Ann Arbor painter Hava Gurevich loves the water, but she's surrounded by terra firma.

“My work is very aquatic and botanical, but it’s been more botanical in the last few years because I’m not close to any body of water that has life in it,” Gurevich told Pulp in 2022 in a profile about her exhibition Inspired by Nature: 20 Years of Art at the University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

There are plenty of botanical works in Gurevich's Organic Fiction: Nature Inspired Abstract Paintings, her new exhibition at the Ann Arbor Art Center (A2AC), but her aquatic-inspired paintings are present, too. Not just in the main exhibit but also in A2AC's Aquarium Gallery, the large window that faces Ashley Street, just around the corner from the art space's main entrance on East Liberty Road.

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Intrusion, Louie's Feeder, Pluot, Whereisjah, BigPlanet, and Towner.

Press Release

The film Resilience Revealed: Ann Arbor's Disability Legacy, of Zach Damon Productions, has won a prestigious Award of Merit from The Accolade Global Film Competition. The award was given for Zach Damon's exciting documentary, Resilience Revealed, which highlights the role Ann Arbor has played in the world of accessibility and disability activism. Resilience Revealed features interviews with Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, Ann Arbor City Councilmember Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein, Disability Network executive director Alex Gossage, and other advocates.

“Ann Arbor has long been a beacon for disability rights,” says Damon. “This film aims to honor that legacy.”

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: VIRID and David Minnix, deegeecee, Marissa Conniff & The Starter Packs, Porcellan Hammer, Stephen Rush, KUZbeats, Mei Semones, VaporDaze, Bill Edwards, Sam Watson, Kid Jay, Acid Lab, Riot Course, Kelly Moran, Premium Rat, Pale Gallery, Vladimir's Universe, Post Scriptvm, Sigidy, A Church Made From Burnt Churches, and Michael Armstrong.

A round-up of recent books from authors with Washtenaw County connections, past and present. We've also highlighted Ann Arbor-area readings and signings when available.

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Loamsy, DASHpf, BigPlanet, Mei Semones, Chris DuPont, DJ Myint, Hemmingway Lane, Hey Look Listen, Latimer Rogland, Modus Operandi, and G.B. Marian.

If you've ever been in the Chip Davis Technology Studio at the University of Michigan, you know it's not a large space. It's an amazing room, filled with music-making and music-reproducing tech that will melt your brain, but it's not the kind of space that could host a music festival featuring more than 25 artists over two days.

Except when it does.

Again.

The second Spaceout International Ambisonics Festival runs October 16-17 at the Chip Davis Technology Studio, featuring an international and local cast of creatives who make music in a 3D audio format.

The studio's 32-speaker immersive audio system allows performers and presenters to envelop your ears, turning sounds into hallucinatory spectres that attack your cochleas from all angles.

Over the course of three concerts across two days, artists from Japan, Turkey, Italy, Chile, Brazil, Norway, Canada, Germany, India, the USA, and more will perform ambisonic compositions that incorporate multimedia, cybernetics, collaboration, system theory, and cutting-edge technology.

Stacey L. Kirby was the Stamp School's 2025 Roman J. Witt Artist-in-Residence, spending 12 weeks on the University of Michigan campus between January and March to meet with students, staff, and faculty to gather information that informs her new interactive, immersive installation, The Bureau of Personal Belonging.

The site-specific work is activated by viewer participation, with the intention of fostering conversations about engagement and empowerment, collective and personal identities, and the power of art to build respect and solidarity among participants.

Kirby’s exhibition "transforms bureaucracy's everyday rituals into unexpected moments of civic connection. Through forms, gestures, and scripted interactions, visitors can sit down, engage, and reflect on identity, community, and belonging," states a Stamps Gallery post on Instagram.

Another Stamps post explains:

Hardcore fans of graphic artists will no doubt know the works of Caroline Cash, Lisa Hanawalt, and Julia Wertz.

Cash has won Eisner and Ignatz Awards—the industry's highest honors—for her ongoing series PeePee-PooPoo. Hanawalt has published four books for Drawn & Quarterly, and Wertz's Tenements, Towers & Trash won the 2018 Brendan Gill Prize, an annual award for a work that best captures the spirit and energy of New York City.

These three are the special guests at this year's A2CAF: Small + Indie Press on Saturday, October 11, at the Ann Arbor District Library's Downtown location. The event runs 11 am to 5 pm and features vendors, workshops, talks, and book signings.

But even if these artists' names don't ring a bell for you, there's a chance you know their work—or will know it—through mediums outside of graphic novels:

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week: Hey Look Listen, Spiralic label compilation, two AGN7 label releases, Pastland, Adam J. Snyder, Richard Root & The Fancy Band, Mark Zhu, Darrin James Band, Brooke Steele, FLYDLPHN and Hayden Mesnick, Loamsy, Alison Albrecht, and Median.