Tag Archives: GRAM

GRAM focuses on digital art in upcoming exhibit

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LoVid, Make Room For, 2022. Dye-sublimation on poly canvas with machine and hand-sewing, 47 ½ x 72 5/8 inches. Collection of the Carl & Marilyn Thoma Foundation. © Postmasters Gallery

By WKTV Staff
joanne@wktv.org

Twenty-three software, video, and light-based works of art will be on view this summer at the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) in Message from Our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Foundation. On view June 17 – Sept. 9, the exhibition proposes that digital technology offers distinct ways for artists to communicate with future generations.



“Message from Our Planet celebrates digital technologies as an incredible tool for today’s artists,” said GRAM Associate Curator Jennifer Wcisel. “The works in the exhibition encompass familiar technologies like digital video and photography to the unexpected visualization of data, assemblages of electronic components, and collages of found-video footage. We look forward to highlighting the myriad possibilities of digital art at GRAM and hope our guests leave with a new, broader understanding of the art form.”



Spanning the mid-1980s to today, the works in Message from Our Planet utilize a range of vintage and cutting-edge materials to create a polyphonic time-capsule, preserving their ideas, beliefs, and desires. The regional, national, and international artists featured in the exhibition include Ólafur Elíasson, Jenny Holzer, LoVid, Hong Hao, Matthew Angelo Harrison, Christian Marclay, and James Nares.



Message from Our Planet includes artwork that uses digital technologies as a tool for the creation of more traditional art objects—like a photograph, print, or sculpture—as well as art that is created, stored, and distributed by digital technology and employs their features as its medium.



The artists in Message from Our Planet engage with nontraditional mediums like video games, computer code, scanners, 3-D printers, online data, and even discarded electronic parts to create engaging works of digital art that capture the concerns and ambitions of our current era. The earliest work in the exhibition was created by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kac in 1986 with a now defunct Minitel terminal, a device used to access the most popular online service prior to the World Wide Web.

 

Detroit-based artist Matthew Angelo Harrison uses custom software and a handmade 3D printer to explore history, ancestry, and the relationship between African and African American culture. Harrison’s work, Braided Woman, is a 3D-printed sculpture of an imagined artifact. To create this work, Harrison scanned images of historic African masks from books and online sources, then digitally blended their shapes to generate a unique, composite object.

 

Featured Artists:
Brian Bress
Lia Chaia
Ólafur Elíasson
Nicholas Galanin
Sabrina Gschwandtner
Hong Hao
Matthew Angelo Harrison
Claudia Hart
Jenny Holzer
Eduardo Kac
LoVid
Christian Marclay
Lee Lee Nam
James Nares
Paul Pfeiffer
Tabita Rezaire
Michal Rovner
Jason Salavon
Elias Sime
Skawennati
Penelope Umbrico
Robert Wilson

Member Event:

Member Exhibition Opening: Message from Our Planet
Friday, June 16 | 7 – 9 pm 
Museum Members and their guests are invited to celebrate the opening of Message from Our Planet at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Join us for an advance look at the exhibition, accompanied by hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.



RSVP by June 8 | 616.831.2909 or artmuseumgr.org/memberopening



Message from Our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection is curated and supported by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Support for this exhibition has been generously provided by Wege Foundation, with additional funding provided by GRAM Exhibition Society.

About the Grand Rapids Art Museum 

 Connecting people through art, creativity, and design. Established in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, the art museum is internationally known for its distinguished design and LEED® Gold certified status. Founded in 1910 as the Grand Rapids Art Association, GRAM has grown to include more than 6,000 works of art, including American and European 19th and 20th-century painting and sculpture and more than 3,000 works on paper. Embracing the city’s legacy as a leading center of design and manufacturing, GRAM has a growing collection in the area of design and modern craft.  

For museum hours and admission fees, call 616.831.1000 or visit artmuseumgr.org.  

Current GRAM exhibit definitely makes a colorful ‘impression’

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By Thomas Hegewald
WKTV Contributing Writer

When I hear Impressionism as it relates to an artistic style, I envision compositions void of heavy, straight lines and solid colors. Instead, a multitude of colors are layered on one another, applied using short, quick brush strokes. Up close the image looks like a flurry of colors, from a few paces away, the colors blend, conveying an almost self-illuminating piece.

Philip Little, “Untitled (Fishing Boats),” 1938, Oil on canvas

The Grand Rapids Art Museum currently features a new exhibit, “In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870-1940.” The Bank of America Collection, comprised of 130 pieces of art – paintings, drawings, and prints – shows the progression of the impressionist style. The pieces are grouped according to their region, where different art colonies helped to influence and shape the impressionist style.

