receive a 10% discount on all gallery purchases made during the opening reception!
Help support our member artists with a purchase of original art!
This exhibit is made possible thanks to our sponsor, Freshwater Reporter
2025 PAST EXHIBITIONS:
TACTILITY – Beck and Borwell Galleries, January 10 – February 14
“Tactility”, an exhibition highlighting the design principle of texture in art, will open the 2025 exhibition season at the Oliver Art Center in Frankfort on January 10th.
Tactility in art is the tangible quality that invites touch, even in a two-dimensional realm. It’s the artwork’s ability to evoke a sense of texture or physicality, drawing viewers into a more intimate experience. Artists achieve tactility through a variety of means: diverse materials, textures, and techniques. These elements add depth, dimension, and a sense of realism, stirring emotions and provoking thought in the viewer. The term “tactility” refers not just to the fact that something has a unique feel; it also covers the broader sense of the quality of that feeling, the response we have to texture, and the action of touching something. Sometimes what we perceive in a work of art has more to do with texture than color, shape, or design. We wanted to explore that aspect and encourage our artists to push the boundaries of texture in their submissions for this unique show!
The show will feature 2D and 3D artwork provided by four headlining artists: Detroit contemporary multi-media artist Robert Mirek, Bay City fiber artist Susan Pack, and local artists – Jessica Kovan (mixed media) Austin Garno (repurposed metal sculpture and mixed assemblage), and Linda Elshof (fiber and mixed media). The exhibition will also have on display work from a variety of other regional artists who are participating through a curated open call. Touchable “texture stations” will be integrated into the show to allow visitors to explore some of the various textures found in the exhibition.
Piece Work: Gee’s Bend Quilt Exhibit Opens February 14th, Fisher Room Gallery
From the National Endowment for the Arts:
“When enslaved women from the rural, isolated community of Boykin, Alabama—better known as Gee’s Bend—began quilting in the 19th century, it arose from a physical need for warmth rather than a quest to reinvent an art form. Yet by piecing together scraps of fabric and clothing, they were creating abstract designs that had never before been expressed on quilts. These patterns and piecing styles were passed down over generations, surviving slavery, the antebellum South, and Jim Crow.”
“During the Civil Rights movement in 1966, the Freedom Quilting Bee was established as a way for African-American women from Gee’s Bend and nearby Rehoboth to gain economic independence. The Bee cooperative began to sell quilts throughout the U.S., gaining recognition for the free-form, seemingly improvisational designs that had long been the hallmark of local quilt design. As awareness grew, so did acclaim, and the quilts entered the lexicon of homegrown American art. Since then, quilts from Gee’s Bend have been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and others.”
The Oliver Art Center is honored to display a collection of Gee’s Bend quilts on loan from Patricia Reich in our Fisher Room and North Hall in honor of Black History Month.
Artwork: Shelly Taylor, 2022
SHE: Honoring Women in Art – FEBRUARY 21 – MARCH 28, 2025, Beck and Borwell Galleries
Featuring the work of Judy Jashinksy, Melissa Jones, Rebecca Mott, Shelly Taylor, and Shelly Stevens
She: Honoring Women in Art, an exhibition exploring what it means to be a woman and an artist in today’s world will open at the Oliver Art Center on February 21, 2025. The exhibit focuses on female positivity, strength, resiliency and creativity, highlighting women artists’ ingenuity and ability to build community, generate support, creatively problem- solve and create and sustain life and beauty. An opening reception will be held Friday, February 21 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. The exhibit continues through March 28th. Both the reception and exhibition are free and open to the public. An artist talk will take place on Friday, March 28th from 2:00 – 4:00 pm.
The work of several Michigan artists will be featured:
Judy Jashinsky is an American contemporary artist, currently living in Arcadia, MI., known for her paintings dealing with historical events, narratives, and personalities. Her work is intertwined with personal details and experiences, depicted in historical and fantasy environments, and across different eras and cultures.
