A tour, two pours and a sunrise.

July 30th will go down as one of those Detroit summer days where too many enticing things were happening at once. On a day like this organized people are arranging and re-arranging datebooks or Google calenders, and the only sure thing we all know is that we’re starting the day with Eastern Market. The Maker [...]

Review: DAM Unmentionables

Drawings by Vagner Whitehead
Until July 16, 2011, the Detroit Artists Market presents Unmentionables: The Underwear Show.
Jack Summers and Gary Eleinko curated the show, and they used this platform to challenge established artists. They asked artists to create work based on this theme, so it was not a traditional call for entry process. Jack told me [...]

“Barely There – MOCAD’s mission accomplished” : by Colin Darke

For a college final exam, I worked with a group of students to conceive of and participate in a performance art piece. We clashed on every idea. Our final idea frustrated me, because I thought it was devoid of any conceptual or artistic merit.
The day of the final we were in the [...]

Review of “The Quiet Life” at The Butcher’s Daughter Gallery

Walking into “The Quiet Life,” a solo exhibition of Canadian artist David R. Harper’s multimedia work that opened last week at The Butcher’s Daughter Gallery in Ferndale, feels like entering the home of an eccentric 19th Century biology enthusiast. The color is predominantly white, not cold, antiseptic white, but the white of god-light, the kind [...]

Culture Wars, Ruin Porn, and Re-enchantment

I was sitting at a picnic table in Sam’s Club the other day waiting for my boyfriend. I love going with him to Sam’s Club; everything you ever dreamed of in bulk quantities fit for a giant’s pantry at low prices, and lots of free samples too. It draws an interesting crowd, Sam’s Club. College [...]

Cranbrook MFA vs. Nolan Simon/CCS Students vs. BBAC vs. Chris Riddell

What works resonate with you? Work that inspires you to make you want to get into the studio? Work that makes you so stimulated that you want to grab your friend to come and stare at it with you? Work that makes you lose your side blinders and begin to see art everywhere? Or is [...]

Another DAM good show: Northern LIghts – By Colin Darke

Rich Branstrom – Deer

Rick Kolb – Harbor Town

Rich Branstrom – Duck

In producing a voyage to the unique beauty of Up North, the Detroit Artists Market’s latest show falls short. Perhaps because of its limited scope (a showcase of northern Michigan artists), co-curators John F. Korachis and Rebecca Glotfelty failed to produce (as promised) a coherent [...]

“Unhooked from Time” at Gallery Project

Gallery project puts together shows with themes that are broad, relate-able, and always slyly zeitgeist. The ideas presented are ones you find have been swimming around in your head for a minute, given expression. When that happens, well, it’s like being hooked up to an IV of the culture. It’s an eerie, great feeling. The [...]

3 Questions Reflecting on Art X Detroit

Art X was focused energy in one week in one part of Detroit. Just like the Kresge Fellowships themselves it felt unprecedented and powerful.
So we asked the same 3 questions to 4 different people: A local artist (Andrew Thompson), someone new and curious about Detroit (Tunde Wey), a teacher at Wayne State University (Mame Jackson) [...]

Kevin Tobin @ North End Studios

Kevin Tobin @ North End Studios from Cedric Tai on Vimeo.
This video is now private, please message Kevin Tobin for the password! In the meantime, please enjoy Gilda’s video of the same night.