Starting with Hudson Valley aesthetics where serene, pastoral views, aglow with golden light set the stage for idealized landscapes. Next came the artists influenced by Barbizon painters of France who painted outside – en plain air – and had a looser style in their brushwork. Here, the landscapes are less romanticized, there are views of buildings, industry and ordinary people, and the weather is not so fair.  Amidst these, I found some with the style aesthetics I had in mind. Untitled (Fishing Boats) by Philip Little, is more like how I imagined the impressionist style to appear. There is an “impression” of people in the boats with barely refined features. The overall color is achieved by combining dabs of many colors to impart value – shadows, highlights – and thus, depth, up close, the painting looks like a lot of little bits – of colors and brush strokes. From afar, the piece is atmospheric. The identity of the fishermen and their location is less important than the feeling of the moment. Their dark forms sitting in little row boats, are lit slightly by the setting sun as they’re set adrift in water that immediately blends into the horizon and sky.

“Winter Stream” (detail), by Emile Gruppe, c.1935-1945, oil on linen

In another regional grouping is Winter Stream by Emile Gruppe who, still an impressionist, exhibits a slightly different style of application. Here the snow-covered banks are painted in long brush strokes. The setting is much more defined albeit conveyed in a number of colors as well, that we, the viewers, blend together to “see” shadows and highlights. There’s less of a frenetic pace of painting in this piece, instead it emits a sense of solitude, slower pace and reflection.

White is also conveyed as mix of colors in Lawton Silas Parker’s, First Born. Both mother and child are dressed in white which is comprised of blues, greens, yellows, and pinks to create the different tonal values. In contrast, and to compliment the central subjects in the piece, the background is awash in layered, jewel-toned colors. There is a return to soft lines and lighting in this piece, another compliment to the subject matter.

Included in the exhibit is a display of the various schools and artist colonies which dotted across the United States. Artists traveled to Europe where they studied abroad for a time, influenced by emerging styles and movements, then returned to the U.S. and started teaching here – starting a school or colony to teach others.

The “In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870-1940” exhibition at the Grand Rapids Art Museum runs until Aug. 27 at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, located at 101 Monroe Center NW. Check artmuseumgr.org for information on gallery hours and entry fee.

Alexander H. Wyant, Untitled (Landscape), c. 1865-1873, Oil on linen
Mathias J. Alten, “California Sycamore” 1929, Oil on canvas

Grand Rapids Art Museum features works from its Keeler Collection

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By WKTV Staff
joanne@wktv.org

Works from the Miner S. and Mary Ann Keeler Collection will be featured in an exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. (supplied)

The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) has opened An Extraordinary Legacy: The Miner S. and Mary Ann Keeler Collection, an exhibition of 65 works of modern and contemporary art at GRAM. Running through Oct. 8, the exhibition celebrates the transformative gift of art given to the given to the Museum from the Keeler Collection between 1976 and 2021, and includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints.

“The Grand Rapids Art Museum is thrilled to celebrate the profound impact of Miner and Mary Ann Keeler on the Museum, and on the city of Grand Rapids, with An Extraordinary Legacy,” said GRAM Advancement Director Elly Barnette-Dawson. “From its inception, the Museum’s permanent collection has grown primarily through the generosity of individual donors. This dynamic gift from the Keelers ensures our community has access to these cherished works of art for generations to come.”



The Keelers’ artistic legacy is built upon their civic and institutional involvement, as well as their personal art collecting. Miner and Mary Ann Keeler had the vision to make art accessible to all in Grand Rapids and were pivotal supporters of downtown revitalization and many local cultural organizations. The couple was central to bringing Alexander Calder’s sculpture, La Grande Vitesse, to downtown Grand Rapids in 1969, as well as the kinetic sculpture Motu Viget, by Mark di Suvero in 1977, and Alexis Smith’s The Grand to DeVos Hall in 1983.



An Extraordinary Legacy is focused on artists who emerged as artistic leaders between 1940 and 1990, a vibrant period in American and European art. The artists represented in the exhibition include Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Diego Rivera, Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Nevelson, Mark di Suvero, Andy Warhol, Janet Fish, and Alexis Smith.



An Extraordinary Legacy is divided into three sections: Sculpture and Sculptors’ Works on Paper explores the significance of sculpture and sculptors in the Keelers’ lives and advocacy. European Modern Masters shares works that illuminate important art historical movements including Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. American Art: From Representation to Abstraction (and Back Again) spans the years 1921 to 1995, focusing on the dynamic tension between realism and abstraction in American art. 

The Muppets take Grand Rapids as GRAM announces 2022 Jim Henson exhibit

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The author and her daughter with Bert and Ernie at the Henry Ford Museum’s “Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited.” (Photo Courtesy of Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

“I have news and you need to be sitting down” is how I told my daughter, a Muppet fan, that the Grand Rapids Art Museum would be bringing “Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited” to Grand Rapids next fall, with an opening date of Oct. 1, 2022.

This past summer, the two of us made the trek down to Detroit to see the exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. This was after me stalking the dates for months to determine when I could get there.

Jim Henson (left) and company as Muppets. (Courtesy of Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

“Hey maybe you’ll be able to get your t-shirt.” she said in response.

