River House Gallery moves to Downtown Toledo

River House Arts, formerly located in a historic building overlooking the Maumee River in Perrysburg, Ohio, has moved to downtown Toledo. The new space (or I should say spaces) are located in the Secor Building,  a former luxury hotel at 425 Jefferson. The former Secor Hotel, built in 1908, is also the home of the Toledo Opera and the Registry, an upscale gourmet restaurant.   The main gallery on the ground floor  features high ceilings and grand baroque-style windows. Gallerist Paula Baldoni says that in addition to providing a larger space to display more ambitious work,  River House Arts is now located in a busy urban setting with lively street life.      River House Opening 2

River House Arts also has a smaller, more intimate space on another floor of the building to accommodate works on paper and smaller artworks.

Artworks by various artists represented by the gallery are displayed in the spacious lobby of the building and throughout the common areas.

The inaugural exhibition is a solo show by Cuban artist Augusto Bordelois.  His work is an example of the more ambitious scale and scope of work that will be featured  in future shows in the gallery.

The show is entitled Immigrants, Outcasts and Other Heroes. Immigration and war, insecurity and fear, romantic and familial love and the absurdity of the modern age are some of the themes addressed in these colorful and intricate compositions. Mr. Bordelois’ style can called a kind of magic realism, a  visual counterpart to the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Filled with symbolism and allegory, the paintings give the viewer plenty to contemplate.

The exhibition will be open April – June 4.  Call 419.441.4025 for hours, or email: info@river-house-arts.com

 

 

Second Annual Pop X Call for Proposals

popx

This is the second year for this community-based installation project. Artists are invited to submit work and/or proposals for installations. POP•X 2016 will run September 22 – October 1 in Liberty Plaza Park, Ann Arbor.

Entry Deadline: April, 5, 2016
Submission fee: $35

  • Requesting proposals for art installations in 100 sqft. art pavilions.
    • Open to all interested artists, designers, and curators, submitting as an individual or team. One entry per individual artist or curator or per team.
    • A $1,000 stipend per installation will be given to the individuals and teams selected for exhibition.

Ideal proposals for the interior installations value sustained or interactive engagement of visitors, inspiring them with thought-provoking or fun expressions of contemporary arts. Installations may include any form of artistic expression, including, but not limited to art that responds to the immediate environment or encourages community engagement through social practice.

APPLY HERE

Re:Formation Call for Art

Accomplished independent curators Rocco DePietro and Gloria Pritschet of  Gallery Project are planning their  4th dual-site exhibition entitled Re:Formation. The exhibit  will open in August, 2016, in a modified 17,000 sq foot 50’s department store space in downtown Toledo, OH, and then move to the Ann Arbor Art Center in downtown Ann Arbor in mid-September-October.  The Toledo site has abundant space for large scale installation and 3-D work. Artists interested in participating in this exhibit should send jpg images and/or proposals to: galleryproject@gmail.com

Re: Formation examines this unique moment when ordinary people are declaring, ala Peter Finch, “I am mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore.”  What is different at this time is that people who have been silent, or silenced, are standing up, speaking out, and, mobilizing for needed change.  Highly divergent in life styles with broad-ranging backgrounds, beliefs and values, these individuals are expressing justifiable anger at the accumulation of horrific events and unrelenting injustices that characterize our current era. They are teaming up, across race, gender, politics, and social status with empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings.  Their actions are reestablishing belief in a positive future based on fairness, equity, and genuine possibility for all.  Is this a tipping point, a moment for reform, or even a revolution?  Or is it just another blip before capitulation and regression?

The exhibit challenges artists to express, in all media and in any size including large installation, their perspective of this time of Re: Formation.  What is shifting? How are these shifts taking form? How do you experience this time of formation?  What is your relationship to it, its impacts on you, your participation in this awareness and militancy? What can or should be done?  What outcomes might result and what will the future look like?  Re: Formation invites artists to actively express this unfolding reality as observers, participants, documentarians, conjurers and critics.

Artwork for Re: Formation depicts:

  •  the process of pivotal change in perception, perspective, assumptions, beliefs,      habits, choices and actions;
  • dramatic relationship changes among people, objects, and places;
  •  bold, redirected thinking and resulting responses about crucial issues;
  •  new forms and structures of a transformed society;
  •  movement in a transformative direction such as towards alternative futures;
  •  recent horrific events and gradual eroding events, their aftermath, and possible solutions;
  •  classism and prejudice in issues of social justice;
  •  conditions that force change; and
  •  challenges to the status quo.

