Pulp | Arts Around Ann Arbor

WSG Gallery offers virtual exhibitions and one in-person show at Ann Arbor Art Center

by Christopher Porter
Thu, 10/08/2020 - 1:15pm

VISUAL ART

WSG exhibit at Ann Arbor Art Center

Ann Arbor Art Center is hosting an exhibition of WSG Gallery artists through Dec. 31. Photo courtesy A2AC.

WSG Gallery's transformation from a Main Street attraction to an online art house continues apace—with some timely dips into physical spaces, too.

The collective created a small pop-up gallery at 401 N. Ann Arbor St. in Saline (Sept. 25- Oct. 2), which was a warm-up to taking over the second floor of the Ann Arbor Art Center from Oct. 6- Dec. 31. This a multi-artist show and the featured works will rotate at Thanksgiving.

But WSG's two most recent virtual exhibitions focus on single artists.

Painter Sara Adlerstein's Not for Sale: My Private Collection exhibition officially ran Aug. 18 to Sept. 28, but WSG is doing the smart thing and keeping all its virtual exhibitions online permanently. The current exhibition is sculptor Francesc Burgos' Recent Work (Sept. 29 to Nov. 7).

Sara Adlerstein, La Tirana, oil on Canvas, 40 x 30 in.

Adlerstein—and us viewers—actually benefit from WSG offering a virtual gallery because these 21 paintings would never be seen in a public space—you'd have to go the Ann Arbor artist's home. Not for Sale: My Private Collection spans 40 years and offers a rich collection of oil paintings filled with deeply personal meaning to Adlerstein, which she explains in engaging, earnest prose. Her work combines South American folk-art traditions with European expressionism, and because Not for Sale spans four decades, you can see Adlerstein's styles morph and change during the course of the slideshow.

Francesc Burgos, dislocated form

Francesc Burgos, dislocated form, ceramic, 8 x 7 x 2.5 in.

Burgos' Recent Work continues his exploration of organic abstractions inspired by nature, geometry, and forms from his background in architectural design. The Ann Arbor sculptor begins his pieces with sketches—even architectural-style elevation drawings—before rendering his works in clay, porcelain, and wood. Burgos says his pieces are often conceived as imaginary dwellings, some of which evoke traditional Southwestern Native American structures, while others look like they could only be homes as futuristic spaceships. The space inside a place is a continuous theme in Burgos' work.