Yes, my daughter got her love for the Henson creations from me. I grew up on “Sesame Street” with Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, The Count, and of course, the lovable, iconic green frog named Kermit. She and her sister had a tickle-me “Elmo” that they would sit with as they watched the iconic television show. “Sesame Street” is where most of us discovered the Muppets, which is said to be a blend of the word marionette and puppet.

But by the time, Henson and “Sesame Street,” which debuted in 1969, came about, Henson had already made a name for himself, having created Rowlf for the “Jimmy Dean Show” (I never knew Rowlf was that old) and he received an Academy Award-nomination for his nine-minute experimental film “Time Piece.”

TV producer Joan Ganz Cooney and her staff at Children’s Television Workshop were impressed with Henson’s quality and creativity and asked him to be a part of the show. At first, Henson was not that interested because he was afraid of his Muppets being pigeon-holed for only children, but he eventually agreed. “Sesame Street” would help launch Henson into TV stardom.

But it was Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, Fozzie Bear,  and Kermit along with the rest of “The Muppet Show” cast that would cement Henson, along with partner Frank Oz, into television history.


“The Muppet Show” ran from 1970 -1978 and produced several Muppet movies, the most famous and loved being the 1979 “The Muppet Movie.” I loved it so much, that I purchased the soundtrack on cassette tape and wore it down on the song “I Am Going to Go Back There Someday,” preformed by Gonzo. Today, it remains part of my regular playlist on my iPhone.

Henson would go on to create such cult classics as “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth,” which starred David Bowie. Some also may remember “Fragile Rock” and the animated “Muppet Babies.” By 1990, Henson had sold his company to The Walt Disney Company and completed a few more projects for Disney before his untimely death in 1990.

Organized by the Museum of Moving Image, the upcoming exhibit explores how Henson and his team of designers, writers, technicians, and performers brought to life his many creations. It will feature more than 170 historical objects including iconic puppets, historic costumes, character sketches, storyboards, photographs, annotated scripts, film and television clips, and behind-the-scenes footage. The focus of it all is, of course, center’s on Henson’s ultimate goal, to spark the creativity in all of us.

“The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited” will be open through Jan. 15, 2023. Currently at the GRAM is “An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960-2018.” and “An Interwoven Legacy: the Black Ash Basketry of Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish.” For more on current exhibits and activities at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, visit artmuseumgr.org.

  • The characters of Kira and Jen from Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal” at the recent Henry Ford Museum exhibit of Jim Henson’s work. (Courtesy of Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • The David Bowie’s costume from the film “The Labyrinth.” (Courtesy of Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

The centuries old tradition of black ash basketry, made locally, featured in GRAM exhibit

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The black ash basketry work of artists Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish will be feature at the Grand Rapids Art Museum starting Aug. 28. (Courtesy)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

The centuries old tradition of black ash basketry will be the focus of the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s next installment of its Michigan Artist Series.

Set to open Aug. 28, “The Black Ash Basketry of Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish,” features the work of the mother-and-daughter team who are members of the Gun Lake Tribe, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band. 

“The black ash tree is an integral part of who we are, from creation stories to blood memories, to the baskets that we make today,” Artist Kelly Church said. “We start with the black ash tree, and we do all of the processing—we harvest it, we process it, we cut it, and then we make a basket that tells a story of our life today. We’re combining the traditions of our past that have been carried on for thousands of years.”

Courtesy of Cherish Parrish, Odawa & Pottawatomi, Gun Lake Band. Photo by Richard Church, Odawa & Pottawatomi. © Cherish Parrish

The artists and their family come from an unbroken line of black ash basket makers. The Anishinabe originally made baskets purely for utility, weaving them in various sizes for carrying, collecting, and storing. As a broader appreciation for Native baskets developed, their ancestors began creating decorative baskets to sell and bolster the tribal economy. Church and Parrish draw on these traditions to create more topical and experimental works. An Interwoven Legacy powerfully demonstrates both their astonishing artistry and their urgent advocacy on behalf of Native traditions.

The exhibition emphasizes two of the artists’ primary motivations: the importance of maintaining the basketmaking tradition within their culture, and their advocacy for the black ash tree’s survival, which is being decimated by an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer. These issues are critically important for people whose cultural survival depends on passing traditions on to the next generations, whether through language, ceremonies, or practices like basketry.

Church added, “Cherish and I take our old traditional teachings and we combine it with the contemporary stories of who we are as Natives in 2021. We are the largest basket weaving family in Michigan, and the fact that we can carry it on this long, to me shows strength and resilience of who we are.”

On exhibit through February 26, the artists will debut more than 20 new works in An Interwoven Legacy that focus on the centuries-old tradition of black ash basketry. The exhibit will be a mix of traditional baskets and the contemporary ones that draw on Native history and storytelling.

 

“The Grand Rapids Art Museum’s exhibition presents the work of two Michigan basket makers who are nationally-recognized for their remarkable level of skill and craft,” said GRAM Chief Curator Ron Platt. “In Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish’s family, basket weaving has been handed down from one generation to the next, extending back centuries. Their work is especially powerful for the way it balances tradition with their concerns about the environment, both here in West Michigan, and nationally.”

