The Event
detroit contemporary presents the premiere of its fourth season with an evening of art, music, fashion and film. The event will inaugurate detroit contemporary's two new gallery annexes, a sculpture garden and an outdoor performance stage. The premiere event will also include the opening of four new art exhibits, a drive in theatre, strolling fashions, and an eclectic program of live musical performances. Celebrating its fourth year of creative expression and exploration, detroit contemporary welcomes the public to this special event. The evening begins at 5pm on September 15, 2001 with the opening receptions for artists Mitch Cope, Gerry Craig, Sherry Gaines and Nelson Smith and the new sculpture garden including the works of various local artists. Music performances will begin promptly at 7PM with the reggae sounds of R.E.D.I. and Gimp and close out at midnight with the acid folk ecstatic-jazz sounds of Monster Island. The drive-in theatre begins underway at sundown with the screening of works by Coco Bruner and Mitch Cope with live musical accompaniment by Xen harmonic Gamelon. A strolling fashion show will enrich the evening featuring new fashions by local designers LYNN HUBRECT and EUGENIA PAUL. At dusk fire performers Diesel and The Great Lix begin their entertaining dance.

On The Stage
The new outdoor performance stage will provide an evening of eclectic musical expressions including reggae, jazz, rock, folk, electronic/techno, microtonal Asian and world beat. The artists and stage times are as follows:

 

In The Sculpture Garden
detroit contemporary opens its new sculpture garden which will include the new performance stage, a goldfish pond, strolling pathways, two new gallery annexes and an outdoor sculpture exhibit featuring local artists Anne Harrington Hughes, Steve Hughes, Ray Katz, Coley McLean, Treg Silkwood, Hugh Timlin and muralist Shades.

On The Silver Screen
For this event detroit contemporary will construct a drive-in theatre with a large 20' x 20' screen. The drive-in theatre will include the premiere of Coco Bruners video "It Takes One To Be One," a Catharctic Circle production and films by Mitch Cope including "Foliage," a film about Detroit politics and trees from the perspective of God or the car. Another Cope Detroit landscape film will include special live musical accompaniment with the microtonal minimalist Asian sounds of Xen harmonic Gamelon.

In The New T1 and T2 Galleries
The T1 and T2 galleries are the latest exciting additions to detroit contemporary. Converted semi-trailers, these intimate new exhibition spaces are the real thing on wheels. Parked for one year in the detroit contemporary sculpture garden, these 40' trailers will be home to numerous art exhibitions, installations, performances, film and video screenings and lectures. After one year in Detroit the T1 and T2 galleries will explore the continental U.S. and expose such cities as New York, Chicago and L.A. to the wealth of Detroit‚s creative community.

Exhibiting in the T1 Gallery, Mitch Cope comes to terms with his sexual demons through these beautiful and grotesque drawings of the erotic playmate in his new series, The Heavy Metal Girls. Sherry Gaines installation, in the T2 gallery, presents the viewer with a life-size expression of the artists' memories and connection to her childhood inner city home that has since been raised. The work utilizes projection and tintype photography.

The Second Floor Gallery
detroit contemporary presents the first complete look at Nelson Smith's weekly television series, "A Man at a Desk" through an exhibition of all 52 storyboards and the presentation of his original music/sound selections from the piece. The exhibition will also include recent painting works from the past year. These new works continue the interest of objects in transformation, and their juxtaposition with the 'other world' of text.

The Brick Room Gallery
In "Saints and Scrolls," Gerry Craig presents a new body of work which continues her past themes of language, time, memory and loss. She combines plants, steel, wood, glass, text and digital images on cloth into sculptures of delicate determination. The photographic digitally produced images become mnemonic residue, ephemera of the experiential mind etched with drawn layers. The text on glass functions as a whisper over the surface, the images pushing language from the backside where words are unformed. While the ironic show title references a religious search for truth, the elegiac quality of the work suggests there might be redemption in the quiet corners where daily life becomes divine.

The Gallery
The one-month art exhibitions run from Saturday, September 15 through Sunday, October 21, 2001 with an opening reception to meet the artists on Saturday, September 15, from 5pm to 10pm. The entire opening night event runs from 5pm to midnight on September 15, 2001.

detroit contemporary's galleries are open Thursday through Sunday from 12pm to 6pm. detroit contemporary is located in the Woodbridge Historic District at 5141 Rosa Parks Blvd. This is two blocks north of Warren Avenue, two blocks south of the I94 expressway, three blocks west of Trumbull.

You may contact detroit contemporary by phone at 313.898.4ART or via electronic mail at info@detroitcontemporary.com. detroit contemporary's web site is www.detroitcontemporary.com. This event is free and open to the public.

Free on the street parking available.