Melissa Jones is a Detroit area art educator and multi-media artist. Her sculptures highlight the beauty and sensuality of the human form, often joined with objects that have highly textured, weathered and decaying surfaces, such as bones, rust, and other found items from the natural world. Her encaustic paintings layer rich colors embedded with objects and carved textures.
Rebecca Mott is a Ludington-area art educator and multi-media artist. Her ceramic sculpture, printmaking, and drawing reimagine ancient art materials and themes, breathing new life into the colors, materials, and subject matter found on cave walls or excavated pottery by merging them with new techniques, textures, and arrangements of form.
Shelly Taylor is a graphic artist and painter whose work is inspired by the roles of women. Women in early photography, the Victorian era, suffragettes, flappers, silent films, early talkies, old Hollywood glam, 60s mod women, 70s liberated women, and more – leaders, workers, inventors, movers, shakers, fighters, lovers, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, neighbors, and friends are featured in her work.
Poets’ Houses is presented as part of our Poetry Month celebration, and is a collaboration between ceramic artist Karen Antrim and pastelist Frank Galante. The exhibition consists of works that explore 2D and 3D compositional strategies, constructing a visual expression of the world that inspired some of the English language’s most treasured poetry. The images and objects in this exhibit are the distillation of readings, photos and visits to the poets’ houses, far and wide, in England and America.
The Artists in their own words:
Frank Galante…..Though I enjoy painting in oils, pastel is my preferred medium, and landscape and still life painting are my preferred subjects. Structures in my landscapes have always functioned as compositional elements, with an emphasis on rhythm and harmony. Though these are indeed somewhat accurate renderings of poets’ houses, their primary value to me are as works of art. I leave it up to the viewer to attach their own narratives to my images if indeed, narratives are necessary. Let the work speak for itself, as it is my firm belief that Art picks up where words leave off and all that is needed is a love of beauty.
Karen Antrim.….As a 3-dimensional ceramic sculptor, the Poet House exhibit has presented me with uniquely artistic and appealing challenges. Traveling extensively throughout the world and being attracted to the antiquities, I have naturally gravitated to the historic districts and rural settings where I find inspiration in the early homes and buildings, thus resulting in an ideal opportunity to express my artistic vision for this exhibit.
Annual Student Exhibition April 4 – April 30, Beck and Borwell Galleries
This annual favorite will feature hundreds of works by talented students in grades K-12 from regional schools. A wide variety of media will be on display, including photography, digital art, ceramics, painting, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media. Awards and scholarships will be presented in each medium.
This exhibit is possible thanks to our sponsor, Graceland Fruit and with support from A&W Frankfort
Mad Hatter’s Garden Party: A Whimsical Affair opens May 4th, Fisher Room Gallery
Alice declares to the Mad Hatter: “This is impossible!” to which the Mad Hatter replies, “Only if you believe it is.”
Join us as we explore the upside-down in our whimsical take on a Mad Hatter’s garden party. A little bit surreal, a little bit silly – and very creative! Work by a variety of artists will be on display in both 2-D and 3-D, including Katie Ward, Stephanie Gregg, Kris Campbell, Shannon Johnson, Karen Clark Antrim, and Laurie Eisenhardt, among others.
Alchemy & Artistry opens May 9th, Beck and Borwell Galleries
Exploring the line between abstraction and representation, the Alchemy & Artistry exhibition is a feast for the senses.
Large-scale watercolors by award-winning Ann Arbor artist Rocco Pisto capture a spontaneous moment in time and place. His abstractions meld color and form with expressive landscapes and urban settings to create something altogether unique and delightful. Rocco is President Emeritus of the Michigan Watercolor Society and holds both a Signature Member and Great Lakes Fellow designation in that group. He also holds membership in the National Watercolor Society, International Society of Experimental Artist (ISEA) and the Brighton Art Guild. Rocco has spent over 50 years as an artist, focused primarily on abstract watercolor painting. Rocco earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1974 with post-baccalaureate studies and Master of Fine Art work at both Wayne State University and Eastern Michigan University. As a graduate student, Rocco was granted a teaching fellowship.
