SVSU Art Department’s gallery display of Emily Legleitner’s work, titled “My Life Is the Size of My Room,” came to a close on Sept. 13.
The University Art Department Gallery spoke to Legleitner’s work. “Her work examines autobiographical experiences and emotions associated with anxiety, mortality, longing, and the human condition.”
The exhibit was displayed in a glass case, with the art hanging on the wall. Under the artwork, the floor is covered with eggshells and a footstool in the middle. This is a physical reflection of what is viewed in the artwork.
Cole Acker, a senior marketing major, saw the exhibit.
“I like the real eggshells in the exhibit because I feel like it added to the character of the exhibit,” he said. “It played into the notion of walking on eggshells, and I think that this is a perfect reflection of anxiety. This is something that the website said the artist was trying to capture, and she definitely nailed it with that.”
Legleitner has been an Assistant Professor of Art at SVSU since July 2025. She has also taught at the Rhode Island School of Art & Design, University of Alberta, Stamps School of Art and Design Pre-College Program, and the Flint Institute of Arts.
Before becoming an assistant professor at SVSU, Legleitner studied at the University of Michigan, where she received a Bachelor of Arts and a minor in art history. She then went on to University of Alberta to receive a Master’s of Fine Arts in printmaking.
Legleitner is a Michigan native, and she has shown her artwork in both group and solo exhibitions. She also has multiple permanent collections displayed at national and international locations. These include Michigan, Arkansas, Canada, Poland, and Taiwan.
Lauren Gager, a sophomore biological science major, also visited the exhibit on campus.
“Going to the exhibit helped me experience what the artwork was conveying,” Gager said. “I saw pictures of it, but seeing it in real life added more emotion to it. It showed that you cannot get away from the realities of life anywhere. To me, it also conveyed that sometimes there are emotions and feelings that seem too big to store, which can make life seem like a lot.”
New exhibitions are put on display each month, and they can be found in the Art Gallery located in the Arbury Fine Arts Center. More information about Legleiner’s artwork can be found on the SVSU Art Department Gallery’s website, where her resume is displayed with all of her creations.
