Grand Gestures Kicking Off New Year

Work in progress for Grand Gestures II - Tatsuki Hakoyama

ACWL-Nuveen will be starting the 2026 exhibition season on a bold note with 11 oversized original drawings in our show entitled Grand Gestures II running January 9 – February 28. The first Grand Gestures drawing show held in January 2021, was conceived after artist Diane Zoellmer gifted 100 sheets of 44”x 84” tagboard to the ACWL-Nuveen. We decided to celebrate this kindness by giving invited artists an opportunity to tackle the large sheets with their creative vision. The 2021 exhibit put a spotlight on diverse drawing techniques executed by local intergenerational artists and highlighted the notion of a ‘grand gesture’ and its implication in a society undergoing the restrictions and misinformation surrounding the pandemic.

For Grand Gestures II we extended our invitation to several artists who are new to exhibiting at the ACWL-Nuveen. We asked Tatsuki Hakoyama, Grand Rapids-based artist and instructor at Kendall College of Art & Design (KCAD) if he had any advanced drawing students who would be interested in taking on the large format paper. Luckily for us, both he and five of his students agreed to the challenge, Drew Dougherty, Philip Martin-Luckhurst, Luke Landreth, Sarah Kramer, and Sophie Zichterman. Showing alongside the KCAD students will be a KCAD alumni and adjunct instructor, Hallie LeBlanc, Montague artist, Christopher Jones, Aili Casano from North Muskegon, and three advanced art students from Reeths-Puffer High School - Hailee Le Roux, Alexis Gillihan and Brooke Mulder.

Philip Martin-Luckhurst Hallie LeBlanc Drew Dougherty

We are really excited to start the year off with this dynamic show. The big, expressive drawings will fill our main exhibition gallery as well as our back entry gallery. We hope that it will inspire more grand gestures – of course more marks on paper – but also creativity, compassion, and overall goodwill. We invite the community to join us in celebrating all the artists at a free public reception on Saturday, January 24 from 1:00 - 3:00pm. Of course snacks will be served! Our winter business hours are Wednesday - Friday 11:00am - 5:30pm and Saturday 11:00am - 3:00pm. You can also reach us by phone - 231-893-2524 or email nuveen@artswhitelake.org.