Anders Ruhwald at Saarinen House: The Anatomy of a Home| cfile.daily

If there is an impossible venue for site-specific art, it is the Saarinen House on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It’s known as a “total work of art” for a reason; the Finnish-American architect Eliel Saarinen attended to every inch of the house, down to the block printed linen placemats that are his design. However, for his first solo museum exhibition in North America, Danish ceramist Anders Ruhwald installed seven site-sensitive objects in the Saarinen House. The Anatomy of a Home (May 1 – October 31, 2013) explored the interpersonal relationships of the Saarinen family, including the father-son dynamic between Eliel and Eero Saarinen. Designed in the late 1920s and located at the heart of Cranbrook Academy of Art, Saarinen House served as the home and studio of Eliel Saarinen and Loja Saarinen from 1930 through 1950. The extraordinary interior features the Saarinens’ original ...

Cranbrook Art Show Examines the Process of Thinking | The Oakland Press

It’s believed that most people favor either the “logical” left hemisphere of their brains or the “creative” right hemisphere of their brains. Cranbrook Institute of Art combines the two in its upcoming exhibit, “My Brain Is in My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process,” curated by Nina Samuel. An exhibit in New York, "The Islands of Benoit Mandelbrot," also curated by Samuel, inspired Cranbrook Art Museum Director Gregory Wittkopp to demonstrate the process of thinking with contemporary art. Mandelbrot, who died in 2010, was a mathematician who used images called “fractal geometry” to explain his works. “This exhibition is about the role that drawing and images play in the process of scientific thought,” Wittkopp said. With 22 artists from around the world, the exhibit combines two different concepts to create contemporary artwork. It includes the works of biologists, philosophers, mathematics and more to get a sense of how drawing is an activity between thought ...

New Curator of Contemporary Art and Design

Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Nov. 21, 2013 – Cranbrook Art Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Laura Mott as Cranbrook’s new Curator of Contemporary Art and Design. Mott will be responsible for the Art Museum’s exhibition programs as well as the development and presentation of its collection of modern and contemporary art, architecture, and design. “Laura is an artist’s curator,” says Gregory Wittkopp, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum and the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. “She is a professional for whom working directly with artists and the objects they make is at the core of her work.” Wittkopp continues, “With an innovative curatorial practice that has been based in both the United States and Europe, Mott’s exhibitions and writing have demonstrated her ability to actively engage the public with the work of an impressive range of contemporary artists, architects, musicians, and choreographers.” Mott began her career in New York working with ...

Cranbrook Art Museum Installs Skate Ramp at Modern Skate Park in Royal Oak

Skaters encouraged to leave their mark; surface will be removed and installed in Museum as part of new exhibition BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Oct. 29, 2013 – Cranbrook Art Museum just completed the installation of a new half-pipe skate ramp at Modern State Park in Royal Oak. Skaters are encouraged to use the ramp over the next few weeks and leave their mark, then the surface will be peeled away and it will become part of the Museum’s new exhibition, My Brain Is in My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process, which opens on November 16. The exhibition examines the work of 22 artists from around the world as they show how the act of drawing impacts both artistic and scientific thinking. This project is directed by Chemi Rosado-Seijo, an artist whose History on Wheels project is an ongoing exploration of the correlation between skateboarding and artistic practice. The ramp was built by Cranbrook ...

My Brain Is in My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process Opens at Cranbrook Art Museum in November

My Brain Is in My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process Opens at Cranbrook Art Museum in November Bloomfield Hills, Mich., October 17, 2013 – On November 16, 2013, Cranbrook Art Museum will open a new season of exhibitions examining how the act of drawing impacts both artistic and scientific thinking. Through the new major exhibition, My Brain Is in My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process, and the accompanying traveling exhibition, The Islands of Benoît Mandelbrot: Fractals, Chaos, and the Materiality of Thinking, Cranbrook Art Museum will examine how sketches on paper are the first materialized traces of an idea, and how they are used as an instrument to make a meandering thought concrete. An exhibition examining the work of Cranbrook's first Resident Ceramic Sculptor, Waylande Gregory: Art Deco Ceramics and the Atomic Impulse, will also open on November 16. With an opening weekend full of live performances and work from artists and scientists, ...