 

 

Borders Exhibit Opening March 3

Letts_The Borderlands (painting)

I am delighted to be included in the upcoming juried exhibition Borders,  hosted by River House and the Owens Community College  Center for Fine and Performing Arts.  The opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 3, from 6-8.  The juror, Sarah Rose Sharp will be speaking at the  opening reception.  She is a 2015 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow for Arts Criticism.

The exhibit will run March 4-31 at the Walter E. Terhune Gallery in the Owens Community College Center for Fine and Performing Arts, located at 30335 Oregon Road, Perrysburg OH 43551. Check here for more information.

A total of 17 artists have been selected to exhibit 27 pieces of work in the juried exhibition. Artists were asked to consider these questions in submitting their works: Where do we find borders and how do they shape us? Why do we embrace or reject them? When does a unifying contour become a divisional line?

The selected artists: David Burke – PA, David Cuatlacuatl – IN, Mary Fortuna – MI, Maureen Joyce – PA, Lindsey Landfried – PA, Yusurf Lateef – OH,  K.A. Letts – MI,  Zach Lihatsh – IL,  Mary Mazziotti – PA, Laurenn McCubbin – OH, Sidney Mullis – PA, Gabrielle Roach – IN, Whitney Sage – OH, Jina Seo – IL, Meagan Shein – MI, Kathryn Shinko – OH, Jessica Tenbusch – MI

Hatchback 10 Call for Art

Hatchback 10 image

Hatch Gallery and Studios, located at 3456 Evaline in Hamtramck, Michigan, has issued a call for artists for Hatchback 10, its annual art exhibition and sale. The due date for applications is March 7, with artist notification on March 14. There is no fee.  The Juror is James Dozier, an accomplished multimedia visual artist represented by Ferndale’s Batista Gallery. Mr. Dozier reports via e-newsletter on art exhibits and cultural events throughout the Detroit area.

There is a limit of 3 images per artist; all media are accepted. All artwork must be for sale. HATCH will take a 30% commission from artwork sold during the exhibition. Entries will be judged from digital files. Images should be about 800 pixels at their longest side. Include the artist’s name in the digital file name.  Entries may be submitted via email or on the Hatch website.  For more information and to apply,  go to: http://www.hatchart.org/hatchback

Hatchback 10 will be on view in the Hatch Gallery from  April 2 to April 30. An opening  reception will be held on April 2 from 6-10 p.m. Gallery hours: Saturdays, 1-6 p.m., with participating artist talks weekly on Saturdays at 2 p.m.

 

 

Just My Type Opens Tonight at Whitdel Arts, Detroit

Just My Type postcard

I will be showing 2 artworks in this group exhibition, which opens tonight at Whitdel Arts. A couple of other talented artists of my acquaintance, Gabrielle Pescador and Parisa Ghaderi, are also in the show.  I’m looking forward to seeing the other artists and their work!

I’m also pleased to be featured in the current Whitdel Arts e-newsletter.

February 12-March 26, 2016
Reception: Friday, February 12, 7:00-10:00pm
Jurors: Joel Grothaus and Lee Marchalonis of Signal Return

Whitdel Arts is proud to present Just My Type.  This exhibition features artwork that focuses on, as well as incorporates, typefaces and letterforms. The letterform is an entity we interact with every day, most often without as much as a second thought; an Adventures of IO lo resartform hiding in plain sight. The way a statement is read can be influenced by the anatomy of the letters that spell it out, from the transition of serifs and slabs, to the shape of the tittle dotting the “i.”  What began as hand-drawn symbols later became mass produced via the printing press and now text can be manipulated with software offering hundreds of options.
Exhibiting artists:

Adrian Deva
Angela Fegan
Ash Nowak
Courtney Richardson
Ed Janzen
Emmy Bright
Erin K Schmidt
Gabrielle Pescador
Gerald Flynt
Jennifer Weigel
John Wood
Jonathon Russell
KA Letts
Matthew Garin
Parisa Ghaderi
Tyler Bohm

The exhibition will run from February 12-March 26, 2016.  This event is free and open to the public. All ages welcome. Open gallery hours are Saturdays during exhibitions, noon-3pm, or by appointment.  For more information, e-mail Jane Larson at jane@whitdelarts.com.  For a full schedule of exhibitions and events at Whitdel Arts, please visit www.whitdelarts.com

Ann Arbor Art Center Call for Work Art Now: Photography

 

Art Now Call for Entries Ann Arbor Art Center

The Ann Arbor Art Center is accepting applications for  the annual juried Art Now series of exhibits at Gallery 117, this one focusing on photography. ART NOW: PHOTOGRAPHY will highlight photographic artists that are able to use the world as a raw material to communicate their own visions and experiences. While the processes may vary significantly, this exhibition will highlight innovative artists working in photography whose practices shapes what Photography is in 2016.

