Dick Goody’s job is to be picky.

As director of the Oakland University Art Gallery, Goody curates many of the exhibits, choosing works from artists all over the country.

“I love it,” he said. “I get to work with some very interesting people.”

Being picky is crucial with a small, two-roomed gallery. But the shows pack a punch. Currently, Carlos Rolón/Dzine: Commonwealth features several installations, including a working barbershop, drawing upon the Chicago artist’s Puerto Rican autobiography and the contradictory worlds of conspicuous consumption and urban artifact.

The Gallery also has its own collection. Goody’s office is packed with masks and religious artifacts from West Africa and Papua New Guinea and work by artists such as Romare Bearden, one of the best-known African American artists.

The Gallery collection includes work by artists who are also represented in the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), which has the fifth best collection in North America, Goody said.

OU’s collection is “like a starburst,” he said – it seems to grow as one gets to know it.

In the collection archive, pieces fight for space behind the false walls of the Gallery. In one maze-like corridor, African masks grin down at the rare visitor. 

“I am always thrilled to bring people back here if they’re interested,” Goody said. “All they have to do is ask.”

Carlos Rolón chose more than a dozen West African pieces to exhibit with a gold-leafed Puerto Rican papier mâché mask, highlighting the island’s interconnectedness with the Afro-Caribbean diaspora.

Many were used for religious ceremonies and checked for authenticity by Nii O. Quarcoopome, Ph.D., co-chief curator and department head for the DIA’s Oceania & Indigenous Americas collections.

Goody also watches over a set of Chinese scrolls and post-1945 work. Each collection has enough pieces to have a gallery of its own.

“The goal is to bring people and art together,” Goody said. “We want to live and breathe with it.”

Grace Turner is an OU Journalism student and Life editor at the OU Post student newspaper.

Goody’s office is packed with masks and religious artifacts from West Africa and Papua New Guinea.