Sam Friedman in Detroit

Remember the good ole’ days when you were served a meal on an airplane or had your gas pumped at the gas station? Those were the days when there was no such thing as hand sanitizer or selfies and you had to be in New York City to see a world glass art exhibit? Well my friends, the times they are a changing! This past weekend I had the pleasure to attend yet another huge and successful gallery opening at the Library Street Collective in Detroit. Yes, you heard me right…DETROIT. Detroit is now the new go-to Mecca for artists from all over the world. In fact, one of newest and coolest new art exhibits in Detroit is actually in a parking structure! The “Z Lot,” is a flashy new place to park your car off Library Street and Grand River and boast over 25 of the most notorious street artists from around the world. Among these hoody wearing, paint covered, tattooed and tougher then nails personas exists Sam Friedman, a soft spoken lovable guy from Brooklyn, whose dad still helps him make his canvases. Friedman is the only Jewish artist who painted in the structure. He is a New York native who grew up Jewish and still feels spiritually connected to Judaism. His work is simultaneously loose and precise with choices of colors that are near perfect. "Sam Friedman could be compared to a discerning curator of a botanical garden or patient botanist... on a planet in another solar system far away from the natural laws on earth" says Matt Eaton local artist, gallery partner, and curator living in Detroit. He is currently exhibiting his new works in a one-man show called “Easy” at The Library Street Collective in Detroit, which opened on May 10th and runs through July 10th. The Library Street Collective specializes in cutting edge modern and contemporary fine art with a primary focus on artists who developed their skills in public art spaces. I had a chance to catch up with Sam while he was travelling between his shows in New York and Detroit. He told me that over the past 5 or 6 years he has focused on making abstract and landscape paintings. Rather then re-creating a realistic landscape on canvas, Sam’s paintings aim to express its essence. No single work of art can hope to express the complex spirit of a landscape, much less the infinitely sophisticated ecology (or nature) that it sustains, so Sam paints what he feels the landscape is evoking, and if you ask me, and the hundreds of people who have purchased his paintings, it’s working. Make sure to visit Sam’s work before July 10th at The Library Street Collective and stop by Floor 2 of the Z Lot for his mural, heck, take a selfie in front of it, #ZLOT!