Juror Millee Tibbs is a visual artist residing in Detroit, MI. Her work has been shown throughout the United States and Latin America, including solo exhibitions at Blue Sky Gallery – Oregon Center for Photographic Arts, Notre Dame University, the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), La Patronal Espacio Proyecto (Buenos Aires), and El Centro Cultural de España (Santo Domingo). Recently, she was included in “After Ansel Adams” (Museum of Photographic  Arts, San Diego), and “America in View: Landscape Photography: 1865 to Now, (RISD Museum, Providence). Tibbs’ work is held in the permanent collections of the RISD Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and in the Midwest Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago). She has won numerous awards including studio residencies at the MacDowell Colony, VCCA, Jentel, the Santa Fe Art Institute, and LPEP in Buenos Aires; as well as Puffin Foundation West and ISE Cultural Foundation grants. Tibbs is currently an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University.

Artists may submit a minimum of 1, or maximum 3 images or total media.  There is an entry fee of $35. Deadline for submissions is March 13.  For more information and to apply: http://www.annarborartcenter.org/exhibitions/art-now-photography-2016/

 

Solo Exhibit Opportunity at Whitdel

Whitdel Arts, located at 1250  Hubbard Street in Detroit, is accepting submissions for solo shows to be held in April/May of 2016.  Whitdel is an attractive and well-lighted, non- profit street-level exhibition space in Detroit where I’ve shown my work from time to time. Calls for Art at Whitdel draw applicants nationally. I’ve seen the work of many first-rate artists from Chicago and New York there as well as great art from Southeast Michigan and the Toledo area. My experience with the gallery has been uniformly positive, and I would recommend it to any artist who would like to explore exhibition opportunities in Detroit and who feels it’s time for a comprehensive survey of his/her work.

Usually the shows at Whitdel are booked at least a  year in advance, but  a couple of slots have opened up for  April and May of this year (prime time!) There is a small application fee of $15. For more information on how to apply go to: http://www.whitdelarts.com/solo-show/

 

Online Marketing Site Features K.A. Letts

Last week I was pleased to be featured by online marketing specialist Ryan Salinetti in her very attractive and professional-looking blog Nice Niche, http://www.theniceniche.com/this-week/k-a-letts-artist?rq=K.A.%20Letts

Ms.  Salinetti, who designs, creates and curates The Nice Niche, splits her time living and working in Southampton, New York and Lee, Massachusetts. Beyond the services presented on the website, Ryan provides print and web design to a variety of clients among a wide range of industries. She has developed The Nice Niche to provide a visual aide for other artists and small businesses. More of her work can be found on her portfolio website: http://rysalcreative.com.

I was interested to observe Ryan as she worked on putting together the feature on my work.  Online representation is a dark art to me and although I know online promotion is important for artists, I can’t say that I’m particularly good at it. Plus, it’s time-consuming, and I would rather be making art. Having someone put together  a feature was a real luxury and could be habit-forming!

Call for Art: Borders

Borders

Walter E. Terhune Gallery at the Owens
Center for Fine and Performing Arts
March 4 — 31, 2016

Where do we find them and how do they shape us?
Why do we embrace or reject them?
When does a unifying contour become a divisional line?

Artists from the Great Lakes region are invited to enter a juried exhibition considering these and other questions related to the borders we find in contemporary life. Hosted by River House Arts and Owens Community Center for Fine and Performing Arts, the exhibition is an opportunity for both emerging and mid-career artists, including those working collaboratively. Submissions from artists 18 years of age and older will be accepted through the online service CaFÉ at CallForEntry.org through February 1, 2016. There is an entry fee of $30
The Juror : Sarah Rose Sharp writes about art and culture in the greater Midwest region for Art in America, Hyperallergic, KnightArts, ZIPR Magazine, and other arts publications. She was named a 2015 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow for Arts Criticism and was just named as a participant in the 2016 International Art Critics Association/USA Section (AICA/USA) and the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program.
The complete prospectus can be found at www.riverhousearts.com