Architecture in Helsinki: Places Like This

CRANBROOK SIGHTING #9 Sighter: Shelley Selim Sighted: Eliel Saarinen, Helsinki Central Railway Station Location: Helsinki, Finland Date: July 4, 2012 There was a two week block of last summer when at any given moment I could be found clapping, beaming, and prancing with merriment; arms open to our joyous earth’s embrace. No, I hadn’t finally completed my master’s degree (that would come later—with commensurate celebrating in its own right), but rather had landed on Nordic soil, where I completed the remainder of my graduate coursework studying Scandinavian design amidst the incredible apples and countrysides of Sweden and Finland. How befitting that on our American day of independence, I disembarked in Finland, a country that was also shaped by the struggle for its own autonomy (a struggle which persisted for centuries longer than that of the Tories and the Patriots, I might add). That morning I launched my tour-laden itinerary with a walk to the hub of ...

Tagged: Architecture, Eliel Saarinen, Helsinki, Helsinki Central Railway Station, Helsinki, Finland, Shelley Selim

Detroit News Highlights Michigan Modern Lecture Series

This Sunday kicks off our new five-part lecture series welcoming back several speakers from the groundbreaking Michigan Modern™: Design that Shaped America symposium held at Cranbrook in June. We will host a lecture at Cranbrook Art Museum every Sunday at 4pm until the exhibition closes on Oct. 13. All lectures will be held at deSalle Auditorium at Cranbrook Art Museum and are included with Museum admission. Lectures are free for ArtMembers. The Detroit News highlighted the lecture series in today's Homestyle section.

Watch Michigan Modern on FOX 2 Detroit

Brian Conway, State Historic Preservation Officer, discusses the Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America exhibition currently on display at Cranbrook Art Museum.

Quirky Art Exhibits Spiff Up The Dog Days Of Summer | The Detroit News

It’s hard not to get a little lethargic in August. Why not put some pizzazz in your late summer by taking in an art show or two? Not only will the art feed your mind and soul, it’ll also get you out of the heat into air conditioning. It’s a win-win proposition. One of the most-intriguing shows in town right now features the loopy ceramics of Anders Ruhwald, who’s artist-in-residence for ceramics at the Cranbrook Academy of Art (248-645-3323) in Bloomfield Hills. Up through Oct. 13, “Anders Ruhwald at Saarinen House: The Anatomy of a Home” features crazy, liquid-like ceramic sculpture displayed in an icon of mid-century Modernism, the house Cranbrook architect Eliel Saarinen designed and built for himself. The juxtaposition is shocking and exhilarating, both. But it’s up to you to decide whether Ruhwald’s esthetic challenges or highlights the restrained elegance Saarinen House is famous for. On the west side of town, ...

“Michigan Modern’ At Cranbrook Academy Of Art Celebrates State’s Design Legacy” | Huffington Post

While Michigan makers have produced some of the iconic work that shaped the 20th century modernism movement, a robust design legacy isn’t commonly associated with the state. Now, a new exhibit seeks to tell the story of the state’s contributions, from architecture to furniture and, of course, cars.On Friday, “Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America” opens to the public at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit. The exhibit was a collaboration of curators Monica Ponce De Leon and Greg Saldaña of MPdL Studio, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the State Historic Preservation office. Giving people a newfound understanding of the state’s importance as a design center was the hope of the exhibit’s founders, said Brian Conway, state historic preservation officer.“We see that, from what was coming out of Michigan, we had a major impact on the American lifestyle,” he said. “Where you live ...

Tagged: "Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America", Huffington Post