Robert Sestok contains an awful lot of Detroit’s history for such an unassuming presence. The unraveling of his understated personality reveals an astounding cultural and historical index of Detroit, painstakingly accumulated since his move to the city in ’67, against the tidal wave of outward migration. In his time, Sestok has seen the rise and [...]
Taste in art is such a personal matter, often the best one can do as an art and culture blogger is to attempt to provide some kind of context for art through the frame of one’s own perspective. The subject of fan art can be a bit sticky; it is singled out as derivative, as [...]
The highly anticipated “Mobile Homestead” by artist Mike Kelley opened on Saturday, becoming the first permanent exhibit at the MOCAD (a Knight Arts grantee). The project was conceived in 2010, and executed as a scale replica of Kelley’s childhood home in the suburbs of the Detroit Metro area. The homestead includes a detachable façade room, [...]
This Saturday, May 11, promises to be an extravaganza of household objects made art, as Public Pool hosts the closing of “Able Objects,” sculpture by Real OK Design (a.k.a. artist Aaron Blendowski), with an interactive appearance by Blendowski to demonstrate his candle-making skills, accompanied by live music performed by Behind the Times featuring Benjamin Teague. Attendees [...]
There is a pervasive feeling when encountering the work of Metro Detroit artist Mary Fortuna, currently on display in the Robinson Gallery at the Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Center, of intense personal mythology at work. Fortuna’s exhibition, “She Towers Above,” which opened Friday, May 3rd and remains on display free of charge at the BBAC through June [...]
Upon entering the scene at 2739 Edwin Gallery, I was immediately gripped by a kind of nervous energy, invoked by “Let’s Don’t Take No Chance,” a collection of sculptural pieces by Detroit artist Ben Hall. Put simply, I felt a little worried that they might collapse on me at any moment. When I spoke with [...]
Without question, hair is a major issue. Mainstream hair culture still suffers along under the terribly retrograde, double-bind of a beauty standard that dictates a woman must spend a lot of time on her hair to make it look as good as possible, while also pretending to have achieved this look effortlessly. This is just [...]
On Saturday, April 20th, Jason Havernaas, the newest resident at the Institute for Neo Connotative Action (INCA) in the historic New Center district, gave an artist talk on his life and work. Much of his work, which evolved from photographic portraits to video shorts, centers around his upbringing within an international network of structured communities [...]
By way of introducing us to her good friend Rayya Elias, moderator Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the international best-seller Eat, Pray, Love and numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction) spoke of her own introduction to Elias as a referral to a hairdresser from a friend gently letting her know that, “No one can look at [...]
There were a couple of difficult distinctions to be made during the reading of trans-women’s literature held at Traffic Jam & Snug restaurant on Tuesday. The performance by lead reader Imogen Binne, on tour in support of her novel, Nevada, made it impossible to distinguish between the content of the novel and her hilarious, rapid-fire [...]
