Your online guide to great contemporary art in Detroit.


April 4, 2013 - News, exhibitions, openings and events.
 
 
 

Wednesday, April 10 - Sunday, April 14

Art X Detroit:  Kresge Arts Experience is a five-day multidisciplinary celebration that will exclusively present works created by the 2011-2012 Kresge Eminent Artists and Artist Fellows.  A special visual arts exhibition at MOCAD runs through April 28.

Click to RSVP to Opening Night Celebration

Click for schedule 
   

Re:View Contemporary                                          
 







Long Distance: Dineke Blom & Adam Shirley    
   
Re:View Contemporary Gallery is pleased to present Long Distance, a two-person exhibition comprising multiple charcoal drawings by Dutch artist Dineke Blom and a singular steel sculpture by Detroit artist Adam Shirley.  The exhibition, the first time the artists' works will be shown together, as well as, the first time for Dineke Blom's drawings to be exhibited in Detroit, explores the connections between the two artists' works and Detroit. 

Opening Saturday, April 6, 7-10pm.

Show runs through May 4.

See Art + Design Gallery            
     
Bryan Christopher Baker
Illuminator Compositions
See Art + Design is pleased to present Bryan Christopher Baker's newest body of work.  In these compositions, Baker explores fields of circumstance, with a nod to both mechanical and organic structural systems, allowing layers of divergent microscopic arrays of dots to veil across one another to build upon and affect their neighbors in space.  In each piece, different regions are allowed to become unified by a nearly invisible element that permeates without regard to assumed borders, moving into and through areas of assumed independence. 

 

Openings Saturday, April 6, 7-10pm.  

                 

Shows runs through May 4. 

Paul Kotula Projects    

 

 

Iris Eichenberg: Setting the Table, with Stacy Jo Scott   

Setting the Table is Iris Eichenberg's second featured exhibition at the gallery and her first to include the ceramic work of Stacy Jo Scott.  Eichenberg, whose jewelry, objects and  

sculpture explore a wealth of ideas pertaining to the body, has created a series of work that permeates the rich perceptions of touch. Her work arouses sensual interactions. Plastic forms are augmented with beaded, crochet or knit objects with a similar fleshy-pink sensitivity and color, keeping focus on and furthering tactile sensations.  

Opening Saturday, April 6, 5-8pm.

Show runs through May 11.

    


Scarab Club                                           

 

Silver Medal Exhibition    
   

This is an unthemed exhibition, juried by Kim Fay.  Fay has been a working Detroit artist for more than twenty years.

  

Participating artists:

Charles Alexander, Carl Amyoni, Arnold Berkman, Robert Beras, Robert Bielat, Jeanne Bieri, Jan Brown, Katharine Christie, Sanda Cook, Donald DiPace, Barbara Dorchen, Joan Farago, Thomas Frank, Bruce Giffin, Michael Goler, Carlos Gonzalez, Ramon A. Guadiana, Howard Haarer, Claudia Hershman, Karianne Hollowell, Joan Painter Jones, Dominique King, Jerry Lawrence, Linda Mendelson, Jon Pickell, Jerome Rochon, Mariuca Rofick, Michael Ross, Elle Rousseaux,

Marurice Sanders, Ann Smith, Krysti Spence, Eric Toth, Elisabeth Velzeboer, Vince Verna, Carl Wilson, Beverly Benson Wolf, S. Kay Young

 
Opening Friday, April 5, 6-9pm. 

Show runs through May 4.

UMMA                
    

     
Laurie Anderson:  From the Air  
Located between and within performance, visual arts, film, and beyond, Laurie Anderson's unconstrained and multidisciplinary practice is perhaps most enduringly rooted in her attention to exceptional storytelling. In any genre, she is an unquestionably provocative, poignant, political, and personal teller of tales.

The UMMA New Media Gallery installation consists of a small clay sculpture with projected video that features what appears to be an almost holographic-like miniature Laurie Anderson telling us a story, seated with her dog, Lolabelle. Guest curated by Kathleen Forde, the exhibition builds from Lolabelle's realization on a walk to the beach that she is prey for a group of turkey vultures. 

