Dee Ann Segula Retrospective continues through July 31, 2011

Dee Ann Segula's Retrospective continues at WSG through the month of July. Her show includes 1 painting saved from art school, 1 from before art school and many of her masterfully detailed pieces created along her journey since those days.

You'll see some of her exquisite redheads, like above, simultaneously telling and concealing stories. She has some wall-hung box pieces, some with pull-puppets as a part of them, needle felted work, knitted work and laquer-work paintings, to name a few of her techniques.

Word on the street is that John Cantu was in the other day, so look for his review in Ann Arbor. com!

Dee Ann Segula Retrospective goes up June 19

We are pleased to announce the retrospective of Dee Ann Segula's work at WSG, opening Tuesday, June 21, 2011 and running through July 31. The reception is Friday, June 24, 7-10 pm. Dee Ann has been a longtime member of WSG and this will be her final show with us. Her work is always so engaging and she's a virtuoso of many media, from encaustic to gold leaf to acrylic paint to knitted woolens to needle felting. Name a media, she's probably tried it!

Dee Ann has been a full time artist since 1975. She works in a variety of disciplines, including metal smithing, calligraphy, woodworking, printing, painting, drawing and mixed media. Dee is a lover of surface design, embellishing her work with rich patterns and layers of color. Texture figures prominently in her work, as well. Even her 2-D work has relief patterns built into the surface.

Many times, her work is inspired by literature and, really, brings written passages to life in such a beautiful way that it almost doesn't matter what the writing was about in the first place. Her work gives the eye so much to look at, that it becomes its own story.

Elizabeth Schwartz: Seasons

Elizabeth Schwartz' exhibit Seasons opened at the gallery last Friday with a large reception and great weather downtown!

Sometimes, opening receptions are a challenging place to really "see" and experience an artist's work. Certainly, they're meant as a celebration of the culmination of the grand effort to produce a body of work, and Elizabeth was definitely celebrated!

Now's the time to come in and really experience her paintings! The piece to the left, Edge of Spring, is a good place to start looking at her work. As she says in her artist's statement, "The theme for this series was stimulated by my ongoing reflections on the meaning and passing of life's 'seasons', for which these paintings serve as a metaphor." Keeping this in mind, look at the painting and consider the artist's words, "Spring is the season of energy, anticipation and excitement. Possibilities seem endless." Think of how green that first grass and winter wheat looks. Is it because it's really greener? Or because it's been so long since our eyes last saw that color?

Schwartz' work focuses on evoking nature, rather than depicting nature. Her concern is similar to the Impressionists' interest in capturing the feeling of being in nature, the light, the color, rather than trying to replicate a specific scene. However, Schwartz is more interested in painting in bold color, rather than muted tones.

In her technical approach, she applies many layers of paint, sometimes bold, sweeping strokes over thin washes, sometimes delicate marks and layers made with a palette knife. Texture is important in Schwartz' work, giving the feeling of looking through trees, leaves and branches, on to that deeper level of the landscape.

Schwartz is fascinated with the contradictory forces of nature - "its unpredictable, humbling power, juxtaposed with its soothing seasonal rhythms". She says, "Many of these works are painted on a large scale in order to convey nature's grandeur and power, turbulence and beauty."

Stop on in to the gallery and see the grandeur and beauty for yourself!

Nora Venturelli at Riverside Arts Center

"Figuratively Speaking: interpretations of the human form" opens at Riverside Arts Center, Friday, May 7 and runs through May 28. WSG artist Nora Venturelli has this spectacular piece on display. Vice Versa No. 25 is from a current figurative body of work and the development of this body has been incredible to watch. You can see the forms coming into view as they are sketched with the brush, modeled a bit and, finally, come to life in the foreground.

Nora is a virtuoso painter, studying landscape, still life and the figure with equal fervor. This piece should be in a museum!

Last Week for Photography Show - thru May 7, 2011

Terry Abrams

This is the last week to see Three Visions: Photography in Black and White at WSG Gallery. When you visit the show, you'll walk in to the gallery entry space and enter a meditative exhibit of images. Nature and architecture figure prominently in Terry Abrams' and Nina Hauser's pieces. Also in Dirk Bakker's work, but he photographs figures, as well, usually in a story-telling situation, in this show.

