Jasmine Bruce is a mindful, multi-faceted artist. She paints what many call “psychedelic art,” working with vivid explosions of color and deconstructed forms.
For Holly Anne McDermott, a.k.a. HAM, art is a way to process, express and cope all at once. In McDermott’s recent thesis exhibition, Emotional Reflections, printmaking,
etchings, metalsmithing and jewelry all come together to capture the cycles of life and nature. It’s a highly unique and eclectic collection of art that she used to explore emotions in a variety of ways. You can see a piece of it in the Michigan Emerging Graduate Artists show at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, running until Sept. 8. The Grand Valley State University graduate originally came to West Michigan from Detroit and found inspiration in her professors as well as Alexander Calder. We talked with McDermott about the meaning of her art and why she makes it.
Graphic artist and muralist Kyle DeGroff dabbles in a variety of artistic projects: colorful murals, business brands, wedding invitations and photography. He is the guy behind Grand Rapids Brewing Co.’s Rosalynn Bliss Mango Blonde, Fish Ladder, Flow and other beer bottle designs, plus menus, T-shirts and more.
Given that Grand Rapids’ iconic symbol, La Grand Vitesse, is a sculpture, it should come as no surprise that a sculptor can thrive here.
That’s especially true if you’re Andrew Kline and you get to work at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. As preparator and assistant conservator, Kline helps install and maintain the sculptures at what he calls a “gem of the U.S.” He also maintains the downtown LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana.
Inspired by the beauty and movement of nature, Randi Ford has made a career of her “flow” paintings.
You might have noticed some familiar faces floating around Grand Rapids this summer.
Back in March, The Rad Women Art Initiative took over electrical boxes across the city, launching in celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.
For its 10th anniversary, ArtPrize is reinventing itself. The Grand Rapids-based art festival, if not moldering, had started to show its age. Last year, MLive reported that registration for public voting numbered only 32,613 people, the lowest total in the festival’s history.
At Experience Live Art, two individuals are bringing the appreciation and education of art to West Michigan residents and students.
After finding out you had secured a landmark exhibition for your museum, simply displaying it would’ve been enough for some. Not for the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, though.
If you think there’s anything sexier and funnier than murder, you’ll think again after seeing the phenomenal musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” at Mason Street Warehouse.
On their own, Swedish disco-pop group ABBA’s insanely catchy hits are sexy, silly, and sometimes all but nonsensical; but strung together with a light-hearted storyline and a handful of lovable characters, they become better than they have any right to be.
“Strong woman” is more often than not a redundant phrase, but nowhere more so than in the South. And even amid the grand canon of 20th Century Southern literature, very few works honor and capture the realness, sharp wit, and fierce love of the strong Southern woman better than Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias.”
Whether or not you consider yourself a fan of farce hardly matters when you find yourself in the audience of a truly excellent production. The script will necessarily be formulaic and full of corny jokes — and yet what talented, imaginative, fully-committed actors can do with that set of characters and off-the-wall scenario, particularly with a director who has a gift for comedy, can make you marvel at their artistry and laugh so hard your belly hurts.
Thomas Pike and the Vintage Parlor Orchestra are working to bring orchestral music back to the mainstream. As the project gains momentum, expect to hear symphonic arrangements in unusual places — maybe even your favorite bar or art gallery.
