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Re:View Contemporary Gallery is pleased to present Long Distance, a two-person exhibition comprising multiple charcoal drawings by Dutch artist Dineke Blom and a singular steel sculpture by Detroit artist Adam Shirley. The exhibition, the first time the artists’ works will be shown together, as well as, the first time for Dineke Blom’s drawings to be exhibited in Detroit, explores the connections between the two artists’ works and Detroit.

Although working in different countries, disciplines and mediums, Blom and Shirley share a central interest in the way in which we perceive the world around us, both abandoning narrative in favor of intuition, and the act of seeing. The two artists also draw inspiration from the tradition and history of art to create work within a contemporary context.

In specific paintings of the 17^th century Dutch masters, Dineke Blom recognizes an akin concern with perception, even though the theme is addressed often implicitly in works from that time. To Blom, the paintings evoke a world that is difficult to grasp: it is a world of suggestion, of relations that shift, such as between foreground and background. In her view, it is exactly these shifting states that illuminate the world around us, and facilitate its opening to the eye of the observer. Seeing and studying these works in an intuitive way, Blom begins to draw, as her focus gradually shifts from her sources of inspiration to her own drawing, and she finds ways to visualize the process of active seeing.

In a parallel way, Adam Shirley draws inspiration from the paintings of Giorgio Morandi and the idea of perceiving the world through a singular material. In his three-dimensional still life, “the one and the many,” Shirley explores notions of perception and understanding through the process of making multiples of a single object. His objects appear both familiar and foreign, suggesting they are the physical realization of thought and observation.

In the “emptiness” of Dineke Blom’s drawings, one can find a connection to the vast abandonment of post-industrial Detroit, and perhaps the potential for re-drawing the future of a city. Similarly, in Adam Shirley’s sculpture, one can find an association with manufacturing, assembly lines, the auto industry, and the potential of a revisited technological model. Shirley’s “manufactured” objects in this single sculpture are made from reclaimed steel.

Long Distance brings us a unique opportunity to experience both artists’ works together, as they bridge historic references with today’s possibilities: Blom’s drawing compositions defying flatness to suggest space and three-dimensionality, and the inherent possibility of human’s imagination; and Shirley’s sculptural industrial-like works unexpectedly evoking the subtle beauty of a painting composition, reminding us of that vastness readily present through the subtlest everyday observations.

Dineke Blom is a visual artist living and working in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She was educated at Ateliers 63 in Haarlem. Dineke Blom’s work has been shown internationally in galleries and museums and she is represented by gallery AdK Actuele Kunst, Amsterdam, where she regularly hosts solo exhibitions. Her work is also included in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Teylers Museum, Haarlem; ABNAmro Artfoundation; Bouwfonds Artfoundation; NOG Collection of SNS REAAL Fonds, and private collections in The Netherlands and abroad.

Opening Reception
Saturday, May 18, 7 pm – 10 pm

Re:View Contemporary Gallery is pleased to present A Myriad of One, Simone DeSousa’s first solo exhibit in Detroit.

All things emerge from the ground of emptiness, and return to it, in a continuous exchange.

Description

One Night Stand is a collaboration between Re:View Gallery and College for Creative Studies with the goal to provide students with an opportunity to engage in a professional experience outside school. The selection process included jurying the submissions, as well as studio visits conducted by Re:View’s gallery director, Simone DeSousa.

Please join us for this special one night event where the community and College for Creative Studies come together and celebrate our emerging artists. Selected juniors and seniors will be available to discuss their work and engage in conversations. Please take advantage of this one night exhibition and meet the artists who will have an impact on the contemporary art world.

Artist Talk:
Thursday, Feb. 21, 7 pm – 8 pm

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Re:View Contemporary Gallery is pleased to present Marie Torbensdatter Hermann’s first solo exhibit in Detroit. Hermann, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, lives and works in London, Detroit, and Copenhagen. She studied at the Royal College of Art in London, 2007-2009, and at The University of Westminster in London, 2000-2003. Solo exhibitions include “To the legion of the lost” at Matin Gallery, Los Angeles, “The only thing I can think about is yellow” Egg Gallery, London, as well as various gallery shows in England, China, USA, Italy, Germany, and Denmark. She is also the director of Sixpm Project Space in London.

