Detroit has long earned its stripes as a producer and purveyor of fine arts, though reports of decline since the city’s bankruptcy filing in 2013 may at times overshadow that legacy. Still, many critically-acclaimed works call the midwestern region home and exemplify the hub’s distinguished level of artistry. Diego Rivera’s fresco-style Detroit Industry Murals (1932-33) at the Detroit Institute of Art were deemed a national landmark in 2014. That same year, the institute’s Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait was nearly sold off due to post-bankruptcy struggles, but it should also be noted that the work was the first Van Gogh painting to enter any museum in the United States at the time of its acquisition in 1922.
Contemporary art has a strong foothold in the city as well. Over on the east side in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, Tyree Guyton’s outdoor art environment, the Heidelberg Project, has remained a testament to the power of community since the ’80s. And even now, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, cult-favorite KAWS is featured in a solo exhibition, as well as Brooklyn-based abstractionist Eddie Martinez.
But can such a historic, thorough and, at times complex, art scene be presented to the world in an objective way? Emerging organizations like Detroit Art Week (DAW) and Red Bull Arts Detroit have made such a mission their undertaking, and along the way are becoming pivotal in shaping the landscape of fine contemporary art within the city.
Now in its second year, DAW remains focused on bridging local artists and galleries to the global community. This year’s circuit took place from July 17 to 21, with co-founders Aleiya Lindsey and Amani Olu having to expand the event from three days to five in order to accommodate the full roster: over 150 artists across 36 exhibition openings, 14 studio visits, 13 performances, 11 special programs and seven panels.
Red Bull Arts Detroit falls somewhere along the other end of the scale. Like its counterpart in New York, the establishment provides a number of programs that are open for submissions from both local and international artists (a shift that took place in 2018, when Red Bull House of Art rebranded as Red Bull Arts Detroit). Its landmark initiative, a three-month long artists residency program, culminated for the Summer 2019 season with a striking exhibition presented by three distinctive — and, in fact, New York-based — creators: Kearra Amaya Gopee, Pamela Council and Claire Lachow.
