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.
February 17, 2013
Todd Ponagai shows off one of his tattoos by Amanda Snyder next to Snyder's painting of Red Riding Hood at Start Gallery. Photo by Alonso del Arte.
Whether inking skin or painting a flat canvas, the artists exhibiting at Start Gallery are creating masterpieces. Tattoo artist Amanda Snyder is an excellent example at this year's installment of Start Gallery's annual Beyond the Machine show. Todd Ponagai, from Madison Heights, showed off his tattoos that Amanda Snyder has done for him at Lucky Monkey Tattoo in Ann Arbor to those at the opening reception admiring Snyder's work on flat canvasses on the walls.
"This is a cover-up," Ponagai said pointing to a tattoo on his arm. Ponagai has tattoos by other artists, but he's gradually getting those covered up by better tattoos by Snyder. On his leg, Ponagai has a Snow White tattoo, prompting artist Robert Adams to ask Ponagai if he intends to buy Snyder's painting Red Riding Hood. "I wear it," Ponagai replied, but did not rule out the possibility of buying some of Snyder's flat art.
Not all artists in the show are tattoo artists. Robert Adams, for example, has had some training in tattoo application, but is now more focused on his drawings, paintings, and his graphic design class at Wayne State University. His two pieces in the show are colored pencil drawings displaying his consummate knowledge of anatomy in the service of his own brand of expressive surrealism. "My hand is so numb," Adams said, referring to all the work with pencils he's been doing lately for his class, but he has never been one to shy away from hard work.
Gallery owner Jason Reed was pleasantly surprised when Adams told him he had two pieces framed and ready for the show. Other artists in the show include Rich Fisher, Leia d'Amato, Matt Paw, Seymore and Rob Lloyd. The title of the show refers to the machine used for tattoos, Reed explained. The end date for the show has not yet been announced on the gallery's Facebook page.
May 5, 2013 3:53 AM MST
Lin Zy and Matt Busch show her Star Wars puppets for the celebration of Star Wars Day 2013 at Start Gallery. Photo by Alonso del Arte.
The Force is strong with Start Gallery. Despite traffic and parking problems caused by the Taylor Swift concert and the Detroit Red Wings game last night, the art gallery downtown had a very good turnout for their celebration of May 4, which has become known as Star Wars Day. Opening receptions for Start Gallery are almost always on Saturdays, and gallery owner and curator Jason Reed took advantage of the fact that May 4 is a Saturday this year to do a show devoted to Star Wars art.
"He said he was doing a big Star Wars show," said Matt Busch, recalling when Reed invited him to be in the show a few weeks ago. Busch is licensed by Lucasfilm to do Star Wars artwork and has done storyboards for such films as The Matrix and Home Alone 3. His wife Lin Zy is also a licensed Star Wars artist and is designing puppets for Gentle Giant.
Busch's pieces were selling like hot cakes: his portrait of Obi-Wan (as seen in the classic trilogy) had sold before the show even opened, and his poster for the film Zombie Wars Episode IV: A New Epidemic sold in the first hour. Logan Johnson, a college student from Shelby Township, bought the poster; his favorite Star Wars film is Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. There are also some very subtle references to Star Wars in the show, for example, in the way Reed arranged Pete Coe's pieces to suggest Boba Fett's ship.
Most of the artists and patrons at the opening expressed a preference for the classic films over the prequels, with the latter often being panned for being more about special effects. "I'm not particularly fond of" the prequels, said Miguel Rey, a Detroit artist who has two paintings at D-Grand, a gallery in the same building as Start Gallery. Lin Zy was not alone in naming Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as her favorite film. "It's got the most puppets," Busch said to Zy.
But one prequel character has made a strong impression: Darth Maul. "He is my favorite character," Robert Adams said. Kyle Irving hand cut stencils for a painting of the enigmatic Sith Lord, Busch made a Bart Maul doll (showing a tendency encouraged by George Lucas to mix Star Wars with other shows), and Adams "didn't sleep for two days" as he worked on a Darth Maul portrait.
Some of the other artists in the show are Mark Sarmel, Michelle Tanguay and Craig Paul Nowak; those three have gone through the Red Bull House of Art program. Start Gallery favorites Brian Gagnon and Seymor also have pieces in the show. The Start Wars show continues until June 1, according to the gallery's website.
COMMENTARY. No one told me I had to censor the painting, but I figured I might as well, to be on the safe side.