In A Gentle Blow to the Rock, Marie T. Hermann creates fictional scenarios, open-ended scenes from a possible domestic environment, where objects exist in a sort of liminal space between an easily recognizable everyday object, evoking familiar sensations, and a suddenly ambiguous form that requires a new interpretation and the creation of new relationships.

In the objects that make up Hermann’s scenes, function is almost always denied, with tops often enclosed, making the prospect of filling up the space inside the object no longer a possibility.  By denying the objects’ assumed function, she induces a reflection towards the subtleties of these forms, and the relationships we have developed with them.

Always working with groupings, rather than one object at a time, Hermann focuses on the relationships that arise between the objects, the subtleties of space, and the final delicate compositions that allow their parts to come into existence.

In these arranged snapshots of everyday life, Hermann dissects a moment and presents it in a transformed way, prompting us into a deeper understanding and appreciation of forms that often go undetected in our contemporary lives filled with information. An old memory is questioned, and a new memory is created. In the process, the realization of untapped possibilities and an invitation to the simple, and profound, entrancement of exploration.

Description

Overall view of installation

Detail of installation

Detail of installation

Overall view of installation

Detail of installation

Detail of installation

Detail of installation

Detail of installation

The group exhibit Re:Collect is Re:View Contemporary Gallery’s only annual group exhibit including all ten represented artists. For the 2012 edition of this exhibit, each artist was invited to create one piece with maximum dimensions of 48x48x48 inches. Re:Collect celebrates Re:View Gallery’s mission in Detroit, since 2008, as a space created to channel inspiration in the form of  some of the best manifestations of contemporary art in Detroit today, a reminder of art’s connectivity to community and social transformation, and a space that invites the cultivation of a new culture of art collecting in Detroit.

Description

Description

Overview image of exhibit

View of exhibit

Post-prehistory

2012
Acrylic, collage, spray paint, enamel on canvas
72 x 60.5 inches

Array of Paintings

2012
(sizes of paintings vary)

QTLi

2012
Acrylic, spray paint, enamel, caulk on canvas
78 x 64 inches

Hawaiian Breeze

2012
Fan, speaker

AM

2012
Acrylic, spray paint, caulk on canvas
68 x 72 inches

Plinth

2012
Acetate on stand

View of exhibit

Divination DS3

2012
Leather jacket on stand

divinationDS3

2012
Still shots from performance

View images from installation in process

Re:View artist Greg Fadell will be presenting “Paris of the West,” a four-story installation at the Willys Overland Lofts, in Midtown Detroit. “Paris of the West” is the first of a series of installations by gallery artists in “off-site” locations.  It will be activated first on Saturday, September 22, with a live painting performance by Fadell starting at 8:00 pm, and it will be activated again on Friday, October 5, from 6 pm to midnight, in conjunction with Dlectricity and Detroit Gallery Week.

The concept for the site-specific work is directly connected to the artist’s painting works. In the installation, Fadell evokes Detroit’s historic connection with France, using this connection both practically and artistically to speak subliminally to anyone who is interested in the reconstruction of the city.  ”Paris of the West” appropriates the nickname given to Detroit because of its architecture and most notably the Paris like “spoke and wheel” grid that was used in planning the layout of downtown.

The whitewashed windows reference Paris as well. The French use this same treatment on the windows of buildings in “transition” or under renovation. By bisecting the buildings facade along its center axis of windows with whitewash, Fadell is symbolically echoing Midtown as the arts center of Detroit and also representing a “midpoint” of Detroit’s journey to revitalization.

During the day time hours, the white column of windows will appear to be indicative of units that are under construction. At night, the windows will be illuminated from the inside with raw light, which will form a shaft of glowing white going straight through the middle of the building.