Moderate Prices And Payment Plans For Young Collectors

Meet the artist, Monica Elizabeth Breen Saturday, October 3, 2009, from 1:00 – 6:00 to . She will be on hand to discuss her current photography and installation exhibition Constructed Nature: A Study in Feminine Affections.

Photo by Monica Breen

New to the Detroit art scene, Monica Bowman is already making a big splash with The Butcher’s Daughter, her contemporary gallery on Woodward near Nine Mile. The gallery’s first show by artist Monica Breen opened on Sept. 12, filling the modest second-floor space with a proverbial “who’s who” list of Detroit’s artists, collectors and patrons.

Bowman speaks passionately about “giving back” to the community because of her own lucky breaks and opportunities. She’s turned this gratitude into an offering to others, which is our good fortune! Bowman’s objective is to bring to light high-quality art without the “off the wall” prices. To that end, she’s developed a Young Collector’s Program that gives aspiring collectors a more moderate price structure. And yes, payment plans are available.

The Young Collectors program is one of many unique ideas Bowman has on tap for her gallery. She uses the “Museum Model,” an approach influenced by a background in Museum Studies. That training is surely evident in her choice of Cranbrook graduate Breen’s photographs and installation.

Breen’s show, “Constructed Nature: A Study of Feminine Affections,” examines the ways that the “feminine” is often under scrutiny by mainstream culture. Breen takes an “intuitive approach to Feminism” as she creates works that explore what “the feminine and Feminism have in common with nature.”

Breen’s photographs are hauntingly beautiful, and starkly contemporary. Each image is imbued with an aura of depth and complexity that can’t help but hold the viewer’s gaze.

“We should be free to pursue our true selves without embarrassment or marginalization,” Breen says of the work. In her installation, New Point of View, she implores us to appreciate things in their natural state, including our own bodies. The way this artist sees it, our psychological discomfort with the “untouched” causes us to manicure our yards, and primp, preen, plasticize and makeover all within the natural world. “We should have reverence for that which is natural. What’s wrong with leaving things as they are?” Breen asks. You’ll have to answer this and other pertinent questions posed by this relevant exhibition for yourself. The exhibit goes until Oct. 17.

Fishman Acknowledges The Good Side Of Technology

“Detroiter” by Beverly Fishman-

Moving up the street to the Lemberg Gallery, we’re confronted with the body in a different way. In “Kandyland” by artist Beverly Fishman, we’re asked to look at the body’s relationship to various medical and scientific technologies. Fishman has been represented by the Lemberg Gallery for nearly 10 years and heads the Painting department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Through her use of paint, mirrors, and brightly colored polyoptic resins that glow in the dark, Fishman brings our technology-driven culture to the sobering realization that what seductively draws us in, promising happiness and claiming to cure, has a dark side that can kill us.

Walking into a Disney-like environment, the viewer is greeted with logos and brand name pharmaceuticals legal and illegal that smile, shine and sparkle seductively only to find that they have been duped. Upon closer investigation the tantalizing beauty that surrounds them reveals itself as the products of corporate greed catering to a culture that is forever looking for a “quick fix” and any escape from the discomforts of modern day anxieties.

“Untitled” by Beverly Fishman

When I spoke to Fishman at the gallery, she did acknowledge the good side of technology, pointing out that millions have been helped by discoveries in the robotics field, for example. But she was quick to point out that as science and technology advance, we humans become more and more fragmented in our identities. It’s a concept evidenced in the highly reflected surfaces and mirrors that viewers cannot avoid as they walk through the exhibit, continually being followed by their own reflections aside brightly coded imagery such as EKGs, bar codes, pharmaceutical logos and frenetic gestures and colors that mimic the speed at which information is disseminated in today’s world.

Fishman began years ago with the image of a single cell as a reference in her search for identity. She has long been involved with the idea of our bodies’ engagement with art and technology, and her journey has evolved into the use of highly fabricated materials she never believed she’d be creating art with.

So this weekend when you find yourself reaching for your favorite anxiety reliever, be it a drug, alcohol or otherwise, stop yourself and go to the Lemberg Gallery and see Fishman’s show instead. The exhibit goes until Oct. 31.

Art Detroit Now In Ferndale

In conjunction with Art Detroit Now, Saturday, October 3, Ferndale hosts four galleries within walking distance including The Butcher’s Daughter, Lemberg Gallery, Paul Kotula Projects, and Susanne Hilberry Gallery.

A total of over 50 Metro-Detroit galleries will host openings, lectures, demonstrations and workshops in their spaces. Download the Gallery Guide for a complete list of participating venues.