Kelly Church demonstrates her work. (Courtesy)

Accompanying the exhibition will be documentary elements illustrating the strenuous process of harvesting black ash trees and preparing the splints for basketmaking, as well as stories and background information from Church and Parrish about the works on view.

Complementing the exhibition will be several related programming and events, including Drop-in Tours, virtual basketmaking workshops led by Kelly Church, and Drop-in Studio. Guests are encouraged to view the Museum’s updated visitor guidelines in advance of their visit, which includes face mask requirements for all visitors while indoors.

For those who prefer to experience the exhibition virtually, there will be digital resources on GRAM’s website including installation images, a video interview with the artists, archival photographs, and texts.

Work of acclaimed author, illustrator comes to GRAM this fall

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David Wiesner (American, b. 1956), Art & Max, 2010. Watercolor and acrylic on paper. Copyright ©2010 by David Wiesner.

By Grand Rapids Art Museum


The Grand Rapids Art Museum will present a colorful survey of award-winning author and illustrator, David Wiesner, opening at the Museum Oct. 12. The Art of Wordless Storytelling will be on view at GRAM through Jan. 12, 2020, and features over 70 original watercolors from Wiesner’s most beloved books, including Caldecott Medal winners Tuesday (1991), The Three Pigs (2001), and Flotsam (2006).

His many books have delighted readers of all ages for three decades with wildly imaginative tales that capture the joy of pictures and stories. Wiesner’s body of work explores the complexity of human imagination through colorful, layered imagery, clever composition and humor.

“With GRAM’s mission focused on art, creativity and design, we’re thrilled to present The Art of Wordless Storytelling at the Grand Rapids Art Museum,” commented GRAM Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen. “Wiesner draws from such diverse pictorial narrative inspirations including Surrealist painting; cinema from silent film to 2001 and beyond; and comic books, graphic novels and Japanese anime.” 

David Wiesner (American, b. 1956), Bugs, 2009. Watercolor on paper. Collection of Zora 
and Les Charles.

Examples of Wiesner’s earliest artistic successes are on view in The Art of Wordless Storytelling, as well as sketches and notebooks revealing his time-consuming creative process, which culminates in the dreamlike watercolor paintings that anchor the exhibition.

“Wiesner’s picture books often take years to complete and develop from a process of sketching, drawing, creating 3D models and finally, painting the richly layered watercolors that will be on view,” said GRAM Assistant Curator Jennifer Wcisel. “In working on this exhibition, I have been continually amazed by the power of Wiesner’s imagination and many connections to childhood. He doesn’t simply write a story and then conceive images for it, rather his stories grow from a memory or visual idea and are ‘written’ entirely with pictures.”

When asked about his wordless narratives, Wiesner shared, “By removing the text, I am removing the author’s voice. This lets each reader tell the story in their own voice. It puts readers in the position of collaborating in the storytelling process, asking them to use their imagination along with mine.” He hopes viewers will actively engage with his work, making connections and creating their own meaning, an engagement that is particularly important for young children, who develop visual literacy well before they are able to read.

On view concurrently with The Art of Wordless Storytelling on the Museum’s Level 2 is a parallel exhibition, Worth A Thousand Words: Storytelling with GRAM’s Collection. Comprised of paintings, drawings and sculpture drawn from GRAM’s Collection, in this interactive exhibition, viewers are invited to invent and share their own stories in response to the works on view, all specifically selected for their storytelling potential.

Activities within the galleries for children, families, and adults have been created to inspire visual literacy and storytelling skills and create fun experiences for visitors of all ages. In addition to the exhibition’s interactive spaces, guests are invited to participate in a full calendar of family-friendly events, including the Member Exhibition Opening, Coffee with the Artist, Community Conversations: Storytelling Beyond Words, Family Day, a Parent and Child Workshop, and more.

From Rembrandt to Calder, GRAM exhibit features museum’s collection

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

“Can you tell me what it is?” asked GRAM Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen to a group of media representatives as he pointed to a large black metal box sitting on a wire frame in the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s exhibition area.

“A safe?” someone responded.

“It’s a refrigerator,” Friis-Hansen said. “So it’s kind of a safe — a safe for food.”

The piece, a recent gift from the George R. Kravis II collection, is one example of the 125 different items featured in the current GRAM exhibit “A Decade at the Center: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions,” which is up through April 28.

The exhibit, which closes out a yearlong celebration of GRAM’s tenth anniversary at its 101 Monroe Center location, is designed to get to the heart of the museum — it’s collection, featuring works of art and design acquired through gifts and purchases from the last five years.

“The Grand Rapids Art Museum’s collection of more than 6,000 works is the heart of the Museum, and just like the city it serves, has grown and transformed over the course of its more than 100-year history,” Friis-Hansen said.

