“Body Chatter” is a group presentation of contemporary art from India, with a focus on the human figure, collected over the years by gallery owner Julie Walsh. The exhibit opens with a golden statue of a woman by Ravinder Reddy. Another work of Reddy’s dominates the exhibit, a giant sculpture of the head of Radha, the principle consort of Lord Krishna. One of the more creative treatments is Reena Kallat’s series “Synonym,” which show faces of people constructed out of rubber stamps. The work that has been in Walsh’s collection the longest is one by Atul Dodiya called “E.T.” It is at first glance a picture of Albert Einstein and poet Rabindranath Tagore (both Nobel Laureates) painted on a metal shutter, which are ubiquitous in India. Ask Walsh to open it, and behind the door is a second painting of a scholar pooping bombs that look like food packages on villages in Gujarat (the painting was done around the time of the 2002 massacres in that state). The image was too much for one of the people at the premier; “Take the door down,” she asked. (Robert O’Connor) “Body Chatter” shows at Walsh Gallery, 118 N. Peoria, second floor, through January 10
Repurposing AI: A Review of Stephanie Dinkins at Stamps Gallery While this show is timely for everyone, I consider its setting within a university art gallery and emerging tech hub like the city of Ann Arbor a subversive provocation which Dinkins invites the greater public—including members of the university community—to consider our own positionality to AI and technology.
Lost in Translation: A Review of Crip* at Gallery 400 The strongest works in the exhibition succinctly express the ways the artist relates to their own body while calling out how the artist’s body and body of work has been perceived or coded against norms or ideals.
