Local Color: Detroit Portraits
Center Galleries: Alumni & Faculty Hall
College for Creative Studies
Detroit, Michigan
September 15-October 20, 2012
Driven by history, faith and fantasy I embrace a spiritual devotion to the ritual of art making pounding images into the surface with common tools and materials. Worked repetitively until the material becomes the content- recording and processing stimuli to craft a dense diagram of layered historic pictorial references to navigate. These portraits represent a ten year experiment to teach myself to paint the human form always remembering the advice I received as a student from Gilda Snowden “paint it like you see it”.
Exhibited Portraits:
Gilda Snowden, Mary Laredo Herbeck, Coleman A. Young, John Sinclair, Henry Ford, Carl Butler, Sonny Elliot, Ernie Harwell, Denny McLain, Nick Cindric, Tom Chantos, Paul Mungar, John Piet, Marshall Fredericks, Sherry Washington, Sir Graves Ghastly, Ann Gordon, Deborah Marlowe Kashdan, Lisa Poszywak, Greg Baise, Sixto Rodriguez, Doyle Horning, Bridget Knoche, Willie Horton, Peter Williams, Daniel Moses, Andrew Krieger, Daniel Harris, Jerome Ferretti, Jennifer Granholm, Mary Fortuna, Carl Oxley III, Robert Bielat, Tom Phardel, Vince Carducci, Gordon Newton, Bob Sestok, Paul Schwarz, Michelle Spivak, Michelle Perron, Dennis Nawrocki, Tracy Hanna, Obwandiyag, Sherry Hendrick, Mick Vranich, Joey Ramone, Rita Ahluwalia, Bruce Giffin and Aris Koutroulis
Matthew Hanna is not driven. He drives. He drives a whole community of artists and arts organizations - so nimbly, so magically, most don’t recognize his impact. He’s the man behind the curtain, pulling levers, creating thunder, making things seem effortless, look beautiful. He’s great and powerful, the wizard of art: making it, showing it, installing it, lighting it, packing it, moving it, thinking about it, talking about it, living it, loving it. Of course, he’d be the first to say he’s no wizard, just a guy making a living. But we know differently. For over two decades, Matthew has been there for Detroit art: he’s charmed us with his home-spun, subtly brilliant exhibition concepts; he’s been a tireless under-the-radar activist for art and artists; he’s been the muscle behind some of our most important art spaces; he’s produced some of Detroit’s smartest art; he’s carried our work to points beyond; and he never says no. Even with a flat tire, five deadlines and a dollar in his pocket, he’ll be there for us, with quiet fortitude and the next great idea. He’s the Detroit art community’s Professor Marvel. And don’t you forget it.
- Michelle Perron
Director Center Galleries
College for Creative Studies