From July 2010 to July 2016, Alonso Delarte was Detroit Event Photography Examiner for Examiner.com. This is an archive of the articles he wrote for that website.
Start Gallery was located in the Merchants Building in downtown Detroit. It was founded by Jason Reed in 2011 to give his friends a place to exhibit artwork. Unfortunately, rising rent forced Reed out in 2015.
September 20, 2014 8:49 PM MST
Kelly O'Hara's four paintings at Start Gallery's homage to KISS.
Detroit Rock City at Detroit Art City. Earlier tonight, the doors opened at Start Gallery for Detroit KISS City, a tribute to KISS, a band with strong connections to Detroit. The show, which includes paintings, drawings and even a couple of sculptures, meets with the approval of at least two of the band's fans. "It's a great show," said Mark Rothman, an automotive worker from Highland who has followed KISS from "before they put on the make-up." Rothman came to the gallery with a friend who is also a big fan of the band.
The Corktown Comic Collective, which recently put on a pop-up show at St. CeCe's devoted to superheroes, made a strong showing at Start Gallery with paintings by Kelly O'Hara, Tony Miello and Bruce Gerlach. Both O'Hara and Miello did individual portraits of the band's members (Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley). "I stole your love," the first track from the 1977 album Love Gun is O'Hara's favorite KISS song.
"It's their 40th anniversary, it's a big milestone for them, they just got accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," explained Jason Reed, owner and artistic director of Start Gallery. And like Gene Simmons giving Peter Criss a chance, Reed gave Brandon Heard, an electrical draftsman, a chance to exhibit in an art gallery for the first time. Heard was not a KISS fan to begin with, but as he researched the band, grew to like their music very much, with his favorite song now being "Detroit Rock City," originally released as a single in 1976. Heard has two paintings in the show, a sculpture, and a couple of pieces that straddle the line between painting and sculpture.
Of course the music at the opening reception was an iTunes playlist consisting entirely of KISS songs, played at a loud but not obnoxious volume. The show will be up until October 11, Reed said, though there is no indication of this yet on the gallery's Facebook page. (The gallery's website is in serious need of updating).
COMMENTARY. All this time I kept asking Jason about the next Start Wars exhibit. The Empire starts back, was my suggestion for a title.