tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30287729648114321492012-01-30T14:52:01.250-05:00Motown Review of ArtA blog about visual art and other aspects of culture in Detroit and vicinity.Vince Carducci, editor & publisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01878013059283905194noreply@blogger.comBlogger491100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-81861976758810669742011-12-15T17:15:00.007-05:002011-12-23T11:05:43.302-05:00Aesthetic Community in Detroit
Tyree Guyton, The Heidelberg Project, 1986-present. (Image of a Polka Dot Dancer by Geronimo Patton, courtesy of the Heidelberg Project).
In a recent contribution to the Huffington Post, author and community organizer Yusef Bunchy Shakur and co-author Jenny Lee write: "Detroit is modeling life after capitalism." One of the ways this is happening is through the work of artists who are helping Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-58953646287732121112011-11-18T21:23:00.005-05:002011-12-14T18:44:35.485-05:00Cutting Up: Art in the Age of Electronic Reproduction
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mso-pagination:Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-76126474285670091292011-11-17T17:55:00.002-05:002011-11-18T21:24:23.381-05:00Revealing Detroit Photographically
Scott Hocking, Garden of the Gods, West, Snow, 2009-2010 (image courtesy of the artist and Susanne Hilberry Gallery)
These days, Detroit is considered a pretty cool place to be artwise. Most recently, W magazine and the LA Times have run feature stories extolling the virtues of the erstwhile Motor City as a place where aesthetic entrepreneurs can set up shop with minimal capital investment. (Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-35057625243014340752011-09-14T12:37:00.000-04:002011-09-14T12:37:43.314-04:00Kresge Arts in Detroit profile videoThis past weekend, the new cohort of 2011 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellows had their inaugural weekend retreat, thus officially concluding my fellowship year. At the same time, I received the long version of my KAID profile video. Stephen McGee and his crew Cory and Chris did a great job. Also thanks to the Kresge Foundation for footing the bill on this and other things, and for what has been a Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-90824673659622908062011-08-01T13:30:00.007-04:002011-09-21T16:35:31.531-04:00Beneath the Pavement, the Beach! -- Detroit from a Situationist PerspectiveThe current events blog Deliberately Considered recently published my review of the new book by McKenzie Wark, The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (Verso, 2011). The book takes its title from the famous grafitto of the general strike of May 1968 in France: "Sous les paves, la plage!" (Under the pavement, the beach!) It updates the Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-70339853492050835922011-06-10T13:32:00.003-04:002011-06-10T16:29:45.164-04:00Grace Lee Boggs on the Next American Revolution
Above: Grace Lee Boggs and Scott Kurashige discuss The Next American Revolution at the Brecht Forum in NYC
Grace Lee Boggs has been part of pretty much every progressive movement of the modern age. At 95, she shows little sign of slowing down. In her new book The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, she lays out how we can make real that other world the Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-50680586988157236702011-04-28T18:16:00.002-04:002011-04-29T08:03:01.902-04:00In Memoriam: Keith Aoki
Keith Aoki, panel from "Pictures within Pictures," Ohio North University Law Review 36, 2010
Through a Facebook post by fellow Kresge Fellow Glida Snowden, I learned of the untimely passing of Keith Aoki on April 26 at age 55. At the time of his death, Aoki was Professor of Law at University of California-Davis. But those in the Detroit art community of a certain vintage (i.e., kinda old likeVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-88054386781232550982011-04-04T12:01:00.000-04:002011-04-04T12:01:15.136-04:00Belaboring the representation of history in Maine
Judy Taylor, History of Maine Labor, 2008, oil on canvas. (Photo: James Imbrogno, courtesy Imbrogno Photography and the artist.)
