Press Release Archive

RE: FORMATION

RE: FORMATION
GALLERY PROJECT’S 4TH ANNUAL DUAL-SITE EXHIBIT
TOLEDO, OH (AUG 1-31) AND
ANN ARBOR, MI (SEPT 9-OCT 16), 2016

Gallery Project presents Re: Formation, a contemporary art exhibit in which over 50 local, regional and national artists address the push back that is occurring in communities nationwide around issues such as water access and safety, marginalization of the poor, the murder and incarceration of African American youth, and decay of urban infrastructure. The exhibit also highlights, as a form of push back, people’s shifting views and interactions with Nature, technology, and each other. Re: Formation is Gallery Project’s 4th annual dual-site, multi-media exhibition.

Re: Formation opens in Toledo on Monday, August 1 at 600 Jefferson Ave and runs through Wednesday, August 31. The Opening Reception is on Friday, August 5 from 5-9pm. DJ Nathan Mattimoe will perform and Grumpy’s will provide snacks. Toledo Hours: Thursday, noon-6pm; Friday and Saturday, noon-8pm; and Sunday, noon-5pm. Note: August 1-3 and August 29-31, hours are noon to 6pm.

In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Re: Formation opens at the Ann Arbor Art Center, 117 W. Liberty, on Friday, September 9, and runs through Sunday, October 16. The Ann Arbor Opening Reception is on Friday, September 9 from 6-9pm.

Re: Formation examines this unique moment when ordinary people are declaring, ala Peter Finch, “I am mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore.” What is different at this time is that people who have been silent, or silenced, are standing up, speaking out, and, mobilizing for needed change. Highly divergent in life styles with broad-ranging backgrounds, beliefs and values, these individuals are expressing justifiable anger at the accumulation of horrific events and unrelenting injustices that characterize our current era. They are teaming up, across race, gender, politics, and social status with empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings. Their actions are reestablishing belief in a positive future based on fairness, equity, and genuine possibility for all. Is this a tipping point, a moment for reform, or even a revolution? Or is it just another blip before capitulation and regression?

Each day we breathe in incident after incident: unprovoked attacks by home grown and foreign terrorists, rampant gun violence in our schools, brutal police shootings of unarmed black teenagers and men, destruction of voting rights of the poor and minorities, governmental action to remove women’s hard fought reproductive rights, privacy lost to surveillance and hacking, covert decisions leading to the poisoning of Flint’s water, and constant denials of global warming by profiteering corporations and their lobbyists.

People are mobilizing instead of just expressing anger or disapproval. In Flint, a black activist from Chicago and a white survivalist from Flint joined to distribute clean drinking water. They spoke with compassion and force. Recognizing that it is their common humanity which is at stake, they are determined to make a difference. At the University of Missouri, football players and their coach forced the resignation of the college president amid allegations of a racist culture on campus. Black Lives Matter and so many other large and small movements have activated with the tone of a new militancy. Beyonce, at the Super Bowl half-time show and with her most recent album Formation has declared her position and commitment. Hollywood, at the recent Oscars, was repeatedly vocal demanding action in many areas crucial for our common good and survival.

The exhibit challenges artists to express, in all media and in any size including large installation, their perspective of this time of Re: Formation. What is shifting? How are these shifts taking form? How do you experience this time of formation? What is your relationship to it, its impacts on you, your participation in this awareness and militancy? What can or should be done? What outcomes might result and what will the future look like? Re: Formation invites artists to actively express this unfolding reality as observers, participants, documentarians, conjurers and critics.

Exhibiting artists include Heather Accurso, Hiba Ali, John James Anderson, Michael Arrigo, Siobhan Arnold, Nick Azzaro, Darryl Baird, Barchael (Barry Whittaker and Mike Bernhardt), Morgan Barrie, Carolyn Barritt, Beehive Design Collective (Meg Lemieur), Mark Bleshenski, Jada Bowden, Seder Burns, Ruth Crowe, Dana DePew, Rocco DePietro, Desiree Duell, Dianne Farris, Susan Fecteau, Anthony Fontana, Mark Hereld, Dan Hernandez, Stephanie Howells, Tim Ide, Doug Kampfer, Tohru Kanayama, Yusuf Lateef, K.A. Letts, Kate Levy, Julianne Lindsey, Jeremy Link, Melanie Manos, Shanna Merola, Ken Milito, Michael Nagara, Jefferson Nelson, Endi Poskovic, Gloria Pritschet, Sharon Que, Raizup Collective (Antonio Cosme), Boris Rasin, Roger Rayle, Jesse Richard, Arturo Rodriguez, Gary Setzer, Meagan Shein, Anna Schaap, Sheida Soleimani, Brian Spolans, Jessica Tenbusch, Alex Tsocanos, Ellen Wilt, Robin Wilt, and Viktor Witkowski. Re: Formation is curated by Rocco DePietro and Gloria Pritschet, founders and directors of Gallery Project.

Gallery Project thanks Michelle Carlson, Programs Coordinator of The Arts Commission, Toledo, and Marie Klopf, CEO of the Ann Arbor Art Center, for their support of this exhibit.

Founded in April 2005, Gallery Project is a gallery of ideas. Its mission is to provide a venue for contemporary art that is culturally aware, individualistic, courageous, and thought provoking. In its new phase, Gallery Project presents one themed, dual-site regional exhibit annually. The 2013 Drones exhibit in Detroit and Ann Arbor Art was the first; Unseen, also in Detroit and Ann Arbor, was the second, and Wish List in Ann Arbor and Toledo was the third. Gallery Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, contact us at 734-332-1570, by e-mail at galleryproject@gmail.com, or through our website at www.thegalleryproject.com.

For more information, contact us at 734-997-7012 or mail to: galleryproject@gmail.com galleryproject@gmail.com, or www.thegalleryproject.com.