We know spring is coming ‘cause the buzz around all the schools and colleges amps up a couple of notches. On Friday May 2nd with energy and expression the Wayne State Student Fashion show emerged as it does every year about this time. The show is produced by what is known as the Fashion Design & Merchandising Organization (FDMO) a group that has a long history in Detroit and now more than ever their relevance is clear.

This year the FDMO teamed up with the folks at the 555 Gallery for their show entitled “Industrial WEARhouse.” A switch from several years of showing at the Detroit Artists Market, and although the 555 can’t come close to having the ambiance of Art Gallery that the DAM has, the change provided a better spectator venue. I had the pleasure to sit with Dr. Rayneld Johnson Head of the FDMO at Wayne during the show, she was clearly proud of the student production.

And now on to the show…

Crystal Kenyon, used color and form with intensity; she is clearly having fun, ya’-know, in a Betsey Johnson sort of way. In one piece Crystal pays homage to the great design house Targe’t… with an empire waist, evening length dress sporting a gentle sweetheart neck bodice. Made of white fabric patterned with the ubiquitous Target bull’s eye, and covered with clear plastic. The mind bounces back and forth between a dress, packaging for a dress, focusing on the pattern, and then on the form; a fun experience in visual and mental gymnastics. A real crowd-pleaser for Miss Kenyon was a flowing pastel pink, blue, and orange shift with orange trim and straps. The see-thru outer layer floated over a white slip which itself was lined in orange, this we knew because our model was having much fun on the runway flirting with the crowd.

Milena Milenkovic Ketelhut, I thought to myself as Milena’s works came on stage “how hard is it to make a beautiful model look great?” one piece after another each sexier that the previous. It turns out Milena modeled her own work. With style and grace her fashion sense matches her confidence and body type perfectly. She first marched out in a leopard skin print pencil skirt and white tank top. Next she presented high waisted, button down, skintight jeans with a ruffled long sleeve dress shirt. The jeans came down and over a pair of pale orange high heels; always hot, great color work. I think the jaw-dropping piece however was the black on white Op-Art print sheath with full-length arms, and a turtle neck, accessorized with Ferrari red patent wedges; this could definitely stop traffic. Proof again that little or no skin need be shown for a knockout sexy look. Lastly she strode out in another sheath dress, black this time, accented with fabric strapped heels that tied on the side. I must say that being able to dress oneself properly or even perfectly is a fantastic first step towards fashion design; however making a creative statement on the runway is another. I look forward to seeing what next years Ketelhut Kollection will look like.

Patricia Murray, presented several pieces with a brown and gold color palette. The color scheme works especially well with the brown skin tones of her models that included sister Lakeshia. Patricia debuted a fall jacket with a snakeskin print that is especially sexy with traditional tails but modernized with a turned up Mandarin collar, long sleeves, and no cuffs; a sort of secret agent meets super star look. Next out glistening tea length, print dress, with a 4” belt over the empire waist, this piece has great stage presence. The Bamboo pattern went from white to yellow to gold and bronze, the shiny surface made a crisp, clean, new, look. Miss Murray also presented a gold, yellow, and brown, flower print skirt, toped with a brown scoop neck tee. The whole look came together with yellow-soled clear strap heels, a striped 70’s handbag, and single line beaded necklace, perfect for a Sunday afternoon stroll in style.

Stefanie Sintakis explored the sports side of the fashion pallet in addition to club wear. One sports piece stood out, a “convertible” sleeveless mini dress with a single zipper down the middle it is possible to turn the front around to the back for an entirely different look. There is certainly a whole product line in this one idea. In addition Stefanie created an intriguing ruched mini tube dress made from hand printed fabric. The horizontal wrinkles are very flattering and attention getting, whereas the news print pattern on the fabric gives us the up-close detail that rewards closer inspection.

Steven Tibaudo, put together several casual outfits. One jeans ensemble was topped with a snappy little red-plaid cropped jacket with a white lining; jaunty stuff to be sure. My favorite piece of Tibaudo’s is a bold and simple sack dress that pays homage to the “Mondrian” day dress, by Yves Saint Laurent (1965.) in Steven’s interpretation he breaks every rule Mondrian established… in a good way. Strictly red, white, and blue here, the horizontalish white bands are narrow and radiate from the waist. While the vertical bands start at the top of each leg, taper slightly as they cross the waistband and continue over the shoulder to meet up with the same leg in back. I was mesmerized following the lines around and around to see where they went. Accessorized with big white earrings and red sued heels, this a simple yet sophisticated exercise in design.

