BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — The concept of “improvisational painting” might evoke the idea of loose compositions with abstract shapes — Kandinsky-like squiggles and half-formed images, or a visual jazz of color and texture.
Sarah Rose Sharp
Sarah Rose Sharp is a Detroit-based writer, activist, and multimedia artist. She has shown work in New York, Seattle, Columbus and Toledo, OH, and Detroit — including at the Detroit Institute of Arts. She is primarily concerned with artist and viewer experiences of making and engaging with art, and conducts ongoing research in the state of contemporary art in postindustrial and redeveloping cities.
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Composing the Sounds of Detroit into a Symphony
DETROIT — The sounds of the city have long been an inspiration to composers — think of iconic soundscapes from Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to Bernstein’s West Side Story score.
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Slicing Up a Limo as a Metaphor for Detroit
DETROIT — A limousine can be many things: transportation of choice for prom, a status marker, and a bit of a paradox.
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The 17 Pairs of Hands That Spun a Little Black Dress into Existence
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — The average American consumer has no idea how much labor goes into an everyday object, even one as omnipresent as, say, a little black dress.
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Visions of Detroit’s Past and Future in Clay and Cardboard
DETROIT — Shannon Goff makes an excellent case for the secret interconnections between cardboard and clay, her two primary materials.
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Plumbing the Highs and Lows of Pop Cultural Desire
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — “I want to know what love is,” artist Scott Northrup confides in me via email, and his reference to the Foreigner song of same name is neither ironic nor unintentional.
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At the Heidelberg Project’s New Gallery, an Artist Grows Paper Facsimiles of Wilderness
DETROIT — Seeking to capitalize on the steadily growing interest in the Heidelberg Project, Guyton has taken steps to broaden its relevance and extend some of its notoriety in the direction of other emerging artists.
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With Custom-Designed Galleries and Cinematic Facades, Columbus Museum of Art Opens New Wing
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Expanding a museum is a lengthy and costly process, one which requires a great deal of buy-in from the staff, patrons, board, and surrounding community
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Two Tony Suburban Galleries Move into Detroit
DETROIT — As the saying goes: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
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Two Ceramicists Craft Domestic Intricacies
Whether it is Clemo, with his violated use objects, or Williams, investing painstaking traditional labor into a multitude of simple, decorative forms, both artists are making strong contributions within the continuum of contemporary ceramics.
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An Inquiry into Identity at ArtPrize
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is one of the central hubs for the ArtPrize activities that throw the city into a cultural frenzy each fall.
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A Family Auction House’s Rise and Fall as a Microhistory of Detroit
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — It is the pitiful fate of objects to serve as proxies for our failed dreams, relationships, and ambitions.