BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:10978@cranbrookartmuseum.org DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20231207T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20231207T193000 DTSTAMP:20260112T133747Z URL:https://cranbrookartmuseum.org/events/artist-led-tour-skilled-labor-ba kpak-durden-ijania-cortez/ SUMMARY:Artist-led Tour: Skilled Labor with Bakpak Durden and Ijania Cortez DESCRIPTION:Throughout the run of the landmark exhibition Skilled Labor: Bl ack Realism in Detroit\, Cranbrook Art Museum hosts artist-led tours for s mall groups. These tours will be led by artists included in the exhibition and have been paired together based on connections to each other and thei r work. The tours will be informal discussions about the artwork and this community of Detroit artists. \n\nEach self-taught\, Durden and Cortez ha ve built distinct and powerful mural painting practices.\n\n \;\n\nBak pak Durden lives and works in Detroit\, where they were born and raised.  \n\nDurden is a self-described “self-taught\, multi-hyphenate\, anti-dis ciplinary artist\, alchemist\, and mystic.” Pulling from various figurat ive art techniques\, movements\, and styles\, including hyperrealist repre sentation\, Baroque art\, and surrealism\, Durden employs a wide range of mediums—paint\, graphite\, film photography\, and the written word—to construct hyper-surrealistic and conceptual works of art. Durden’s artwo rks illuminate the complexity and precarity of human emotion\, universal e xistence\, spiritual existence\, and identity by conscientiously examining their own. Durden is focused on continuing their work within community\, highlighting Black trans\, post-gender and queer resiliency in addition to mental health\, neurodiversity\, and disability advocacy. \n\nTheir past exhibitions include Salon Redux at David Klein Gallery in Detroit and Emb odiment at Heron Arts in San Francisco. Their solo exhibitions include The Eye of Horus at Cranbrook Art Museum (2022)\, and INTERMEDIUM (2023)\, at University of Michigan’s Stamps Gallery. They are also the steward of P aper Street Press Co.\, a zine press and collaborative project\, creating chaos through print media.   \n\n \n\nIjania Cortez lives and works in Detroit\, where she was born and raised. \n\nCortez is a self-taught art ist whose practice is centered around painting but also includes murals an d mixed-media works. Cortez is known for the utilization of color in her p ortraits\, which consist exclusively of depictions of Black men from the i nner city. Her work\, influenced by a modest childhood in 1990s Detroit an d her love for the residents there\, serves to create conversations betwee n painting and the viewer. She uses neon color to connote the modern era\, showing her subjects as natural and central in environments that are unna tural\, a reflection of the human-made conditions of the city. Ultimately\ , Cortez interrogates beauty and vulnerability in masculinity\, as well as the ability to thrive and exist despite adversity.  \n\nHer first solo exhibition\, A Summer Nativity\, was held at Camilo Pardo\, Detroit\, in 2 017. \n\n [gravityform id="63" title="true"] ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cranbrookartmuseum.org/wp-content/upload s/2023/10/Cortez-Derek-II-scaled.jpg CATEGORIES:Lectures + Talks LOCATION:Cranbrook Art Museum\, 39221 Woodward Avenue\, Bloomfield Hills\, MI\, 48303\, United States X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=39221 Woodward Avenue\, Blo omfield Hills\, MI\, 48303\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Cran brook Art Museum:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20231105T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR