A new work in Susan Goethel Campbell’s “Old Stand” series.

The opening night crowd gathers.

Saturday, January 10th was the opening reception for Field Guide, a solo show by Susan Goethel Campbell at the Oakland University Art Gallery, which will run through February 22nd, with an artist talk on Wednesday, February 4th at 12 p.m.

Detail from the original “Old Stand” series.

Campbell (center) speaks with admirers at the opening reception.

The show includes work that Campbell has done over the last several years, with the newest pieces being large-scale gesso on digital prints, an extension of her “Old Stand” series. The initial wave of “Old Stand” pieces are pages taken directly from a book about turn-of-the-century explorers, redacted to reveal only the lone figures of these men in vast, whited-out landscapes. The newer work reveals the explorers in context, blowing the images up in grey and black, beneath the gesso wash. Campbell says she loves the style invoked by these gentleman explorers, impeccably kitted as though prepared for a night out in society, even when completely isolated in nature.

“Heatscapes,” which chart population density based on heat concentrations.

Detail from one of Campbell’s nighttime landscapes, where every point of light is a hole in the paper.

The juxtaposition of nature and human society is an overarching theme of Campbell’s work on display in “Field Guide,” which charts man and nature in different ways: patterns of heat, wind and earth formations are all fair game, as are the building of turf, the burning and punching away of paper, and the capturing of milkweed pollen.

Detail from one of Campbell’s encased pollen works.

The turf arrangements that are the earth element in Campbell’s installation.

The result is a show of great variety, yet improbable consistency. Campbell’s combination of experimental and controlled media mimics the adventurous spirit of the explorers she captures, offering a field guide for a world beyond our own—perhaps her own imagination.

Another pollen work, lit by projections.

Oakland University Art Gallery: 2200 N. Squirrel Rd., Rochester; 248-370-3006; ouartgallery.org