Friday, March 31, 2006

gone fishing again...

I am packing up and leaving for the big city of Cincinnati right now! I plan on checking out the contemporary museum there and some other art events. Rumor has it that not only is the scooter rally this weekend but the art crawl! whoo-hoo!

So - make sure you check out a few good shows this weekend here in detroit...Gallery Project, 555 and CAID - Portrait show!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

art's ugly face

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Kara Walker, artist who will be included in the inaugural MOCAD show in Detroit, has been written up by the infamous art critic Jerry Saltz. You have to read at least the first 3 paragraphs! Saltz makes some basic assessments that a lot of art viewers forget about: art isn't always beautiful nor does beauty equal truth.


"Keats was wrong: Beauty isn't truth, or truth beauty. Saying art is about beauty is like saying, "I'm for children." Everyone loves beauty; Nazis loved beauty; Osama loves beauty...Kara Walker's work is sometimes great. It is rarely beautiful."


 

Posner Gallery

I decided to check out Posner Gallery on my lunch break yesterday...and the word on the street is that the newly opened gallery in Birmingham's railroad district is in some trouble and could close if this art economy doesn't pick up! Whoever I speak to in the gallery business seems to be suffering now more than ever. Now is the time to buy art and support local galleries! I find that artists seem to be collecting more art from their peers than collectors who take notice and attend galleries. Just think....if each collector or person with some saved cash supported the arts in this city...maybe galleries like Posner could stay in business - at least till MOCAD hopefully draws attention to local arts and puts it on the same status as outsider art.
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detroit artist - nancy thayer
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Olivia Martin Moore

This week in art at Motor City Brewing was Olivia Martin Moore.
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whitney's twist of words

I guess they don't just do this for movie reviews! She what MAN discovered about advertising...

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Dave Muller

One really great artist that I forgot to feature from my art trip to NY is Dave Muller - his first exhibition at Gladstone Gallery.
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My first exposure to Muller's works was in the 2004 Whitney Biennial - which I remember being quite amazed at the time.
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Muller, a DJ and musician, maps his ongoing relationships with the past, present and future of music, using record collections, musical taxonomies, and set-lists as inspiration for portraits and cultural critiques. This exhibit was a giant mural timeline that extended around the gallery with framed prints that interrupted the space.
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Muller draws the history of music's ups and downs in terms of mountains and valley, forests and deserts. His timeline doesn't attempt to be a narrative on music, but instead one that exists as a personal vision of shared popular culture.
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This guy would have been one of my pics for the first MOCAD exhibit!

Monday, March 27, 2006

Pure Design Lab

I finally made it to a Pure Design Lab opening! It's not that I haven't tried...because trust me I have been trying for at least six months now - it just has been a matter of parking that has gotten in my way. I know...poor excuse but you try and find parking downtown by the store...it is very difficult! Anyways, it was well worth it and I even treated myself to a couple hand made shirt creations - made by local designers.
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Davin Brainard - Featuring drawings and paintings of SPACE, ICE CREAM , RAZZLE DAZZLE CAMOUFLAGE and some CLOUD GUM.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

synergy opening

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Matt Lewis at Synergy Gallery
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Yup...red dots...don't see that much at openings! Very encouraging to lewis and synergy gallery!
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You really have to see lewis' paintings in person to appreciate the layers of paint. I wonder how much this painting cost just in oil paint alone? I know it is not good gallery etiquette to touch a painting...but this one is asking for a poke!
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Drisko's works in the back of the gallery. Very different than the beast-like monster creations drisko made back at ccs! I always thought that drisko would end up in LA making creepy set displays or costume/face make-up for monster movies! I am happy though that drisko has made a contribution to the detroit art community and stuck around.
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Saturday, March 25, 2006

motor city meat market

Mikey Steen at Motor City Brewing art night
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For those who couldn't make it out, here are some pics of Steen's fiber/sculpy sculptures. Steen is just a senior at ccs...but none the less it was an impressive show. Interesting use of materials.
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more on mocad

Gordon Newton
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So here is the alleged Detroit artist who turned down the opportunity to show at the new museum - MOCAD
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 Not only was it mentioned (in the comments to the following post) that kertess visited newton's studio 30 years ago - it also helps when the face behind the museum, marsha miro, edited/co-authored the Gordon Newton book - catalog from the DIA show. Gordon Newton, yes is a great detroit artist - but should he be in the new contemporary museum when he was in a show at the DIA more than 20 years ago in 1981!! This just goes to show that MOCAD will not be "kicking out" a fresh show of artists: instead they will play it safe with artists who already have work in regular art museums - not just contemporaries. Why have a new contemporary when this show could have been exhibited at the DIA?

Friday, March 24, 2006

MOCAD lecture - what you need to know

MOCAD is finally coming...and it hopefully looks a little bit better than before.

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I think that I just went though the entire 12 step program with feeling towards mocad! At first I was in denial that it was actually happening and that I was attending an actual lecture for the museum! Then as the curator continued to speak I got more and more frustrated by the artists showing and then preceding the talk the questions by the audience only fueled me more! How could the second question be "where is the museum going to be located". Why wouldn't we know this already? Why were so few informed about the lecture? Why are there no Detroit artists scheduled thus far for the first show? Before I get ahead of myself I want to clarify that in the end I was finally calm and accepting of the proposal of the first opening at mocad. Now let me explain my thoughts.

