©POP's innovative "©POPportunity" to showcase over 70 artists in an all-media
exhibit, Opening Saturday, March 10th .

It was a bold and risky move when ©POP Gallery put out an "all 'ism" /
"all-media" call for ALL artists, or at least those who had never shown at the
iconic gallery before, extending an opportunity to exhibit at ©POP, based on
nothing more than timeliness and enough cash to cover the modest inclusion
fee. It was then posted on our new ©POP MySpace page in order to help reach
local and hopefully regional artists, just a week before we sent out our local
press release. This was an absolutely ground-breaking concept which completely
leveled the playing field by removing any of the usual biases inherent to the
usual juried method based on aesthetic preference or style, level of experience,
age, gender, location, medium or size. There were serious benefits to be sure
(an unheard-of 90% artist-cut on all sales and the chance to have one's work
judged and possibly voted into a 4-person show in July by a panel of
celebrities, artists, curators and collectors) but in reality, it was a
crap-shoot for both the gallery and the potential artist. The artists' risk
would be monetary and (as always) out of rejection, a bruised ego, while the
gallery's risk would be its credibility, and though basically meeting operating
needs on the "front end" it risked potential loss on the "back-end" when things
sell. But it remained an unpredictable concept despite all our soul-searching
and finger-crossing, and we could only hope that the art would be good. We
initially intended it to be a local showcase for aspiring artists willing to put
a few bucks "where their talent was". So it was kind of a gamble - a big one
really, aesthetically and otherwise, yet one needs to evolve in the ever-fickle
art business. ©POP is truly proud and thankful that many of the artists to whom
we given a springboard for success are experiencing incredible popularity on a
world-wide basis, but we won't lie, it's been rough the last 4 years. Though,
paraphrasing Twain, "The rumors of our death have been greatly
exaggerated." Last year we quietly celebrated our 10 year anniversary. We
exist because we are fearless and supremely confident in our mission.
Oh yeah, ©POPportunity...
Well, in our dreams we'd hoped to get 40 artists, maybe 80 new pieces, if we
were lucky.
But after 3 weeks on Myspace we had over 70 artists committed, from everywhere
and anywhere- LA, Calgary, Chicago, Brooklyn, the UK, Denmark, Oklahoma,
Montreal and Italy.
We were lucky all right ...and as it turns out... pretty good too. Suffice it
to say, our risk truly seems to have paid off, and what could have been a show
featuring a few pieces from local students and©POP interns, has turned out to be
a showcase of unbelievable quality, with all-new talent in a wide variety of
mediums, featuring artists that run the gamut from the unknown to the
internationally renown, from local to global. This project is turning us on to
work we may have never seen otherwise, and others we had seen but never had the
opportunity to exhibit, including: well-known LA painter of Juxtapoz fame JASON
MALONEY, CCS grad from Chicago CRISTIN RICHARD (whose installations featuring
sausage casing fashions have brought her great notoriety), TODD KURTZMAN, a
bronze sculptor from Portland, OR who is world-renown for his amazing forced
perspective bronze figures and "Time", "Rolling Stone", "Newsweek" photographer
MELANIE WEINER, whose natural and provocative portraits of Rock Icons like
Robert Plant, Tricky and Metallica are beautifully composed from the eye of a
true professional. These established artists join gifted "newbies" like local
painter MATTHEW J. HOCKADAY, UK agit-popist KAREN BURT, painter
AMY-KOLLAR-ANDERSON, photographer/printmaker MARA MILLICH, Canadian surrealist
painter KELLY SCPELLY, Brooklyn bred painter J CELESTINO, From Australia, LARA ALPORT and local painters MILES RENE VANKEERSBILCK, JOSH BALL and many,many more great new talents .

On Saturday, March 10th they will converge upon ©POP from all points of the
compass to see the familiar and the unknown. And we're pretty sure that you'll
be hearing great things about many of these artists again very soon.
Four of the participating artists will be chosen to participate in the
"©POPportunity Showcase", their own group show in July of this year, by a panel
of judges which includes: punk rock diva and underground art sensation- Niagara,
psycho-rock-a-billy musician/collector- Reverend Horton Heat, photographer-
EWOLF, photographer/gallery owner- Matthew Martin, painter/gallery owner- Tom
Thewes, Radio host/DJ/Curator- Liz Copeland, manic artist/illustrator- Topher
Crowder, lenticular imagist/teacher- Chris Dean and painter/auto/furniture/fashion designer/ Camilo Pardo.

One artist will also be voted in by exhibit attendees during the show's run to
join the 4 juried winners in painting/illustration, Sculpture/3-D ,
Photography/Digital, installation/conceptual/video.
The winners will be announced at the closing party on Saturday, March 31st.
"©POPportunity" will run through April 7th.

©POP Gallery is located at 4160 Woodward in Detroit, Michigan.
Reach us by phone at 313 833-9901
Or on-line at www.myspace.com/cpopgallery or www.cpop.com.

The list of participating artists includes:
Don VanAuken
Allison Pasarew
Jeff Dennome
Colleen Walters
Derek Crank
Christina Pomaro
Hilary Wagner
Andrea Ramirez
Tim Gralewski
Jaclyn Schanes
Allison Vince
Jason West
Marcy Sperry
Bruce Gerlach
Dave Manning
Sandi Wheaton
Melanie Weiner
John Shaw
Jake Beeson
Kelly Shpeley
Steve Stowbridge
Merideth Zielke
Mike Kelly
Bryan Hoffman
Jason Maloney
Michael Siporin
Carol Ekkens
Cristin Richard
Bev Hogue
Angela Oster
Paula Raatz
Daniel Soffin
CH Carroll
Dave Kant
Andrew Dent
Jessica Kropog
Karen Burt
John Woytalewicz
Mara Millich
Emily Pelton
Matthew J. Hockaday
Miles Rene Vankeersbilck
Avrell Fox
Rebecca Laughlin
Rick Butynski
Marie Gabriel
Heather Dagenais
Bill Harbort
Shawn Conn
Chris Zahner
James K Lowery
Aletha Israels
Lara Alport
Thorsen Hassenkamm
Eric Zurawski
Jaime Celestino
Terence Cover
Kyle Young
Aletha Israels
Eric Zurawski
Todd Kurtzman
Amy Kollar-Anderson
Suspiria Vil
Andrew Blake
Derek Hartl
Eric Lucier
Jeff Nolan
John Dixon
Marc Christy
Thorsten Hassenkaam
James Ashby
Daniel Pfalzgraf
Kathy Abramczyk
Kathy Slamen
Cowboy Mike Berman
Rick "Ruiner" Lappin
Anastasia Feofanova
Mindi Yarbrough
Sarah Bonk
Tracy Ann Brown
Francisco Amaya
Victor Pytko
Randy Wilcox
Aunia Kahn
Katerina Mitrofahova
Josh Ball
Kenneth Walendzik
Kristina Rafalski
Mike Bell
Alex Mildrag
Robert Schafer