Adam Vitick, covered casual and daytime sheik this time out. Our beautiful model Jasmine challenged the runway with a pair of tight fitting, hip hugging, bellbottoms. The design came in the form of smoke color cropped jacket with rounded neck and mid length sleeves; perfect for our weather. When the jacket came off a double Tee look was exposed, an off the shoulder short sleeve tee over a tight fitting white tank with spaghetti straps; a great look for the girl on the go and looking good doing at it. Another jacket premiered by Adam has a real colonial look; a “nouveau traditional” gray wool, long in the back covering the bum, with the arms scrunched up and a belt, very professional yet bright and young looking.

Tiffany Wong, returns this year with a collection of fashionable office and nightclub garb. Tiffany is prolific; her symmetrical works are modern, clean and sophisticated. The waist-high, short white satin skirt is combined with a black sleeveless top that finishes tight around the neck. The band collar came to a point in the center of 9 narrow columnar black on black pleats; this outfit illustrates a perfect balance of proportion and subtle detail. Another piece had full-length wide flowing slacks and a tight fitting black vee neck bodice, again, clear and concise proportion.

I have referenced only a hand full of the works that were presented on this fine evening; all of the participants, models, staff, and backstage, are to be congratulated.

Adam Vitick’s comments sum it for the students: “The day of the show is hectic and you can’t wait for the show to start. Once it does, it’s a blur. It seems to only slow for the minute that your outfit is on the runway. Hearing people clap and cheer for your clothing is an incredible feeling. I hope that everyone enjoys the Wayne State shows because I know that the designers put a lot of hard work into them.” As did everyone!

I will stress two key elements that need constant vigil. One is the importance of the name cards. Readability is paramount because their value cannot be over emphasized. You are your work, your name is you, and for that brief moment you are the star, that name card is like signing a painting; every photo should have your name in it. Secondly but not less important is craftsmanship; fashion designers are Craftspersons, understand what that means and live it.

I think the main reason I love fashion is because of the people involved in it; they are full of energy, hard working, and generally fun-loving people. The more style, grace, and hard work that emerges from our Metro schools, the more are lives and our communities are enriched.

Congratulations to all the graduates and on to your internships!

Tom Carbone designs shoes and other things, and is thedetroiter.com’s arts calendar man extraordinaire.

Buckham Gallery, Flint
Through May 3, 2008

“Signatures” at the Buckham Gallery in Flint (MI) is devoted strongly to installation art as well as art-as-object. This unique gallery’s raftered loft-space supports a show of diverse works that comes together with cohesive power and interest. While there is some commonality among the artists in their use of found/recycled materials and sometimes high-tech materials and fabrication techniques, each artist applies his own unique signature – in terms of ideas, creative methods, and truths.

Larry Cressman is a visual poet. Two large wall installations meticulously constructed with delicate black tree branches and twigs work in concert with their cast shadows on the white walls to create mesmerizing images. A floor installation uses an array of scrap materials – things we walk over every day – but gathered by this artist for all their worn, weathered, and weighty characteristics. Often scraps are joined together by wire or string.

Another piece is a wall of shelves that hold paper, cardboard, and other flat scraps which are fixed together as bound and glued, and called “prints” by Cressman. These intricate, labor-intensive works are fascinating with their multiplicity and visual richness, yet there is a tenuous feel to them. They are beautiful, but fragile, and suggest the stressful sociopolitical state of our times.

Music history substantiates the worth of musical artists in their time, and provides basic and ultimate values of episodic time. Through Charles McGee’s art, time has revealed both of the above. His work always has been like music – most specifically the rhythmic and improvisational beat of jazz, and it has given him masterful insight into a broad range of art, which is evident in this expansive and balanced exhibition that he curated. In his own art, McGee gives us constant visual music. Several approaches, including combinations of painting and collage; complex metal sculptures that utilize computer and high-tech cutting and painting technologies; and dynamic linear sculpture swing us and bounce us with what he calls energy. There is no doubt that a series of metal relief sculptures, dealing with the virtues of modern medicine, project such dynamic activity by way of abstracted figures and bio-organisms that we are jolted into a state of exhilaration.

