COLUMBUS, Ohio — It is possible — tempting, even — to view historical events through a gauzy filter, once which lends a layer of abstraction to the fact that they took place in the same reality as the one we currently inhabit. For an event like the Holocaust, this filter […]
It is easy to imagine that art history is a fixed discipline, full of information rarely subject to change, particularly when it comes to some of the best-known artists in the Western canon. And yet “Monet: Framing Life” – a new special exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts – proves how devoted […]
It seems as though someone has gotten tired of waiting for the next Dan Brown novel to come out, and taken matters into their own hands. As reported by the LA Times, a mysterious letter was received by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), indicating the presence of […]
FERNDALE, Mich. — Despite living and attending art school in the heart of Detroit’s Cass Corridor neighborhood, the painter and intermedia artist Paul Schwarz is not readily associated with the Cass Corridor movement, one of the only major 20th-century fine art trends to emerge from Detroit. This year, the gallerist Paul […]
Here’s a piece I wrote for the premiere of a new website – Detroit Is It. I was extremely fired up at the time, and remain fired up, on the subject of art market hegemony. For those who enjoy when I rant out my neck about capitalism, enjoy! And while […]
DETROIT — It’s been 50 years since a weeklong mass civil uprising took place in Detroit, an event that is sometimes seen as an isolated riot, but in fact was an expression of decades of racial inequity. The events of the summer of 1967 have been one of the defining […]
If there is in society a collective consciousness, then art is its imagination. Imagination is different from fantasy, which conjures up desires divorced from reality; imagination is creative problem solving that assesses what is available and re-creates it into something new, better, or self-satisfying. Detroit has been short on many […]
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Upon entering Jason J. Ferguson‘s solo exhibition, titled One-man (freak) show, the first thing you’ll encounter is the somewhat ramshackle, seafoam-colored entryway of Public Pool’s storefront gallery space and its much-abused off-white door, numbered 3309. This is also the second thing you’ll encounter, because just inside the original entryway, Ferguson has […]
Oh hai, I am giving a TALK talk at College for Creative Studies on Thursday. I may or may not wear glasses, because I have no medical need for glasses, but look how smart they make me look! Fine Art will be hosting Sarah Rose Sharp as our TALK lecturer […]
DETROIT — In 2014 the city of Flint, Michigan decided (while under emergency financial management) to enact a cost-saving measure that temporarily switched the municipal water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The pH of this new water interacted toxically with Flint’s aging infrastructure, resulting in the mass lead-poisoning of […]