Rembrandt etching on paper: “Nude Man Seated on the Ground with One Leg Extended.” 1646. (Photo supplied by GRAM)

Featuring works from Rembrandt to Grand Rapids’ own Mathias J. Alten and the man behind the hLa Grande Vitesses, Alexander Calder, “Decades at the Center” showcases artists from six continents representing a variety of mediums fromm prints to sculpture. The oldest pieces are two etchings from Martin Schongauer from the 15th century with some of the newest being a selection of items from the gift of 100 design objects from Kravis, one of the premier American collectors.

From the George Kravis collection: “KM Flatwork Ironer Iron,” model no. 444. 1939, (Photo supplied by GRAM)

Kravis, a broadcasting executive, collected thousands of pieces focused on industrial design. While the items were often everyday pieces — such as a bicycle or a phone — they showcased machine aesthetic and clean lines that married form with function, Friis-Hansen said.

“GRAM’s commitment to exhibiting and collecting design and craft is illustrated by the inclusion of important works of furniture, ceramics, glass and industrial design,” said GRAM Chief Curator Ron Platt. “The modern and contemporary design objects in the exhibition — ranging from furniture and lamps to tableware and electronics — marry function and beauty and show the power design has to enhance our daily lives.”

“I’m most excited about works that have never been viewed at GRAM before,” said GRAM Chief Curator Ron Platt.

Dawoud Bay gelatin silver photograph: “Two Women at a Parade.” 1978, printed 2011. (Photo supplied by GRAM)

Along with the items from the Kravis collection, other new pieces are two powerful black-and-white portraits by photographer Dawoud Bey, known for his photographs of adolescents and other often marginalized subjects. There is also the 1950s “Peonies on a Table” by American representational painter Jane Freilicher.

The exhibit has been paired with “A Legacy of Love: Selections from The Mable Perkins Collection.”

“Mabel Perkins was probably the first serious art collector in Grand Rapids,” Platt said. “We received a large portion of her collection of master prints. 

“It’s really at the heart of GRAM’s story as a collecting institution and sort of at the heart of the idea of gifts to a collection being very, very important not only to an institution but to a community.”

For GRAM’s hours and admission fees, visit artmuseumgr.org or call 616-831-1000.

Newest GRAM exhibit takes sports photojournalism into world of artistic excellence 

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By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

The adage ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ is cliché, but any sports fan or photography admirer will tell you without hesitation that, often, art is in the eye of the camera lense.

 

There is more than 200 examples of photography approaching, achieving and often simply blowing away any doubt that photographs of sports and athletes are museum worthy in the Grand Rapids Art Museum “art” exhibit, “Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present”, which opened Friday, Oct. 26.

 

From the uber-iconic 1965 photo of boxer Muhammad Ali standing over beaten foe Sonny Liston by Neil Leifer, to historic photos of the ordinary athlete and the ideal athletic aesthetic from late 1800s, the exhibit shows again and again the exacting art of the sports photographer.

 

“Who Shot Sports” guest curator discusses aspects of the GRAM exhibit. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

“You do not get a second chance,” exhibit curator Gail Buckland said to WKTV at a media tour early on opening day. “You have to anticipate. They work as hard as the athletes sometimes. … They don’t want to just take the easy photo. They want something that will last through time. Hence why they are appropriate for the art museum. … they are that universal image.”

 

The exhibition, which will be on view at the GRAM through Jan. 13, 2019, is said to be the most comprehensive survey of the art of sports photography ever produced, with more than 200 images.

 

One of the most impressive aspects of the show is the wide-range of black-and-white photographs — which, void the distraction of color, some consider the purest form of photography — with examples spanning from the 19th to the 21st Century.

 

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, “Who Shot Sports” highlights the “aesthetic, cultural and historical significance of the images and artists in the history of sports since the invention of photography in the 19th century. Visitors will see how the evolution of photographic technology enabled its practitioners to capture the human body in motion as it had never been seen before,” according to supplied information.

 

“Seeing athletic greatness, we both recognize our personal physical limitations and delight in bodies and minds taken to new heights,” Buckland said in supplied information. “To play and to watch is to be in the moment. Still photographers are masters of moments.”

 

Derek Jeter sliding into Third Base, 2003. By Barton Silverman. (Supplied)

That idea of putting the viewer into a moment of athletic achievement has dozens of examples but none more so than one of baseball great Derek Jeter, who raised in Kalamazoo before eventually becoming a New York Yankee icon, sliding head first into third base.

 

Buckland discussed the photo in detail, both as a perfectly captured moment and as an example of modern — and historic — athletes knowing they are the stars of a “show.”

 

“I see that sports photography is a very important part of sports photojournalism and inherent in photojournalism is a connection to real life,” Buckland said to WKTV. But “athletes, unlike someone walking down the street, expect to be seen. This is performance. In ancient times, it was spectacle. And it is still spectacle. (But often) … they don’t know what they look like until they see themselves in a photograph. And that is a theory of photography too. None of us know what we look like. How we look in a photograph is quite different than we think. But … I do not think it is so much what Derek Jeter looks like as much as what it feels like to slide into the base, to be part of the action.”