 

I really feel that for the first attempt to publicly speak about mocad, they should not have thrown the out-of-state curator, who doesn't know much about Detroit, in with a pack of wolves. I feel that we need Marsha Miro to stand up and state mocad's intent and focus in the city. The crowd attending were mainly mocad supporters, backers, ccs students and teachers and a core group of Detroit artists that already have heard the rumblings of mocad. Why not publicize the heck out of the event?

 

Klaus Kertess began stating that he changed the first show from a strictly painting show to an installation - mixed media show. His speech was mainly about introducing the few selected artists in the inaugural show. These artists are not no-namers; they are pretty well known contemporary artists, all in their mid 40's in age. Definitely not young fresh talent. My opinion is that they are being safe like the DIA and only putting new artists that have already been tested and approved. No real chances here! The artists all have something in common: Detroit sensibility. Key themes and media focuses on graffiti art, recycling and reusing, decay, and race. Pretty obvious Detroit themes if you ask me. But not one of them are Detroit artists portraying these themes. One of the slides was a graffiti artist Barry McGee that looked like a combination of urban graffiti and Clint and Scott's Relics piece but painted on a wall! Other artists include Kara Walker who is known for her black figurative shadow cut-outs and Whitney biennial artist Mark Bradford. Roxie Paine and Nari Ward are other artists mentioned that will have installations set up in the space as well as an artist from Japan, that an audience member questioned, "why Japan?" In Kertess's answer, he pointed out that this exhibit is "not about Detroit". (What?) Then he proceeded to talk his way out of his answer to say that he is not an expert on the Detroit scene and doesn't know enough about the city's art to have the show be about Detroit. (Pretty sad-why not find a curator that knows Detroit?)

 

Now at that point I was getting upset but it was in talking to others afterward that I understand mocad's intent. They are trying to make a name for themselves and like with everything new business, money makes some of the decisions. Having a show that draws attention across the country puts more attention on the city and draws more supporters (money) to the museum. Why can't the DIA host this show? It is definitely safe enough. But getting attention for a new museum in the end is a wonderful thing. If the eyes of the art world can be on Detroit for one moment then something good has been accomplished!

 

Summary:

 

- pronounced MOE-cad

- all mixed media - installation based

- no painting

- San Francisco artist Barry McGee to paint facade of building

- building is on Woodward at Garfield

- apparent themes - recycled objects, decay, race....

- 5 artists named at lecture: Kara Walker, Barry McGee, Nari Ward, Mark Bradford, Roxie Paine, and a Japanese artist.

-  all artists 40 yr. old mid career

- asked one Detroit artist, he/she turned him down

-  Kertess quoted, "not about Detroit"

- an unnamed video artist

- other curators will follow, hopefully featuring some Detroit artists in the future


Thursday, March 23, 2006

tonight

Thursday, March 23 at 7:30pm:
The College for Creative Studies' WOODWARD LECTURE SERIES presents KLAUS KERTESS, curator and writer Co-sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MoCAD)

KLAUS KERTESS founded the famed Bykert Gallery in New York in 1966, representing Chuck Close, Ralph Humphrey, Barry Le Va, Brice Marden, and Dorothea Rockburn, among others. Kertess is a contributing editor to numerous publications and has written on many contemporary artists such as Le Va, John Chamberlain, Robert Irwin, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Roni Horn. Kertess has held curatorial posts at the Parrish Art Museum in Southhampton, New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he curated the 1995 Whitney Biennial. Kertess has conducted a graduate seminar at the School of Visual Arts in New York since 1997, and he lectures and conducts critiques throughout the United States. Close to home, Kertess is the curator of the inaugural exhibition of the new Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, set to open on Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit in fall 2006.

This lecture is free and open to the public Wendell W. Anderson Jr. Auditorium
Walter B. Ford II Building Frederick Douglass and John R. Streets CCS campus
Call CCS' Center Galleries for more info: 313-664-7800

mark your calendars

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Synergy Fine Art Gallery will be having it's second opening Friday March 24 featuring Detroit artists Matt Lewis and Andrew Drisko. Opening is from 6 - 10:30pm.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

MIA's grand opening

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faina lerman
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allison pellegrew (that is what it said on the card - but I think her last name is miss-spelled?)
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jeff haefner
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graem whyte
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christopher crowder
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rachel reynolds - I really like this piece...very large...it reminded me of an art school piece by ccs grad steve brown
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ed sarkis


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john miller - great piece - you have to see it up close to see the materials...a bit of ex-detroit artist jessica erickson in this one
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holly green - I am not usually a photography fan, but I like this piece a lot - I would love to see this blown-up huge in series!


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amanda thatch
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another faina piece
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john azoni
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cooper holoweski
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Overall a good show but I still think there is room to grow into the space. I hope that MIA can extend to the art community and become another key venue space. Definitely a space to watch!