When visitors step into the Baber Room Gallery this semester, they are met by dozens of faces, some painted nearly 200 years ago, others created just last year by Central Michigan University students.

On one wall, a chromolithograph of Pe-A-Jick, a Chippewa chief, documents early 19th-century treaty history. The room also holds large-scale portraits of prison inmates that include handwritten letters sharing memories and personal reflections. Contemporary works explore race, identity and technology, while faculty and alumni portraits reflect decades of artistic practice connected to the university.

The exhibition, “Faces of Humanity: Portraits from the Permanent Art Collection of Central Michigan University,” runs Jan. 16 through Feb. 27 in the Baber Room Gallery inside Park Library. An artist’s reception will be held Feb. 19 from 5 to 7 p.m.

This gallery exhibition draws entirely from CMU’s permanent art collection.

Gallery coordinator Denise Fanning curated the show after a previously scheduled artist was unable to exhibit due to personal circumstances. Without enough lead time to book another outside artist, Fanning turned inward, selecting works already owned by the university.

“We have accumulated a wonderful body of work from all media and disciplines,” Fanning said. “I really enjoy getting to pull together themed exhibitions from our collection for our community to see what wonderful art we have here on campus.”

The resulting exhibition spans centuries, mediums and lived experiences. Early 1800s oil portraits and treaty-era lithographs share wall space with digital photography, mixed media, holography and contemporary narrative painting.

Fanning said the collection includes “a lovely selection of portraits … that span history and time and represent many individuals with varied personal stories, histories, cultures and identities.”

Among them are works from the Prison Portrait Series by Jennifer Cyrus and Austin Wirgau. The large-scale paintings incorporate letters written by incarcerated individuals and present their personal narratives alongside their portraits.

Jasmine Brookins

Central Michigan University showcases an art collection for the Faces of Humanity in the Park Library Baber Room from January 16 - February 27. The collection displays artwork from CMU’s permanent art collection. (CM-Life | Jasmine Brookins)

In a letter included in the exhibition materials, Cyrus wrote that the project sought to address the idea that incarcerated people “no longer have a voice, or are no longer treated humanely.”

“I want people to see the humanity of folks like you,” Cyrus wrote to participants. “I’d like people to recognize that you are not just a prisoner, you’re a person too, and you should not forever be identified by the worst thing you’ve ever done.”

Elsewhere in the gallery, photographs from Peter Menzel’s What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets document individuals from Iran, Botswana, Bangladesh, China and Canada posed with a day’s worth of food. The images highlight global labor, health and cultural differences while centering each subject as an individual.

Contemporary works in the exhibition also reflect personal and cultural identity. Taurus Burns’s oil painting “Zebra Mane” comments on the artist’s experience as a biracial man.

Teresa Dunn’s self-portrait explores lived experiences shaped by immigration and cultural complexity.

Student and alumni works, including pieces purchased from recent BFA exhibitions, further connect the collection to CMU’s present community.

By assembling portraits from different eras and backgrounds in one space, Fanning said she hoped viewers would see them “in conversation with one another.”

“What better time than now to celebrate the many faces of humanity that make up our community and are represented in our art collection,” she said.