 

The exhibition is divided into nine thematic sections exploring different subjects within the field; The Beginning of Sports Photography; The Decisive Moment; Fans and Followers; Portraits; Behind the Scenes; Vantage Point; In and Out of the Ring; For the Love of the Sports; and the Olympics, featuring images from the first modern Olympics in 1896 to the London Olympics in 2012.

 

The exhibit also includes a variety of related events and programming, including curator talks, GRAM After Dark: Jock Jams, drop-in tours, art-making workshops and lectures. For a complete list of programming, visit artmuseumgr.org/whoshotsports .

 

For GRAM’s hours and admission fees visit artmuseumgr.org .

 

GRAM’s popular exhibitions extended through ArtPrize

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Intersections by Anila Quayyum Agha

By Grand Rapids Art Museum

 

Visitors to the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) during ArtPrize 2018 will get a special experience as two current exhibitions, Anila Quayyum Agha: Intersections and Mirror Variations: The Art of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, will be on display through Oct. 7, the last day of ArtPrize 2018. During ArtPrize, there will be no admission charge for these exhibitions.

 

In 2014, Intersections won the ArtPrize Public Vote and Juried Grand Prize, the first and only time in the international art competition’s history. Four years later, Intersections remains equally as popular.

 

“It was exhilarating to watch GRAM’s ArtPrize visitors encounter Intersections in 2014, and there’s been an amazing response with the return of her work this summer,” said GRAM Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen. “We’re excited to give our guests an extra surprise, allowing them to extend their visit during ArtPrize 10.”

 

Agha’s work is presented alongside Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, an Iranian artist with an international reputation for sculpture and drawing that fuses traditional Persian patterns based in mathematics with geometric abstract art. Her work develops out of her interest in the serial progression of rectilinear forms, such as triangles, pentagons and hexagons.

 

The work of Monir Farmanfarmaian will be up through ArtPrize.

“Monir Farmanfarmaian is one of the most fascinating artists in the world—truly an artist of the 21st century,” commented GRAM Chief Curator Ron Platt. “We are delighted to share her works with the diverse audiences that come through GRAM’s doors during ArtPrize 10.”

 

Both artists create work which draws inspiration from Islamic tradition and modern abstraction, creating objects of great beauty and depth. GRAM’s presentation of the two solo exhibitions is part of its commitment to highlighting works of art by diverse artists year-round.

 

During ArtPrize 10, the Grand Rapids Art Museum will feature 10 artists along with the exhibits of Farmanfarmaian’s and Agha’s work.

 

For GRAM’s hours and admission fees, visit artmuseumgr.org or call 616-831-1000.

ArtPrize winner returns to the GRAM in series of exhibits that represents diversity

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Anila Agha’s “Intersections” is at the Grand Rapids Art Museum through Aug. 26.

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

 

This summer, the Grand Rapids Art Museum celebrates diversity with three shows featuring artists from Pakistan, Iran, and South America.

 

“It does turn out to be that way but it wasn’t exactly what we set out to do,” said Grand Rapids Art Museum Chief Curator Ron Platt. “We always strive to represent diversity in our programming, so we are really happy about the convergence of these shows.”

 

In 2014, Anila Agha took ArtPrize by storm with her installation “Intersections,” featuring a large cube with a light bulb in the center that helped to reflect out the patterns and ornamentation inspired from traditional Islamic architecture and design. The piece, which hung in the GRAM in 2014, won both the ArtPrize Public Vote and Juried Grand Prize.

 

It returns to the museum with the exhibit “Mirror Viariations: the Art of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian.” An Iranian artist, Farmanfarmaian is known for creating work which draws inspiration from Islamic tradition and modern abstraction. Now 90, she was the first Iranian artist of her generation to use cut-glass mosaics as a medium, as art without religious function.

 

The work of Monir Farmanfarmaian is up through Aug. 26.

“These shows are very engaging for people of all ages and people who are art fans and people who are causal art viewers,” Platt said. “The Farmanfarmaian show includes intricate mirror mosaics crafting that I think is astonishing in how complex and beautiful it is.

 

“It also has, at its base. geometry which you know is a universal language in itself which is something that kids learn and study about, and everybody knows what squares, triangles, and rectangles are. It’s amazing to see what she is doing with those shapes.”

 

The “Mirrors Variations” exhibit is centered around large sculptural reliefs with surfaces of cut mirror mosaic and reverse-glass painting. The materials were used extensively in traditional Persian architecture, an inspiration to the artist.

 

Bruja Infante by Oswaldo Vigas

There is a variety of programming planned around the Agha and Farmanfarmaian exhibits including artist talks, a film screening, and drop-in tours. For more visit, www.artmuseumgr.org.

 

In a separate exhibit, located on the first floor, is “Oswaldo Vigas: Transformations,” which is the first solo exhibit of the Venezuelan artist in the United States.

