American novelist and musician James Greer—who spent two years in the mid-1990s playing with the indie rock band Guided by Voices—discusses the way lyrics reflect the listener’s emotions rather than the songwriter’s intentions. “Even the most nakedly vulnerable song ends up as the soundtrack to someone else’s heartbreak,” he writes […]
DETROIT — Design duo Akoaki, comprised of the wife and husband architecture team Anya Sirota and Jean Louis Farges, has worked closely with community members and cultural partners in Detroit’s North End neighborhood for roughly the past four years. “We met people in the neighborhood, and we started listening to […]
It’s September and the streets are alive with arts-related action, including the return of the annual Detroit Design Festival, which is always made to delight. This year’s DDF runs from September 26th-30th at points all over the city, and the theme is Design Is Everywhere—a simple sentiment, but one that […]
Extremely honored to be participating in two group shows in the coming month, both of which are entirely populated by artists who I greatly admire, and have taught me a lot about how to find my footing and voice as an artist. The first of these, Re:Iterate, opens on Thursday, […]
CINCINNATI — We are saturated by media messaging. It stands to reason, then, that video and interdisciplinary art are popular contemporary art forms — the collage-like nature of those media match the constant barrage of imagery, advertising, and sensory inputs we receive on a daily basis. So where does that […]
Detroiters have waited hopefully for the return of Dlectricity, the wildly popular nighttime exhibition of art and light, which, in its first iterations in 2012 and 2014, featured some of the best-loved and tech-savviest of Detroit installation and performance artists, as well as visiting artists from around the world. After […]
UPDATE: Crain’s is changing the title of this piece, which was originally, “How artists can be assets” – I deeply appreciate the decision by my editor to hear me out, because it really broke my heart to imagine artists all over the city reading it and thinking I do not […]
Panelists Osman Khan, Sarah Rose Sharp, and Paul Amenta, and moderator Amanda Krugliak, discuss “Waiting for the Extraordinary,” a new iteration of Mark Dion’s 2011 U-M installation inspired by the academic classifications invented by 19th-century Michigan Chief Justice Augustus B. Woodward. This architecturally scaled installation presents a single room with […]
Have you ever fallen in love fast, and then become really obsessed? Like, really obsessed. Like you recognize a kindred spirit, and over years of observation become so obsessed that you just want to be a part of this entity, like, belong to it somehow? And then, sometimes, it goes […]
When most people think of quilting, they envisage old ladies, fabric store coupons, and extremely conservative aesthetics. But conservative is hardly what springs to mind when faced with the art of self-taught quilter Ben Venom. His is a style that uniquely incorporates the visual semiotics of hyper-masculine subcultures – such […]