Arts

Red Bull House of Art runs out a wild new summer collection

The crowd gathers outside Friday’s Red Bull House of Art opening.

The Red Bull House of Art opened its newest season with a brand new collection, featuring artists working in a broad range of media. Austin Brady, Chad Davis, Paolo Pedini, Rashaun Rucker, Tiff Massey and Anthony Lee premiered their diverse range of viewpoints amid typically lively opening-night festivities, which spilled out onto the streets of the Eastern Market district.

The opening featured screen-printing, live band, and break-dancing, plus all the Red Bull you can drink.

The opening featured screen-printing, a live band and break-dancing, plus all the Red Bull you can drink.

Austin Brady presents a portrait series the layers black and white figures beneath painted elements, often beneath a third layer of collage. The images are moody, with figures in an attitude of despair, which contrasts sharply with the electric neon palette and grossly enhances the mock-anatomical collage detailing.

Disturbing work by Austin Brady.

Disturbing work by Austin Brady.

Intricate and despairing.

Intricate and despairing.

Also pairing neon colors and humanoid subjects is Paolo Pedini, who appropriates classical European sculptures as blank-eyed, black-and-white subjects for his paintings, layered in and among fields of color, pattern pieces and other ephemera.

Paolo Pedini.

Paolo Pedini.

Sculpture as subject.

Sculpture as subject.

Another pair in seeming conversation are Chad Davis and Tiff Massey, who both employed wood as their primary material. Davis calls his mixed-media pieces “assemblages,” and they fall somewhere along the continuum between nostalgic roadside folk art and sophisticated interior design, with exacting attention paid to the fitting-together of small pieces into the whole.

One of Davis' detailed cross assemblages.

One of Davis’ detailed cross assemblages.

Stars and crosses, and emulsion-transferred movie stars.

Stars and crosses, and emulsion-transferred movie stars.

Massey, who is already a rising star in Detroit for her jewelry-works, has moved for this exhibit into a body of laser-cut wood panels, which lay colors, patterns and black cultural symbols out like a series of colorful woodblock toys.

Massey's wall of wonder.

Massey’s wall of wonder.

Her work is hung back-to-back with Rashaun Rucker, who presents stunning pencil portraiture and journal excerpts on a wall that features powerful images, including a portrait of Dreadlock Mike, a well-known fixture of the streets who was killed by a hit-and-run driver last year. Rucker is the only artist in the pool to eschew color and spectacle entirely in his body of work, relying on the impact of exquisitely rendered humanity.

On a more serious note, with Dreadlock Mike (far right).

On a more serious note, with Dreadlock Mike (far right).

Finally, on a more light-hearted note, Anthony Lee offers an engaging series of robot portraits, blending complicated flora and fauna with robots in various states of machine functions. His wall was a popular spot, with the artist on hand to pose for photos.

Artist Anthony Lee, and his mecha-flora.

Artist Anthony Lee, and his mecha-flora.

Robot nature.

Robot nature.

Another wild night of art and antics from the Red Bull House of Art. The current batch will be on display Saturdays from 1 – 4 p.m., the perfect supplement to a day at the Eastern Market!

Red Bull House of Art: 1551 Winder St., Detroit; 313-638-2971; www.redbullhouseofart.com