A Brief Visual Sampler
Work Detroit A Brief Visual Sampler
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Work Detroit
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Established in 2007 and located in the heart of Detroit’s cultural community, Work Detroit is a unique space for the sharing of creative process and an integral component of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. Work Detroit presents the work of student, faculty, alumni, as well as local, national, and internationally prominent thinkers and makers. The underlying mission of Work Detroit is to explore and define lines of creative connection between the University of Michigan, Detroit, and beyond. The space acts as an entrance point for individuals frequenting the Detroit Center for a wide variety of uses. As a member of the A & D exhibition venue community, Work Detroit is unique in this function. The gallery provides a professional, engaging, and changing body of work that responds to a wide variety of topical calls. Through a friendly, active approach to open dialogue and explanation of process, Work Detroit acts as an educational forum for both maker and user. Stephen William Schudlich Director of Exhibitions
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A Brief Visual Sampler
The WORK : DETROIT Gallery is a XXXX Square Foot Space located at 3663 Woodward Avenue in the University of Michigan Detroit Center.
A suspended 5’x5’ unistrut grid that contains gallery track lighting with XXX LIGHTING SPEC HERE. The unistrut grid can support loads of XXXX SPEC HERE and can accomodate a system of wall panels, suspended artwork, projection or other media equipment.
Features include: XX linear feet of perimter gallery walls that measure 9´-4˝ tall. They are constructed with 2x6˝ steel stud framing and have a 1/2˝ plywood substrate beneath the 5/8” gypsum board surface. They have a 2x6 wood nailer along the top and a flush mounted wood base trim that measures 6˝. A moveable C-wall whose main surface measures 144” wide by 91” tall It is constructed in the same fashion as the permiter walls.
There are outlets on the gallery walls, on the walls near each window, and at a dozen locations on the unistrut grid.
Gallery Director’s Office Gallery Storage
DRAFT
Woodward Avenue
Lighting Controls
Ann Arbor
Dearborn
MLK Boulevard
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Work Detroit
Promotional postcard illustrated by Ian Huebert 6
A Brief Visual Sampler
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Untitled. Lauren Satlowski 2012 13
Work Detroit
LOVE FOR SALE (you know you want it) An exhibition that takes aim at advertising and art as commodity in America, at the Work Detroit gallery. The title, after both the Cole Porter song and another by the Talking Heads, is meant as an ironic gesture signaling the paradox of selling created need; that is, to sell is to make consumers want what you tell them to love. LOVE FOR SALE, the exhibition, is meant to address the image as a means of selling, of creating need. Art and commerce have long been linked. The notion of the art market, of art to be sold as commodity, stretches as far back into history as the moment when the production of an image translated into the trading, selling or stealing of that image. The more valuable the image becomes, the more highly sought after it is. Often this translates into the image being constructed to fulfill or live up to the desires of the market, to take on the aura of the sought-after object; to become a signifier of wealth. However, images have also been used to sell things other than the images themselves, to serve as advertisement– as the vehicle of seduction for other ideas, other objects, other beliefs, other images. This advertising image is constructed with an innate understanding of how to connect with those who may be looking for something to want; those with a need to fill.
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A Brief Visual Sampler
LOVE FOR SALE will elicit responses from thinkers/makers in relation to the concept of image as a generator of need; art as a vehicle for commodity. Artists may propose images that serve the function of advertisement for either the artwork itself, or at the service of something other than itself. This may result in the parody of precious art objects, of art market or capital market strategies in general, of commercial advertising and its various techniques of seduction. Such a call for work can lay bare the very construction of the commoditized image, and the means by which to critique and examine it as a potent force in our daily life. The gallery space may make use of various presentation strategies that address the central theme of the exhibit, by transforming itself into a storefront, not unlike that created by the artist Claes Oldenburg in 1961 in New York’s Lower East Side, in which he merged a storefront shop with his functioning studio. Work Detroit can ironically affect small details that place the gallery within the context of the storefront—sale placards and stickers hung from the ceiling, beside artworks, placed on the streetside windows, mild advertising jingles playing on a speaker here and there, perhaps the occasional working displays, shelving, a grocery cart and a catalog in the form of a newsprint advertising supplement similar to that from a local grocer. These strategies of engagement with the audience can present, as the Cole Porter tune goes, “Old love, new love, anything but true love.”