My dissertation advisor at the New School Jeff Goldfarb runs a current events blog called Deliberately Considered. A well-known and highly regarded political sociologist, Jeff's idea is to use the blog form to expand rational debate in what Yochai Benkler calls "the Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-79659924543128321482011-03-15T12:22:00.000-04:002011-03-15T12:22:49.366-04:00John Ganis: Deliberately ConsideredI posted a review of John Ganis's recent show of photographs at Swords Into Plowshares Gallery depicting the aftermath of the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and western Michigan on the current events blog Deliberately Considered. (Click here to read it.) The show was pretty amazing in its cognitive dissonance between form and content, the allure of the refined aesthetic beauty of the images as Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-32169245829585214952011-02-23T15:28:00.003-05:002011-02-24T18:52:51.303-05:00Last chance to see: "Figuration" & Lynne Avadenka @ Lemberg Gallery
Ed Fraga, She Bore His Child, Then She Bore Witness, 2010, oil on canvas stretched over birch panel. (Photo: Tim Thayer. This and all other images courtesy of the artists and Lemberg Gallery.)
A pair of pretty nice shows are closing this Saturday, February 26, at Lemberg Gallery in Ferndale. The first, "Figuration," is a group show of gallery regulars, which as title says explores various Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-45835061306359632222011-02-21T17:59:00.005-05:002011-08-05T12:47:27.671-04:00Michael Hall on Art & DesignReceived these two videos from Mike Hall of his conversations with John Sauve, whose program Art & Design runs on public access TV. Hall, for those of you who don't know, was sculptor-in-residence at Cranbrook Academy of Art prior to Heather McGill. He's also an authority on folk and regional art, among other things, and along with his spouse Pat Glascock he has an amazing collection of Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-31786366521816600092011-02-18T17:56:00.001-05:002011-02-19T09:43:13.805-05:00James Adley at 80
James Adley, Violet Gate, 2007. Acrylic on paper (Image courtesy of the artist.)
On Friday, February 18, the Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Center is presenting an exhibition of recent work by former Michigan State University art professor James Adley. The show includes works on canvas and paper completed over the past four years. My colleague at College for Creative Studies, Foundations DepartmentVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-83400105887224092032011-02-04T16:01:00.003-05:002011-02-18T15:57:18.441-05:00Joseph Bernard: BASEDONATRUESTORY!The Brooklyn Rail has published my review of Joseph Bernard's two-part exhibition BASEDONATRUESTORY! The exhibition took place last fall at the Art Gallery of the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts and Center Galleries at College for Creative Studies. If you're not hip the to Rail, you are really missing something. It started coming out in October 2000, not long after I moved to Brooklyn to goVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-67600660761576500942011-01-29T10:22:00.007-05:002011-02-03T13:29:20.852-05:00Playing catch up, pt. 3The last post on shows I didn't get to write about before they closed. In this case, I fudged the opening sentence because of late-breaking news, which I added because it helps make my point.
Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
10 September - 30 December 2010
Yona Friedman, Ville Spatial, 2010. On view with the exhibition "Spatial City: An Architecture Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-49685570705308043232011-01-26T18:15:00.009-05:002011-01-29T21:44:24.316-05:00Michigan Artists XXXVII @ Anton Art Center
Installation view: Michigan Annual XXXV, Anton Art Center, 2009. (All images here and below courtesy of the artists and Anton Art Center. All works below completed in the last two years.)
I juried the Michigan Annual XXXVII exhibition at the Anton Art Center in downtown Mount Clemens. The show opens this Friday, January 28, from 6 to 9 pm. Awards will be given out at 7:30 pm.
I have to say itVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-53736251792169923442011-01-23T20:59:00.009-05:002011-08-05T12:53:37.522-04:00Playing catch up, pt. 2Another show I wanted to write about, but didn't get to before it closed. In this case, I wish I had taken better notes.
In Your Dreams: 500 Years of Imaginary Prints
Detroit Institute of Art
8 September 2010 - 2 January 2011
Giovanni Batista Piranesi, The Drawbridge from the series The Imaginary Prisons, 1761, etching. (Image: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.)
