“Two Michaels enter. One Michael leaves.”
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.
From Peeling Skin to Talking Dolls, Highlights from the Detroit Design Festival
DETROIT — The 2015 Detroit Design Festival brought a flurry of activity to the city’s environs, the capstone to a busy September.
Public Portraits Honor Detroit’s Storied Writers and Poets
DETROIT — It seems ridiculous to think of a five-by-seven-foot portrait as being subtle, but that is the word that springs immediately to mind during an encounter with Nicole Macdonald’s large portraits of important figures in Detroit’s history and present.
A Spoken-Word Artist Goes Behind the Scenes of Detroit’s Redevelopment
DETROIT — Detroit exists these days amidst a flurry of newcomer enthusiasm, rapid development, and media characterization that sometimes leaves longtime residents struggling to identify with the way “new Detroit” is being presented — and more importantly, packaged — for outside consumption.
An Art Festival that Unfolds in Real Time
PORTLAND, Ore. — “Time-based art” is a fairly broad category. Confined, as we are, to a linear time-space progression, all art is in some way time-sensitive.
A Polychromatic Playground of Inflatable Sculptures
DETROIT — Hey, denizens of the art world, let’s take a moment to consider the radical implications of chilling the fuck out for a minute.
Decaying Barns Transformed into Art
PORT AUSTIN, Mich. — The lakeside town of Port Austin, MI, is not what you’d call a bustling cultural center — more like a humble and self-assured farming community off the beaten track, where, as everyone likes to tell you, over and over, you can see the sun rise and set over Lake Huron all in the same day.
Artists Trade Their Work for Plane Rides and Gallons of Paint
DETROIT — There is a great tension between the investments an artist makes to produce work and the living she extracts from selling art.
An Abandoned Department Store Stocks Up on Art
TOLEDO, Ohio — Rocco DePietro and Gloria Pritschet characterize the massive group show they curated for Gallery Project, Wish List, as a contemporary statement of cultural desire.
Another Oblivious Artist Comes to Detroit, Accidentally Lets Tiger Loose
DETROIT — With the rise of Detroit as a sexy location for artistic spirits to be free from the confines of civilization, has come a backlash from everyday Detroiters, wondering what, exactly, is so blank about the city’s canvas.
On a Block in Chicago, a Participatory Project Visualizes Jail Data
CHICAGO — It was a broiling Midwestern day, the kind Chicago is famous for.
A Group Show Where Criticism Is Process
DETROIT — There seem to be two prevailing schools of thought among artists about process.