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Pop artist Niagara goes 'Beyond the Pale'
New coffee-table book showcases the works and life of Detroit's most edgy, pistol-packin' painter.
Detroit diva Niagara, with a copy of her new book, at the CPop Gallery.
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With a paintbrush in one hand and a martini in the other, Niagara created her own persona as a pop culture masterpiece. Now, the colorful life and times of Metro Detroit's favorite diva are documented in a 160-page coffee-table book that the subject is reluctant to open.
Ask her why she isn't into "Niagara -- Beyond the Pale" (9mm books, $39.95), she shrugs.
"I worked on the book for almost a year. I went through thousands of photographs, and I pretty much know every page by heart," the artist says during a recent afternoon at CPop Gallery, where her recent paintings are on view. "I OD'd on it."
Funny she would feel that way when the book is a paean to her career. It follows her from her days as an art student at the University of Michigan through her years as a lead singer with punk bands Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival right up to the present as a best-selling artist in California, New York and Metro Detroit.
One of Niagara's admirers, Justin Giarla, owner of the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco and 9mm books, assembled "Beyond the Pale."
"Niagara has been one of my favorite artists for years," he says by phone from California. "She's a heavenly hurricane with a huge following."
Other guys who are smitten by Niagara describe her in the book as "larger than life," "art in motion," "exotic and mysterious" and "deliberately dangerous." They admit to being "enchanted by her charisma."
When it comes to kudos from art aristocracy, however, it would be hard to beat California imagist artist Robert Williams, self-styled guru of "lowbrow" art and founder of Juxtapoz magazine. In the book, he calls Niagara "the embodiment of the Pop image and the empress of the one liner."
Williams is referring to the Metro Detroiter's most popular creation, the so-called "Niagara woman," a lethal beauty armed with knives, guns and biting quips. She is amply illustrated in the book, saying things like, "If I want your opinion I'll beat it out of you." Or, "It's half past get out." Or, "Rest in pieces," from a knife-wielding woman to a man's feet lying in the foreground.
Although the book contains a few of the softer "Absinthe" collages from the 21st century, the more recent "Opium" series was too new to be included. CPop is showing these collages made with layers of gold, silver and Oriental papers to provide an atmosphere for zoned-out women stripped of attitude.
Superficially, the opium women look downright pretty with bows, curls and bee-stung lips. But longtime fans will be relieved to see they have an edge that's strictly Niagara.
You can reach Joy Hakanson Colby at (313) 222-2276 or jcolby@detnews.com.
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The Detroit News.
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