Nina Hauser

Nina Hauser uses infrared photography to create a mood in the landscape pieces in this show. Infrared photography filters out all or most of the visible light from the spectrum so that the camera reads only infrared light. This makes plants that are green almost glow, skies look dark and there are rich, dark blacks in the photos.

Dirk Bakker

Bakker has an image with an interesting perspective - a wide-angle shot that makes it almost look mapped together in Photoshop. What kind of a story is he telling?

Gallery Artists at U of M Hospitals' Gifts of Art program

Gallery artists Norma Penchansky-Glasser and Valerie Mann have work at University of Michigan Hospitals right now as a part of the Gifts of Art program. Penchansky-Glasser's bronze figures and Mann's Evening Bags for the Midwestern Woman Series will be on display through June 13, 2011. Find out the details: http://www.med.umich.edu/goa/exhibits.htm

Cantu's review of Three Visions

John Cantu, arts journalist at Ann Arbor.com, has a great review of the black and white photography show at WSG right now: http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/wsg-photo-in-black-and-white/

Photography in Black and White opens

The new show is up on the walls at WSG and the reception is Friday, April 1, 7-10 pm. We start our summer hours in April, so note the later start and end time. Also, Festifools is going on that night downtown, so be forewarned, the parking will be unfun - may be a good night to dust off the bikes and air up the tires!

The previous post has some beautiful images from photographers Dirk Bakker, Terry Abrams and Nina Hauser. I can tell you the work is gorgeous in person!

So, JOIN US Friday the 1st! It is Nina's birthday! Wish her a happy one at her opening!

Photography in Black and White

The new show goes up at WSG tomorrow - featuring contemporary black and white photography from Dirk Bakker, Terry Abrams and Nina Hauser.

Terry Abrams' Structural Movement, above, is a pigment ink photograph, measuring 22 x 30". This much-collected artist also teaches photography at Washtenaw Community College. See more of his work at: http://www.terryabrams.com/Welcome.html

Dirk Bakker's Fourth Elegy, Flowering and Fading Come to us Both at Once above is a pigment ink photograph measuring 22 x 15 ". I can't wait to see this photo in person. Learn a little about Dirk and his work at: http://www2.metrotimes.com/archives/story.asp?id=4989

And, finally, WSG Gallery artist Nina Hauser, the show curator, is represented here with Deadly Solitude, a pigment inkjet photograph at 8 x 12". http://ninahauser.com/

Norma Penchansky-Glasser at Midtown Gallery

WSG member Norma Penchansky-Glasser has work in a show at Midtown Gallery, Kalamazoo, MI. Congrats, Norma! The show is up through March 26, 2011. Check out the invitation and visit their website:
http://www.midtownkalamazoo.com/?page=shop/exhibit&category_id=043fa8d0889f4819c4ec799f83d95fd5&PHPSESSID=4b70432a478a8bb82d7a965d4cddaa73

Off-Site show at U-M Hospitals for WSG artists

Two WSG artists currently have work in the U of M Hospitals' Gifts of Art program. Clay sculptor Francesc Burgos and painter Martha Keller will be gracing the walls and pedestals of the Taubman Center with their work. Gifts of Art is a(n) unique program curated by a dedicated group of individuals for the hospital system. Shows last for 6-8 weeks and provide a welcome distraction for folks spending a vast amount of time at the world-class hospital system.

Burgos' contemplative pieces are created from porcelain and terra cotta clays and draw inspiration from nature and architecture. While Keller's paintings draw inspiration from nature, color and seeing.

Martha Keller: Irises

Stop for a look if you're at U of M hospitals. The work is on view through March. For more information, visit the website: http://www.med.umich.edu/goa/exhibits.htm

Glass and Silver Jewelry at WSG

One of our new visiting artists this show is Barbara Yerace. She's a glass blower from Saline, Michigan. She also does lampworking, spectacular beads, in particular, and teaches out of her studio. Her work here is glass and silver. It is positively luminous! To see more of her work, stop in the gallery or visit her website: http://www.yeraceglass.com

WSG supports Youth Art Month

Community High School student Liz McCubby has this small, mixed-media piece on display at WSG during the current show. WSG is supporting Youth Art Month downtown A2 by exhibiting Steve Coron's advanced students' work. You'll see it in the front window, as you walk by the gallery.

