Art Lovers Should Show Solidarity
Jacques Karamanoukian
Well I say Bravo Jacques talk louder! For on the walls of his space and stacked throughout his house are a goldmine of incredible and daring visions! Works by artists from all over the world are represented in this collection. Jacques shows art that consistently involves intense, rebellious imagination. By contrast I've seen paintings at the Alexa Lee Gallery that would be perfectly suited for bed sheet patterns. She talks of educating the public. She could start by eliminating mediocre talent from her gallery walls.
John Elken
ANN ARBOR
Art Lovers Should Show Solidarity
I have been a frequent visitor to Galerie Jacques for the last five years and I can say that Jacques has been very active in showing emerging artists from the U.S. as well as abroad. Furthermore Jacques has been always very involved with artists, looking at their works, visiting studios, encouraging and supporting them financially, either by buying their work outright and even framing work to bc shown in his gallery free of charge. It is ridiculous for someone who I assume is also a lover of art to attack him in such brutal manner. Alexa Lee should at least try to bc informed before making such a judgment. I think it was unfair for Alexa Lee to omit the fact that Galerie Jacques has been open for the past 26 years. Also let's not forget that the first Friday of every month, Galerie Jacques hosts a poetry reading which gives our local poets from Ann Arbor and Detroit a chance to read their work. In conclusion I believe that Alexa Lee's letter and her obvious lack of support and solidarity for a fellow art gallery was a sad moment for the Ann Arbor art community.
Patrick Dodd
ANN ARBOR
Jacques Promotes Accessibility in Arts
While I don't usually respond to articles printed in newspapers, and am even less inclined to respond to a "Letter To The Editor," Alexa Lee's misinformed, wrongheaded and decidedly hostile response to Arwulf's piece on Jacques Karamanoukian warrants one of its own. It should be stated from the outset --with all due respect to Arwulf-- that the piece was not without its flaws. Writing about a subject you are taken with as clearly as Arwulf was with Karamanoukian, is difficult, to say the very least (I know, as a journalist, I've been there). Simply put, there was too much Arwulf and not enough Jacques in the story. That minor point aside, it should be noted that Ms. Lee chose only to focus on one aspect of Karamanoukian's record as contributing to Ann Arbor's art scene, the fact that his gallery is only open four "official" hours per week. She states that running a gallery is not only about economics, yet she reduced her entire argument to that issue by not bringing up anything else about Karamanoukian, despite the fact that there is more, lots more. Let's set the record straight. For starters, her assertion that Karamanoukian's gallery is only open four hours a week in his homes is just plain false. He may lists his hours
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