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Work Detroit
Lea Bult / Marina / 2012
curated by Gualberto Orozco
11/30 - 12/28 2012 OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY 11/30, 6-9PM
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Immigration is an issue that affects people living both inside and outside our borders. In many cases, people do not realize just how close to home these issues lie. There are preconceived notions of the United States: either as the land of opportunity or an arrogant powerhouse. US citizens sometimes stereotype immigrant as either hard-working, determined people, or foreigners threatening their way of life. And this dialogue is as prevalent now as it has been throughout the history of this country. The topics of citizenship, naturalization, assimilation, deportation, human trafficking, demographics and patriotism resurface in debates about immigration time and time again. Clandestine invites creative thinkers and makers in all media to explore these issues.
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Work Detroit
3663 Woodward Avenue / Detroit MI 48201 hours 11am - 4pm / T - Sat (during exhibits) 313.593.0940 http://art-design.umich.edu/exhibitions/work_detroit
Considering the City curated by Charlie Michaels 9.10.2010 - 10.8.2010 Opening reception, 9.10, 6-9
Creative work by artists, designers, architects, urban planners, and social practitioners that’s intended to promote conversation about Detroit as well as other cities.
Considering the City curated by Charlie Michaels
9.10.2010 - 10.8.2010 opening reception 9.10, 6-9pm
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front image | Ross Racine
A Brief Visual Sampler
Considering the City seeks work by artists, designers, architects, urban planners, and social practitioners that examine new ways of using and interpreting urban spaces for the people that live in them. This may mean re-purposing existing land and public places, tapping ignored and underused resources, or simply understanding the importance of individuals to the larger whole. In an ever-changing global culture, cities are organisms that are constantly shifting and transforming. Around the world, increasing populations lead to urban sprawl and require creative ways of sharing space and resources. Here in Michigan, a literal shrinking of Detroit may be on the horizon. We invite submissions that point to problems, propose solutions from the practical to the fantastic, and add to the conversation about what the future of Detroit and cities around the world might look like.
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Work Detroit
Ryan Standfest | Stumblebum #2
01.10 – 02.13 CLOSING RECEPTION
Friday, 02.13, 6-9 pm
Fear Gallery hours 11am – 4pm | Tuesday – Saturday | 313.593.0527 http://www.art-design.umich.edu/workdetroit/
work • detroit
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Fear Potentially, a new year brings new promise. New resolve, new hope, new vitality. But it also holds new fears. Is fear a useful emotion? Isn’t our very survival dependent upon fear? keeping us from walking into oncomingtraffic, stepping off of rooftops and carelessly handling poisonous snakes. Is fear as powerful and beneficial a motivating factor as more positive emotions? Thinkers and makers respond. What do you fear? What do you think others fear? What,if anything, should we all fear?
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Arts & Bodies People often speak of their experience of the arts as “transcendent” – transcending normal human limits of performance and perception, speaking directly to the transcendent “soul.” Yet art is inescapably made by corporeal beings, whose very corporeality determines the media, methods, instruments, forms, colors, tones, and materials through which we create. Furthermore, the very experience of transcendence is a corporeal one, determined by the state of the sensory and cognitive apparatus of the perceiver of creative work. Finally, the production of art can take a heavy toll on artists’ bodies, through the absorption of lead, the stresses of poverty and creative work, and the punishment of muscles, joints, vocal cords, eyes, and other body parts. The purpose of Arts & Bodies is to explore the dynamic, tortured, joyful, complex relationship between our arts and our bodies across epochs and cultures. Thinkers and makers are invited to submit creative work in any form that illuminates some aspect of the relationship between art and the body.
