Walk past the building on Woodward Avenue in Ferndale and something will stop you. It might be the facade: chic and minimalistic black-painted brick. It might be the columns, lit from below at night. It might be the large windows, that pull the inside out onto the street like an invitation.
Or it might be the dog.
He's ten feet tall, bright yellow, and visible from a block and a half away. Artist Barry Harrison's fabricated sculpture has become something of an unofficial mascot for Jarrad Heaslip Gallery, the kind of anchor image that tells you, before you've even opened the door, that this is not a typical gallery.
Inside, you get instant confirmation of that.
The space runs about 3,000 square feet, and almost none of it looks the way you'd expect a contemporary gallery to look. The walls alternate between white and black; vivid, striking, utterly unique art hangs on both, as well as on movable eight-by-eight-foot walls on wheels, which make the entire layout modular. Working tables occupy the center of the main floor.
On them are pieces in active production.
That's the detail that catches most visitors off guard: the artist is here. Most days, you'll see Jarrad Heaslip himself taping lines, applying color, building up the layers of epoxy resin that give his geometric paintings their distinctive sealed surface.
When someone walks in, Jarrad steps away from his creating to show them around, and explain what he’s doing.
"Producing art is kind of secondary when you've got a storefront," Jarrad says. "People quite enjoy seeing the process taking place in the space."
That working transparency — the gallery as studio made visible — is one of the things that sets the space apart from most galleries in Michigan. The full sequence from raw panel to finished piece lives within these walls. “I want them to enjoy the colors on the wall,” Jarrad explains, “but I also want them to enjoy the sound, and the smell.”
The building itself was renovated from a brick commercial property. Windows were cut into the facade that previously had almost none. What emerged is something this stretch of Woodward hadn't seen before: a space that announces itself at night, draws the eye during the day, and makes the sidewalk feel like the beginning of something.
The movable walls mean the gallery's configuration can shift to accommodate almost anything: a wine tasting, a private dinner, a gallery reception. A catering kitchen off the main floor handles the logistics.
What stays constant is the art.
Heaslip's own work is defined by geometric precision: straight lines laid out with a drafting ruler, isolated and taped in sequence. The lines are extremely fine, the kind of configuration that represents weeks of taping alone. Then they're painted in carefully chosen color combinations and sealed under epoxy resin that catches the light. The final product is three inches deep. A single piece can take months.
"They're supposed to have a real presence," he says. "Kind of scratches that part of your brain that likes clean and tidy. If you're OCD, it makes you happy."
Color and configuration are the emotional variables. Two pieces can share the same dimensions but deploy entirely different line spacing and color arrangements, and the experience of standing before them changes completely. Anything from warm and inviting to “sexy" (his word) can emerge from the same vocabulary of tape and resin.
The gallery also features eight other artists, almost all Detroit-based. Charlie Foster's paintings use a very different process but share Heaslip's affinity for black-and-white contrasts alongside bright color. Patrick Ethan works in electric moving light: neon pieces that pulse and shift in a way that surprises and mesmerizes. Ferndale's own Robert Mirek works in filament, with a dozen delicate maquette sculptures grouped together and several larger freestanding pieces placed throughout the space. Matthew Shlian, an Ann Arbor-based Cranbrook graduate, contributes folded paper work: geometric, single-color, bold.
"From a curatorial perspective, they all work really well together," Heaslip says. "Different in size, different in shape, different in materials. But still complementary."
The gallery has also become a willing neighbor. Jarrad is quick to point visitors toward other art spaces in the area, and there are a number of them. The gallery is part of a growing corridor between Eight and Nine Mile that’s becoming a destination for art lovers.
In July, Heaslip travels to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where a solo show opens over the Fourth of July weekend. The preparation has meant working at high volume: several pieces in production simultaneously, alongside a handful of commissions, all while running the gallery.
You notice the dog again on your way out, ten feet of bright yellow geometry watching you leave. From across the street, in the window, you can’t take your eyes off him.
That's more or less the idea.
Jarrad Heaslip Gallery is on Woodward Avenue in Ferndale. Gallery hours include the occasional Friday evening happy hour. For info on exhibitions, events, or private rentals, visit jarradheaslipgallery.com
"People quite enjoy seeing the process taking place in the space…I want them to enjoy the colors on the wall, but also the sound, and the smell.”