 

On exhibit Saturday, April 6 through August 11.    

Arab American National Museum   

 

 

DIWAN5: The Exhibition  

In conjunction with DIWAN5: A Forum for the Arts taking place April 5-6, the AANM proudly presents works by 12 Arab American artists drawn from the Museum's permanent collection. Some have never before been exhibited at the AANM while others are highlights from exhibitions past.

Recent donations of works by Hanah Diab, Julienne Johnson and John Peters make their debut. Adnan Charara's energetic and immensely popular drawing, Open Minded, returns. Helen Zughaib's vivid Prayer Rug for America is back on display from the Museum's 2005 inaugural exhibition, In/VIsible. DIWAN5 presenters John Halaka and Reem Gibriel are in the exhibition too.
 
Opening Friday, April 5, 6:30pm.

Following reception, a concert featuring Saadi, 7:30pm.

Show runs through September 1.

    


Cave Gallery                                              
 

Steeped by Hamilton Poe     
   
A showing of recent work by Hamilton Poe concerning self reflection, disassociation, and the phenomena of Detroit gallery-going. . .viewers are invited to become subjects, subjects are invited to become artists, artists are invited to become viewers . .   
Opening Saturday, April 6, 7-10pm. 

Closing Thursday, April 18, 7-10pm, with a lecture by James Dozier.

Epiphany Studios                   
     
First Thursdays Open Studios 
Spring flowers are popping up at Epiphany Studios.  The studios's garden is in full bloom. It may be chilly spring weather outside, but they are hot in there!  Great gift items for mom, the graduate or that special someone from their Studio e line. 

 

Thursday, April 4, 4-9pm.   

Lawrence Street Gallery  

 

 

Exposures:  Photography 2013  

Lawrence Street Gallery presents their seventeenth annual photography exhibit, a juried
show thats drawn submissions from approximately 100 area photographers.  Awards will be given for work in black & white, color, and alternative /experimental.

The juror for this exhibition is Bruce Giffin who built his career working as a staff
photographer at the Metro Times and teaching photography at Macomb Community
College. In 2011 Giffin was chosen for a Kresge Artist Fellowship.
 
Opening Friday, April 5, 6-9pm.

Show runs through April 26.

    


DC3 Gallery                                            


Emerge     
     
Emerge features selected works from senior students at Henry Ford Academy:  School for Creatives.  As part of DC3 Gallery's commitment to supporting both established and emerging artists, we are thrilled to be able to work with these talented young artists, and help them to show their work in a gallery setting. 

Opening Wednesday, April 10, 4:30-7:30pm.

Show runs through May 24.

The Glass Academy       

     
Mug Night

Beer enthusiasts have been asking for a special evening so here it is. Mug Night offers an opportunity to commission your very own mug or pilsner glass. Design whatever you like and watch a Master Glassblower bring it to life right in front of you.

The premise of this night:  customers reserve a spot.  The class is limited to 6 participants but you can bring guests to share the experience with you.  We also suggest you bring in local growlers of beer to share, and designs you envision in a beer mug.

  

People have all sorts of ideas, such as sports team colors, certain shapes, personal hobbies, etc. that they are looking to incorporate into their mugs.  The ideas are truly endless.

 

Select Thursday nights throughout 2013, 6-10pm.

 

Northville Art House 

 

 

Line & Brush:  Two Figurative Visions - The Work of Amy Foster & Vianna Szabo

This exhibit celebrates the figurative art of two Detroit area artists.  Friends and instructors who share a love of capturing the human form, Foster is a master draftsman who loves line and gesture while Szabo's passion is paint and color. Their collaboration has produced a collection of work that showcases visions of traditional figure and portrait in line and brush.
 
Opening Friday, April 5, 6-9pm.  Artist talk, 8pm.

Two-day workshops in conjunction with the exhibit:  

Portrait Drawing Fundamentals with Amy Foster, April 20-21

Painting Gesture Portraits with Vianna Szabo, April 27-28

 

Show runs through April 27.

DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS    
   
Shirin Neshat Retrospective            
Shirin Neshat, an Iranian American artist living in New York City, is widely acclaimed for her extraordinary video installations and art photography, yet her collected works are rarely considered as a singular production or displayed together. This mid-career retrospective includes eight video installations and two series of art photography. Through visual metaphor and compelling sound, Neshat confronts the complexities of identity, gender and power to express her own vision that embraces the depth of Islamic tradition and Western concepts of individuality and liberty.

 

Open to the public, Sunday, April 7.

   

5E GALLERY   
   
National Poster Retrospecticus Tour        
A massive collection of hand-printed gig posters is coming to Detroit. The National Poster Retrospecticus tour will showcase over 75 of the greatest poster designers in the country and makes it's stop in Detroit. The tour includes heavy hitters like Aaron Draplin, Daniel Danger and Aesthetic Apparatus presenting posters designed for Modest Mouse, Phish, Wilco and many other bands.

  

Wednesday, April 10, 7pm.  One night only.

   

ART BLOG 

Visit the NEW Art Detroit Now Art & Community Blog for updates on artist opportunities, call for entries, workshops + community connections 

Updated daily.



L
ECTURES, TALKS & TOUS  
Detroit Institute of Arts   

 

Based in Paris, Esther Shalev-Gerz is internationally recognized for her seminal contributions to the field of art in the public realm and her consistent investigation into the nature of democracy, cultural memory and the politics of public space. For over 20 years her work has focused on interventions and projects in public space, taking the form of collaboration and exchange with the audience. Her installations and photographic work raise questions on group memory and its interaction with personal history and souvenir. In these commemorative monuments, installations, video and photographic works, questions about history are posed, and its relationship with collective memory is explored and investigated.   
 

Wednesday, April 10, 7pm.   

 

Click to register.   

    

Detroit Institute of Arts        
Set in Iran in 1953 during the period of political turmoil that resulted in the overthrow of Mossadegh government and the establishment of the shah's dictatorship, Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men interweaves the stories of four loosely connected Iranian women and their relationships with the men in their lives. Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, Neshat brings an extraordinary sense of design, emotional control and political insight to her storytelling, resulting in a rich, haunting and powerful sense of time and place. In Farsi with English subtitles. (95 min.)

 

Friday, April 5, 7pm.    


Detroit Institute of Arts   
        
Art & Justice Conversation 

Shirin Ebadi & Shirin Neshat in Conversation

Shirin Ebadi received the Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts to support democracy and human rights in Iran for nearly fifty years. She devised unconventional legal strategies for human rights and successfully advocated for justice in a repressive political regime. In 2006 she joined six other Nobel laureates to form The Nobel Women's Initiative.  

 

Artist Shirin Neshat first received international acclaim for the pioneering conceptual photographic series, Women of Allah, her effort to reconcile memories of Iran from her youth with the realities of political changes in her homeland. Her development as a socially engaged artist is the topic of her retrospective.  

 

Moderated by Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Dabashi is a noted scholar and commentator about the relationship between art and politics.  

     

Sunday, April 7, 5:30pm.    
Cranbrook Academy of Art    

 

Dineke Blom is a visual artist living and working in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She was educated at Ateliers 63 in Haarlem. A central theme in her work is the way in which we perceive the world around us. The images that appear in Dineke Blom's drawings elicit active seeing, for there is no narrative to follow. Light and shadow, foreground and background, seclusion and transparency, weight and the rhythm of lines and shapes are agents in this process. Dineke Blom's work has been shown internationally in galleries and museums and she is represented by gallery AdK Actuele Kunst, Amsterdam, where she regularly hosts solo exhibitions. Her work is also included in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Teylers Museum, Haarlem; ABNAmro Artfoundation; Bouwfonds Artfoundation; NOG Collection of SNS REAAL Fonds, and private collections in The Netherlands and abroad.
 

Tuesday, April 9, 6pm.     