McCubby's piece needs to be seen up close, though. So stop on inside the gallery to check it out!

WSG hosts Community High art students

Community Highschool student Grace Fisher created this mixed-media piece.

WSG hosts Steve Coron's advanced students for "Youth Art Month" downtown Ann Arbor. Student work from all over Washtenaw County is displayed in business windows downtown for the month of February.
Community High students have had to mat and frame their pieces so they can be professionally displayed at WSG. We celebrate their work, as well as our "Faces" show with a reception Friday, March 4, 6-9pm.

"Faces" goes up at WSG

Look in the windows at WSG the next couple of days, and you might see gallery members Norma Penchansky-Glasser and Nora Venturelli carefully arranging and hanging the new show "Faces". This show features self-portraits by gallery owners/artists in all the different ways they've interpreted self. (Also, Steve Coron's Community High School art students will have work featured in the current show.)

Above is Valerie Mann's self-portrait "Self-Portrait, 43" in one stage of its development. The piece is on re-purposed maple plywood, drawn and routed out with a Dremel tool at the stage above. The finished piece has had an encaustic treatment painted onto it and it's been scraped down so that the black encaustic is almost solely in the carved-out lines.

Stop by the gallery when the show opens Tuesday at noon to see all the pieces! The reception for this show is Friday, March 4, 6-9pm. Join us!

Be The Tree at WSG through next Sunday

Only 1 more week to see Martha Keller's spectacular trees! I'm not kidding, these paintings stop you in your tracks when you enter the gallery. This piece, Evergreen Overlooking Lake Michigan, is massive! Its size allows you to enter the scene on an emotional level that becomes almost physical. Martha's paintings are pieces you can have a real relationship with.

Come on in this next week and catch this gorgeous show!

Visiting Artist, Lulu Zheng at WSG

Visiting artist Lulu Zheng shows her exquisite paintings, many of them using water as muse, at WSG currently. This piece was sold to the folks filming "Scream 4" in town last summer. We are pleased to be able to supply the movie industry with top-quality artwork, either through purchasing or renting pieces for the set design.

"Be the Tree" continues at WSG

Martha Keller's exhibit continues through Feb. 13, 2011 at WSG Gallery downtown Ann Arbor. Whether you stop in at lunch or make the trip specially from your home or hotel, you will be treated to an oasis of color in the monochromatic days of winter!

This piece captures two pines on the shore of Lake Michigan - a favorite subject matter of Martha's. The trees look like they're dancing on the bluff, or discussing the view in front of them. Martha's brushstrokes animate the trees in a way that we can almost feel the breeze coming through the boughs.

At a lecture she gave a few years back, she shared that her aim is to say as much with one brushstroke as possible. She loads on the paint, and translates what she sees and feels in front of her to the canvas. Viewers beware! You'll fall in love with at least one of her paintings in the show!

"Be the Tree" opens Friday, Jan.14, 5-7pm

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Martha Keller last Friday night, as I worked at the gallery. I always feel lucky just to be in her presence! I describe her to people who've never met her as "a woman on fire". She is a painting dynamo! She paints canvases much larger than herself and the power of nature that she captures is barely contained within the 4 sides of each canvas.

Her works on paper are equally as strong, but the pieces at WSG right now are all acrylic on canvas. You can see Martha's driven energy come through the pieces in her brush strokes, however, each piece has a meditative quality about it. Check out the blue coming through the pine boughs of the piece above.

In the piece to the left, she put the evergreen in the foreground, giving you the sense that you're standing just above the tree, on a hill (dune?) looking out over the lakeshore. Classic Martha Keller - looks fresh every time!

WSG artists at BBAC

WSG artists Nora Venturelli and Norma Penchansky-Glasser are in a show right now through Feb. 4, 2011, at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. "Collective 7 - Trace Point" is a show exploring the human figure. Venturelli's paintings, along with Penchansky-Glasser's sculpture are sure to help make a powerful show. Don't miss it!

