A review which appeared in the Detroit
Free Press on
Sunday, June 16, 2002. Written by Keri Guten Cohen.
Photographs let
students be heard
June 16, 2002
Students from the College for
Creative Studies and Henry Ford Community College offer a burst of
creativity in the photography they're exhibiting at the Birmingham
Bloomfield Art Center.
The show is curate by
photographer and educator Linda Soberman of Huntington Woods, who
teaches at both colleges. In assembling the mixed-media show, Soberman
says she reached out to a sector of the art community -- students --
whose voice is often dismissed or ignored.
"These are emerging
professionals, skilled in their craft, honing their individual
vision," she says. "Their work is strong and demands
participation from the viewer."
The varied styles of the 25
students make for some interesting viewing, and plenty of
experimentation is evident.
Among the CCS exhibitors,
standouts include Brian Lynch (Rusinek) of Allen Park, who weighs in with some
clever Fuji digital prints melding popular images -- an American flag
and Renaissance paintings -- with women's faces and nude bodies,
achieving a tattoo-like effect. Lisa Belanger of Oak Park creates a
large-scale digitally manipulated portrait of a woman's head and
shoulders, rendered in rich colors. Mary Quinn of Royal Oak offers
abstract versions of things found in the backyard garden.
Among the Henry Ford students
are Michael Sutton of Dearborn, who applies liquid emulsion with a
broad brush to portraits on canvas, leaving a rough-textured surface.
Amy Attee, also of Dearborn, offers a scary comparison:
black-and-white contact prints of women primping for the prom and of
women in S&M gear.
And don't miss Madison
Heights CCS student Danielle Seilkaly's full-sized pieces featuring
images of women's backs with flowing fabric skirts sewn to the
photographic prints. Her work is tucked around a corner near a bank of
windows.
