Giertz Gallery at Parkland College

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Giertz Gallery at Parkland College

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The Giertz Gallery at Parkland College is a teaching gallery which strives to serve the educational and cultural needs of a diverse audience.

The Giertz Gallery at Parkland College will be closed Monday, September 2, for Labor Day.

10/20/2026

‘Underpinnings: A Group Exhibition’ continues in the Gallery this week! The exhibition features ceramics, printmaking, mixed media, painting, and fiber artworks by four highly respected and nationally recognized artists. The artists include Jen Broemel (Indianapolis), Marika Christofides (Stillwater, Oklahoma), Chad Erpelding (Boise, Idaho), and Michael Thompson (Chicago). This week, we are featuring the work of Chad Erpelding. Erpelding is a painter and professor of Art, Drawing, and Painting at Boise State University. His work investigates corporations, globalization, and economics, exploring major global institutions that affect all of our lives. On his work, Erpelding writes, “Pulling from the history of abstract painting, I transform color fields into data-driven formats, replacing the formal and idealistic space of Modernism with our new idol– the market.”

To learn more about Erpelding’s practice, sign up for our emails at https://conta.cc/4seRfUk or parkland.edu/gallerymail. Erpelding’s paintings will be on view in the exhibition until Saturday, November 7.

Images:
Chad Erpelding, Unemployment vs Job Creation: US: 2011-2020, 24 x 36 inches, Acrylic latex on canvases, 2024
Chad Erpelding, Continental Shift: S&P ASX 200, Nikkei, JSE Top 40, FTSE 100, Bovespa, Dow Jones Industrial Average: 2019 (detail), 12 x 183 inches, Acrylic latex on canvases, 2020

10/13/2026

'Underpinnings: A Group Exhibition' continues in the Gallery this week! The exhibition showcases ceramics, printmaking, mixed media, painting, and fiber artwork by four distinguished artists: Jen Broemel, Marika Christofides, Chad Erpelding, and Michael Thompson. This week, we are featuring Jen Broemel's work. Jen Broemel is a fiber artist, soft sculptor, and designer based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Broemel describes her work as “initiated by my interest in color, light, space, and their ever-changing interaction.” To read more about Broemel’s practice, sign up for our emails at https://conta.cc/4hNh1KA or parkland.edu/gallerymail. Broemel’s work will be on view in the exhibition until Saturday, November 7.

Images:
Jen Broemel, Problem Solved and Beautifully Flawed, 54 x 54 inches, Repurposed clothing quilted and hand-embroidered, 2018
Jen Broemel, House Cloud #1, 32 x 24 inches, Collaged quilt fragments, 2023
Jen Broemel, Seeing It All Around, 19 x 20 inches, Collaged quilt fragments, 2020

10/08/2026

Join us today for an artist lecture by Marika Christofides at 1:15 p.m. in the Staerkel Planetarium. Christofides will share her perspective on her work featured in the "Underpinnings" exhibition, now open in the Gallery. This evening, she will also be present for the exhibition’s reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Gallery Lounge. Both events are free and open to everyone! For more information, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

10/05/2026

Giertz Gallery is pleased to announce "Underpinnings: A Group Exhibition," now open in the Gallery! A public reception will be held on Thursday, October 8, from 5:30–7 p.m. with a gallery talk by Marika Christofides at 6:15 p.m. An assistant professor of Studio Art at Oklahoma State University, Christofides will also give a lecture on the same day at 1:15 p.m. at the Staerkel Planetarium.

The exhibition features ceramics, printmaking, mixed media, painting, and fiber artworks by four highly respected and nationally recognized artists. With inventive material experimentation, they explore subjects like identity, storytelling, material history, mapping, and systems. Their artwork investigates and reveals the structures that lie behind the fabric of modern society. The exhibition encourages visitors to consider the often-unseen systems and stories that influence both art and life, and how personal and collective experiences are shaped, recorded, and understood.

