Ty Rawls
March through April 2024
Image Works is pleased to present the work of Ty Rawls. Rawls's work is inspired by the universal human struggle for justice. His intention is to evolve the understanding of justice and fairness through the subjects and colors in his painting practice.
For Ty Rawls painting is a way of life. As a child, it was a way of coping with constant racism and the pain of never seeing his absent father. The drawing was therapy, and he drew a lot. In many ways he was destined to be a painter. The Rawls family held fine art in the highest regard and recognized Ty’s talents, finding advanced art classes for him at a young age. After spending three years at Wayne State University studying fine art and design, Ty left to start his first big project, and in the year 2000 he became known around the world as the creator of the hit Graphic Novel, “Smoke”. In 2001 after success with “Smoke” and a move to Boston, Ty had the good fortune of meeting Paul Goodnight and began training with the master painter. It was a dream come true, and during this period he acquired the specific skills that make him the painter he is today. In 2009 Rawls had a series of shows in Hollywood Los Angeles. Ty experienced L.A.’s amazing gallery scene getting attention for his work, and having an incredible time. In 2019 Ty was introduced to the incredible Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club and in just a few months sold more pain/ngs than he had thought possible. When the pandemic hit, people kept buying Ty’s work and in 2021 he started planning his first gallery show since 2009, with a new body of work that is more meaningful and vibrant than anything he’s ever done.
Kwadwo Boakye Yiadom
December through January 2024
Embarking on a transformative journey, two visionary brothers, Kwadwo Boakye Yiadom and Kwaku Oboobi Boakye, birthed the groundbreaking art form known as Mask One Art. In 2008, Kwaku, deeply passionate about the visual arts, laid the foundation for their artistic exploration by studying the Visual Arts and Fashion in Ghana. Tragically, in 2019, he departed, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate.
The surviving brother, Kwadwo, an IT professional with a flair for digital innovation and painting, seamlessly integrates software skills into artistic expression. Through this collaboration, they've woven a tapestry of paintings and digital art, where vibrant colors pulse with life, mirroring the duo's shared spirit.
Michigan Press Photographers Association Winners Exhibition
September 17th through October 28th 2023
Image Works is pleased to present fifteen award-winning images from the 2022 MPPA photo contest. Join us to celebrate some of the best photojournalism from across the state in 2022. Photographers represented include Ryan Garza, Jake May, Annie Barker, Nic Antaya, Cory Morse, Jenifer Veloso, Jacob Hamilton, Junfu Han, Mandi Wright, Jack Reeber, Joel Bissell, Sarahbeth Maney, David Rodríguez Muñoz and Katy Kildee.
Jason Walker
June 16th through July 28th 2023
Image Works is pleased to present the work of Detroit artist Jason Walker. Inspired by Jason's favorite childhood adventures and sci -fi tales, this work explores the concept of a person's "mean position" by capturing their true essence and character, disregarding the notion of an ideal moment. By observing and understanding the subject as they exist in the present, he aims to reflect their personality, mood, and history as he perceives them. Jason creates surreal compositions by placing the subjects in otherworldly settings like nebulas and alien landscapes, emphasizing their prominence and utilizing vibrant colors to spark the viewer's imagination.
Since landing his first graphic design job at the age of 14, Jason has devoted countless hours to developing a deep technical knowledge of art-making. He spends his time pursuing his passion in photography and illustration both as a freelance photographer and within his work in digital advertising.
The Artists
Paintings by Ron Teachworth
April 8th through May 26th 2023
Image Works is pleased to present “The Artists”, a new series of paintings by Ron Teachworth. Teachworth’s visual art is a combination of representational watercolors, collage and abstract acrylic paintings on canvas that began as landscapes and evolved to abstractions. His work to create a sense of mystery using space, light, color, and composition. He earned his M.A. in painting from Wayne State University and has been producing work in the Metro Detroit area since 1968.
“This series, The Artists, eight watercolor/collages, is comprised of the painting of a famous artist along with images of their work that I print and using archival adhesive, to place the art into the composition. The image of the artist came from researching the artists imagery on the Internet and creating a drawing/painting. Then the imagery of their artwork is added.
