From July 2010 to July 2016, Alonso Delarte was Detroit Event Photography Examiner for Examiner.com.
Whitdel Arts was originally located in the Whitdel Apartments, with free rent from Southwest Solutions and most of the utilities also paid by Southwest Solutions.
January 19, 2013 8:30 PM MST
Jessica Lynn Wildman with the hula hoop she used for her piece at Whitdel Arts. Photo by Alonso del Arte.
Hula hooping is like riding a bike, it comes back to you. "I can't remember the last time I hula hooped," said Jessica Lynn Wildman, explaining that she used to play with hula hoops as a child. Only recently did she take up the hula hoop again for a painting now on display at Whitdel Arts, the plucky little gallery in Mexicantown, as part of the Movement and Position show.
A few months ago, Wildman saw one of her friends at the Old Miami bar pick up a hula hoop. It was at that point that she decided she would incorporate the hula hoop into an artwork. The painting was done in one night, at Cass and Canfield, before a performance by an a capella group. Wildman extended a white cloth on the floor, and dipped a hula hoop in red, yellow and blue paints, then hula hooped over the cloth dressed in a white leotard.
Wildman is the ony artist in the show from Michigan, Jane Larson explained. Larson is the Whitdel Arts treasurer, and also the one who put the current show together. Anna Maddocks from Colorado is inspired by the dollhouses she used to play with as a kid. "I was reading this book ... about how the miniature opens up the imagination," she recalled.
The show features artists from all over the country, including John Early, whose piece call[s] for varying levels of viewer participation. The show is scheduled to go on until February 9, according to the gallery's website.
April 13, 2013 11:40 PM MST
Jessica Lynn Wildman with the hula hoop she used for her piece at Whitdel Arts. Photo by Alonso del Arte.
"Waste not, want not," is a proverb some people take to an extreme. Whitdel Arts, the plucky little gallery in Mexicantown, opened a show Friday night titled Containment: A Life of Hoarding and Hiding which explores these issues. Clare Fox collaborated with New York artist and former Ohio State University classmate Undine Brod to create a house-like installation crammed with potentially useless objects painted gray.
"Are you starting to feel uncomfortable?" Fox asked of a few gallery patrons inside the installation with her. Noted Hollywood animator Gary Schwartz was bothered not so much by the tight space but by the smell of the fumes from the spray paint. "We had four days" to install the work, Fox recalled, to Schwartz's astonishment. Besides 'the house' collaboration, Fox and Brod are also showing individual work.
Both artists acknowledge a difference between hoarding and messiness, and both have grappled with the problems inherent in both holding on to things and getting rid of them. "JenClare [Gawaran] put out a call, we got the mailbox, we didn't know we needed it" for their house-like installation, Brod said. "You have to be careful to relinquish [things] before they become useless," Fox said, explaining that she gives away clothing that no longer fits her but only if it is in wearable condition for someone the clothes do fit.
Although the installation does have a few of Fox's and Brod's personal possessions, most of the materials inside the structure were either donated or obtained from a recycling center. Frank Bartlo recognized a car bumper, a GPS system, a sump pump and a few other items he had given the artists. Fox and Brod plan to do the installation in other cities, with materials drawn from those locations.
The Emerging Artists space is featuring the work of Amy Weiks. Whitdel Arts President JenClare Gawaran is hoping to exhibit a lot more Emerging Artists in the coming months. Both the Containment show and Amy Weiks as Emerging Artist will run through May 11, according to the gallery's website.
June 30, 2013 1:50 PM MST
Mike Reid and Jill Neinhuis with the dyptich they painted for the Whitdel Arts members' show. Photo by Alonso del Arte.
The plucky little gallery in Mexicantown continues to thrive. The 2013 installment of the Annual Members Show at Whitdel Arts is proof of that, with members of varying degrees of seniority exhibiting work. The members often like to collaborate with each other, as for example, Mike Reid and Jill Nienhuis, who painted a 2-panel panorama of a forest (both artists painted on both panels). The two artists have shown this and other collaborations at ArtPrize. "We have different palettes," Nienhuis explained, "mine is super-bright, his is subdued."
The heavy rain outside did not dampen anyone's enthusiasm inside, with many of the artists present and several guests as well. One of the guests was Bryant Tillman, long Detroit's most renowned painter and recent Kresge Fellow. "It feels like it should, it feels like a door has been opened," Tillman said regarding the fellowship. He has gotten lots of posts on his Facebook page congratulating him and remarking that he truly is deserving of the award.
JenClare Gawaran would like Tillman to do an impressionist painting of Whitdel Arts the way he has done of the 4731 Gallery. (Gawaran is the president of Whitdel Arts). There will be a meet-and-greet of Whitdel members at the closing reception, which is scheduled for July 20, according to the gallery's website.
COMMENTARY. I have to admit to another spelling mistake with a name. But this time, I'm not sure what the correct spelling is. In a 2012 article, I mentioned Jill Neinhuis, and in this 2013 article I mention Jill Nienhuis. Which is the right spelling? I'll have to check.
Regardless, Jill is a friend of Rachel Bourgault, a member of the Whitdel Arts board. Presumably for the members' show, you had to pay membership to be considered, and I don't doubt that Jill paid her membership fee. But how many black and Latino members paid their membership fee, only to have their money taken and never be considered seriously for the members' shows, or any other shows? At least one or two, but not me. I thought about becoming a member, but never did. In hindsight, it was good that I didn't.
The Kresge Fellowship sure opened doors for Bryant Tillman, who, with Carl Wilson, was one of only two black artists to be selected for a Kresge Fellowship in the Visual Arts in 2013. I can't remember if Gawaran expressed desire for Tillman to do a painting of Whitdel Arts of her own accord. My guess is, however, that Gawaran never followed up and Tillman never did the painting.
In fairness to Gawaran, however, Tillman works at a slow pace and there is never any worry of a diluted marketplace for his paintings.