GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.- The Grand Rapids Art Museum announced today four new exhibitions opening in January and February 2025. The dynamic lineup includes an exhibition of large-scale textiles and sculpture highlighting stories of migration across time, geography, and place; a Michigan Artist Series exhibition exploring the human ecological experience; a pioneering film work of institutional critique; and a largely unseen selection of prints drawn from the Museum’s collection of nearly 6,500 objects.

“As we welcome the start of 2025, the Grand Rapids Art Museum is excited to present a new season of exhibitions and programs that offer unique encounters with art, artists, and one another,” commented GRAM Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Jennifer Wcisel. ​“These exhibitions offer a rich tapestry of perspectives — from Christopher Myers’ exploration of migration and mythology to Kristina Sheufelt’s intimate reflections on nature and loss, Andrea Fraser’s satirical yet incisive critique of museums as institutions, and the wonder and creativity of works on paper from our own permanent collection. Together, they invite our community to come together, engage in a shared dialogue, and explore new perspectives alongside the voices of these artists.”

Opening February 8, Each year this blood shall change and blossom: Christopher Myers on Myth and Migration commemorates heroic stories of human migration through the Brooklyn-based artist’s monumental textiles and sculptures. The exhibition acknowledges the mythic proportion of individual migration stories and reminds us of the significant risk and ambition of people who journey far from home in the hope of a better future.

Commenting on the significance of mythology in his work, Myers said, ​“History is the story of where you have come from, mythology is the story of why and where you are going. My work as a storyteller and as an artist centers on pulling mythologies apart from official records. Especially for African Americans and other marginalized folks, we must learn to read these records for our unwritten histories, to see ourselves in the empty spaces on the page.”

Visitors will experience new and never-before-seen works, including a series of new textiles inspired by Myers’ conversations with seasonal farmworkers in West Michigan. With support from local advocacy group, Migrant Legal Aid, Myers visited migrant housing sites throughout Kent and Ottawa counties to meet and record the stories of seasonal farmworkers. The 50,000+ migrant farmworkers in Michigan play a critical role in the state’s agricultural production, yet their stories largely remain untold. The exhibition will also mark the first time Myers’ sculptural series, They Will Never Remember the Boats We Came On, will be exhibited.

Using her own body to study how local ecologies impact biological responses, the sculptures, photographs, experimental films, and living plant matter in the Michigan Artist Series exhibition Kristina Sheufelt: Fallow Season reflect on what it means to be a being of this world isolated from nature by modern society yet intrinsically bound with its rhythms. Sheufelt’s sculptures reflect an overwhelming sense of loss: a bereavement of the embodied experience of our natural environment, as well as the demise of environmental health. This exhibition explores the questions facing the ecological future of this land, as well as our place within it.

Andrea Fraser’s Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk is the latest film to open in GRAM’s Hunting Gallery on Level 2, a space showcasing film works throughout the year. A seminal work of institutional critique, Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk uses satire to deconstruct how cultural institutions demand reverence from the visitors they proclaim to serve and to interrogate the inherent power dynamics between museum and viewer.

Out of the more than 6,500 objects in GRAM’s permanent collection, nearly 2/3 are works on paper. From the Vault: Selections of Works on Paper from GRAM’s Collection highlights a selection of those works, chosen for their undeniable craftsmanship and visual resonances with one another. Artists in the exhibition include Alex Katz, James Rosenquist, Jacob Lawrence, Patricia A. Quinlan, Arthur Secunda, Derrick Greaves, Nancy Ester Pletos, Gene Davis, Françoise Gilot, and Saul Steinberg.