 

“The Vigas show is really interesting because it covers a 40-year period of his work,” Platt said. “It is paintings and drawings, and it looks at how his drawing practice forms his paintings but also shows how he moved through different styles but still remained interested in ideas about mythology and Latin American identity in his work.”

 

“Mirror Variations” and “Intersections” will be up through Aug. 26. “Transformations will be up through Sept. 2. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is located at 101 Monroe Ave. NW.

Local pianist Talaga, with symphony strings, offers premier work at GRAM

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Pianist Steve Talaga, at right (shown with a jazz trip), will team with Grand Rapids Symphony strings to present two works written by Talaga in a Nov. 26 concert at the GRAM. (Supplied)

WKTV Staff

news@wktv.org

 

The Grand Rapids Art Museum’s Sunday Classical Concert Series, a series of 16 performances during the fall and winter each year, will present a special program featuring local pianist Steve Talaga on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

“String Fling: The Music of Steve Talaga”, will be presented Sunday, Nov. 26, at 2 p.m. at the museum.

 

“An ensemble of virtuoso string players from the Grand Rapids Symphony will perform my string quartet and a new quintet for piano and strings, “From Darkness into Light”, Talaga said to WKTV. “This will be the world premier (of the second work) and I’ll be joining them at the piano.”

 

Talaga wrote the string quartet when was written in 1990 when he was a graduate student at Western Michigan University.

 

The setting of the concerts is one of the GRAM’s beautiful, natural light filled spaces which showcase the buildings architecture and galleries as well as the music. The concert is open to the public with general admission, and free for all GRAM members. Seating is first come, first served.

 

The GRAM is located in downtown Grand Rapids. For more information visit artmuseum.org .

 

Andy Warhol’s ‘American Icons’, ‘Christian Marclay: Video Quartet’ open at GRAM Oct. 28

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‘Marilyn Monroe’ by Andy Warhol

By Elizabeth Payne, Grand Rapids Art Museum

 

The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is pleased to announce its fall exhibitions opening October 28, Andy Warhol’s American Icons and Christian Marclay: Video Quartet. American Icons will be on view at the Museum through February 11, 2018, and Video Quartet will be open through January 14, 2018.

 

Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Andy Warhol’s American Icons showcases Warhol’s vision and celebration of America by bringing together paintings, prints, photographs, and films that create a handbook of American cultural icons.

 

“Andy Warhol makes a dramatic return to the Grand Rapids Art Museum this fall,” commented GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen. “One of the Museum’s first exhibitions in its new building was Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series in Spring 2008. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our tenth anniversary at 101 Monroe Center than by bringing back key works by this quintessential contemporary artist.”

 

American Icons spotlights iconic figures like Marilyn Monroe, Sitting Bull, Muhammad Ali, Liz Taylor, and one of the most famous Grand Rapidians, Gerald R. Ford. Products and symbols can be icons as well; the exhibition includes Warhol’s well-known Campbells soup can screenprints and an important early painting on loan from the Whitney Museum of American art, Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962), among other symbols of America. American Icons draws on artworks from GRAM’s collection, as well as works from private collections and other public art institutions throughout the country, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

 

“It’s exciting for GRAM to be organizing an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s work around a theme that occupied the artist for his entire career: what products and symbols define and represent the US? Which Americans are the most iconic?” said GRAM’s Chief Curator, Ron Platt. “Thirty years after his death, Warhol is still influential and seems ahead of his time. I would argue that Warhol himself is as much an American icon as any of those represented in the exhibition.”

 

Still from ‘Christian Marclay: Video Quartet’

Rounding out the exhibition are photographs and early films, from a period when Warhol was experimenting with the mediums. Empire, an eight-hour long “portrait” of the famed Empire State Building as filmed from a static position in an adjacent building, will be on view, along with several of the artist’s Screen Tests. The Screen Tests are 3-minute filmed portraits of Warhol Factory regulars and visitors, in which the subjects stared back at or enjoyed the attention of the stationary camera, constructing their own personas before our eyes.

 

Christian Marclay: Video Quartet—a seventeen-minute film installation on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art—is opening in conjunction with Andy Warhol’s American Icons. The exhibition consists of four synchronized video projections that form one contiguous image-and-sound work. The installation is comprised of more than 700 individual fragments of film and sound from popular movies which feature people playing musical instruments or singing, as well as other soundtrack elements such as shouts, screams, crashes, and moments of cinematic silence.

 

“Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay has sampled, improvised, and remixed sound, video, and performance into multi-media works that defy categorization,” added GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen. “Video Quartet is an immersive installation experience that’s sure to captivate film and music fans alike.”

 

The clips included in Video Quartet are primarily taken from Hollywood feature films dating from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century. Marclay meticulously edited the clips on a home computer into a new unified composition in which the performers seem to improvise together free of their original context, creating moments of synchrony or seeming to spontaneously respond to each other as if performing live.