This is called Art Appropriation, similar to found object, art is an artistic strategy, the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images, objects, and ideas. It has also been defined as "the taking over, into a work of art, of a real object or even an existing work of art”.
The artists selected were favorites of mine and many of these were subjects of my own writing at the Detroit Art Review.”
Wishmaker
Photographs by Pam Connolly
February 11th through March 31st 2023
Pam Connolly has been photographing the theme of home for 10+ years. Her tin dollhouses, family portraits, and photographs of domestic spaces look closely at the American dream and the yearning for perfection and belonging.
Connolly received an MFA in Photography from the Hartford Art School’s International Limited-Residency Program (2014). Her photographs belong to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Permanent Collection, and her book ‘Cabriole’ was acquired by the Beineke Library at Yale University and the Fine Arts Library at Harvard University. She has exhibited her work nationally at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans, Foley Gallery in NYC, and Candela Gallery in Richmond, VA., and internationally at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Connolly has taught photography at The Horace Mann and Masters Schools in New York, and with the ‘Kids With Cameras’ organization for kids at risk. She lives in the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, with her husband David and her dog Sampson.
Wishmaker takes a close look at litho-printed tin dollhouses, made post-WWII for baby-boomer girls growing up in suburbs across the US. As objects they offer a snapshot of what Americans aspire towards and a view of the roles girls were groomed to fill. A dollhouse is a microcosm of hopes and dreams, the pocket female fantasy.
I can’t help but observe that these backgrounds are strikingly similar to my parents’ furniture store and our house, circa 1960. Peering into the windows like an over sized Alice in Wonderland, I roam through these tiny spaces with my camera, transported back in time to childhood.
@pamconnollyphoto on Instagram
Owlkyd
December 2nd through January 28th 2023
Owlkyd (AKA Darius Littlejohn) is a Detroit-based visual artist who focuses on works that evokes emotional response. A lifelong creative, Owlkyd draws from a plethora of lived experiences that helped shape how he sees the world. Though he has been an artist all his life, it wasn't until a particular therapy session that he finally decided to pursue it seriously and share it with the world as a means to find his place after feeling lost for so long.
Though he pursues many mediums, Digital artwork provides him with the least restriction to explore every idea in his head without worry of wasted materials. Deeply impacted by the Neo-Expressionist works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Surrealism of Pablo Picasso, Owlkyd melds his love of Realism with the abstract ideals pioneered by the two to find beauty in the clash of these disciplines. Throughout most of his works you will find many details hiding in plain sight, all the colors and chaos a distraction to the story of caution he hopes the viewer finds. Ultimately, he hopes these pieces become like mirrors and holds something meaningful for those who view them, a part of themselves.
ELONTE DAVIS
We Going Big!
August 5th through September 30th 2022
Elonte Davis (b. 1988, Detroit, MI) is a Detroit- based photographer and visual storyteller documenting life in modern Detroit. Davis’ photos observe the often overlooked and anonymous with a precision that magnifies the unique details of the city’s social landscape. Davis considers his work to be photojournalism as it captures important aspects of a city on the precipice of change while facing an identity crisis.
Much of Davis’ work is centered around the Detroit experience using images and referencing themes of Black culture in Detroit. Davis’ ability to put life into still pictures allows him to speak on matters in a unique way. Never running from divisive issues, Davis presents images with stillness and honesty that opens the viewer’s perspective to the quiet beauty in everyday life without judgement of the surroundings.
Avery Williamson
Summer Energy
June 3rd through July 29th 2022
Free from expectations. A season to wait for, to prepare for, to make decisions in anticipation of. The pool. A road trip. A tomato. Fridays are different, better. No homework. OK well maybe a summer math packet to stay fresh. Not to get ahead but to stay the same. Read what you want. Wear what you want. Meet a stranger. End the summer as friends. Forget about them in fall. Forget yourself in winter. It’s okay. This happens. Part of you from last summer will come back in spring. Next summer, new you.
