Artist Statement
My Detroit paintings capture scenes of daily life and reflect a distinctly American landscape where industry, urban and nature collide. They are a visual record of the quiet beauty in the everyday scene. Portraits of forgotten and neglected spaces. Places that exist in silence, unrevered and waiting to be discovered. Scenes of vanishing industry, urban ruins, sunlit houses, storefronts and the urban prairie. I work in oils on linen canvas and linen panels in the simple and direct Alla Prima method. Although my work is representational I am more interested in the “Story” of the scene and the “Plasticity”of the paint than in creating an exact representation of the subject.
My urban landscape paintings are portraits of how we as a society have affected and continue to alter the environment around us. My paintings are the language I use to communicate the things I can not articulate.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2016
David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI
2015
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2014
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2013
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2011
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2010
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2009
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2008
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2007
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2006
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
George Billis Gallery LA, Culver City, CA
2005
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2004
Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI
2003
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2002
Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI
2001
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2000
Urban Landscapes, Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, MI
1998
Street Scenes, Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, MI
1997
Ten Year Retrospective, Meadow Brook Art Gallery, Rochester, MI
Paintings of New York, Chuck Levitan Gallery, New York, NY
Mercury Gallery, Boston, MA
1996
Images of New York, Chuck Levitan Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011
More Real than Real, Peter Walker Fine Art, Adelaide, South Australia
2010
Summer Group Show, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
Architectural and Industrial Realism:
Washington County Museum of Art, Hagerstown, MD
2009
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
Michigan Masters Invitational,Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, MI
The Grand Bazaar, Benefit for Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit,
2008
City Lights, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2007
Driven: Art from the Motor City, Copper Country Center, Hancock, MI
Good Night Sun, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
Pop Realism, George Billis Gallery LA, Culver City, CA
2006
Carl Schlosberg, Los Angeles, CA
In the City, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
The Pavilion, New York, NY
Fort Wayne Museum of Art 2006 Biennial, Fort Wayne, IN
Landscapes, Real & Imagined, David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
Art Works for Life, Dearborn, MI
2005
Art Works for Life, Detroit, MI
Summer Group Show, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI
2004
Art Works for Life, Detroit, MI
Carl Schlosberg, Los Angeles, CA
Inaugural Exhibition, George Billis Gallery LA, Los Angeles, CA
Industrial Beauty, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
New NYC Artists, Michael Ingbar Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED AWARDS
2000
Polk Competition Purchase Award
1998
Commission, General Motors Corp. Detroit, MI
1994
Residency, Hambidge Center, Georgia
EDUCATION
1985
Center for Creative Studies-College of Art and Design, Detroit, MI
1974
Bachelor of Arts, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, MI
PUBLICATIONS
Postcards from Detroit Vol I, 2007 Paintings
Postcards from Detroit Vol II, 2008 Paintings
The Urban Alphabet, Published Dec 2008
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2007
Gail Leggio, Exibitions, American Arts Quarterly, Winter 2007, pp. 59-61
2006
Rose, Joshua, Collectors will respond to nostalgic glimpses of
Los Angeles. American Art Collector, June, pp. 150-153
2004
Guten Cohen, Keri, Painter lightens up, Detroit Free Press, Sunday, May 2
2003
Mannisto, Glen, Intimate Vistas, Detroit Metro Times, Feb. 19, p. 22-23
2002
Cohen, Keri, Ferndale Artist Gains National Attention For His Paintings, Which Capture The Beauty and Soul of The Urban Landscape, April 26, pp 1E, 12E.
2001
Sefton, Barbara Wylan, Emerging Artist, Art & Antiques, October, pp. 58-60.
2000
Wing, Diana, Art and technology , The Mirror Newspapers, Detroit, May 18.
1998
Carducci, Vincent, Detroit, Trait, Introductory Issue
Hoover, Barbara, GM on canvas, Detroit News, Sept. 17
Crawford, Lynn, Posed Structures, Metro Times, Detroit, MI, Apr. 15
People making the news, Detroit Free Press, Apr. 7
Provenzano, Frank, Revealing the lasting presence behind a neglected urban landscape, The Eccentric, Birmingham, MI, Apr. 5
Keri Guten-Cohen, Urban architecture tell his story, Detroit Free Press, Jan.
1997
Henry, Gerrit, At Chuck Levitan, Art in America, Oct.
Colby, Joy Hakanson, Artists paint Detroit in romantic colors, The Detroit News, June 19
Galleries, New York Observer, New York, NY, May 12
Dellolio, Peter, NY Arts Magazine, Issue No. 10, May
Kampel, Traci, Down-to-earth Midwesterner captures the ‘real’ Soho, The Villager, New York, NY, Apr.16
1996
Miro, Marsha, Artists at Lemberg Show, Detroit, MI, Jan. 28
Colby, Joy Hakanson, Young Collectors, The Detroit News, Jan. 18
1995
Mannisto, Glenn, Fine Arts Live, Metro Times, Detroit, MI, Dec. 20
Colby, Joy Hakanson, Earthy theme, The Detroit News, July 7
Miro, Marsha, Paintings: Element is the City, Detroit Free Press, Apr. 24
1994
Echlin, Hobey, Review ’94: Visual Art, Metro Times, Detroit, MI, Dec. 21
Miro, Marsha, Motor City Muse, Detroit Free Press, June 10
1992
Pasfield, Veronica, A Brush with the City, Detroit Monthly, Mar.
1990
Eckstrom, Kevin, Detroit Letters, Contemporanea, No. 23, Dec.
Eckstrom, Kevin, Post-Industrial Romanticism, New Art Examiner, Sept.
Miro, Marsha, Five Local Artists Focus on Industry’s Decline in Detroit That Was, Detroit Free Press, Apr.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Aegon Group, New York, NY
American Capital, New York, NY
Ameritech (SBC), Detroit, MI
Central Insurance Companies, Van Wert, OH
Conway, MacKenzie and Dunleavy, Birmingham, MI
Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, MI
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman, Detroit, MI
Dornbush Schaeffer Strongin & Weinstein, New York, NY
The Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI
James Pearson Duffy Collection, Detroit, MI
The Museum of the City of New York, NY
New York Historical Society, New York, NY
Polk Company, Southfield, MI
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, Detroit, MI
Schwartz Art Collection, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA
Sprint Communications, Kansas City, MO
Stanley Stahl Management Inc., New York, NY
Time Warner/AOL, New York, NY
Waner Group, New York, NY