Monthly Archives: October 2021

Detroit Art Scene, New Art Examiner

Singular Visions in Detroit

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By now, everyone has heard of the Heidelberg Project, Tyree Guyton’s 30 year-long outdoor Motown installation of found objects and eccentrically painted houses, but few know about the many other idiosyncratic ongoing art installations that dot the Detroit landscape. A few endure as more-or-less permanent art projects that reflect their creators’ unique ideas of what art is for outside of the more conventional capitalist gallery system. I have profiled three of them in the current edition of New Art Examiner. You can read the story here

Hamtramck Disneyland, the imaginative outdoor installation by Dmytro Szylak, Ukrainian immigrant and GM factory worker
N’Kisi House, part of the MBAD Bead Museum installation and gallery at Grand River and West Grand Blvd. in Detroit, the creation of Olayami Dabls
The disorienting former kitchen in AndersRuhwald’s hipster fun house, Unit1 3583 Dubois.
Detroit Art

Why Do I Delight: Kresge Eminent Artist Shirley Woodson at Detroit Artist Market

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Green Vase Nocturnal for Toni Morrison, 2021, acrylic on canvas, photo: K.A. Letts

Shirley Woodson, recently named Kresge Eminent Artist for 2021, is the subject of a retrospective exhibit honoring her work and life at Detroit Artist Market. The exhibit will be on display until October 23. Woodson is an accomplished artist, a veteran educator, an avid collector; she has also been a mentor to countless young Detroit artists throughout her 60-year career. A monograph produced by the Kresge Foundation,  “A Palette for the People.” is now available at no charge in a print edition and for download. Woodson is also the recipient of a no-strings-attached $50,000 prize. To read my full review, go here

Artist Profile, Detroit Art Scene

Michael Luchs 1938-2021

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Michael Luchs, installation from Fictitious Character at MOCAD, 2018, photo courtesy of MOCAD

It seems like just yesterday I was referring to Michael Luchs in the present tense. Luchs, a prominent artist from the Cass Corridor movement in Detroit in the 1960’s and 70’s, and still active creatively in Detroit and beyond, had recently shown his new work at Simone DeSousa Gallery and Museum of Contemporary Art. And then he was gone. For the full text of my appreciation in New Art Examiner here

Toledo art scene

The Alchemist’s Dream at 20 North Gallery, Toledo

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The Alchemist’s Dream, a three-person exhibit of work by metalsmith Tom Muir, ceramicist Tom Marino …and me, K.A. Letts, will open tomorrow night at 20 North Gallery in Toledo. The exhibit will be on view until December 24.

I’m delighted to be showing my work alongside these two distinguished artists. For more information about our work, gallery location and hours, go here

Primavera, by K.A. Letts, 2021, acrylic on paper, 38″ x 50″
Crucible Series: Silver Spill by Tom Marino
Twin Risers, by Tom Muir
Origin Story, by K.A. Letts, 2021, acrylic on paper, 38″ x 50″
Art in the U.P.

Chuck Mintz at Crooked Tree Art Center

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  • Mike and Sandy, Salem OH, Lustron Series, 2012-2014, photo Chuck Mintz

My photographer friend, Chuck Mintz will be exhibiting his photographs of the Lustron Houses–and the people who live in them–at the Crooked Tree Art Center in Traverse City until November 13. The Lustron houses were pre-fabricated, enameled steel houses developed in the post-World War II era in the U.S. in response to the shortage of homes for returning G.I.s. There are still some around. Chuck has focused on the current inhabitants and the changes they have made over the years.

Chuck will be making an online presentation October 22 between 10 and 11 a.m. EDT. For more information go here.

And bonus! Crooked Tree Art Center is selling copies of his book, Lustron Stories. Might be time to make a trip Up North.