For more information on the exhibition, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

09/24/2026

We are in the final days of the 2026 Annual Art & Design Faculty Exhibition! This Saturday, September 26, is the last opportunity to see the show. Today, we are sharing the work of Bryan Heaton, a Photography instructor at Parkland. In this year's exhibition, Heaton presents his ongoing series of square-format digital photographs, inspired by the experience of organizing and decluttering his home. In his artist statement, Heaton described the inspiration behind this series, writing that “While attempting to organize my things, I kept running up against objects, - perhaps artifacts is a better word - that were causing friction. They were hidden away in boxes, in no particular grouping, devoid of an organizational concept. A few were clearly sentimental while others were wholly undefined, nonfunctional, and failed to summon nostalgia or spark joy. Many of them had survived the purges of moving, decluttering, or spousal disapproval but still hung on despite their clear lack of functionality or value. I decided that I would ask the object/artifact what it had to offer.”

The Gallery will be open today, Thursday, until 7 pm, and Saturday, September 26, from noon to 3 pm. After Saturday, the Gallery will be closed for installation as we prepare for our upcoming exhibition. For more information on the Gallery, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

Images:
Bryan Heaton, From the Collection II (Artifact #1594), 13 x 13 inches, Photography, 2026, $150
Bryan Heaton, From the Collection II (Artifact #1076), 13 x 13 inches, Photography, 2026, $150
Bryan Heaton, From the Collection II (Artifact #0192), 13 x 13 inches, Photography, 2026, $150
Bryan Heaton, From the Collection II (Artifact #0699), 13 x 13 inches, Photography, 2026, $150

09/21/2026

This is the final week to see the 2026 Annual Art & Design Faculty Exhibition in the Gallery! Today, we are delighted to present the work of new faculty member Carrie Byington, a fiber and mixed-media artist. Her work explores material transformation, process, and the relationship between the hand, material, and learning. Describing the experimental nature of the work, Byington writes in her artist statement that “As our interactions with images become increasingly digital, I remain interested in the knowledge that develops through direct engagement with physical materials and in the conversation between the hand, the eye, and the object. These collages suggest that experimentation is not separate from finished work but fundamental to it. Every fragment carries the memory of an earlier investigation while inviting another.”

Our Fall hours are Monday to Wednesday, 10 am to 5 pm; Thursday, 10 am to 7 pm; and Saturday, noon to 3 pm. This Saturday, September 26, is the last day to see the exhibition! For more information, on the Gallery, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

Images:
Carrie Byington, Recomposition #2, 9.5 x 7.5 inches, Hand embroidered collage, 2026, $85
Carrie Byington, Recomposition #1, 9.5 x 7.5 inches, Hand embroidered collage, 2026, $85

09/17/2026

The 2026 Annual Art & Design Faculty Exhibition continues this week in the Gallery! In this week's post, we are featuring Metalsmith Professor Denise Seif's work. Using vitreous enamels, Seif’s work in the Gallery this year continues a series of necklaces inspired by the experience of open-heart surgery. Seif was inspired to create necklaces after learning about how titanium plates are used to reinforce the chests of heart surgery patients, in the same location where a necklace might rest. Describing how the series has developed over time, Seif wrote in her artist statement that the work in the Gallery this year “shifts its focus toward healing and adaptation. It examines the body's remarkable capacity to mend and accommodate change. Through these pieces, I investigate the ongoing process of recovery and the ways in which the body and mind negotiate transformation.” To see Denise Seif’s work in person, please stop by the exhibition in the Giertz Gallery! The show will be on view through Saturday, September 26.