Gina Pisto (Rocco’s daughter) is a ceramic artist currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Ohio University in 2022 and has exhibited her work nationally in various group and solo exhibitions. She has been awarded recognition from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and the Michigan Ceramic Art Association (MCAA). Pisto is an adjunct professor at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS, and recently finished a two-year residency at Belger Crane Yard Studios, where she also teaches community classes and private lessons. Pisto’s work explores the transportive potential of objects as they relate to notions of memory and collecting. Her sculptural work pushes the medium to extremes while the contrasting light/dark themes and Baroque stylings allude to ancient rituals. Reminders of life, and death, are woven throughout the work within the sculpted flowers, bones, animals, insects, fruit, shells, and timepieces – exploring metaphors and inviting the viewer to look deeper to connect the present to the past.
Blacksmith Arthur Johns has owned and operated Arthur Johns Forge & Design Studio for over twenty-five years. Located in southwest Saginaw county, Arthur’s work ranges from architectural and functional items to sculptural pieces. Arthur’s work is unique and completely handmade, utilizing both traditional and contemporary metalsmithing and blacksmithing techniques. Arthur holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He has worked professionally as an artist blacksmith for over thirty years in a variety of workshops both in the United States and abroad.
Rochelle Aultman, of Coleman Michigan, spent her childhood daydreaming in nature. Her immersive abstract paintings use texture and movement to translate the sense and spirit she feels in a particular moment or space. Rochelle interprets her experience in nature for us in a way that intrigues and inspires – prompting a different emotion with each viewing. Richly colored, dreamlike, and grounded in the natural world, her work invites us to reconnect with the world around us without judgement or expectation.
Opening reception is May 9th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Refreshments will be served; admission is free.
An artists’ talk will be held Friday June 20th from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm in the Beck Gallery
This exhibit is possible thanks to our Sponsor and Community Leader Business Member, Stormcloud Brewing
Great Lakes Pastel Society 2025 Members Small Works Exhibition opens June 7th, Fisher Room and North Hall
We are thrilled to host the Great Lakes Pastel Society’s 2025 Members Exhibit. This juried show features small works in pastel from some of the best pastelists in the region! There will be an opening reception June 7th from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm in the Fisher Room. Learn more about the GLPS at their website.
2025 Summer Member Exhibition opens June 27th, Beck and Borwell Galleries
An OAC tradition that is not to be missed, our annual exhibition of Oliver Art Center Members’ artwork will showcase a variety of styles, media, and techniques, and highlight how creative and talented our artist members are! Celebrate the peak of summer with us and enjoy one of the largest exhibits of local and regional artists in the area.
Opening reception is June 27th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Refreshments will be served; admission is free.
Current OAC Members receive a 10% discount on all gallery purchases made during the opening reception!
Help support our member artists with a purchase of original art
This exhibition is possible thanks to our sponsor:
Sailing Life, Fisher Room
This fun and immersive exhibition explores the joy of sailing Michigan’s rivers and lakes, and celebrates the adventurous heart of our harbor community. Artwork in all media highlighting all kinds of water travel – from tug boats to kayaks, canoes to freighters, and everything in between – it’s all hands on deck!
July 18 – August 22
Horizons, Beck and Borwell Galleries
In this exhibition we take a fresh look at landscape art, exploring the genre through the lens of several featured artists. Each brings a unique twist to the subject; ranging from romantic realism to luscious abstractions rendered in a variety of media. Participating artists include Carl Sperber (Clarkston, MI), Julie Tibus (Howell, MI), Ron Gianola (Honor, MI), Cody Winter (Toledo, OH), Adam VanHouten (Traverse City, MI), Anne Kindl (Saline, MI), Sam Soet (Traverse City), and Chani Devers (Manistee).
This exhibit is possible thanks to our sponsors:
Hank Dow and Kelly Winter