Steve Glazer, Professor of Fine Art and Gallery Director at Henry Ford Community College, and Carl Kamulski, Professor of Fine Art at Wayne County Community College and former Michigan Gallery Executive Director, jointly announce a "Final Tribute" to Michigan Gallery.
The exhibit, "2010" Motorcity Revue" featuring 38 Detroit Artists will open 6:00-8:00 PM Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at the Sisson Gallery at Henry Ford Community College and close with a multi-faceted reception 6:00-8:00 PM on March 5, 2010.
2010 Motorcity Revue
Reception, Wednesday, January 27, 2010
6:00 PM-8:00 PM
Sisson Gallery
Henry Ford Community College
Hours: M-Th: 10 AM-6 PM Friday: 10 AM-3 PM
5101 Evergreen, Dearborn, MI 48128
“2010 Motor City Revue”
1. Richard Brinn (Co-Founder) “Satchels and Bags” others
2. Cyndy Weeks “Bomb My Boat” “If You See Kay”
3. Roy Steyskal (Co-Founder) First Show
4. Jim Lutomski “UFO” “Electric Glass” others
5. Dan Graschuck “Boys of Summer” “Artist’s Interpret Fantasy”
6. Marianne Letasi “Out of Solitude”
7. Michelle Spivak Perron (Gallery Director) “Signs of Life”
8. Tom Rudd “Michigan Stone”
9. Art Cislo First Show
10. John Murphy “MPA Show” “Earthen III”
11. Jim Dozier “MUCK-FUCK” (Males/Females Understanding Carnal Knowledge)
12. Carl Kamulski (Co-Founder) “Motor City Review” “Electric Glass”
13. Sergio DiGiusti “Carbonara” “Innocent Visions” “Apocalypse” others
14. Lowell Boileau “Air” “Micropointillism”
15. Steven Goodfellow “Micropointilism”
16. Jim Nawara “Water”
17. Robert Bielat “Michigan Poured Metal”
18. Gilda Snowden Various Shows
19. Joe Zajac “Clay” early show
20. (Bradley Jones) Studio at MG “Michigan Figurative”
21. Mark Chatterley (Various)
22. Tom Phardel “Sharon Que and Tom Phardel”
23. John Egner “John Egner Picks Detroit”
24. Dave Roberts “The Abstract Realists”
25. Sharon Que “Accumulated Knowledge”“Sharon Que/Tom Phardel”
26. Robert Quentin Hyde (“Robert and Ronald Quentin Hyde” others)
27. Sandy Zenisek (“Full House”)
28. Jim Pallas (“Motorcity Review”)
29. Charles McGee (“Artists Against Apartheid”)
30. Rolf Wojciechowski Various Shows
31. Iva Turner (“Up with Downriver” and others)
32. Bill Sanders (“Michigan Friends of Photography”
33. Vito Valdez (Dia De los Muetros, others)
34. Jerome Ferretti (“Up with Downriver” and others)
35. Susan Aaron-Taylor (“Susan Aaron Taylor/Victoria Stoll”)
36. Hugh Timlin (“Starting Point Stone”
37. Meighen Powell Jackson (Various)
38. Russell Taylor (Performance “Satori Circus”)
2010 Motorcity Revue
The 2010 MotorCity Revue is a tribute and farewell to a most unusual place, Michigan Gallery. The thirty-seven artists represented in this show are just a representation of what the gallery was and remains in the memories of thousands who showed work, curated shows, attended openings and special events, joined in life drawing and other sessions, drank cold beer in the bar, played pool, ate homemade soup, performed in bands and other performance venues, traveled to other locations for exchange exhibits, played softball on the Michigan Gallery Grizzlies, contributed to countless fundraisers, donated time and skill to keep the place moderately well maintained, were married there, met to rem ember friends lost, believed in the Gallery--and became part of its fabric.
How did all this all happen in a rundown building on an isolated part of Michigan Avenue one mile west of Tiger Stadium? I'm not completely sure--perhaps because of some perfect circumstances--perhaps just by chance.
The Gallery was an artist run space; this in itself created an energy. We owned the building, so anything could happen. The building was isolated from other commercial places so authorities didn't notice or care what we did. The gallery space was 2,400 square feet, plus the bar had another 1,200 square feet of exhibit and performance space. The basement totaled another 1,800 square feet of space for the Sub Sea Level Gallery. As the Executive Director, I was always willing to take chances. Most importantly, there was the support of the metropolitan Detroit art community. It was a most unusual place--so unusual that some thought of the Gallery as a way of life.
I knew when I agreed to curate another Motorcity Revue that I would not be able to fully reflect Michigan Gallery's vision and history. There were so many who were part of its fabric. So many artists, so many shows, so many people, over its twenty-seven year history. Any review might upset or offend some who should be included. I have spent many months contacting artists and working with Steve Glazer at the Sisson Gallery to develop a quality show that represents the Gallery's history. All of the artists w ho made the Michigan Gallery a phenomenon deserve recognition , and this show is a salute and tribute to them.
Carl Kamulski, Curator, 2010 MotorCity Revue
I remember the October evening quite vividly. It was 1988 and I had just been back in Detroit a month or so. I had read about an artist’s run space, Michigan Gallery. There was to be a reception for the opening of the exhibition, Micropointalism, a style of painting that a couple of Detroiters had developed in which they took the concepts of Seurat to the extreme. I hooked up with a friend, and ventured to the then unknown.
By the end of the evening, I was hooked. I had quickly realized what the Detroit art scene, along with scores of Detroiters, already knew. Michigan Gallery was it. It was not as “sterile” or “clean” as other major exhibition spaces, especially those either connected with educational institutions or those that occupied the ritzier northern ‘burbs. But what Michigan Gallery lacked in comparison to these other spaces, it made up in spirit and with soul.
My own pursuit of a full time college teaching position took me away from Detroit less then a year later, but during the time I was around, I went to every exhibition Michigan Gallery had. In fact, I often journeyed back a second or third time to get a more thorough viewing.
I think Carl Kamulski, the long time executive director of Michigan Gallery will be the first to say that not every exhibition that was mounted in the space was great. But every one I saw during the 1988-89 season was. In fact, I would bet that every exhibition mounted throughout the twenty plus year run of the space was great, because I would bet that each one was filled with the spirit and soul that I encountered the first time I was at Michigan Gallery.
When I returned to Detroit in 2004 to accept a teaching position at Henry Ford Community College, it was, in part, to be part of the metro-Detroit community. Since becoming Director of Exhibitions at the college, I have looked for ways to mount exhibitions that were not only educational for our students, but also connected with the community at large. When I read a suggestion on Stephen Goodfellow’s “Tribes of the Cass Corridor” webpage that someone should think about putting together some kind of tribute to Michigan Gallery, I immediately stepped forth. What better way to focus energies then to combine things that are dear to me: the Sisson Gallery at Henry Ford Community College, the metro-Detroit community, and memories of Michigan Gallery.
Over the past year or so, Carl Kamulski and I have met a few times, exchanged countless emails, brainstormed together as well as separately, and probably cussed each other out a few times in private as we wondered what in the world have we had gotten ourselves into. But we have made it. We have put together what I hope is one of the most exciting exhibitions Michigan Gallery has seen. We present the Motor City Revue 2010!
