By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published January 24, 2024
GROSSE POINTE CITY — Village visitors who admired the work of Grosse Pointe City artist Robert Kolinski during the Art Takeover public art project in September now have a chance to see more of his original creations.
As the winner of Art Takeover, Kolinski was awarded a solo exhibition at Posterity Art & Framing Gallery in The Village, where his images will be on display through Jan. 31. A public reception where people can meet Kolinski and talk to him about his work will take place at Posterity from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 25.
Posterity’s owner, Michelle Boggess, organized Art Takeover. She said there were 72 artists in Art Takeover and thousands of people voted for their favorites, with Kolinski receiving the most votes.
“I was happy and quite surprised,” Kolinski said of learning he’d won.
Kolinski has been in many juried exhibitions and shows before, but this is his first solo show.
“We’re just honored to have it,” Boggess said. “He does a great job. His works are just beautiful.”
She said most of the Art Takeover votes were in-person as opposed to online.
“We thought it was important to have in-person voting to have people coming into the stores to see the work in person,” said Boggess, noting that seeing images of the art online isn’t the same experience.
Visitors will find about 24 pieces by Kolinski in the show, all of them oils or Polaroid transfers.
“I think it’s important to see the whole body of art rather than just one or two (pieces),” Boggess said of a solo show like Kolinski’s. “It really tells a story.”
Kolinski also does black and white photography but didn’t include any of those pieces.
“I wanted a variety of (work) … but I didn’t want to mix it up too much,” said Kolinski, who wanted his exhibition to be cohesive.
Most of the works are figural and many have an intimate, moody quality.
Kolinski’s Polaroid transfers are on watercolor paper instead of photo paper, “So you get more muted tones,” he explained. The texture of watercolor paper softens the edges of the image as well.
Kolinski’s Art Takeover win was no fluke. He has a strong art pedigree, having earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. He was also an adjunct faculty member at CCS and a department administrator in the Photography Department. Since the early 1990s, he has shown his work in exhibitions across the country.
Growing up on the west side of Detroit, Kolinski was the 12th child in a family of 13 — he said many of his siblings are creative as well. He formerly lived in Hazel Park but moved to the east side a decade ago after he married his wife, a doctor who was already living in the Pointes.
Music fans might be more familiar with Kolinski because of his work with the classic rock band Whiplash, for which he’s the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. After a hiatus, the band has returned. Their next show will be at 8 p.m. Jan. 27 at Rusty Rooster Saloon in Warren.
Like many fine artists, Kolinski has amassed a large body of work over the years — much of it taking up space in his home.
“Part of what I’d like to get out of this exhibit is to get some of this work out of my house … and share (it) with the world,” Kolinski said.
Kolinski would like gallery visitors to emerge from the show knowing “that there’s still artists doing this sort of stuff, making paintings and trying to find some beauty in this world — which seems to be harder and harder to find.”
Posterity is located at 17005 Kercheval Ave. in Grosse Pointe City. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit posterityartgallery.com or call (313) 884-8105. For more about Kolinski, visit robertkolinski.com.