For more information on the exhibition, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

Images:
Denise Seif, Torrential, 16 x 2 inches, Erector set parts, copper, vitreous enamel, sterling silver, 2026, NFS
Denise Seif, Mended, 16 x 2 inches, Erector set parts, copper, vitreous enamel, thread, 2026, NFS
Denise Seif, Connections, 16 x 2 inches, Erector set parts, copper, vitreous enamel, sterling silver, 2026, NFS

09/09/2026

The 2026 Annual Art & Design Faculty Exhibition continues this week in the Giertz Gallery! This week, we are featuring another new faculty member participating in this year's exhibition, Stephen Pritchard. Pritchard’s photography documents a narrative of a Midwestern landscape undergoing drastic development. His photographs depict dioramas of construction projects, highways, parking lots, and billboards. Presiding over these miniature scenes is the figure of a salesman, placing elements into the frame. This human presence emphasizes the powerful influences that shape the urban landscape. Speaking on the larger themes in this work, Pritchard wrote in his artist statement that “by immersing viewers in a pivotal moment in the past; by combining found and fabricated footage, these works invite us to interrogate how the built environment of today came to feel inevitable. Through making these processes visible, we are better able to see the ramifications in the present, allowing us to better understand how similar forms of persuasion still operate today, and perhaps, to try to shape other kinds of futures.”

For more information on the exhibition, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

Images:

Stephen Pritchard, Projections: Slide 145, 14 x 21 inches, Photography, 2026, $400
Stephen Pritchard, Regularly Scheduled Programming, 35 x 40 x 15 inches, Sculpture, 2026, NFS
Stephen Pritchard, Projections: Slide 305, 14 x 21 inches, Photography, 2026, $400

09/01/2026

Our Annual Art & Design Faculty Exhibition continues this week in the Gallery. Today, we would like to feature Ruth Lantz, another faculty member participating in this year's exhibition. This is Ruth Lantz’s first semester at Parkland, where she is teaching Drawing. We are excited to welcome her into the Art & Design program and introduce her work to the students and community members who visit the Gallery! Lantz’s work examines how American landscape painting traditions shape our ideas of the environment in the digital age. On view in the exhibition is a collection of paintings that depict tree branches through layers of bright colors. Describing the significance of this imagery, Lantz wrote in her artist statement that “historically, trees are symbols of industrial change and nature's dual status as both sublime and subject to human intervention. In my work, these forms become unsettled: they repeat, fracture, and dissolve into visual networks that settle into web-like structures, shifting nature from place-based and closer to the logic of digital space.”

For more information on the exhibition, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

Images:
Ruth Lantz, Broken Arch, 48 x 36 inches, Acrylic and Flash on canvas over panel, 2026, $5,200
Ruth Lantz, Lovely, Dark and Deep, 48 x 36 inches, Acrylic and Flash on canvas over panel, 2026, $5,200
Ruth Lantz, The Missing Piece, 35 x 28 inches, Acrylic, Flashe, and screen print on canvas over panel, 2026, $2,800

08/25/2026

Our Annual Art & Design Faculty Exhibition continues this week in the Gallery! This week, we are featuring the work of Josh Schutz, one of the Faculty members participating in this year's exhibition. Schutz’s work explores the intersection of furniture, functional objects, sculpture, and q***r identity. He creates objects that blur the boundaries between utility and sculpture, questioning how design can embody cultural values, curiosity, and play. Describing his approach to creating this body of work, Schutz wrote in his artist statement that he is “interested in objects that appear familiar before revealing something unexpected: a table that is also an inverted vase, or a scarf rack that can hold only a single delicate fashionable scarf. These moments are not meant to frustrate function, but to reward curiosity and encourage deeper engagement.”

For more information on the exhibition, sign up for our emails at parkland.edu/gallerymail

Images:
Josh Schutz, Courtesy, 18 x 9 x 8 inches, Stoneware, 2026, $450
Josh Schutz, Interference, 10 x 7 x 3.5 inches, Stoneware, glaze, ink, 2026, $450
Josh Schutz, Fable, 20 x 18 x 18 inches, Porcelain, wood, fringe, 2026, NFS

Address

2400 W Bradley Avenue
Champaign, IL
61821

Telephone

+12173512485

Website

http://www.parkland.edu/gallery

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