Avery Williamson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores historical and contemporary notions of the archive, domestic space, Black pleasure and spatiotemporal collapse. She currently lives and works in Southeast Michigan.
KARINNA KLOCKO
MEMORIA
April 23rd through May 27th 2002
Memories and moments that have helped shape me into who I am as an artist. Growing up in Monterrey, Mexico gave me the opportunity to cultivate a strong connection to my culture, my family, and essentially myself. Having moved years ago, it is important for me to hold on to that connection. By creating scenes through color, space, and words I capture the memories and dreams of moments that have had an impact on me. Using the feeling of nostalgia and core experiences to guide me through emotions and time to further connect to that part of me. As if holding onto those memories keeps me holding onto Monterrey while also being appreciative of where I am currently, and where life, memories, and dreams might take me in the future.
Karinna Sanchez Klocko is a graphic designer based out of Commerce, Michigan. She is Mexican-American and has spent most of her young life living in Mexico, Kentucky, Michigan, and Brazil. She enjoys expressing her Hispanic culture throughout her work with bright colors, florals, and organic linework. She graduated from Michigan State University with a dual degree in Advertising and Graphic Design and currently works as a designer for the Makerhouse Studio in Detroit, she also picks up freelance work on the side and loves her two cats.
JAMES JOHNSON
Paintings
February 1st through April 1st 2022
James Johnson Lives and works in Monroe Michigan. Originally from the Pittsburgh area he moved to Detroit after serving in Viet Nam to work for Detroit Edison for 36 years. After retiring in 2013 he began to focus on his painting full time. On view are a variety of his Jazz pieces including, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.
Gabriela Baginski
Lumens
December 7th 2021 Through January 28th, 2022
Gabriela Baginski is a photographer and teaching artist in the Detroit community. She graduated from the College for Creative Studies with a Bachelor of Arts in Photography and fell in love with the darkroom. Gabriela enjoys learning and teaching alternative processes in the analog world. Lumen printing is a camera less process that involves the sun, photographic paper, and organic matter. Gabriela took to using plants, fruits, and vegetables to examine the relationships between the emulsion and sun. After exposure, the image was scanned and a digital life was born. Manipulating the image and reflecting on Gabriela's relationship with how something tangible can be easily altered.
MATTHEW DIETZ
Paintings
May 7th Through June 25th, 2021
Image Works Gallery is pleased to present Paintings, by Matthew Dietz. Over the last year Matthew has been working on this series of paintings inspired by looking at modular concrete blocks and how those blocks are used to make a pattern. His past work has primarily started with observation of his immediate surroundings.
He began to use these block motifs in his paintings, shifting the forms’ scale, orientation, and color. He uses them in the paintings in ways similar to how they are used in construction and likes to interplay the structure of these motifs with moments of automatic mark making to offer a visual contrast.
“I often drove by one particular wall that would always grab my attention.The pattern it created would be the only thing I would see when I drove by.I began to notice more of these concrete walls, which had many functions beyond being decorative. Some were used as a fence creating positive and negative space, others gave a buildings’ facade texture to contrast center blocks.”
CASS CORRIDOR
Photographs by Roger Martin
March 5th Through April 30th 2021
Cass Corridor, Photographs by Roger Martin. Shot in the early 1970’s, Martin’s images transport the viewer to a time and era of Detroit’s Cass Corridor that is now long gone. His use of the documentary style brings light and dark humor to his work by probing for statements of truth in the every day moment. The images were taken in private residences, places of employment, and on the streets, but Martin emphasizes the importance of photographing his subjects in their natural surroundings.
“I try to see people where they are and let them describe their situation. It would be easy to embrace the naïve concept that the world exists of beautiful, smiling people, but to do so reflects the notion that certain things don’t exist.”
Martin spent more than two years walking the Cass Corridor sensing moods and atmosphere of this colorful area, at the same time attempting to anticipate the visual elements coming together. By relying on his own intuition and familiarity he is ready to snap the shutter of his camera when the moment comes.
