Detroit painter and gallerist Michael Ross is laying the groundwork for what may be the most expansive exhibition yet of Pollard’s visual art yet, set to open June 6 at Annex Gallery in Highland Park.
LOUD: The Art of Robert Pollard will feature roughly 100 works — collages, 45” sleeves, and selections familiar from Pollard’s EAT publications — along with new pieces he plans to create specifically for the space.
Ross first encountered Guided by Voices in the early 1990s, but only in recent years did he immerse himself fully in Pollard’s catalog. That deeper engagement — paired with Ross’s growing admiration for Pollard’s visual work — led him to wonder why the art hadn’t been showcased on a larger scale.
With access to a 2,500-square-foot gallery and extensive experience in Detroit’s art community, Ross decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Through photographer Trevor Naud, he reached out to Pollard and his wife, Sarah Zade-Pollard, with the idea — initially receiving a polite decline. A follow-up note changed everything, leading to renewed conversations and eventually to Pollard’s visit to Detroit to walk the space in person.
What followed was a weekend of planning, idea-swapping, and an immediate rapport. Ross now finds himself curating a major exhibition by one of his favorite musicians — a lifer artist whose visual and musical languages, he says, feel inseparable.
In our conversation, Ross traces his history with GBV, the path to securing the show, and the family-like ecosystem he’s found inside Pollard’s world.
Click here for the Excited Ones! interview with GBV layout designer Joe Patterson. Click here to order a copy of EAT. And for all other information on Pollard’s visual art, head over to robertpollardart.com.
You look like you’re in your art studio.
Oh, yes, all the paint and everything behind me. [Points device in various directions.] That’s the extremely brief tour you just got there.
Beautiful work, even through a Zoom window.
Oh, thanks. What I do is a lot of abstract figures, color gradients, that kind of thing.
What’s your personal concept of color?
Well, in some sense, it changes with every painting that I make. The color palette for everything that I do, it sort of goes composition, color. They’re kind of neck and neck as far as the psychological effects of color combinations and things like that.
You know, a lot of times I go with something that’s kind of subtle, but the way that they work together is impactful, if that makes any sense. I like to sort of work around those kinds of ideas, rather than just putting a big, bright splotch of something in the middle. There’s a time for that for sure, but I like to take kind of a subtle approach when it comes to that stuff.
Do you think about color in terms of memory?
I think that’s huge. They say that smell is associated with memory. I know color is as well. There are certain colors that, to me, are very nostalgic. Sometimes you don’t realize what something is about until much later. I think I heard Bob say that about songwriting before, too.
When I was a kid, we used to spend our summers up north around Lake Michigan. There are these deep greens of the evergreens that are around there that grow near the beach. The sandy beach, and then the blue of the water and the sky and everything.
As soon as I was finished with the [above] painting, I looked at those colors and realized what it was bringing back to me. I didn’t realize when I was painting it, but it was very much about being a little kid and running around on the beach. Even though it was an abstract painting, all those things were in there for me.
Who are your inspirations in the painting world?
I try not to think about it too much. There are painters I really like, but I can’t say that I ever really look at another painter’s work and say, You know, I’m inspired to go and paint something like this, or, I need to do more of this. It’s more about the feel of things.
There’s a painter from Detroit who died a couple of years ago. I don’t know how familiar you are with the art world, but his name was Charles McGee. He was 96 when he died. He had been active from the early ‘60s onwards, and had done so much incredible stuff. His work really affects me when I look at it.
I had a conversation with him one time and he said something along the lines of “We speak the same language,” which I was really kind of blown away by. I would say that’s the closest that I come to having an inspiration as far as another painter. I’m just trying to live up to high praise from someone whose work I really respected and admired.
So many of my visual inspirations are actually musical. I work a lot with repetition and pattern and things like that. So, I listen to a lot of Steve Reich and things like that.
But also lots of rock ‘n’ roll — lots of Guided by Voices come into these paintings. I definitely paint to a lot of Coltrane. You never know how things you’re hearing aurally are going to work their way into what you’re doing visually.
How did you first become aware of Robert Pollard and Guided by Voices?
I’ve been thinking about this recently as I’ve gotten deeper into this world. I remember back in high school — I graduated in ‘93 — I was standing around at the locker, and that had to have been pre-Bee Thousand. I remember having conversations like, “Oh, yeah, the guy from Guided by Voices, he’s still a schoolteacher.” That kind of stuff that kids are interested in hearing about.
I mean, we’re not that far from Dayton, up here in Detroit. Being into the indie rock scene — not that we really called it this back then — I was aware of Guided by Voices back then, but then they kind of fell off my radar for a few years.
Then, I started working in a record shop in 2001, and Guided by Voices records would come in. That’s when I started to gain a real appreciation for what Bob does, and what they do. Truly, I have to credit my friend Paul McLeod for breaking that whole world open for me.
