Sonya Clark’s Celebrating Our Roots | Waymaker

Tagged: 2023

Carl Toth: Reordering Fictions 

Carl Toth: Reordering Fictions examines various bodies of work that the artist created over his more than forty-year career, from early black and white photography to his pioneering work in alternative photographic techniques. Through his interest in torquing reality, Toth sought to expand the field of photography through his exploration of the SX-70 Polaroid camera and his adoption of the photocopier as his camera lens of choice. Toth’s intricate use of collage and photomontage resulted in masterful compositions of complex still-life tableaux, toeing the line between representation and abstraction.  Carl Toth (1947–2022) served as Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Photography Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1972 until 2007, shaping generations of students. Toth brought a personal interest in literature and literary theory to the Academy at a time when such ideas were just beginning to redirect the medium. The title, Reordering Fictions, is derived from a quote by the ...

Tagged: 2023, Carl Toth, Cranbrook Art Museum, Kat Goffnett, Photography

Healing Memorial dedicated to SE Mich.’s COVID-19 victims moving to new location | The Detroit News

Tagged: 2023

LeRoy Foster: Solo Show

One of Detroit’s most intriguing figures, artist LeRoy Foster (1925–1993) was an exceptional talent and a leading figure in the Black artistic community. Perhaps best known for his large mural at the Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, (1972), Foster studied art at Detroit’s famed Cass Tech High School, the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) and, it is believed, at Cranbrook Academy of Art.Foster embodied his moniker “the Michelangelo of Detroit,” drawing inspiration from the drama of High Renaissance paintings. This passion also led him to study overseas in London and Rome, growing his deft skills in figuration. Conceived as a companion to the concurrent contemporary-art-focused exhibition, Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit, LeRoy Foster exemplifies the rich local history of Black realism.Foster was openly gay during a time of hostility and oppression towards the LGBTQ+ community ...

Tagged: 2023, Laura Mott

Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit

Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit focuses on a local community of artists that have developed expert skills in drawing and painting, and, through deft hands, explore the representation of the Black body in both personal and cultural contexts. Rejecting the monolithic nature under which the Black body is frequently conceived and popularly imagined, Skilled Labor illustrates the range, depth, nuance, and variety of Black life through each artist’s unique approach to figuration. The exhibition features a spectrum of lived experiences—joy, intimacy, reverie, danger, tension—through this artistic lens. Collectively, these artists are undertaking the laborious task of art historical and cultural rethinking through acts of representation.“Skilled labor” refers to highly trained, experienced individuals who complete complex mental or physical tasks with expertise. The term poetically speaks to these Detroit artists that perform a durational and technically proficient approach to artmaking. Skilled labor is also a rigorous intellectual process that these ...

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Artist-Designed Miniature Golf Course at Cranbrook Art Museum Returns for a Second Season with Two New Holes

“Cranbrook on the Green” opens to the public on May 24, 2023Family playing the Bertoia Bronze hole at Cranbrook on the Green, Summer 2022. Photo by PD Rearick.Bloomfield Hills, Mich., April 18, 2023 -- Cranbrook Art Museum is pleased to announce that it is bringing back its artist-designed miniature golf course for the 2023 summer season by popular demand – with the addition of two new holes!Members of the Cranbrook community (students, alumni, past and present faculty and staff) were asked to submit ideas for new hole designs that were inspired by a Cranbrook site, story, or alumni. All submissions were reviewed by a blind jury, who selected two new concepts. The winning concepts are:New Hole 1: Glassy GreenCranbrook Academy of Art student Katie Mongoven was inspired by the windows of the Cranbrook Dining Hall on the Cranbrook campus of Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. Designed by Eliel Saarinen in 1929 each window ...

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Press Release

Cranbrook art show features works of creators on the rise | Detroit Free Press

Tagged: 2023

Cranbrook Art Museum Announces It Will Premiere New Exhibition Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other This Summer

Exhibition Dates: June 17, 2023–September 24, 2023 ArtMember Preview: June 16, 2023Travels to High Museum of Art in Atlanta and Museum of Arts and Design in New York City in late 2023–2024Clockwise from top left: (1) Sonya Clark with Beaded Prayers Project, 1999–present. (2) Hair Craft Project Hairstyles, 2014. (3) Participant in Reconstruction Exercise, 2019. Installation view: The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Courtesy of the artist. (4) Sonya Clark at work on Finding Freedom, 2019-20. (5) Finding Freedom, 2019-20. Installation view: Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College. Courtesy of the artist. (6) Participant in The Healing Memorial project in Detroit, 2020. Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Feb. 15, 2023 – This summer, Cranbrook Art Museum will debut the new exhibition Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other, a mid-career survey of the pioneering fiber artist that will bring together her large-scale community-centered and participatory projects for the first time. It opens at Cranbrook Art Museum on June 17, ...

Tagged: 2023, Andrew Blauvelt, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott

Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other

Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other is a mid-career survey of the artist’s work with a focus on her community-centered and participatory projects. Over her twenty-five-year career, Clark has been committed to issues of history, race, and reconciliation. Clark often undertakes this exploration through everyday fiber materials—hair, flags, found fabric—and craft practices. In Clark’s work, craft and community are intertwined, and the resulting projects facilitate new collective encounters across racial, gender, and socioeconomic divisions. The ethos of her participatory work is embedded in the title We Are Each Other. It is inspired by the poem about civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1971) by Gwendolyn Brooks, which ends with the phrase: “we are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”In the Hair Craft Project, for example, Clark collaborated with hairstylists to use the hair on her own head as a canvas to highlight ...

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Art Museum, Laura Mott, Sonya Clark

2023 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art

The innovative work from the next generation of architects, artists, and designers will be on display at the 2023 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art. The Degree Exhibition showcases pieces that are the culmination of two years of studio work from a diverse group of graduates as they launch their careers.The show opens to the public on Sunday, April 9, with a special ArtMembers’ Preview Day on Saturday, April 8.Virtual Tour of 2023 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art Upper GalleriesClick for more information about 2023 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Tagged: 2023, Cranbrook Academy of Art