Opening night at The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art.

The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art held the opening for its final program of 2014 on Friday, September 12th. All three galleries feature a new collection of works, with the main gallery dominated by the painted works of Herbert Gentry supplemented by works of his contemporaries, including Romare Bearden and Ed Clark.

Some of Gentry’s works.

Gentry combines a vibrant palette with eclectic figures that blend African and Cubist/Surrealist influences, like a bright counterpoint to Klee. Set in the context of his contemporaries, it is easy to see separate movements that informed Gentry’s work, which was created in studios in Paris, Scandinavia and New York.

Color and dynamism are the watchwords of Gentry’s style.

The group show in the front room features an exhibition running in conjunction with the upcoming Print City Detroit 2014 Mid-America Print Council Conference, which will run September 24-27 and involve a multitude of sessions at the DIA and the Detroit Institute of Art. “Women Printmakers and Their Mentors” is a magnificent showcase for the wide array of expressive modes possible through the print medium.

Printmaking on multiple scales and iterations in the front gallery at N’Namdi.

A wide scope of different effects are possible, and the works on display at N’Namdi are a great cross-section of styles and approaches to printmaking.

The Print City Detroit Conference will present lectures, panels and a gallery crawl, all on the subject of printmaking.

Finally, don’t miss “Elements of Whimsy” by Adnan Charara in the back gallery. Primarily large-scale paintings that are renderings of figurative object-collages, these multiple layers of process and chaotic components are held in control by fiercely precise execution and detail. This obsessive control is softened by the humor that pervades the collection, which extends to punny titles and charming sculptural pieces that resemble little folk-art creatures, or 3-D versions of the world conveyed in Charara’s paintings. This show has a shorter run than the main gallery, on display only though October 25th, so be sure to make it over to N’Namdi before it goes.

Strange figures that break into objects the more you look at them.

The mirror-image detailing is just one example of the level of precision on display in Charara’s work.

Some of Charara’s three-dimensional creations.

It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks around the D, with Print City Detroit, DLECTRICITY 2, and the Detroit Design Festival all touching down in town at the end of September. Be sure and stay up on event schedules so you won’t miss a minute of all the great opportunities to enjoy art in this city this September.

N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art: 52 E. Forest Ave., Detroit; 313-831-8700; nnamdicenter.org