One of my favorite quotes Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-27215463624736458582011-01-21T21:58:00.001-05:002011-01-29T21:41:35.829-05:00Playing catch up, pt. 1It's been quite a while since I've put up any new content. First it was the end of the school term, then it was the holidays, and then it was the beginning of the new school term. And somewhere in between it all I had to make a blood sacrifice (not to be confused with blood libel) to the sprawling pagan god soon to be formerly known as the Motor City and buy another car. Anyway, following are a Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-45363692714595730102011-01-11T11:01:00.001-05:002011-01-29T21:42:34.487-05:00Public Pool on Model D TV
The webzine Model D posted this three-minute clip on the Hamtown art space Public Pool, featuring an interview with co-founder Steve Hughes. In the perennially beleaguered Detroit art world, there are always at any given time spaces that serve as facilitators of community, spots where the tribe gathers to reaffirm some semblance of identity and self-respect. Back in the days of Cass Corridor it Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-49649630665943458532010-12-31T16:45:00.001-05:002010-12-31T16:49:28.829-05:00John Sauve's interview with me on his show Art & DesignI know I haven't posted anything in a while (plan on fixing that this weekend). Blame it on end-of-term wackiness and then the holidays. But at the beginning of December I did have a chance to sit down with sculptor and arts advocate John Sauve, who runs this interesting show on public access TV and also the Internet called Art & Design. (Click here to watch past episodes if you haven't ever seenVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-86686672603626034612010-11-12T16:30:00.005-05:002010-11-12T18:33:50.940-05:00The Art of Dead Labor
Dylan A.T. Miner, Damos Gracias (Wal-Muerto), 2007, relief print on recycled grocery bag. (Image courtesy of the artist.)
Capital is dead labour that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.
-- Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Vol I, Chap X, Sec 1Although the exhibition of work in the CCS Alumni and Faculty Hall by artist/activist Dylan Miner (Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-3513927917614890362010-11-06T15:11:00.001-04:002010-11-06T16:03:20.548-04:00Not DIY, but DIO
Community orchard in Detroit (Photo by aur2899, downloaded from Flickr, Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.0 license)
A couple of weeks ago, The New York Times Sunday Magazine ran an article by food editor Christine Muhlke about urban farming that included coverage of what's happening these days in the D, AKA the town formerly known as the Motor City. The article dealt Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-22953559092112314892010-10-20T08:25:00.008-04:002010-10-20T15:52:17.563-04:00Detroit Art, Time & Space @ the DIATonight I've curated a group a readings to follow the Detroit Institute of Arts Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art meeting. The event starts a 7 pm and is free. (Click here for information and here for a reservation ticket.) It kicks off the FMCA's year of programing based on the theme "Making Space: Imagining Architecture, Art and Intimacy."
We take "making space" in two senses, the Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-23368416281398523232010-10-13T17:16:00.005-04:002010-10-13T22:54:56.382-04:00Todd Erickson & Faina Lerman @ CCS
Todd Erickson, Manistee River, 2010, bronze. (Photo: courtesy of CCS Center Galleries.)
Faina Lerman, Seeping In, Seeping Out: The Bubble's Inner Circle, 2010, gouache, mixed media on paper. (Photo: courtesy of CCS Center Galleries.)
A few weeks ago as part of discussing a video by Kristin Gallerneaux on Scott Hocking, I went off on this thing about a research method known as actor network Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-47628196825928740222010-10-09T17:18:00.011-04:002010-10-13T11:53:49.012-04:00Matthew Barney's Heart of Darkness
Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler; KHU, October 2nd, 2010; performance still (Photo: Hugo Glendinning, courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York)
Back when I was a suit guy I was the client of a local ad agency that toward the end of our relationship sold out to Omnicom, the global holding company that is parent to BBDO, DDB Needham, and a host of other Madison Avenue powerhouses. As typically Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-70078250351822996172010-09-30T23:16:00.001-04:002010-10-01T09:30:03.647-04:00David Byrne Does Detroit
David Byrne at the Future of Music Conference in 2006. (Photo: Fred von Lohman, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)
Former Talking Heads frontman (and current Cindy Sherman boyfriend) David Byrne was in Detroit last week working on a film being directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Byrne's blog entry describing his experiences in the D "Don't Forget the Motor City" is well worth checking out. In contrastVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-18477182650398734272010-09-26T18:27:00.001-04:002010-09-26T18:30:17.325-04:00Detroit Art Continues to Fascinate Folks East of the Hudson River
Tyree Guyton is one of the artists getting mondo play from New York journalists "touching base" in the D. Above: "Dotty Wotty" house in Detroit MI. Part of the Heidelberg Project. (Photo credit: Paul Hitz, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5.)
