Art, Identity, and Visibility: Lorelei d’Andriole’s Solo Exhibition Anchors MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility

March 19, 2026

Lorelei d’Andriole’s solo exhibition Dogs Playing Poker is on view at the RCAH LookOut Gallery for Transgender Day of Visibility.
The work connects art with transgender identity, centering visibility and impact.
MSU’s event includes workshops and community programming celebrating transgender lives.

Lorelei d’Andriole (Photo by Cody Sells)

Through both her art and her voice, Michigan State University faculty member Lorelei d’Andriole is taking center stage at MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility, delivering the event’s keynote and showcasing her work in a new solo exhibition that opened on campus this week.

An artist, educator, and writer, d’Andriole is an Assistant Professor of Electronic Art and Intermedia in MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design. Her work sits at the intersection of intermedia, sound, and transgender studies.

Her Dogs Playing Poker exhibition, now on display through April 24, 2026, at the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) LookOut Gallery, features new video art and sculptures that have not previously been exhibited. This solo exhibition is part of MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility programming. An artist reception is scheduled for Thursday, March 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. The LookOut Gallery, located on the second floor of Snyder-Phillips Hall, is open from noon to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“Bruno Latour has argued that ‘the body [is] an interface which becomes more and more describable as it learns to be affected by more and more elements.’ I am thinking about the body in much the same way through all of the works exhibited, whether it be my own body, the body of the viewer, or an institutional body. Some of these works are funny. Some of these works are devastating,” d’Andriole said. “In my eight years of experience as an art student across three degrees, not a single transgender artist was ever mentioned in any coursework; because of this, I’d like to give a shout-out to all the organizers on campus who are making this happen. Further shout out to all the transgender students, faculty, and staff who contribute to making MSU a rigorous academic community despite all the odds and violence leveraged against us.”

d’Andriole will also deliver the keynote for MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility on Saturday, March 21. The event runs from 1 to 6 p.m. in the RCAH Theatre (Room C020, Snyder Hall), with the keynote scheduled from 2 to 3 p.m.

Presented by the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center (GenCen) and RCAH, MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility will include an arts showcase featuring local and student work, along with workshops in fiber crafts, painting, musical performance, and electronic art. The event is supported by a Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant.

“This keynote will address connections between art and transgender identity,” d’Andriole said. “By using my own art and research as a jumping off point, I will make a case for transgender art that moves beyond representation and into action, which makes our lives better today.”

Through her work, d’Andriole strives to blur the boundaries between art and everyday life, pushing toward values of kindness, compassion, and inclusiveness. Her practice spans time-based installations, experimental video, and interactive media, inviting audiences to imagine radical alternatives to the present.

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, d’Andriole toured across the country performing in punk bands, playing in hundreds of shows in venues ranging from houses to amphitheaters before entering academia. Her work has since been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries, museums, universities, film festivals, and DIY spaces.

The Dogs Playing Poker exhibition was curated by Steve Baibak, Academic Specialist and Director of the RCAH LookOut Gallery.

International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) is observed annually on March 31. However, MSU is holding its Transgender Day of Visibility on Saturday, March 21, this year. The day celebrates the lives and contributions of transgender people while raising awareness of the disproportionate levels of discrimination, poverty, and violence the community faces.

This international celebration was founded by transgender advocate and MSU alum Rachel Crandall-Crocker, who earned her master’s degree in Social Work from MSU in 1985. She is the Executive Director of Transgender Michigan and a licensed psychotherapist. She created Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009 to provide a space for celebrating the lives of transgender people, while recognizing that, due to ongoing discrimination, not all transgender individuals can or choose to be visible. The first Transgender Day of Visibility took place at MSU. The day is now celebrated around the world.