 

Complementing Andy Warhol’s American Icons and Christian Marclay: Video Quartet, GRAM members and the public can enjoy several events and related programming, including the Member Exhibition Party, Warhol Factory Party, Drop-in Tours, and lectures.

 

 

Grand Rapids Public Museum partners with local art museum for reciprocal membership benefits

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The Grand Rapids Public Museum. (Supplied)

By Kate Moore

Grand Rapids Public Museum

 

This August the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is partnering with the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) to offer reciprocal membership benefits.

 

Through this partnership, GRPM members can visit GRAM during the month of August and receive free general admission and discounts in the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s store. GRAM members can in return visit the GRPM and receive free general admission, free planetarium shows, free carousel rides, and FREE admission to the special exhibit “Mindbender Mansion!”

 

Grand Rapids Art Museum (supplied).

As an added benefit GRAM members will receive member pricing to the Grand Rapids Maker Faire, hosted by the GRPM, taking place August 19th & 20th. Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to scientists to artists and crafters, Maker Faire is a venue showcasing inventions, creations and more.

 

“It’s a great time to be a member of the GRPM!” said Kate Moore, VP of Marketing and PR for the Grand Rapids Public Museum. “We are thankful to the Art Museum for their partnership, making it possible for us to offer even more to the community.”

 

“GRAM’s proud to partner with the Grand Rapids Public Museum for the third year in a row,” commented Juliana Nahas-Viilo, Membership Manager of the Grand Rapids Art Museum. “The Grand Rapids Public Museum is one of the many outstanding cultural institutions in our city, and we are excited to offer this reciprocal benefit to our members.”

 

For more information on the reciprocal membership benefits or to become a member of the GRPM, please visit grpm.org/membership.

 

Grand Rapids Maker Faire

 

Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire gathers all-ages to learn and teach about new ideas and collaborations! Interactive stations and inventions will be showcased by tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these “makers” come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned. Visitors to this year’s Grand Rapids Maker Faire can expect to see and interact with more than 100 maker booths.

 

Join the family-friendly celebration of tech enthusiasts, crafters, hobbyists, engineers, artists, and commercial exhibitors. Visitors will be hands-on driving robots, being a part of an iron pour, testing renewable energy sources, seeing 3D printing and more!

 

The Faire will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19 and from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, August 20th. More information and tickets available at GrandRapids.MakerFaire.com.

 

Eclipse Party

 

The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is hosting a special Eclipse Day Party on August 21st between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to celebrate the total eclipse that will span the continental United States. The Eclipse Day will include hands-on solar related activity booths, multiple shows on the half hour of “Eclipses and Phases of the Moon” in the Chaffee Planetarium, and a live stream of the total eclipse will be shown in the Meijer Theater.

 

Activities as part of the Eclipse Party will be included with general admission to the Museum. GRAM and GRPM members be FREE for this event. Activities will take place outside, weather permitting. Visitors attending the Grand Rapids Maker Faire on August 19th and 20th, will receive free admission to the Eclipse Day Party by wearing their event wristband! Visit grpm.org for more information.

Rarely exhibited Newcomb ceramics, tableware, jewelry, textiles and more on display thru April 17 at GRAM

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Platter, c. 1942-1948. Gulf Stream. Sarah A. E. “Sadie” Irvine with Kenneth Smith or Francis Ford. Newcomb Art Collection, Tulane University

By GRAM

 

Between 1894 and 1948, some of the most beautiful and functional art objects of the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements were created at the Newcomb Pottery Enterprise in New Orleans. The Pottery was an innovative educational experiment as much as an operational facility: it was conceived in the late 19th century at Newcomb Memorial College, Tulane University’s coordinate institution for women, as an income-generating venture for women training in the applied arts.

 

The Newcomb School operated under the philosophy that no two handcrafted objects should be alike, as evident in the wide-ranging works of the exhibition. The selection of handcrafted objects showcases the Pottery artisans’ unique interpretations of animal and botanical subjects, including the flora and fauna of the American South.

Sadie Irvine at the Newcomb Pottery Studio

 

Women, Art, and Social Change includes examples from the full range of the Newcomb collection, from the naturalistic, blue and green tones, to the signature design of vertically banded spatial divisions, to the austere, modernist aesthetic that celebrated the vessel form. The exhibition is rounded out with historical photographs and artifacts that lend additional insight into the Newcomb Pottery story.

 

The exhibition serves as a retrospective of the works of the students and teachers of Newcomb Memorial College, and their important contribution to women’s rights and social change. The Newcomb model proved successful during a time of economic hardship, providing financial stability and economic autonomy for numerous women, who established themselves vocationally as independent artisans, instructors, activists, and businesswomen. This pioneering cohort of self- reliant women not only made a lasting impact on the art community, but also proved the value of an education, during a time in which learning opportunities for women in the Deep South were lacking.

 

Over 125 rarely exhibited Newcomb ceramics, tableware, jewelry, textiles, bookbinding, and graphics, from one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century American pottery, are on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM), 101 Monroe Center NW. Call 616.831.1000 for info.