It seems The New York Times can't get enough these days of Detroit's make-lemonade-out-of-lemons art community and its DIY lifestyle. Linda Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-51018512869424098672010-09-20T11:38:00.000-04:002010-09-20T11:38:14.153-04:0010 Years of Contemporary Art @ OUAG
"Ten Years of Contemporary Art" at Oakland University Art Gallery, installation view, featuring work by from left to right: Harmut Austen, Sharon Que, Dennis Michael Jones, Peter Williams, Eric Mesko, and Kristin Beaver. (All photos courtesy OUAG.)
Ten Years of Contemporary Art," installation view, featuring from left to right, work by Denise Whitebread Fanning, Hasan Elahi, Michael E. Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-39330276780293920302010-09-16T12:44:00.003-04:002010-09-17T07:58:58.916-04:00In the footsteps of Scott HockingGet In My Car & Drive: Nowhere in Detroit (Episode 1) from Kristen Gallerneaux on Vimeo.
In response to my most recent post, which included a link to the video about Detroit released last week by Palladium Boots, I received a message from Kristen Gallerneaux, a folklorist/artist currently living in Oregon. She included a link to a video she shot last spring titled Get in My Car and Drive: Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-35760965139127422212010-09-09T14:28:00.002-04:002010-09-15T18:23:16.887-04:00The window of opportunity in Detroit
Scott Hocking, Garden of the Gods, West, Winter, 2009. (Photograph by Scott Hocking, courtesy of the artist and Susanne Hilberry Gallery.)
I recently finished Jonathan Lethem's 2003 novel The Fortress of Solitude. (I try to read at least one work of fiction while on summer vacation each year and have a gnawing feeling that if I regularly read more of it I would be that much wiser.) The first Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-46425873699468463402010-09-02T23:25:00.001-04:002010-09-04T22:05:52.601-04:00Decoding Detroit
Tyree Guyton, Rosa Parks, Heidelberg Fragment, 1986. (Photo credit: Hanneorla, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license: CC by-SA-3.0)
A sociological journal I subscribe to, Contexts, ran a brief article on Rosa Parks in its Winter 2010 issue. The story was illustrated by a photo downloaded from Flickr that identified Tyree Guyton's Rosa Parks, Heidelberg Fragment, (1986, image above)Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-56919601716924960682010-08-20T12:00:00.033-04:002010-09-03T23:07:18.776-04:00Good vibes for the D from Vice
The Beehive Project collaborative art installation in progress @ Movement 2010. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Miller.
Vice Magazine has an August blog entry, titled "Uneven Terrain: Long Live Detroit," that follows up on their article last of September calling the mainstream media to task for its indulgence in the ruin porn photojournalist genre for which the Motor City serves as America's top Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-19576078571273540412010-08-19T13:43:00.003-04:002010-08-19T18:56:09.046-04:00Portraits of global labor
Jane Duggan, Blacksmiths, Northern Pakistan, 1993.
Frank Hammer, Metal Worker, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2006.
I often feel a twinge of ambivalence when looking at so-called political art in a gallery or museum setting. Perhaps it's a hangover from my formalist studio training as an undergrad (my main influence as a painter in the mid-1970s was James Adley, a student of Clyfford Styll's and now Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-83492754986797024222010-08-18T17:38:00.002-04:002010-08-19T13:10:18.943-04:00DAM Box Show 2 final curtain call this Friday
Above: Video by Gary Schwarz
Final bidding on the auctioning of artist's boxes at the Detrtoit Artists Market closes Friday, Aug. 20
This year's show consists of old movie film storage boxes donated by the Wayne State library and there are some pretty nice ones to be had, as usual. This year's group contains nearly 200 entries, and it's quite amazing how people take up the competitive Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-20082944836891906342010-08-06T12:30:00.008-04:002010-08-06T16:39:24.564-04:00Grace Lee Boggs & Immanuel Wallerstein @ USSF
in conversation with Grace Lee Boggs and Immanuel Wallerstein from Mark Dworkin on Vimeo.
