U-M Pop-Up Exhibition to Feature Alumna Chanel Von Habsburg-Lothringen

The University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities presents WORLD LEADERS, a pop-up exhibition by Los Angeles-based photographer and U-M alumna Chanel Von Habsburg-Lothringen. The site-specific installation explores disparate geographical and emotional landscapes, and the ever-shifting identities of women within American society.

An opening reception and artist talk will be held at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3. The exhibition runs Oct. 30-Nov. 30, 2017.

According to curator Amanda Krugliak, the timely work considers themes of both empowerment and objectification.

"Von Habsburg-Lothringen's alluring images confront us with our own built-in biases about our bodies, our sexuality, the prescriptions of femininity, and ultimately our judgements," she said. "Her ongoing inquiry proves especially prescient, reflective of a chorus of '#MeToo,' an emphatic push against the entrenchments of man-made systems."

WORLD LEADERS presents the newest works from the series "Conditions," which continues to examine the position of the woman in neo-liberal society as both object and agent. It reflects on the slippage between aspiration and desperation in the face of the vanishing American Dream.

Von Habsburg-Lothringen has a bachelor's degree in social science and history of art from U-M and an MFA in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her previous exhibitions include "Conditions" in Los Angeles and "Seduced and Abandoned" in Chicago. Her films have been screened at the Detroit Independent Film Festival and Royal Albert Hall.

She is the recipient of the Toby Devin Lewis Award and the Warren and Margot Coville Scholarship. She was the co-founder of EMBASSY and has curated projects at the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Detroit Design Festival, Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead and Cranbrook Museum of Art.

This exhibition is part of the Institute for the Humanities' Year of Archives and Futures organized in celebration of the U-M Bicentennial and will be on view at the Institute for the Humanities, Osterman Common Room, 202 S. Thayer St., Ann Arbor. The exhibitions are free and open to the public 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.