The Tom James Gallery of Fine Art.  Recently renamed!  The former Northville Camera, purchased in 2003, has reached its final transformation and now serves the West Side with original fine art in an exclusive gallery space of over 2500 square feet. Owner Tom James painted his first oil painting at 9 and has painted ever since. A degreed Fine Artist from the Center for Creative Studies (now the College for Creative Studies) in Detroit, Tom brings an artful approach to all aspects of this business.

The Tom James Gallery of Fine Art 117 E. Main St. 248-349-0105

The phone is answered "The Tom James Group" due to the number of entities operating within. The Fine Art Gallery is the main operation along with the Custom Framing service. A Fine Art Portrait Studio is operated along with a complete Digital Imaging service to complement photographic operations. The retail camera store has been closed but exists in name and service related areas, continuing the tradition long established in Northville. Services include passport photos to full photo restoration. Stop in to see Mary or Curt for your needs. Art Restoration and preservation services complement the gallery and photo operations and are being separately staffed and located within the group.

Over 50 years of custom framing expertise resides in our staff. An artful approach is promoted and specialized, extensively "non-standard" solutions are commonplace. Tom continues to frame with over 30 years experience and Miranda, with over 5 years experience runs the department. Jennifer assists with framing design and gallery sales and supplies our custom calligraphy used in framing services.
 

The Gallery offers fine art, original paintings, drawings, graphic art prints, sculpture and fine art photography from international, national and local artists. The gallery reconstruction reached new dimensions in February 2006. The main space of over 1400 square feet features original works of art from artists Joshua Brennan, Chen, Hermann Goebel, Aleksander Sitnikov, Vincent Cangel, Jack Lindsey, J. Johnson and numerous others. We believe that offering a wide variety of original art and art education becomes a hallmark service. Undiscovered and talented artists afford value opportunities to those who appreciate fine art. Jennifer, Lauren and Jenny will greet you in the gallery and provide additional information and guidance to you.

We’re on the First Fridays Art Walk. Since February 2005, our gallery has hosted an open house each month. As this exciting event has gained momentum in Northville, we have seen close to 500 people in an evening through the gallery. Receptions in the inner gallery of over 800 square feet include those for group shows of local artists (Local Color – March 2006 with Arthur Lazarian, Patri O’Connor, Steve Provo and Qian Wang), solo exhibitions (Ivan Kende – April 06) and former solo and group shows by artists such as Monte Nagler, Tom Hale, Robert Zeichner, Jack Kenny and others. Our fine art photography collection also includes local artists Curt Gresock, Susan Skibicki, Jerry Basierbe and Bruce Murden, and international artist Oswaldo Salas.

Other scheduled shows include Qian Wang: "Retrospective" June 2006, Edward Milton: "Victorian Portraits" September 2006, Monte Nagler: "Recent Travels" late 2006, Robert Zeichner: "Recent Work" late 2006, "Mushrooms": An unique collection of paintings late 2006, Tom Smith: "Detroit – Modern Urban Ruins" mid 2007 and Cynthia Sarris: "Shape and Color", early 2007.

In conjunction with the future show schedule, a "focus gallery", a smaller intimate showcase gallery within the space, will feature limited exhibitions of recent works by our staff, including Curt Gresock, as well as becoming a dedicated space for photographic and graphic arts display. Among the rotating exhibits in graphic arts will be some of Tom James’ early prints, recent drawings, paintings and photographs. Tom will also periodically display items from his personal collection including works of antiquity, those of other artistic merit such as antique photography, cyanotypes and other fine art works.

This month's Business of the Month was written by Tom James. 
Photos by The Tom James Group.