Pop-Psychedelia: The Steve Leary Show at Holland Area Arts Council

Steve Leary creates paintings that resemble a hybrid of pop art and psychedelic posters. They’re colorful, animated, and slightly disorienting. His deft handling of enamel paint results in surfaces that are hard and shiny as candy. The Steve Leary Show at Holland Area Arts Council includes nearly fifty pieces, over thirty paintings, six painted cabinets, … Continue reading

Artist & Scholar Naima Lowe Visits The Fed Galleries at KCAD & UICA

Please note: In response to concern about the Coronavirus/COVID-19, These events have been cancelled. by Aaminah Shakur The Fed Galleries @ KCAD [https://kcad.ferris.edu/galleries/] and the UICA [https://www.uica.org/] are jointly hosting artist and scholar Naima Lowe in March, including an exhibition at the Fed Galleries, and events at both the Fed Galleries and UICA. This is … Continue reading

Introverted and OCD: Artist Mandy Cano Villalobos Turns Curator at Kendall College’s Fed Galleries

Aaminah Shakur The Fed Galleries at Kendall College of Art & Design have announced a new initiative called IGNITE which seeks to offer opportunities to emerging curators to produce a small exhibition in the gallery space. The inaugural exhibition, Introverted and OCD, is curated by local artist Mandy Cano Villalobos and features work by eleven … Continue reading

Drag and Paint: Star Buxom Offers a Spicy Alternative to the Paint and Sip Party

I saw the notification for the first Artsy, Fartsy, Drag and Paint Party on Facebook. These events are coordinated by the Queen of Caffeine Star Buxom, aka Bux, aka Bux Dhyne. I’ve known Bux for years, and asked if I could observe the party scheduled in late June. The venue was a loft on south … Continue reading

If ArtPrize was a Sandwich Contest

by Ten Li Years ago the benevolent oligarchs of Bland Vapids devised a plan to change the image of their little big town, and so was launched “Sammich Mundus”, the grandest sandwich contest the world had ever seen. It was to be a merry festival that would please everyone, from filthy peasants to the disdainful … Continue reading

Drag Syndrome Creates Controversy, But Also Fruitful Conversation About Disability, Queerness, and Performance Art

by Aaminah Shakur The intersection of queerphobia and paternalistic ableism in West Michigan has brought controversy to an upcoming ArtPrize Project 1 performance event. Paul Amenta and Ted Lott have collaborated on an accessible theater structure that will be the site of musical, theater, and spoken word performances for the duration of Project 1, September … Continue reading

Baby Steps Towards the Right Direction, A Decade at the Center: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

by Liz McMahon A Decade at the Center: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions is a featured exhibition open through April 28 at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The exhibit, which celebrates the ten year anniversary at the venue on Monroe Center, allows the public to see some of the gifts and acquisitions acquired over the past … Continue reading

A Legacy of Love: Selections from The Mabel Perkins Collection at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

by Aaminah Shakur The Grand Rapids Art Museum is celebrating their ten-year anniversary in their current location. Started by Munkenbeck+Marshall Architects, and completed by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, the structure is significant as one of the first LEED certified museums, and because the GRAM’s former venues were existing structures adapted for use as a … Continue reading

Petals and Panties: Artwork by Jillian Dickson at Forest Hills Fine Art Center

by Tamara Fox The Forest Hills Fine Art Center is currently hosting an exhibition of drawings by Jillian Dickson through June 22, 2018. The seventeen jewel-like compositions created in graphite, colored pencil, and marker, include six large drawings of composite botanical/viscera, and eleven drawings of women’s underpants. The large pieces feature arrangements of flowers, ribbons, … Continue reading