How did he do that?
So, I was a fan. I was into them. It’s funny: I found some old emails from my old band a couple of weeks ago, where we were talking about being sad: “Oh, Guided by Voices are breaking up.”
I remember some friends going to see that last tour when it came to Detroit — and I don’t know why, but I missed it then. I don’t know what I was doing. I don’t want to know what my excuse was at the time. By then, I had probably all the records, except for the very early ones that I missed. I had just about everything at that point, and I would listen to it casually. I was a fan, but I wasn’t deep into it yet.
In 2019, when they came here to Detroit, my friend Paul was like, “We have to go see Guided by Voices.” I said, “Yes, we do.” And the show blew me away.
You know, I’d never seen them live. That was what really kicked it open. And then a couple of years later — 2020, maybe 2021; I know it was during pandemic times because we did it via Zoom — but that same friend, Paul, has a radio show here locally in Ferndale.
Paul decided to get a handful of friends together to get on the air and talk about Guided by Voices. So, we did that. At that point, it was like, across the full spectrum of Guided by Voices — just pick 25 minutes of your favorite Guided by Voices stuff. So then, I really started listening to everything. I really had not kept up to date that much on the more recent stuff to that point.
Where did you lose track?
When they reformed in 2012, I lost the thread and didn’t really pick it back up again. From 2012 to 2019, I was aware that they were putting out records again and everything, but I had not kept up. So, this kind of forced me to go back and catch up.
Did you catch up?
I did. I did in a pretty hardcore way. It got pretty intensive. We had so much fun doing that.
Then, a year later or so, Paul said, “Hey, let’s do it again. This time, let’s just focus on the records from 2012 to the present day.” I think when we got together that second time, Welshpool Frillies was the most recent record that had come out, so we focused on those records.
And then we had so much fun doing that, we said, “OK, let’s do another, where we just focus on Bob Pollard solo records.” So, that got me up to date on those — most of which I had not heard. Then we got together again to focus on the side projects alone — which, as you know, is a gargantuan task.
And they’re all so good. I keep trying to deep dive Circus Devils, and I just get stuck on their debut, [2001’s] Ringworm Interiors. I want to hear it again and again.
Yeah, and there’s just so much to it. I mean, there are heavy concept records in there. Right now I have From a Compound Eye on the turntable; I just picked it up on vinyl and it’s been in constant rotation. There’s just so, so much good stuff.
So, over the last four years, it’s been this huge crash course in all things Bob. I’d say I’ve been more or less a fan since ‘93, but it’s just been more recently that I’ve realized what a world it is to delve into.
Glad you stuck with it. This isn’t for the faint of heart.
It’s kind of easy doing that because of what I do. I’m in an art studio all day, you know? And that’s what I do — I put on record after record after record.
Plus, I drive out to my dad’s house once a week, and he’s, like, 45 minutes away, so you can usually cram in two, if not three records on the drive there and back.
What have you connected with most in GBV’s current era?
Oh, man. Space Gun, to me, is really solid. Zeppelin Over China is a double record, and there’s not a wasted second on there. It’s just packed with great tunes.
And then, honestly, the thing I’ve been listening to — that has really hooked me hard — is Thick Rich and Delicious. I think that’s just a great [title], because it is exactly that. You just sink your teeth into it — all these crunchy pop tunes. I love it all.
Give us the rundown on LOUD: The Art of Robert Pollard.
June 6 is when it opens, and it’ll be open through June and July into early August. I believe it has to end August 8. We’ve got other things on the calendar.
When I knew we were going to be having this conversation, I was trying to think of the initial spark of the idea, and I honestly can’t remember. But, again — going back to high school and shortly thereafter, when I started picking up the records — there was a point at which I realized: Not only is Bob Pollard writing the songs, but he’s Guided by Voices. He’s also the guy doing all this artwork.
It made so much sense to me from a visual standpoint, almost as a holistic package. Each album cover fits the content of the record so perfectly. There are artists where it’s like one’s man vision creates this whole world, and that really struck me. And when I really took the crash course, it really drove it home.
I had picked up EAT 16 from Rockathon — the one that came with a 45” — and I [developed] a big appreciation for his visual artwork. Not only as it pertains to the music itself, but even just separately as its own thing.
And I have a gallery at my disposal — so at some point, I kind of just had the revelation. You know, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Obviously, I didn’t know Bob before. They didn’t know me, certainly.
So, I just had the idea that I would invite him up here to do a show. Because poking around a little bit, it didn’t seem like he had done many shows. I know he did a couple of shows in New York, but that was a while ago.
And I don’t know how big those galleries are; I don’t know how much of his work was able to be showcased. I was like, It’s possible that he hasn’t done a big show for his artwork. And that’s something that I can do. So, I was really excited by the prospect.