I've posted this elsewhere, but given the comments on the "Soup" post below, I thought it would be helpful to have it here. One of the the highlights of the 2010 US Social Forum held in Detroit this past June was a conversation between Grace Lee Boggs and Immanuel Wallerstein. For those of you who don't Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-75938361398556801552010-08-05T15:43:00.004-04:002010-08-05T16:01:31.873-04:00The Post-Apocalyptic Utopian Future is Already HereTHE ECO-COMMUNE from Richard Hardy on Vimeo.The online journal Artkrush has an article in its current issue that really cracks me up. It concerns a short video by a recent graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture in England, Richard Hardy. The video imagines what London would be like after an apocalyptic catastrophe as nature begins to reclaim the devastated precincts of civilization and Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-43395782707372853452010-08-04T14:48:00.018-04:002010-08-04T17:07:26.999-04:00Monthly Arts Event "Soup" Goes NationalThe New York Times Arts & Design blog ran a post today about theDetroit art scene. Essentially it reinforces the point I've been making about the art of the commons. (See my posts here and here.)The story talks about the artists, several of whom have been discussed in this blog on the subject, who are using Detroit's open spaces, physical and social, as a basis for what might be called a new Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-44730650912774848142010-08-03T12:05:00.006-04:002010-08-03T15:17:26.940-04:00Brenda Goodman reviewImage above: Loss (2009) by Brenda Goodman is one of the paintings included the 20-year survey of her work on view until Aug. 15 at John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York. (Image courtesy of John Davis Gallery.) A very thoughtful review of Brenda Goodman's show in New York has been posted at Art Critical. The show surveys 20 years of Goodman's work and makes the case that a retrospective is in Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-31947867894035019812010-07-28T12:53:00.021-04:002010-07-30T17:18:04.106-04:00Imagination StationImage above: Artist Marianne Audrey Burrows painting Reclamation at the Imagination Station in Corktown. Photo taken by and courtesy of Stephen McGee.Travis R. Wright has written some whacky stuff about art since becoming arts and culture editor of the Metro Times a couple of years back. (Take his Mark Dancey review. What's with the royal plural, dude? For rock'n'roll softcore erotica? Puhleeze!)Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-45368898153645708172010-07-27T12:43:00.007-04:002010-07-27T13:15:15.454-04:00Welcome Leon Johnson to the DHad an opportunity to meet Leon Johnson (pictured left) @ a little soiree Michael Stone Richards had last night. This fall, Johnson will be taking over as Chair of the Fine Arts Dept @ College for Creative Studies.Johnson is sometimes described as a "convergence artist." He brings together a wide range of mediums, which he calls "delivery systems," in realizing his creative projects.He's coming Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-40657546709172905482010-07-23T12:36:00.005-04:002010-10-10T18:02:09.464-04:00"Spark" Goes Out Tomorrow
Saturday marks the end of "Spark," an interesting little show at Butter Projects in Royal Oak. Butter is the alter ego of the studio space of two recent Cranbrook grads, Kelly Frank and Alison Wong. When they're not using the rented storefront to make their own work, the pair intends to put on four shows a year. This is the second.