Meanwhile, our eyes may be soothed back to the rich texture, color, and celebrative figuration in several painted-collaged combination works. In these pieces, paint, in conjunction with fabric, paper images, and other unconventional materials create form and surfaces that pull us close in for intimate, nuanced experiences. McGee’s energy is the essence of life in art, and it also defines his own artful life that has moved him through a long and important career.

No art has value without structure and this exhibit emphasizes that issue through the sculpture of Harry Zmijewski. His work addresses the concreteness of how a sculpture is put together; the nature of materials; and engineering concepts. There is no abstraction or figuration; rather, concept/content is literally read in processes or systems. This reading is similar to the aesthetics of mathematics.

For instance, a row of boxes along a wall repeat the process of geometrically being bound to their containers in direct seriality. The repetition specifies the forms, materials, and processing that creates a beauty of configuration via repeating proofs.

A few Zmijewski pieces take on random binding and containment and crude processing, and appear experimental, but suggest a breakdown of rigid system, and point to potential value of looser structures. Overall, Zmijewski’s work reveals the beauty of system and process; the intrinsic nature of material; and the importance of physical structure in three-dimensional form.

While the title Signatures may signify the individuality of the artists, the exhibition is much more than that. The energetic and rhythmic movement of Charles McGee’s work carries us through the gallery and leads the viewer to the other works. It also influenced his curatorial choice of including the differing art of Cressman and Zmijewski to create an integrated forum.

Accordingly, the stress on physical structure in Zmijewski’s sculpture helps us recognize the importance of this element in the art throughout the gallery – be it the structure of movement in McGee’s compositions or the structure of grouping and repetition in Cressman’s quiet, contemplative installations, which provide contrast to the dynamics of the other two artists. This is a cohesive and powerful exhibit of richly developed art.

Buckham Gallery has been an important venue for new art for twenty-four years. It is a significant resource for art viewers at 134 ½ West Second Street in downtown Flint. This exhibit can be viewed through Saturday, May 3, 2008. Gallery hours are 12 noon-5pm Wednesday-Friday, and 10am-3pm Saturdays.

New contributor Marvin Anderson is Professor Emeritus, Eastern Michigan University, where he taught art since 1963. He also served on the Board of Directors and Exhibition Committee, of Detroit Focus Gallery, from 1994-1998. With a bachelor of fine arts from Wayne State and an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Anderson has exhibited extensively around the region, including at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Pictures by Marvin Anderson, Install shots courtesy of Larry Cressman

March 1-April 5, 2008
paulkotulaprojects
23255 Woodward Ave.
Ferndale, MI 48220
(248) 544-3020

We live in denial of the brevity of life, the indignities of illness, and the constancy of death. Brenda Goodman paints these things we prefer to leave unmentioned. She holds them up to us like a mirror that bores into our soul.

Goodman’s lush, organic “song” paintings delight us with their operatic voice. A figure sings and calls out to the landscape, the trees, the air, the sky, and fields. It calls out to the universe of which it is so much a part and to which it will eventually return.

Her newest works I think of as “balance” paintings. They are mythological, Sisyphean, in the way they present the balance between life and death over and over again.

In one painting a tiny red ball threatens to upset the balance between two figures poised on a beam, even as a third figure, like us in denial or unable to face the difficult task of confronting mortality, crawls out a window. Goodman the painter is all of those figures. Her canvasses are piled under the fulcrum of the balance beam. Something wispy is pinched in the pile, perhaps the soul of her work caught by the impending disaster. One canvas is starting to slip, destabilized by the escapee…pointing out the danger of denial…the risks of running away from our problems rather than confronting them.

She uses thin glazes and complimentary colors of red and green (stop and go) to mute the tone in another painting. A figure stands at the bottom of an incline with a long line of black boulders rolling toward it…like the problems we all encounter in life that threaten to crush us. Sheer will power of the tiny figure is all that keeps them at bay.

In another work, a tiny, lone figure hangs by one hand from a trapeze that is slipping off a huge hook being pulled straight. A coffin covered with a pile of canvasses is below it and off to the right. This composition speaks to our delusions in thinking we can conquer something that is not only beyond our control, but may even be beyond our awareness. We put off death by working, working, working when perhaps we should just let go and leave our work as our legacy.

In a predominantly red painting a solitary figure again barely hangs onto a long bar by one hand and looks down at a gray circle on the floor below. How often have we suspended our dreams to perform in someone else’s ring in the circus of life?