When It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! came out [in 2021], I noticed that cover image of [GBV bassist] Mark Shue was taken by my old friend Trevor Naud.
We go back 15 years or so; our bands used to play together and stuff like that. I saw that he had done some other work for them — photo shoots and stuff.
I hadn’t seen him in a few years — but a couple of months ago, he walked into the gallery for another show that we were doing. We’re talking and catching up, and I was like, “I noticed I saw you on the credits for these Guided by Voices records. Do you know those guys? What’s going on?”
So, he kind of gave me a rundown on his relationship with Bob. He had given him some collage materials and stuff, and got a kind of pen pal, email relationship with Bob and his wife Sarah.
And I said to Trevor, “Well, look, I had this idea. What if Bob came up here and we could put on a show for his artwork?” Trevor was like, “That’s a fantastic idea.” I didn’t want to write them cold and have it end up in a spam box unseen, so I asked Trevor to reach out.
Initially, the response was essentially, “Bob wants to stay home this year. He’s not looking to do anything.” At first, we were a little bit disappointed, but we understood.
Then a couple of weeks went by, and I was like, Maybe I should bug him a little bit more. Maybe I should write them again and give them a little bit fuller version of how I feel this show could work.
[In my ask], I was like, “You can be as involved or not involved as you want. Detroit’s three hours north of Dayton; I’ll even come down and get the work. I don’t mind doing that kind of stuff. I just really think there would be an audience. This work needs to be seen, aside from people just flipping through it in the record racks.”
So, a week goes by. I’m sitting in the parking lot of an auto parts store, I get a little bing! on my phone, and much to my surprise and delight, it’s an email from Sarah. She says, “You know what? Bob has changed his mind. He’s actually really excited about it now.”
I was like, Whoa. I had to sit back for a second.
It paid off! Shooting them one more message.
[Chuckles] It never hurts. Never hurts.
From there on, we fleshed out ideas a little bit more. I’ve got a 2,500 square foot gallery here, so I was like, “The more the merrier. He could bring a lot of work. We could fit a lot of work into this gallery, and I think it would be huge and beautiful and amazing.”
A couple of weeks later, we sort of went back and forth talking about details and everything, and then Sarah says, “Hey, Bob would like to come up and check out the gallery.” I said, “Absolutely, of course.”
And that was just last weekend. It was Bob and Joe, and [Boston Spaceships tour manager] Justin [Hebenstreit] came into town from Portland. We also met up with [friend and GBV superfan] Jereme Sanborn, who lives right here in Ferndale.
So, yeah, Bob came up and spent the weekend — and needless to say, it was quite an amazing weekend. From the second I met him — he walked up to me, said, “You must be Mike,” shook my hand — I was like, This is a solid dude. This is a fantastic person.
We hung out in the gallery here for a while. We talked about ideas for the show. The man is made of ideas; once he saw the gallery, he was just firing off ideas about things he wanted to do.
We spent the rest of the weekend at one of our local watering holes here and just had a grand old time. There are just certain people in this world that just have that special something, you know? And he’s got it in spades. He makes any situation more fun.
I think his visual work is amazing. It’s super striking. Sometimes it’s in your face. Sometimes it’s very subtle. The composition is fantastic. It’s like his music, really; that’s the thing that I keep coming back to. He has a way of just making all the right choices when it comes to composing something.
When I gave him a little tour of the place, there were a few artists here, and he’s looking around — and I’m not going to quote him, but essentially, the gist of what he was saying was, “I’m just a hack. Are these real artists going to accept me?” I was like, “Are you kidding me, man?”
One of the things he kept saying while he was here — when he saw the size of the place and the walls and everything — was, “I’ve gotta get to work.” Like, “I’ve got to make more work for this show.”
So, I just feel incredibly honored and humbled that I’ve been able to facilitate this. I firmly believe that the more Bob Pollard artwork there is out there in the world, the better the world is — whether it’s music, visual art, or whatever he’s doing.
He’s making the world a better place for us to live in with his work. Not to sound too grandiose, but I think it’s true.
I think one of the things that makes Bob so much fun to hang out is that he includes everybody. Like, I’m sitting there with a bunch of guys I don’t know, and I can be a little bit reticent sometimes to put myself out there in a conversation. And whatever was being talked about, Bob would turn to me and say, “Mike, what do you think about the Beatles?” or whatever we were talking about.
He just makes people feel included, and makes everybody feel like an old friend. Not everybody’s like that. Most people aren’t.
Sounds like it’s to be determined what the exhibit will include — like he’s working on stuff as we speak.
Well, it looks like he’s going to bring about 100 pieces, maybe more. There’s room for that. There’s one especially large wall, and he had the idea of setting up a ton of these little 45” sleeves that he made for imaginary bands. We were thinking we’d set it up almost like how you’d see 45”s or LPs set up in a record shop with the little shelves. That we’d basically make a wall of 45” sleeves.
