Detroit's MOCAD marks 20 years with 80 artists
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Artist Jim Chatelain (left) explains his work to a group of other artists and media at MOCAD. Photo: Annalise Frank/Axios
A voltage transformer, screws in plywood and reclaimed metal gears are some of the wide-ranging materials used in the new fall exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Why it matters: MOCAD's sweeping 20th anniversary exhibition honors the creative people who have shaped it. The arts space reopened this spring following a big renovation.
- The show features more than 80 artists — including 40 from Detroit. It celebrates the institution's history while contemplating its future.
How it works: Media and artists got a peek of "20 Years of MOCAD" on Friday. The show is made up of four parts:
- "Process Driven" focuses on music and sound installations.
- "Artist as Architect" centers on artists who design spaces and experiences, reshaping our world.
- "Detroit as Material" shows artists engaging with the city's culture, infrastructure and history.
- "A Practice of Multiplicity" includes art that makes people talk — digging into social and political issues to understand our identities in new ways.
Featured artists' work includes:
Apetechnology: This local artist collective engineers interactive sculptures that move and make sound, using salvaged machinery and electronics.
- The piece "Whip Salad" lights up and makes clattering sounds like a factory.
Sterling Toles: Welded sculptures explore what it means to be human. The work uses metal from DTE Energy's Warren Service Center and its closed River Rouge Power Plant.
Bryce Detroit: The activist-artist continues his "Road Work" sign series that began with "Hood Closed to Gentrifiers."
- "... We are in control. We dictate the traffic that comes in and out of our neighborhoods, especially as cultural producers and as artists," he says.
M. Saffell Gardner: His work helps him relate to cultural memory and where he came from. A welded steel, glass, wire and wood sculpture called "Yes Chef" references spiritual traditions related to iron, and also alludes to the violence of slavery — specifically iron muzzles used on enslaved Africans while cooking.
If you go: The exhibition is open now at 4454 Woodward Ave. and runs through April 4 — other than the music segment, which closes early on March 21.
- Hours are 11am–8pm Thursday–Friday and 11am–5pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
Plus: DJs play MOCAD for Night at the Museum, 7–10pm on Nov. 13. $10 presale and $12 at the door.
- Then, there's a free family day and community celebration from 11am–5pm on Nov. 14.