A dark blue painting speaks of determination, timelessness and peace. The obstacles of life are gone; the figures of denial have vanished. A lone individual ascends an incline to penetrate the wall to the star streaked universe beyond it: a simple portrayal of the final walk up the incline of life. Death has never looked so peaceful.

In all the paintings, Goodman demonstrates her facility with paint. Her glazes are sheer translucence enhancing the depth of the surface. Her impasto areas bloom with luscious colors too rich to be used in larger amounts. Her figures, thinly drawn and tiny in cavernous spaces, droop under the exertion of living. They pull us into these intimate works in oil on paper, which measure only 15 x 20 inches each.

These are works worthy of meditation. Published in book form, they would be a 21st century book of hours. To read them again and again would inspire us with their courage and comfort us with their power.

Dolores S. Slowinski, artist/writer, living/dying in Detroit.

Ann Arbor Art Center
Through March 28, 2008

There’s something more than a bit magical about a two-dimensional surface being transformed through only a series of bends, folds, and cuts into a three-dimensional form. Witness Origami, pop-up books, and the works of Buckminster Fuller. Such is the terrain of Matt Shlian and Graem Whyte, who bring their related geometric approaches to art-making to the Ann Arbor Art Center. For those familiar with the two artists’ works, this is a perfectly complementary pairing, a long time in coming.

For this outing, Whyte offers up a creative explosion of ideas and diverse works realized in cast bronze, wireframe, paper, and mapped onto existing objects. What began as forms based more purely on an exploration of the geometric give way to manifesting forms that become environments in themselves. (Though some become recognizable forms – for instance his humorous tribute to Bruce Lee in tiled triangles.) There’s a wonderful playfulness on display as these surfaces become something habitable, akin to the various worlds visited by the little Prince. There’s a touch of Escher as well, not only in the mathematical sense, but in this creation of worlds with their own rules, as up, down lose their meaning, and humans and monkeys hang out, graze, and roam on the environments he’s created for them. Whyte’s wry sense of humor is ever present, and it seems in much the same way that the folding increases the possibilities for form from the flat, this means of working too has become a way to expand and continually feed his work. He can explore the geometric in numerous ways – in one instance a paper grocery bag is turned into one of his forms and cleverly installed high in a corner of the gallery, in another, he forms a loose wireframe titled and clearly representing “The Structure of Clouds.” Riffing on the landscape front, he meticulously covers his planar and more curving creations in faux lawns and other surfaces, and inhabits these manicured worlds with suburban and surreal imagery. They all end up working well together, and while there’s great similarity between the forms – they have a distinct “Whyte-ness” about them – they are all distinct worlds, something we can visit and enjoy individually, again, much as the little Prince toured his planetoids.

Shlian’s primary piece in the show is a large folded paper construct. It sits on the floor, piled flat on top of itself, waiting for visitors to raise it ceiling-ward on an elegant pulley system. In raising it, it’s a graceful, spiky caterpillar, growing and stretching, delicate (it’s paper after all) yet with great presence, quite an achievement of craft and aesthetics. In its hands-on pop-up nature, it captivates, and its scale in relation to Whyte’s miniatures works well. We get one other taste of Shlian’s three-dimensional works, small, wonderfully curved paper forms – also offering a terrific sense of the possibilities of folding paper. The rest of what Shlian shares here consist of drawings. The primary body of which are cut-through or exploded views of architectural renderings whose densely layered nature draw inevitable comparisons to Julie Mehretu’s work. On their own, this would be just fine, but in this context, where there’s such delight to be had in his pop-up works, the drawings, though imaginative, extremely involved works, don’t add to the sense of play on hand throughout the space. One set of drawings stands as an exception to this, intensely – obsessively – detailed, a network of lines dividing up the space, but all laid out flat, not layered on the surface, they seem to function like incredibly complex folding diagrams, or a view into how Shlian is able to conceive the flat becoming the three-dimensional. One can almost imagine patiently folding it up upon itself along the lines he’s plotted out, and come up with some wildly concocted form. These works serve as a welcome bridge to his three-dimensional works and are quite stunningly achieved.

