Humankind Presents Dluzen Exhibit

The West Shore Community College Humankind Series is hosting an exhibition of artist Robin Dluzen’s works titled Heirloom. The exhibition will be presented at five locations: the college’s main campus, the college’s Manistee downtown education center at 400 S. River Street, the Old Kirke Museum in Manistee, and the Ludington Area Center for the Arts (LACA).

The exhibition opens on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, and runs through Friday, March 3, 2023. The opening reception will be held on Nov. 4 from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. at LACA, located at 107 S Harrison St., Ludington.

This exhibition surveys four generations of female labor from members of a family rooted in Manistee and Mason counties for over 100 years. The symbols, texts and images audiences encounter are drawn from the lives and works of artist Robin Dluzen, her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Painted banners, cut vinyl decals and drawings on canvas drop cloths tell a family history of horticulture, cattle and evergreen farming at Rosenow Farms, and of factory work at the Manistee Shoe Manufacturing Company.

“Robin’s works afford us an opportunity to look back at many generations of local female labor as a means to ask questions about the future of work,” said WSCC’s Professor of Art and Curator, Eden Ünlüata-Foley. “This year’s Humankind series is investigating the changing dynamics of work and labor in the post-pandemic world. Understanding the future direction of work first and foremost begins with acknowledging female labor, past, present and future.”

Dluzen, a Chicago-based artist with deep connections to Michigan, uses found, scavenged and non-art materials to create works about landscape, labor, family, and that which is inherited and passed along.

“I’ve chosen to highlight this inquiry through my family’s labor history in order to pay homage to those characteristics that are so often dismissed in women: grit, tenacity, ambition, and intelligence,” said Dluzen.

This exhibition is presented as a part of West Shore Community College’s Humankind series. This year’s theme of the series is “The Future of Work.” More information on the series can be found at westshore.edu.  More information on the artist and their works may be found at robindluzen.com

The exhibit, reception, and presentation are free and open to the public.​