Keep your eyes (and more to the point, your ears) on the 2:1 Gallery, a new art space in an old building in Detroit’s Eastern Market district. Under the guidance of Gregory Holm, one of the artists responsible for last year’s “Ice House Detroit” project, the space is currently serving as a pop-up sound art […]
Article · May 20, 2011 by matthew.piper
Flower Day, the annual floral extravaganza that takes place in Detroit’s Eastern Market, was unseasonably cold and rainy this year. The dreary weather didn’t keep thousands of metro-Detroiters from the bustling market on Sunday, though, and some lucky attendees were rewarded for being there with a few Random Acts of Culture. The Knight Foundation’s Random […]
Article · May 17, 2011 by matthew.piper
There’s an outdoor art exhibition opening in Detroit this Saturday that will demonstrate not only the talent of participating local artists, but also the spirit of cooperation and community engagement that distinguishes so much grassroots work in this city. Access Arts Detroit, which hosted four outdoor art exhibitions on Belle Isle in recent years, partnered […]
Article · May 13, 2011 by matthew.piper
Cliff Bell’s, downtown Detroit’s beautifully restored Art Deco jazz venue, is hosting a singular music performance this Friday night. The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit presents Cleveland-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Baby Dee and local experimental group The Scavenger Quartet, led by Kresge fellow Frank Pahl. It’s sure to be an extraordinary evening. Baby Dee, […]
Article · May 10, 2011 by matthew.piper
The work of 12 Detroit artists is currently on view at the Fred Torres Collaborations gallery in Chelsea. “Live From Detroit” was curated, at Fred Torres’ invitation, by Monica Bowman, founder and director of the local Butcher’s Daughter gallery space. (Click here for photos of the show’s opening party.) I talked to Bowman and Elana […]
Article · May 5, 2011 by matthew.piper
DDCDances, the local company known previously as the Detroit Dance Collective, is concluding its 31st season with a concert at Marygrove College on Friday night. “New Moves,” which also includes performances by the Marygrove College Dance Company, will feature works by founding member and artistic director Barbara Selinger, company choreographer Corinne Imberski and noted 20th […]
Article · May 3, 2011 by matthew.piper
There’s a beautiful fiber art show currently on view at Wayne State University’s Elaine L. Jacob Gallery in Midtown. “Material Spaces: Veneration Through the Needle’s Eye” includes work by three nationally recognized fiber artists: Carolyn Kallenborn, Beili Liu and Tom Lundberg. Kallenborn and Liu created two stunning, complementary installations that occupy the gallery’s second floor, […]
Article · April 29, 2011 by matthew.piper
Marcelyn Bennett-Carpenter’s Turn (one of two installations on view in Hamtramck this month) closed last Saturday night. To mark the occasion, there was an improvisational dance and music performance inside 2739 Edwin, the gallery space that housed the installation (composed of hundreds of translucent, tensile bands strung from floor to ceiling). James Cornish, Marko Novachcoff, Piotr […]
Article · April 26, 2011 by matthew.piper
When it opened in the old Burton International School building in Fall 2009, the Burton Theatre was an exciting and welcome addition to Detroit’s film culture. Founded by four twenty-something cinephiles, the scrappy independent theater promised to show films that weren’t being shown anywhere else in the area, and since the riveting first screening (of the dreamy 1973 […]
Article · April 22, 2011 by matthew.piper
Two friends separately cautioned me against seeing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, which is playing at the Abreact Performance Space in Corktown until May 7. “You know nothing happens,” one said. “For more than two hours.” Truth be told, when we got to the theater, located in the Lafayette Lofts, I was a little nervous. […]
Article · April 19, 2011 by matthew.piper
Since 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit has invited children and their caregivers to create together during Family Days. This Sunday, kids will have the extraordinary opportunity to paint with noted local artist Gilda Snowden. Snowden is a Kresge Arts Fellow whose Flora Urbana series is currently on display as part of MOCAD’s Art X […]
Article · April 15, 2011 by matthew.piper