About Roger Martin
Martin was born in 1949 in Dearborn, Michigan and began attending workshops at the Photo Guild of Detroit in 1963. He graduated from Fordson High School in 1967 and enrolled in Photography courses at Henry Ford Community College before attending Wayne State University for his Bachelors and Masters Degrees. He has exhibited his work at Detroit Artists Market, the Gallery of Photography in Birmingham, the Gabriel Richard Gallery in Greektown, Detroit Public Library and the Scarab Club.
The Paintings of Tom Livo
October 2nd Through Friday, December 18th
Image Works Gallery is pleased to present The Paintings of Tom Livo. Livo brings light and dark humor to his work by focusing on the twisted realities of American life, the effects of rampant consumerism, human oddities, covert sexuality, and strained family relationships. He uses color, texture, perspective, and plane to find beauty in the palette of urban bleakness. His oil paintings: landscapes, seascapes, portraits, and still life are distillations of memories gleaned from the essential aura of things. The process of painting allows him to break down images into archetypes, to immerse himself in the act of recreation and, by doing so, gain objectivity.
“I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, with great movies, wildly fantastic television, and important photography. A time when Super-8mm cameras and snapshot photography were a part of every suburban middle-class home. The moment captured was the performance, and it worked if the light, the contrast, the composition, and the subject matter were just right. In other words, the same parameters that have defined great art from the beginning of time. Whatever the case, the photograph, like a painting, is meant to span time, fix a special moment, trigger memory, humor, sentiment, and empathy.
I have always been fascinated by icons and archetypes - first clowns, because they are funny, then the great Universal Studios’ movie monsters because they are scary, and finally, real people because they are funny and scary. Bozo the clown made me want to pick up a crayon and draw a circle. For me, painting is a discipline with transcendent powers, a meditation in objectivity - the transference between perception and accurate description. A joyful exercise where time is lost, and hours go by in what seems like a few moments. I believe that paintings are made for posterity, and at their best, inspire new perceptions.
In this body of work, I revisited family albums, shuffling through stacks of old Polaroids and snapshots, choosing which to paint. The people and situations come alive again, reigniting fond, half memories and themes that, I suppose, resonate universally.”
Oobanken - Jerome Ming
August through September 2020
Using fragments of personal history, memory and imagination, Ming builds photographic narratives using constructions and performative interventions. This is to describe somewhere that is different in character from its wider surroundings, like being confined in an enclave or compound. In doing so he ponders what lies beyond the threshold of this self-imposed isolation.
Made while living in Yangon, Myanmar, Oobanken offers a personal narrative directed through Ming’s early interest in the construction of objects and performative actions. While Oobanken may direct us to inquire about the interpreted functionality of the objects and the actions presented, his photographs also mirror the context in which they are made, that is during a time of transition, in a place once isolated, a place once suspended in time.
About Jerome Ming
Jerome Ming works primarily with photography and involves a multidisciplinary approach to his working process. Ming has involved photography in his installation and performative work since art school. He graduated from what is now Nottingham Trent University (England), in 1989. Having also studied photojournalism at the London College of Printing he then began working as a photographer based in Southeast Asia. Living in Singapore, Beijing, Bangkok, Hanoi and Phnom Penh. During this twenty-year timeframe Ming gradually returned to his art practice, leading him to complete his MFA in Photography with the Hartford School of Art in 2014.
In 2019 Ming received the MACK First Book Award for ‘Oobanken’. He was featured in the British Journal of Photography for their ‘Ones to Watch’ series published in 2019. He currently lives in Tokyo, Japan.
SELVA OSCURA - Christopher Bennett
March-July 2020
The phrase Selva Oscura draws its roots from Dante’s Inferno. Literally translated as “twilight forest” or “dark wood” it metaphorically speaks to both those who find themselves on an unfamiliar path and more explicitly the nature of losing one’s way in place and time.