Beyond that, I think a ton of the stuff that you might see in the EAT publications. And like I said, it fired up his imagination, and he wants to make a bunch of new stuff as well.
What’s the neighborhood like where Annex Gallery is?
Well, Highland Park is interesting. It’s a tiny area within the city of Detroit.
We’re in an old stamping plant, an old factory. So you can’t call it a neighborhood, it’s just an industrial area. Which is kind of ideal, because we don’t get any of the things that can be around in a neighborhood that you wouldn’t want around, you know what I mean? There’s plenty of parking, it’s totally safe, all that stuff.
I love Highland Park. It’s one of those areas of Detroit that has not been 100% revitalized in any corporate sort of way, for lack of a better term. So, it’s pretty raw, but it’s cool.
Would you say Detroit is underrated, overrated, or fairly rated?
It’s underrated and overrated. It’s underrated because it’s an incredible city. I love it here. The arts scene is like nowhere else I’ve ever been. That includes New York, LA, San Francisco.
I haven’t lived in those places, but the art scene here is just incredible. There are so many fantastic artists here and so many places where people can make art, which probably has a lot to do with why there are so many fantastic artists here.
You know, the secret’s out, so I’m not telling any tales here. But a lot of it has to do, I think, with the fact that you can still get a place like this giant factory for fairly cheap. Somebody who has the means can — if they’re so motivated — pick up an abandoned factory.
Obviously, you’ve got to have some know-how to get it into shape and turn it into this thriving, beautiful arts center. We’ve got 25 studios here and a gorgeous gallery.
So, Detroit is kind of open for things that are impossible in other cities just due to the cost of things. Costs are rising here in Detroit, but probably not quite as much as in some other places.
And then it’s also overrated, because people talk about the revitalization of Detroit and everything. And in a lot of ways, it’s great, but it also has marginalized a lot of people who were here before. And all of a sudden, there’s this group of people who are coming in and changing the face of the city a little bit.
When I was a kid, we’d go downtown, and we’d be the only people running around at 11 o’clock at night in downtown Detroit on Woodward Avenue. And now, you can’t find a place to park — like, don’t even go, because you can’t get out of your car.
Any final thoughts?
The last thing that I would want to say — and I know we kind of touched on this before — but it’s just such a presence that Bob is. And I think everything that he does exudes that presence.
On Friday night, I drove those guys back to the hotel — and I don’t know how we got on the subject, but we were talking all the great music that came from Detroit, and how it’s unfortunate that we also birthed Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.
We got on the subject of the Nuge. I was like, “I don’t like Ted Nugent, but the Amboy Dukes’ ‘Journey to the Center of the Mind’ is a fucking great song.” Bob’s like, “Yeah!” and he starts air-guitaring and singing. It’s that kind of thing where you almost have to step back from the situation and be like, “Bob Pollard’s in my passenger seat air-guitaring to Ted Nugent.”
I’ll say this, too: I’ve been a Deadhead for most of my life, since I was like 13. And it’s funny, because it surprises even some of my close friends. I go see all the offshoot stuff even up to the present day.
Simultaneous to that, I’ve played in noise bands and stuff like that. My other favorite bands in high school were, like, Mudhoney — Seattle stuff, indie rock, whatever. I had a radio show in college. I did have a little Dead phase there, too, but I’d play everything else. It was almost like the Dead were a separate thing.
But the thing about the Dead — I don’t know how much you know or have read about them, but how they came out and what they did was very much [centered around] this idea of family. It was very much all in-house.
They had their own record label. They had complete quality control over everything they put out. The people they worked with, the way they did their tours, even the way they sold their tickets was all in-house. And that bled over into the fanbase, too. It was sort of this big family thing.
And it’s interesting: musically, the Dead and GBV are on practically opposite sides of some spectrum. But as far as the attitude toward the music and art goes, it’s very much of a piece. There’s a lot in common there — just this idea of family, and doing everything possible to get the art out into the world in the way it should be heard and seen.
So, that has really struck me too, in reading a lot of your interviews. The way that it is — this big family — everyone’s get this sort of vision. And it’s Bob’s vision. But everyone’s doing their thing to keep this vision pure.
Yes Bob is excited about this show. I received a note from him last week, handwritten on notebook paper, thanking me for a birthday card I sent, like I do every year. Who does this? Anyway, he informed and invited me in the letter. Roadtrip from Louisiana to Morgan's is a go!
Thanks for sharing this!
I live nearby (Ferndale, as mentioned above), and am very much looking forward to the showing next year.
2nd opinion - Highland Park, undiscovered jewel. Detroit - underrated except for the overrated areas. Ferndale - underrated 5 minute trip from the gallery, but let's keep that quiet.
Long live Ferndale Radio!
Long live Rockathon!
I look forward to the next Excited Ones!