Peter Sparling is a known Michigan dancer, choreographer and visual artist who is partnering with not only a venue to put on his next exhibit but nonprofit Equality Michigan. Debuting on Friday, Nov. 1, with an opening reception and lasting throughout the month, attendees will be able to view Sparling's paintings and videos at Ypsilanti's Gallery 22 North. Half of all proceeds from the month-long show will go to Equality Michigan.
The reception will be held to "celebrate the show with members of Equality Michigan and the Southwest Michigan community," write event organizers. "There will be a private showing for Equality Michigan guests only with artist's talk from 5 to 7 p.m."
A recipient of the 1998 Governor's Michigan Artist Award, Sparling is Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School, Sparling was a member of the José Lim√≥n Dance Company and principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company. He also directed Michigan's own Peter Sparling Dance Company from 1993 to 2008 among many other achievments.
"As a solo dancer/choreographer, video artist and painter, I work to translate my own moving body into diverse media, to capture the one or a series of images that hold power and communicate how it feels to live in that instant. For my paintings, I begin by staging photo sessions in which I perform for the camera then curate from the resulting images those that most speak to me," Sparling writes of his work. "But the photo is merely a portal, an invitation or contour map for further excavations and reenactments of the often nude human form. Acrylic paint and the stroke of the brush allow me to reanimate the photographed figure as I return to it my own body memories and sensations and invest in the painted image its lived, kinesthetic presence."
Gallery 22 North is located at 22 N. Huron in Ypsilanti. To sign up for reception, contact Erin Knott at Equality Michigan: [email protected].
Artist Peter Sparling Partners With Equality Michigan for Upcoming Exhibit
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