The concept behind "Spark" is simple. Kelly and Wong chose Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-69943965436062481772010-07-22T11:58:00.017-04:002010-07-22T13:44:26.947-04:00"The Detroiters" captures Motor City advertising, "Mad Men" stylePopMatters has posted my essay on the pulp fiction novel The Detroiters, which was published in 1958 (see cover image at right). The "friend" mentioned in the first paragraph is of course Nick Sousanis. The "mentor" mentioned midway through is gamemaster Fred Goodman, who helped put together the "Game Show" exhibition @ CAID a few years back. Nick gave me the book to write about when he was stillVince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-53700558132777824082010-07-21T16:21:00.011-04:002010-07-22T13:48:28.669-04:00Cutting Through the Clutter with ArtA welcome bit of news came recently with the announcement that the Public Art Project in Ferndale is getting back into action. The nonprofit organization manages the billboard space on the side of the building on Woodward Avenue at Maplehurst that houses Paul Kotula Projects and Lemberg Gallery. For nearly 20 years, the billboard has been a site for artists to engage the public sphere with their Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-41236392844991191822010-07-17T17:23:00.039-04:002010-07-20T09:07:06.628-04:00"Through African Eyes" from a Different PerspectiveAfter the perceived bashing he gave the Detroit Institute of Art's remodeling in 2007, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Holland Cotter was pretty much Public Enemy #1 among the local cultural community. (Although I thought the review was fairly balanced and that those who didn't were thin skinned.) Cotter redeemed himself with what amounted to a rave review of the Detroit Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-1122608066826113492010-07-16T21:57:00.002-04:002010-07-21T11:52:22.017-04:00MOCAD MeditationsThe trio of solo shows, curated by MOCAD Director and Chief Curator Luis Croquer and closing next week, represent key themes of contemporary art, specifically identity, environment, and what has been termed interventionism. While the work of each artist is distinctive, they make sense when viewed together, especially in the context of Detroit in its post-postmodern manifestation.Latoya Ruby Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-44025756374570863292010-07-14T16:01:00.001-04:002010-07-20T09:08:29.494-04:00"Wordage" @ DAMOver the last couple of years, the Detroit Artists Market has served up a consistently solid schedule of curated group shows. The one that's on view right now, "Wordage" curated by Jack O. Summers, is a really good one even when considered in light of the high standard DAM has set."Wordage" features 25 artists whose work engages text in one way or another. And there isn't a bad piece in the lot. Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-20304701131619210502010-07-13T13:41:00.002-04:002010-08-06T16:49:45.764-04:00Art of the commonsTwo recent arts-related news items got me to thinking about something interesting in terms of Detroit as a field of cultural production. The first is the continuing controversy over the Packard Plant Banksy mural and the second is the "Consumed" column by Rob Walker in The New York Times Sunday Magazine on Design 99's work currently on view at MOCAD.
The Banksy issue concerns ownership of the Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-39414545933129897112010-07-02T16:05:00.007-04:002011-05-26T13:14:16.149-04:00Robert Frank: Detroit Experiences @ the DIASo I'm playing catch up here. But with the show coming down & the Independence Day weekend upon us, it seems like a good time to reflect on one of the best exhibitions in Detroit so far this year, Detroit Experiences, Robert Frank: 1955,@ the DIA.
Anyone familiar with photographic history or with Beat culture knows Frank's masterpiece The Americans, published in the US in 1959 with a preface by Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-37912167435056092312010-06-29T14:32:00.002-04:002010-07-20T09:10:54.741-04:00Stephen Magsig @ David KleinThe show has already closed, but I did want to make a quick comment on Stephen Magsig @ David Klein Gallery. The show was titled "Light & Shadow," which made me think about the two bodies of work presented. On the one hand were the paintings of New York City storefronts (light) and on the other the more expansive landscapes of postindustrial Detroit (shadow). Indeed, the New York paintings are Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3028772964811432149.post-8271514294288711532010-06-16T16:02:00.001-04:002010-07-20T09:11:48.543-04:00Welcome to the Motown Review of ArtOver the past decade, the National Arts Journalism Project of the Columbia School of Journalism has released several studies on the decline in the depth and breadth of arts coverage in metropolitan media markets across the nation, the result primarily of industry consolidation and consequent synergies. Nowhere has this been more evident than in metropolitan Detroit. The irony is that the quality Vince Carducci, editor & publishernoreply@blogger.com2