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Kristin Kurzawa
Loralei R. Byatt
A Matter of Perspective, 2009
Trying on perfection/Perfect Po
Ypsilanti, MI
Detroit, MI
Digital photograph, archival print
Refrigerator door, magnets, magazines
This portrait of Saint Lucy, the Roman Catholic patron saint of the blind, comes from a plaster statue of devotion. I found St. Lucy, and 500 other life-sized biblical statues, at a roadside stand in Western New York. Here, the plaster icons stood vigil amidst rows of homemade fudge and licorice ropes.
Trying on Perfection and Perfect Poet magnetic refrigerator games and are to advertising. By choosing eyes, lips from a model’s face, I can “try on” pe my face. I can also create poetry from used in those same ads.
These are the biblical heroes of my childhood; heaven-sent characters meant to instill fear and devotion. Now over-sized and over-painted, I remind myself of their hollowness— and my desire to crack open their stone bodies to reveal untold stories.
This piece is meant to be played with Go Ahead!
A Matter of Perspective belongs to a larger photographic series that re/examines the role of 20-21st Century Roman Catholic images and statues as a visual intersection between race, class, gender and ableism in American culture.
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Elvis. Jesse Kassell 2011 26
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Untitled. Elvin Poskovic 2011
A Brief Visual Sampler
What makes a monster? Does a monster have to have sharp teeth and multiple eyes? Can a monster’s sole evil exist in its ability to cheat people out of their life’s savings or, to use military force to bully or even kill them? Is a litterbug a monster? Children draw monsters based on their own sets of fears and beliefs which may or may not wane as they grow older. Culture, science and religion have created and supported various definitions over the centuries. Hollywood has packaged, presented and championed all the cliche and kitsch manifestations and, a new intrusive media machine with ever shrinking boundaries gives a frightening view of the everyday monster next door, capable of inconceivable horror. All this being said, is it possible for “good” monsters to exist, say a monster who opposes and battles more evil monsters (i.e. a “dirty” cop?) Creative makers and thinkers respond. Monster is an open call for work in all medium including time based.
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Migration manifests in many ways: changes to a neighborhood’s demographics, personal identity, contested borders, or movement in a lifetime or a week. These changes bring about conflicts (and resolutions) of space, economies, labor and industry, and race and ethnicity, to name a few. The current “state� of Michigan is an ideal site of exploration, as its economic, industrial, social, and cultural landscapes have seen vast devastation and regrowth. For this exhibition we invite submissions that deal broadly with migration, identity, and conflict on all levels and in any media.
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Work Detroit
design / Andy Gabrysiak
June 28th 2013 thru July 27th 2013 Opening reception / June 28th / 6-9PM
hours | Tu - Sa / 11A - 4P (during exhibitions) | address | 3663 Woodward Ave. Detroit MI 48201 phone | 313.593.0940 | web | art-design.umich.edu/exhibitions/work_detroit | @work_detroit
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Road Trip Journeys, whether planned or spontaneous, alone or in groups, near or far, can affect the traveler in a multitude of ways. Work Detroit seeks to share evidence of this in a summer sharing of creative process that speaks to a passage from point “A” to Point “B” and back again.
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Work Detroit
stephen william schudlich
Mark Mothersbaugh
10.30-12.05/2009 Reception event / 10.30 SCREENING EVENTS PM
PM
Thursday, 11.05 / 7-9
Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour Stop Wednesday, 11.17 / 7-9
Films from and about Palestine curated by Toby Millman and Tirtza Even
Hours 11am – 4pm | T - Sat (during exhibits) 313.593.0940 www.art-design.umich.edu/workdetroit
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work • detroit
A Brief Visual Sampler
What does it mean to explore time in the gallery? Galleries have traditionally been static places; that is to say: if there is a pace, it is the viewer who sets it, scanning and digesting at his or her will. But work that happens or unfolds ‘over time’ requires a different kind of interaction. The piece holds within it an implicit request for a specific allotment of engagement and looking. One may have an easier time surrendering to such a request in a theater setting when looking at an art film or a performance. In the gallery setting, however, there is often a tension about the relinquishing of one’s time. Some of the work in this exhibit is about time: leisure time, fixed time, wasted time, irretrievable time; but some of the work simply happens in time. How does the gallery function as a place of intersection between temporally based and non-temporal creative work, with its variable invitations for passive, active, and interactive engagement? This is the question asked in Time.
