About the Exhibition:
Opening Reception: Friday, February 29, 6 - 8 pm
The Brandywine Workshop gallery exhibition program continues its "American Cities Series" with the presentation of Detroit: Contemporary Works on Paper. Following the successful exhibition of Houston artists in the fall of 2006, artists from Detroit are the second group to be highlighted by Brandywine in its "American Cities Series." Future exhibitions will include artists from Atlanta, New Orleans and Oakland-San Francisco.
A selection of artworks highlighting the rich creativity of Detroit artists will be on display, many who are members of the National Conference of Artists, a driving force in the artistic community of Motor City. The exhibit will share a variety of prints, drawings, photographs and other works on paper created by the selected Detroit artists with the Philadelphia community. Several of the artists will be present with their work at the opening reception in Brandywine’s Philadelphia Printed Image Gallery.
Twenty-three artists are participating: Shirley Woodson, Ibn Pori Pitts, Jide Aje, Valerie Fair, Asha Walidah, Robbie Best, Shirley Freeman, Jocelyn Rainey, Anita Bates, Gregory Johnson, Senghor Reid, Raymond Wells, Allie McGhee, Richard Lewis, Gilda Snowden, M. Saffell Gardner, Ora Carter, Marvalisa Coley, Dwight Smith, Bill Sanders, Anthony Bacon, Lionell Hurst and Jason Phillips.The exhibit’s curator, Camille Ann Brewer, selected artworks that embody the “magic that is the seed and guts that makes Detroit so special and unique” (as a place to create art.) While she is not native to the city and no longer lives in Detroit, she actively participated in the Michigan Chapter of the National Conference of Artists (NCA) and reveled in her discovery that “no other community of African American artists in this country is as involved and committed to the role of the visual arts in the greater cultural life of their city at the level it occurs in Detroit—period! ”This commitment to a professional and ethnic identity has resulted in a vibrant community that is supportive of its members and has created a strong and growing cadre of collectors and patrons, despite the economic hardships experienced by the general population. While Ms. Brewer is the curator and Brandywine the host of the exhibition, the organizing abilities of the Detroit artists has really been the engine that has made this project possible. |