    

Popps Packing           
Edifice of Accumulation begs the question, "Why collect all this stuff?" After six months of recording and interviewing as well as many years of constructing with her father - a house in Detroit, an apartment in Ann Arbor, and a cabin in Petoskey - she began to understand. It's not as much about the buildings of stuff as it is about the rebuilding of things.

 

Mary Beth Carolan has spent the past decade in Detroit, working as an artist, architect, chef, and educator. She cooks up multisensory experiences, creating interactive and inhabitable sculptures.  Often working in collaboration with other artists, musicians, and dancers, her sculptures come to life as environments, follies, happenings, and experimental laboratories. Her work has been shown in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Toledo, Austin, New York, Oxford, and Berlin.  

Sunday, April 7, 3pm.

 

Closing Sunday, April 7, 11-5pm.     


Arab American National Museum   
        
Conference  

DIWAN5: A Forum for the Arts

DIWAN5: A Forum for the Arts unites Arab American artists, scholars and performers representing myriad academic fields and artistic genres for a weekend dialogue that reinforces the AANM's commitment to providing a place for community members and artists to meet, exchange ideas and exhibit their work. DIWAN also encourages audiences to expore the boundaries of art in addressing social issues related to Arab Americans and the community at large.  

Registration is open and there are student discounts in addition to discounted group rates for classes or organizations that wish to attend.

   
Click for schedule.

Click to register.

Friday, April 5 - Saturday, April 6.     
Detroit Creative Corridor Center    

CreativeMornings/Detroit, a monthly speaker series and morning gathering that encourages creative thought. This month's topic is the future with speaker Ingrid LaFleur.  She is the director of Maison LaFleur, a pop-up gallery in Detroit specializing in contemporary culture. The gallery exhibits contemporary art, design, and provides a variety of arts education.  A world traveler and self-described nomad, Ingrid has happily made her home-base in Detroit. 

  

Friday, April 5, 8:30-10am at N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art.    

  

 

 

UMMA         
  
Panel Discussion  

A panel discussion with Institute for the Humanities Visiting Artist Lynne Avadenka, Paul Conway (School of Information), Catherine Baker (University Library and School of Information), Hannah Smotrich (School of Art & Design), and Amanda Krugliak (Institute for the Humanities).

Tuesday, April 9, 12:30-2pm. 

 
UMMA 
        
Lecture

In Conversation: Buddha and Buddhist Deities in the Walter Koelz Collection with Rebecca Bloom

The rich iconography of the Buddha and Buddhist deities will be the subject of this informal gallery talk by Rebecca Bloom, PhD student in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, specializing in Tibetan Buddhism and Himalayan Art.

This program is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Please register to secure your place by emailing umma-tours@umich.edu.

   

Sunday, April 7, 3pm. 
PENNY W. SPEAKER SERIES & UMMA
Paola Antonelli is Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design and Director of Research and Development at the Museum of Modern Art. Her first MoMA exhibition was Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design, and her most recent exhibition was Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects. Antonelli earned the "Design Mind" Smithsonian Institution's National Design Award and was named one of the twenty-five most incisive design visionaries by Time magazine. She has been a contributing editor for Domus magazine, an editor of Abitare, and the author of Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design, highlighting how good design facilitates and enriches our daily life. She is currently working on several shows on contemporary design; and on Design Bites, a book about foods from all over the world appreciated as examples of outstanding design.

Thursday, April 4, 5:10pm. 
 


Interaction designer Massimo Banzi helped invent the Arduino, a tiny, easy-to-use open-source microcontroller that has inspired people around the world to make the coolest things they can imagine. With a variety of sensors, the Arduino is versatile and easy to use for projects as diverse as an exhibit on brains at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, to a DIY kit that sends a Tweet when your houseplant needs water. Massimo has consulted for Prada, Artemide, Persol, Whirlpool, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Adidas. He is also the author of Getting Started with Arduino and is a regular contributor to the Italian edition of Wired Magazine and the online innovation magazine Che Futuro.  Massimo currently teaches Interaction Design at SUPSI Lugano in Switzerland and is a visiting professor at CIID in Copenhagen.

Thursday, April 11, 5:10pm.