River's Edge Gallery is hosting an opening for Amy Chenier's continuation of her Falling Temple's series. Chenier started the series with a piece called "The Body is a Temple", a painting based on a photo Chenier took in the Cass Corridor of Detroit. The Temple Hotel is the structure in the background, the human body in the foreground is tattooed with the energy meridians that acupuncture practitioners follow when placing needles into the skin for healing purposes. Unfortunately, the Cass Corridor is an urban symbol of how needles aren't used for such holistic needs and where temples, all valuable, have fallen into disrepair.River’s Edge Gallery continues to show Primping, Pin-Ups, Painting and Pottery on the mezzanine while Images We Love will be featrued on the third floor in the Patricia Izzo Fine Art Photography Gallery.
The idea for Primping, Pin-Ups, Painting and Pottery was sparked by a series of oil paintings by Julie Fournier which depicted woman in various stages of primping: applying lipstick, curling eyelashes, painting toe nails and finalizeing hairdos. "She really captured all of the minor movements that most women learn at an early age and actually take quite a bit of skill." stated Aimee Rodriguez, show curator. Aimee also stated that "Many would see these images as repressive while others would consider them highly sexualized or nothing more than well executed images of women in motion"Some of Fournier's other recent paintings were the inspiration for another theme of the show, "pin ups". She and other artists in the show have resurrected the "pin up" popularized by Esquire Magazine in the 1930's. The early Pin-ups were iconic and some models like Bettie Page are still remembered for their Pin-up images. Pin-ups are shown in many styles and media in this show including in the recent pottery of Steve Glazer.
Not only is the imagery of women featured. Jewelry is often considered the crowning touch to any ensemble. In Primping, Pin-Ups, Painting and Pottery that which finishes the finished woman is given equal respect.
On the third floor, Patricia Izzo, the curator, asked 13 artists to show 3 pieces of their fine art photographic images that they loved. "It is not often that an artist is asked to choose images that are their personal favorites" stated Izzo. This led to an eclectic group of images and styles. Some of the artists are veterans in shows such as Robert Stewart, Marianne Letasi, Cheryl Button, Elayne Gross, Elaine Redmond, A. Owen Layne and Joe Crachiola. But Izzo has added a few new faces to the mix to show the emerging end of photography with the works of Irakly Shanidze, Lisolette Gilcrest, Jon Wheeler, Vicki Athens and Beth Hoxie.Meet the Artist night is October 17th 6pm-10pm with the shows running through November 14th.
