This text is by Ryan Harte and Jennifer Junkermeier in their capacity and does not, necessarily, reflect the views of different infinite mile contributors, infinite mile co-founders, the authors' employers and/or other affiliations.
| comings and goings: Summer 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||
16 notable happenings you may have missed |
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| Ryan Harte + Jennifer Junkermeier | ||||||||||||||||||
The highest profile show this summer came from New York. An extensive look at Detroit, presented in two parts, the exhibition collected a wide swath of Detroit art (Diego Rivera, Mike Kelley) and design (Eames chair, Shinola bicycle).
The $100,000 Our Town program grant will fund Carpenter Exchange project to bring programming to the Hamtramck-Detroit border along Carpenter Street (Our Town Grantees. "Power House Productions". National Endowment for the Arts. 2014). Power House Productions describes Carpenter Exchange as emphasising the “seemingly invisible municipal divide, engaging the border’s diverse cultures, hidden spaces, and complex histories” (MJ Galbraith. "$100K awarded for arts and culture programming along Hamtramck-Detroit border". Model D. 22 July 2014). Events are scheduled over 18 months, September 2014 to February 2016, including a two-day Porous Borders Festival that will take place in May 2015. A white cube storefront arrived in Hamtramck. When the beloved 2739 Edwin closed last October, we hoped it wouldn’t be long until owner Steve Panton opened the doors of his new space and his exhibition programming continued. Well worth the wait, 9338 Campau takes over where 2739 Edwin left off and features exhibitions and events with a bent towards education, discussion and community engagement by artists from across the globe. See photos of the space in action at infinite mile’s “citings” September 2014.
WAKE Gallery closed its doors last spring. This Summer, a wide-open, cavernous warehouse space with 30-foot-tall ceilings and nearly 2,000 square feet of perfectly polished floors opened without electricity (lit only by skylights) called Young World. Since opening, Young World has only shown artists based outside of Detroit, both shows being ambitious, large-scale sculpture exhibitions. Young World is currently opens to the public only for opening receptions, so don’t miss them. Check out this month’s “citings” to see images from both exhibitions I Hope No One is Squandering Their Day Off: new works by Danny Titiriga and Virginia Poundstone: “The Wasteland and other Poems”.
In exchange, Cleopatra’s Bridget Finn and Erin Somerville (both Detroit Metro natives) selected video works by Sarah Dornner, GOD, Sara Magenheimer, Virginia Overton, Jacolby Satterwhite and Matthew Schlanger for a one night screening at CAVE gallery August 8th. Check out images from Screenings in ∞ mile’s September 2014 “citings”. 8.Matvei Yankelevich reviews “James Lee Byars: I Cancel All My Works at Death” Artforum. Volume 52: Number 10. Summer 2014: p. 372 Last Winter, Brooklyn-based writer and Ugly Duckling Presse founding editor and co-executive director, Matvei Yankelevich moved to Detroit to run Salt & Cedar for the season. Amongst the many book talks, poetry readings and exhibitions he organized, he also wrote a review of MOCAD’s Spring show James Lee Byars: I Cancel All My Works At Death (7 February - 4 May 2014) for ArtForum. Yankelevich describes the particular hand of Triple Candie (curatorial duo Shelley Bancroft and Peter Nesbett) in presenting Byars, an artist whose own self-presentation was amorphous and fanciful. Subscription required. 9. Sculpture Magazine Review of (in)Habitation Roger Green. “Detroit - “(in)Habitation”, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)”. Sculpture Magazine. Volume 33: Number 6. July/August 2014. A year after the show, but still worthwhile, Sculpture Magazine published Roger Green’s review with high praise for the 2013 summer MOCAD exhibition, (in)Habitation (7 June - 28 July 2013). Green is a metro-Detroit based art critic who posits the very notion of habitation in the landscape of Detroit; inquiring about what it entails, how its understood and how the work in the exhibition critiques, counters and forces uneasy questions about the mundane/banal/everyday but necessary act. (note: the review erroneously spells artist Osman Khan’s name). Subscription required. 10. Detroit-based Artist Kate Daughdrill featured in Cosmopolitan Jill Filipovic. “Get That Life: How I Became an Urban Farmer and Artist”. Cosmopolitan. 25 August 2014.
Cosmopolitan magazine gets in on the Detroit game by profiling Detroit artist and urban farmer Kate Daughdrill. Read more of Kate’s experience creating art spaces, her Detroit Soup micro-grant project and what she has in store.
Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead saw the west coast this summer, traveling to MOCA in Los Angeles for a Mike Kelley retrospective from 29 May-28 July 2014 (note: the artnet article incorrectly lists June 28 [Sarah Cascone. "Detroit Sends Mike Kelley's Mobile Homestead to Los Angeles". artnet news. 30 May 2014]). The Homestead hosted quite a few social advocacy events including programming by the Los Angeles Poverty Department, and Los Angeles Community Health Project, while the American Red Cross Blood Services held a blood drive and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Mobile STD Testing Unit provided free HIV/AIDS screenings (Deborah Vankin. "Mike Kelley's 'Mobile Homestead' rolls into Los Angeles". Los Angeles Times. 30 May 2014).
Bruce Weber first visited Detroit in 2006 on assignment for W Magazine. This year, he returned to work with Shinola for an ad campaign. Over a lunch conversation with Condé Nast’s artistic director and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, the idea for an exhibition of Weber’s photographs presented at the DIA came to fruition. Hour Detroit (Casey Nesterowich. "The Eye of Bruce Weber: Detroit stars in photographer's DIA exhibit". Hour Detroit. June 2014) and i-D (Rory Satran. "bruce weber's love letter to detroit". i-d. 19 June 2014) each ran interviews with Weber. They reveal Weber’s point of view when he photographed Detroit. For example, while speaking with i-D, Weber notes “people in Detroit get really dressed up for church, graduations, homecomings, and birthdays. I really love to photograph that feeling of celebration.” In both, he mentions his experience at the Kronk Gym. These interviews expose a Weber obsessed with quaint tradition, family and ceremony. Detroit: Bruce Weber ran from June 20 to September 7, 2014.
Big Paintings @ The Factory was organized by the Cass Corridor artist Robert Sestok. The show features the large-scale painting work of 48 artists who Sestok invited from Detroit and the East Coast (Rosie Sharp. ""Big Paintings @ The Factory," a triumph of massive proportions". Knight Arts. 24 June 2014). (Sestok was included in Todd Levin’s Another Look at Detroit: Parts 1 & 2). Formerly the Lewis Metal Stamping and Manufacturing Plant, Sestok and Robert Onnes converted the building into The Factory, which features over 20,000 square feet of exhibition space. Keep an eye out for more shows in 2015.
On March 7, 2014 Motor City Muckraker reported that 555 Gallery artists would now be soliciting offers to sell a mural attributed to Banksy from the Packard Plant. The artists at 555 Gallery originally removed the mural from the Packard Plant for preservation in 2010. “After a legal battle with the [then] owner of the Packard Plant, the gallery reached a $2,500 agreement to legally take ownership of the mural” (Steve Neavling. "Banksy mural for sale! Detroit gallery offers up rare find". Motor City Muckraker. 7 March 2014). Now the new owner of the Packard Plant, Fernando Palazuelo, wants the mural back, seeking to get the work returned to the site as a donation (Lee DeVito. "Packard Plant owner wants Banksy painting returned to site". Metro Times. 20 August 2014). |
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