WSG artists exhibit in Birmingham, MI

WSG Gallery presents gallery artists - Norma Penchansky-Glasser and Nora Venturelli in: Collective 7 - Trace Point at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center 1516 S. Cranbrook Rd, Birmingham, MI 48009 Kantgias/DeSalle Gallery January 7 - February 4, 2011 Opening Reception: January 7 6-8 PM Suzanne Boissy Ruth Henkel Molly Marie Nuzzo Norma Penchansky-Glasser Nora Venturelli Barbara Elizabeth Williams Fran Wolok

BBAC Gallery Hours: Mon-Thurs, 9a - 6p, Fri-Sat, 9a-5p, second Sundays, 1-4p free and open to the public ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Be The Tree at WSG

Martha Keller is the featured artist to kick off the 2011 exhibit year at WSG. How appropriate! She was one of the founding members here at the gallery and it is an honor to start something new, full of possibility, with a painter who continually finds something new to love about painting and seeing.

This piece, Evergreen Overlooking Lake Michigan, is indicative of her energy, her zeal, her approach to looking and putting it down on canvas. I've heard her speak many times about her work and how she works. She is searching for the essence of an object, but also the essence of a paint stroke. She tries to simplify what she sees into the power of 1 paint stroke. How much can she say with 1 load of paint and 1 stroke? Come by the gallery to experience it for yourself!

Martha Keller at WSG

We're so pleased at the gallery to host Martha Keller as the featured artist for our first show of 2011! She was a founding member of the gallery and has been a long-time art supporter and cheerleader here in Ann Arbor and around the state of Michigan. Come by the gallery and fall in love with her work! Not a bad way to start the new year in the heart of winter!

WSG artists on billboards

Adams Outdoor Advertising Donates Advertising Space

To Local Area Artists In New “Art In The Sky” Program

Ann Arbor, Michigan – Driving down US-23 or I-94 in the Ann Arbor-area, commuters may be surprised to see a work of art on a billboard which normally carries advertising. A local Ann Arbor company, Adams Outdoor Advertising (AOA), has launched an “Art In The Sky” program that transforms traditional public service space into a public art gallery (photos attached). AOA has a long-standing initiative to invest back into the local community by providing public service advertisements to non-profit organizations. The “Art In The Sky” program is an extension of this service.

AOA Real Estate Manager Shannon Bellers, in partnership with artist Elizabeth Schwartz, launched the initiative to bring art to the masses via the medium of outdoor advertising. The project, called “Art In The Sky,” debuted December 20, 2010 in multiple locations around Washtenaw County including Chelsea, Milan and Belleville. To date, AOA has provided donated space to three local artists: Elizabeth Schwartz, Connie Cronenwett and Lynda Cole. All three artists are affiliated with the WSG Gallery located in Ann Arbor, which can be visited on-line at www.wsg-art.com.

“We would like to potentially expand the program throughout our Ann Arbor market counties and even further into our otherMichigan markets,” said Bellers. “The feedback we have received from artists and the Ann Arbor community at large has beenoverwhelmingly positive.”

Robert M. Beckley, Professor and Dean Emeritus Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University ofMichigan, commented on the project through an unsolicited email, “I was both surprised and delighted…This effort by your company has made me see the potential for combining public art and commerce in a new way. I hope this initiative will carry on.”

The project’s goals are two-fold. First, project coordinators seek to bring art to those who may not have the opportunity to visit a traditional art gallery, in a new and unexpected way. Second, the project provides a showcase for Ann Arbor’s artists and thriving cultural community. Should the project expand as desired, AOA hopes to host a juried “mobile art show” later in 2011.

“Seeing my work on such a large scale, and knowing that others will see it as well, is quite a thrill,” said artist Elizabeth Schwartz. “I'm thankful to Adams for this exciting public art project, and look forward to seeing more ‘Art in the Sky.’"

“We're looking to see billboard art by local artists wherever we drive in Michigan,” added artist Connie Cronenwett. “We hope it catches on all over the state."

Artists in the Washtenaw County-area interested in being considered for this program are invited to send an e-mail to Shannon Bellers at sbellers@adamsoutdoor.com. Please be sure to include full contact information along with a website photo of your original art.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Adams Outdoor Advertising is committed to providing a return on investment (ROI) for every dollar spent on out-of-home advertising in our markets. Adams Outdoor Advertising operates in 17 markets with more than 12,000 billboard, poster and digital displays in eight states. To learn more about outdoor advertising solutions, visitwww.adamsoutdoor.com or call Shannon Bellers, Real Estate Manager, at

(734) 327-8999.