All in all, this is a great pairing, and the Ann Arbor Art Center should be commended for bringing together these two artists whose works inform one another – great for each of them and the audience, as well as intersecting two regions – Shlian of Cranbrook and now Ann Arbor, and Whyte of Detroit. It is an engaging, imaginative, and ultimately joyful expression of creativity, definitely worth checking out. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

Zeitgeist Gallery
February 16th – March 15th, 2008
Gallery Hours: Fridays 5 - 8pm; Saturdays 12n - 5pm

Borrowing its title (perhaps) from a Gordon Parks directed 70s action film, “Three the Hard Way” brings together an unlikely but quite complementary trio, Dennis Jones, Tom Carey, and ChrisTopher Crowder. While their approaches are quite distinct, they share in bringing forth in their works a critical response to society, a perspective that cuts through surface layers and image, and portrays something rather, as Holden Caulfield would say, “cruddy.”

Each of the artists is also known for his signature approach to the figure and the characters that inhabit their respective compositions. For this outing, as he did in his Oakland University solo show, Jones forgoes his sad sack, lost boys, Charlie Brown-like characters and distills his approach to text in paint on canvas and objects. The words are aphorisms, fortunes on a tea bag, ironic, sardonic versions of Jack Handy, or to offer a more obscure reference, like Alan Moore’s “Weeping Gorilla Comix.” An example: the word “Oblivious” written in bright orange-yellow, glaring forth on an equally Ronald McDonald red background. Another, typed perpendicularly across a sheet of lined paper oriented horizontally, “Someday you might be crushed by a big rock.” The words are small and out of place, appropriate stand-ins for the human, in the face of a world that’s too big, where we can get squashed without anyone noticing. It’s not then simply the words, but Jones’s use of the medium accompanying his message that makes them complete and quite compelling. If we could miss the words, we can’t miss the images, and vice versa. One piece consists of children’s wooden blocks with letters painted on them, arranged in various ways, spelling out, “Never a care, never a worry.” Even without his iconic child-figure (who does turn up on a role of toilet paper on display, as if to suggest, “$#!+ on me”), Jones’s strong empathy for children comes through in the work, as it also does in “Good night sleep tight” – white transparent letters on a midnight blue painted light box. This fusion of text and imagery is proving to be fertile terrain for Jones, as the strong aesthetics and his sharp, pared down observations in text, carry the messages deep. We might imagine these as billboards or large-scale installations in much the same way as Martin Creed’s neon signage adorning MOCAD at the moment.

If Jones offers a lot of words, Carey’s images are silent, mute, a single figure inhabiting each composition. These are whimsically grotesque, oddballs with antenna for eyes, part 50s robot, part monster, part alien, part Spongebob Squarepants. They’re a cross too between the mechanical and the cellular, as is reinforced by the more organic, almost washed, patterns adorning the surfaces behind the clean inked figures. This vibrant, bright color is a lush field that comes alive, like dyed bacteria cultures under a microscope, and almost exists in a separate world than the figures – the compositions are teeming with life on multiple levels. They could be scary as they lumber and writhe across the compositions, but Carey infuses them with humor, and as with Jones’s they instead elicit our curiosity and our empathy, and end up being rather delightful.

Crowder shares much with Carey’s figurations, his are human, though often grotesque and composed of the mechanical. It’s a bit of Brueghel by way of MAD magazine’s Don Martin or R. Crumb. The hyper-detailed works highlight the compulsion of the artist, as a landscape of sex, mechanization, and medications are eviscerated in his imagery. It may be generated by feelings deeply personal, and to be sure there’s a therapeutic quality about them, but what comes out is such a display of intensity as to be entirely compelling even as they prompt us to turn our heads. Crowder’s large scale, ornately detailed expansive works are not on hand here, instead he offers some of his more narrative, almost comic book pages, and then a small body of perhaps fragments from “Dear John” letters written to the artist in his youth, illustrated with great intensity. And here is the one downside to the show, these illustrated letters are great, disturbing, humorous, works, but they are sandwiched together and slighted as a result. They’d be served better, spread out, and given their proper due without being cramped by the other works on this occasion. His stand-in, with pompadour, often engaging in crude intimate acts, offers a raw expression of emotion, very honest if disturbing. The images depict a closeness of the letter writer and the receiver, in stark contrast to the almost dismissive, casualness of what was written, no doubt prompting even a stronger graphical response. We’ve received and written such notes ourselves, and perhaps share in some measure of the same dark thoughts that Crowder brings to life.

It’s a great grouping, each artist offers a lot to see, to take in, to relate to. As dark as they go, they all bring forth a lot of humor at the same time – they can laugh in the midst of it all, balancing the works, and helping us all get through these same dark moments. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com