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touch
X Marie Perrin-McGraw Adam Chau Alana Bartol-Vince Andy Gabrysiak Andy Malone Carole Beach
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Cathy Snygg Daniel Swan Donald Kilpatrick Kayla Romberger Erika Heffernan Gary Bedard
Jessica Joy Goldberg Karen Larson-Voltz Lindsay Preston Zappas Lindsay Satchell Marcelyn Bennett-Carpenter Jacklyn Brickman
Mark Beltchenko M. Morgan Eagleton Nick Azzaro Nikki DeSautelle Ryan Standfest Hollie Hulst
12.3 – 12.24 / 2010 Opening reception
12.3 / 6-9 Stephen William Schudlich Tinley Daniel Tomo Kobayashi Raymond Domzalski Jesse Kassel Drew Nobel
A Brief Visual Sampler
Touch is an exhibition that revolves around the idea of a tactile exchange with creative work/process. In the majority of cases, the act of touching art is forbidden and frowned upon by both creator and presentor, Signaled formally or, at the very least implied, the DO NOT TOUCH rule is a reality in the art and art user exchange. However some work not only allows touch but, invites it and even NEEDS it for effective connection. Interactive work, for instance, in which the users participate in some way by providing an input. Touching surfaces or interacting with work that provides a pleasant or rewarding sensation would invoke a certain response from the user. However, touch need not be met with a pleasant sensation. Exchange may be rewarded with a negative response, actually repelling further contact by the individual. This individual may warn others or, may become a participant in observing or even delighting in the delivery of stimulus to the unwary. Work Detroit removes the vitrines, takes the signs down, moves the ropes, and holds the door open for this offering of creative process.
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Work Detroit
hours | Tu - Sa / 11A - 4P (during exhibitions) | address | 3663 Woodward Ave. Detroit MI 48201 phone | 313.593.0940 | web | art-design.umich.edu/exhibitions/work_detroit | @work_detroit
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Detroit Collective This exhibition is aimed on featuring the work of dedicated studio artists, writers and designers who have been making significant contributions to the Detroit cultural climate since the mid 1970s. For those who are closely familiar with the Detroit art scene since the mid 70s you become acutely aware that Detroit’s artistic reservoir holds many treasures beyond specific historical signposts. This exhibition makes no claims to create yet another category of artists anchored to a specific location or thematic devise but to simply bring some attention to artists that have been producing strong work in a dramatically changing socio-economic period since the last part of the Detroit’s 20th and first part of Detroit’s 21st centuries. This exhibition features, painters, sculptors, print-makers, performers, designers, poets and writers and all cross-manifestations of these disciplines. Many artists featured in this exhibition have overlapped to commercial and corporate fields to maintain their creative studio production and have proven a devotion to their work which I feel is unparalleled. At this time the opening will feature a live performance by Frank Pahl and there will be flyers available for the following evening “film-night” to be held in the gallery-adjacent space. 3 filmmakers will be featured in this collaborative event.
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invited
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Pedestrian Work Detroit opens the doors to community and invites them to draw on our walls. Literally. This community consists of students, teachers, children, adults, and a wide variety of visitors. The term pedestrian provides no signal or inference to class or social status. we are all pedestrians. armed with a standard #2 pencil, gallery users will be encouraged to express themselves in any way they want. portraits, lists, maps, poems, musical scores, whatever. They may keep the pencil. The opening will serve as a means to inspire people to begin the process. The closing will be a sharing of accumulated work. Video documentation will take place as a means of archiving the event.
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IN PRINT will exhibit self-published books, zines and experimental printed matter showcased in a zine reading room installation featuring publications from a variety of graphic artists and writers.
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A Brief Visual Sampler
Drying letterpressed catalog covers for IN PRINT. These were printed at Signal Return Letterpress in Eastern Market, Detroit. The inside of the catalogs were made up of images created at a work shop offered as part of the exhibition, and were printed on site using Riso-graph process .
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