“This series of images examines how I interact visually and emotionally with the landscape of the Pacific Northwest and how it can make me feel empowered and insignificant in just a single glance. I have a simultaneous respect, wonder and fear for this landscape and it is an attempt to create images that convey the psychological space between my real and imagined fear. This closer examination of the sublime and beauty in nature led me to be influenced by the writings of Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant as well as the paintings of J.M.W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich who were also influenced by Kant and Burke’s writings.”
For centuries artists have been influenced by the philosophical aspects of the sublime and beauty in nature. Edmund Burke was the first philosopher to argue that the sublime and the beautiful are linked. He was notable for focusing in detail on the psychological effects of the sublime, in particular the dual emotional quality of fear and awe in nature. Immanuel Kant’s ideas of the sublime centered on the idea that beauty in art and nature are linked with form while the sublime is linked to formlessness. Bennett used Kant’s ideas of light and dark, form and formlessness in this work to help guide his ideas of fear and how to convey this through imagery.
Christopher Bennett is a Photographer currently living in Dearborn, MI. He received his BFA from Indiana University and MFA in Photography from the Hartford Art School’s Limited Residency Photography Program. Bennett founded and was the Director of Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon from 2002 to 2012 and served as its Gallery Director from 2012 to 2014. He moved to Michigan with his wife (Michigan native) and nine year old son in 2017 after 16 years of living in the Pacific Northwest. He has recently exhibited his work in Detroit at Galerie Camille, The Scarab Club and Subjectively Objective Gallery as well as nationally and internationally at The Phoenix Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ft. Wayne Museum of Art (IN), Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Fe, NM), INOVA (Milwaukee, WI), Klompching Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Circuit Gallery (Toronto) and Kominek Gallery (Berlin).
Bensinger’s - Helaine Garren
February 7th through March 27th 2020
In 1970 Helaine Garren shot a series of images at Bensinger’s Pool Hall while she was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. She had a long history with the Art Institute, as her parents sent her there for art classes every Saturday of her childhood. She also had a long history with pocket billiards, as in her words, she “spent many of my bad-girl years learning the game.” The two interests collided when she decided to major in photography.
Helaine was born in 1944 and grew up in a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents wanted her to marry a nice Jewish boy and become a senator. “I remember my mother marveling that senators earned $22,500 a year.” Instead, she married an artist from Glasgow. He wore a black leather motorcycle jacket lined with his old kilt. Helaine lived in Portland, Oregon for over 40 years until passing away in 2016.
Prelusive - Group Show
November 30 2019 - January 31 2020
a group show featuring artists and image makers we have had the pleasure of calling clients over the last two and a half years in business. Image Works opened its doors on September 1, 2017 and now houses a gallery thanks to a recent relocation that will feature eight to ten exhibitions a year.
Featured Artists:
Suraj Bhamra, Pam Connolly, James Ewing, Lindsay Farris, Andrew Fedynak, Diana Fleysher, Erica Fink, Thomas Grubba, Sam Kthar, Karinna Klocko, Ivan Montoya, Alex Nichols, Sheila Nicolin, Michael Polakowski, Rachel Reed, Steven Shik, John Sippel, and Ryan Standfest.
Jim Golden - COLLECTIONS
December 4 – January 31, 2018
In Collections, Portland, Oregon based photographer Jim Golden seeks out individuals who are collectors who will allow him to photograph their collections. Each image is shot in camera with the camera extended from above looking down. The collections are then meticulously laid out on a backdrop and once perfectly placed are photographed.
Bryan schutmaat & ashlyn davis - Islands of the blest
October 6 – November 3, 2017
The photographs featured in Island of the Blest were made in the American West between the 1870’s and 1970’s and range from unknown photographers to some of America’s more distinguished early practitioners, including Timothy O’Sullivan, William Henry Jackson and Dorothea Lange.
Schutmaat and Davis sourced the images from the public digital archives of the Library of Congress and the U.S. Geological Survey Library. Together they curated a group of images that weave together a story depicting the history of the exploration and settlement of the American West. In 2014 the complete collection of images was published as a book by the Silas Finch Foundation in New York.