Detroit LGBTQ+ art exhibition returns to 11 galleries
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Works to be displayed in the Mighty Real/Queer Detroit exhibition include "Forever Young: Pulse Night Club 49" by Tylonn Sawyer. Photos: Courtesy of Mighty Real/Queer Detroit.
A multi-gallery exhibition of local and national LGBTQ+ artists is returning for Pride Month after its debut in 2022.
Why it matters: This year's Mighty Real/Queer Detroit is now a biennial exhibition, and curator Patrick Burton tells Axios he wants Detroit to be the "go-to city every two years for queer art."
- Burton, also a Detroit public school teacher, says the event aims to reflect LGBTQ+ people and their humanity to those outside their communities.
- It's a timeless effort, Burton says, but queer art is also more relevant in today's political atmosphere with anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the United States.
Driving the news: This year's theme, using the name of a Velvet Underground and Nico song, is "I'll Be Your Mirror — Reflections of the Contemporary Queer."
- It's about how art can hold up a mirror both between the art and the artist, as well as between the art and the community.
If you go: The monthlong exhibition and event series begins next weekend with an opening celebration, 5-9pm May 31.
- Seven galleries within walking distance are participating, including the CARR Center, Scarab Club and Galerie Camille.
- Events throughout the month include ecologically conscious tarot deck readings, portrait therapy, a panel about art and activism, documentaries and a performance tribute to queer historical icon "Big Mama" Thornton.
What they're saying: "Quite often we think of pride as parades and parties, and we want to incorporate art and culture," Burton says. "I think like any group of people, there's an interest in learning more about their culture and, and this is an opportunity to really, using a cliche, open hearts and minds."
Mighty Real will showcase 180 artists with 800 works across 11 galleries. Among the local participants are:
Tylonn Sawyer: A figurative and multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work centers around identity, and "investigations of race and history in popular culture," per Sawyer's website.
- Sawyer's portraits in Mighty Real memorialize the 49 people who were killed in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
Bre'Ann White: A fashion and portrait photographer and curator whose images "draw you into the subject's world" with "authenticity and imagination," per her website.
- She got her start in professional photography at age 19, according to BridgeDetroit, and her work has been in Teen Vogue, Essence and Harper Bazaar.
Carl Demeulenaere: A contemporary fine artist who was prolific in Detroit in the '80s and '90s "in a time when it wasn't as acceptable as it is today to be a queer artist," Burton says. His work addresses "a lot of this pervasive discrimination that continues today."
- Demeulenaere grew up Catholic and gay on the east side and was bullied, his website says. He uses art to speak about his experiences.