Taking A Look At
The Local Art Scene. • •

Furniture
Frontiers

Art To The Max

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

H

ow would you like to
spend the July 4 week-
end yachting with pop
artist Peter Max and
his celebrity friends?
The getaway is all yours if you
buy a painting from his
Statue of Liberty series
being shown at the
Saper Galleries in East
Lansing.
Collectors can view a
limited number of Lib-
erty selections desig-
nated for the Michigan
show, preview the en-
tire Max exhibition and
meet the artist between
1 and 5 p.m. Sunday,
June 2, at Saper's.
"Because it's the 20th
anniversary of the Bi-
centennial and the 10th
anniversary since the
renovation of the Stat-
ue of Liberty, I em-
barked on a project to
create 96 Liberty paint-
ings," said Max, who in-

100

Below:
Peter Max: Painting
symbols of popular culture.

Bottom:
Heart, acrylic on paper,
1996, by Peter Max.

cludes airfare, hotel accommo-
dations and parties at his New
York studio as part of the week-
end gratuities.
Max, who started capturing
the symbols of popular culture
in the 1960s, was born Max
Finkelstein in 1937
Germany and later re-
located to Shanghai,
then Israel and finally
the United States.
"I dwell on our cre-
ativity as a culture," the
artist said about his
work, which features
patriotic symbols,
celebrity portraits, car-
toon imagery and cos-
mic fantasies, all in
bright colors.
Besides calling upon
subjects that tell of the
times, Max turns to
techniques of the
times.
"I work at the com-
puter and use it the
way I use my other
. artistic tools," he said.
"I may do something on the com-
puter, print it out and paint it.
I may paint something, scan it
into the computer and enhance
it through the technology."
Max, the official artist for
Jerusalem 3000, currently is
working on an installation of 18
portraits of Yitzhak Rabin. In ad-
dition, he soon begins opening -
200 retail stores, called Planet
Max, around the country. Help-
ing him on this and other pro-
jects is a staff of 75 working out
of his New York studios.
"About 4 p.m. every day, I get
into my painting clothes and
paint until midnight. The phones
and activity quiet down, and I
have time to concentrate with-
out interruptions.
"Painting, to me, is very re-
laxing," said Max. "I feel like Pm
on vacation whenever I can be
creative."

.

e The Peter Max exhibition
opens 1-5 p:m. Sunday, June
2, and runs 10 a.m..-6 p.m.
Mondays-Saturdays (until 9
p.m. Thursdays) June 3-Au-
gust 4, at the Saper Galleries,
433 Albert Ave., East Lans-
ing. For information, call (517)
351-0815.

California craftsman
Jan Schahrer builds
and paints furni-
ture with a Western
motif; Each shelving
unit, chest, telephone
stand or plant holder
is enhanced by fron-
tier scenes or floral de-
signs. Schahrer's work
is sold in the Midwest
only through Cowboy
Trader Gallery, 251
Merrill, Suite 209,
Birmingham. (810)
647-8833.

Jan Schahrer: Painted cupboard
with Western motif.

Oriental Orientation

Jiang, founder of China's contemporary art Jiang: Rice-
stronghold, the Yunnan School, showcases Paper painting.
his watercolors and serigraphs through June
13 at the Park West Gallery, 29469 Northwestern, South-
field.
Jiang's works feature figurative elements with contrast-
ing patterns in rich colors. His style merges traditional rice-
paper painting techniques with calligraphy. The artist, who
came to the United States in 1983 through a cultural ex-
change program with the University of Southern Califor-
nia, exhibits at Park West for the second time in six years.
(810) 354-2343.

Suzanne Chessler is a freelance writer who compiles and writes
our "Hanging.Around" Fine Arts pages. If you have
information about art happenings you wish to have
considered for our fine-arts section, including show openings