Category Archives: Art Publications

Sean Bieri Writes a Review

December 3, 2021 K.A. Letts Leave a comment

*Baby Haus* (detail) by Sarah Rose Sharp, surrealist miniature, mixed media, from **Life is But a Dream**, reviewed by Sean Bieri

It’s no secret that competent arts writers are hard to find here in the Midwest. Ever since the internet gutted local print media, arts coverage has more or less disappeared from the pages of newspapers like The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News. Independent online culture websites like Hyperallergic and more locally, Detroit Art Review, AADL Pulp and New Art Examiner, have struggled to fill in the gaps with limited personnel and funding.

Finding a good arts writer is a real treasure hunt. (In my capacity as Great Lakes Editor for New Art Examiner I’m always looking.) So I was delighted to discover Sean Bieri, who has a good eye for art and a nice way with words.

Like most Detroit artists, Sean wears multiple hats. He is a co-founder and board member of Hatch Hamtramck, one of the best places to find up-and-coming artists in Detroit, and is also responsible for the design and restoration of Hamtramck Disneyland, an outsider art landmark. Somehow he has found the time to take on the job of writing the occasional art review for New Art Examiner.

You can read his first review on Life is But a Dream at Galerie Camille in Detroit for New Art Examiner here. I hope it is the first of many.

Art Publications, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Gallery Exhibition, reprinted from New Art Examiner

Landlord Colors

October 22, 2019 K.A. Letts Leave a comment

I recently reviewed Landlord Colors for New Art Examiner. It’s a comprehensive overview of Detroit artists in a global context at Cranbrook Museum of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The exhibit advanced a convincing argument that contemporary Detroit artists who have synthesized their unique, place-specific art from the substance of a distressed city have earned membership in an exclusive club of similarly inspired artists from around the world. To read the full review go here

Art News/Regional Art Interests, Art Publications

Chicago’s New Art Examiner Covers Detroit

January 10, 2019 K.A. Letts Leave a comment

nae-wcbevan-1xrun — Murals in the Market painting by W.C. Bevan, sponsored by 1XRun

I recently wrote an article about the Detroit art scene for Chicago’s New Art Examiner, focusing on three organizations/projects that seemed to me to exemplify important features of Detroit and its artists right now. 1XRun, Playground Detroit and the North End neighborhood’s American Riad project demonstrate the entrepreneurial creativity, DIY energy, and artistic/social inclusiveness that I see in the city. I’m sorry I couldn’t write about more of the Detroit’s great galleries and projects, but that would take a book, not a magazine article. To read what I wrote, go here

Art Publications

Pulp Covers Culture

September 22, 2016 K.A. Letts Leave a comment

multi-cultural-kids-group1 Everybody knows that the mainstream print media is in trouble and that as a result, arts coverage in our region has dropped to near zero. But while the rest of us have been whining about the situation, the Ann Arbor Public Library has done something about it.

Pulp, an online arts and cultural magazine, has started to fill the hole that was left when M-Live and others decided to pull the plug on arts reporting, with articles by some great writers like Patrick Dunn and Jenn McKee.

I just posted my first story on Pulp about the Pop-X Art Festival and featuring Ann Arbor Women Artists’ Side-By-Side, a community-based art project that crosses all lines of race, gender, age and disability to promote one-to-one connection. Check it out, and while you’re at it, take a look at some of the other coverage of music, theater and dance.

To investigate Pulp and what it has to offer, go here.