calendario eventi  :: 

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26/5/2010

Three Exhibitions

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit MOCAD, Detroit

Jef Geys
Woodward Avenue
curated by Luis Croquer

Highly esteemed and critically acclaimed Belgian artist Jef Geys (b. 1934) will present a new body of work specifically based on Detroit entitled Woodward Avenue. Geys rarely exhibits in the United States, making this project a remarkable and unique opportunity for visitors to engage with the artist’s extraordinary work, which encompasses conceptual approaches, educational activities, experiments and cooperative formats. Woodward Avenue is both an expansion and a departure from his Quadra Medicinale project, an interdisciplinary exhibition presented at the Belgian Pavillion at the 53rd Venice Biennale.

For the Detroit project, Geys asked Dr. Ina Vandebroek, an ethnomedical research specialist, to collect weeds at twelve intersections along Woodward Avenue beginning at Cadillac Square, in the heart of the city of Detroit, and ending at Saginaw Street, nearly 30 miles north in the neighboring city of Pontiac.

Woodward Avenue’s installation includes the collected and dried plant specimens with their corresponding scientific descriptions, photographs and specific maps. The exhibition also features two new films that record an ethnobotany workshop with traditional health practitioners run by Dr. Vandebroek in Bolivia. A special edition of the “Kempens Informatieblad” (Kempens Information Journal) will accompany the exhibition, as well as public programs and workshops that are an integral part of this art project.

Woodward Avenue is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and curated by Luis Croquer, Director and Chief Curator.

This exhibition is made possible in part through the generous support of Flanders House, promoting the arts and culture of Flanders (Belgium) in the United States.

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Design 99
Too Much of A Good Thing
curated by Luis Croquer

Detroit-based artist Mitch Cope (b. 1973) and architect Gina Reichert (b.1974) constitute the husband-and-wife collaborative, Design 99. Working on a model of discursive community engagement, their new project entitled Too Much of A Good Thing continues their exploration of art, community, architecture and spatial and social constructs. The project is centered around the Neighborhood Machine, an intervened and modified bobcat that is part moving sculpture, part functional tool.

The Neighborhood Machine is connected both physically and conceptually to their ongoing Power House project, a similar initiative to turn a house into both an art object and an innovative community space, and the Heartland Machine a modified boat that undertook a major journey through the United States’ heartland in search of connections and transformational initiatives. Design 99’s work explores the edges of art practice, utilizing, design, architecture, found materials and utilitarian objects to propose creative solutions to complex problems. Their practice has at its core the belief that transformation can happen in a natural way, if we only take a look, think out-of-the-box and take action.

Too Much of a Good Thing is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and curated by Luis Croquer, Director and Chief Curator.

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LaToya Ruby Frazier
Mother May I
curated by Luis Croquer

Mother May I is the first solo museum exhibition of artist LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982). The exhibition presents a selection of works that stem from a personal documentary and portraiture project that the artist initiated nearly ten years ago and that culminated in a series of photographs called The Notion of Family.

The exhibition also includes four films—some never publicly exhibited—that are shown together for the first time. Frazier’s still and moving images are true, poetic and poignant testimonies that record the artist’s home(s) and family life. The unstaged, naturally lit, stark work is subtly informed by the photographs of Roy de Carara and Carrie Mae Weems, among other notable figures of the world of photography and art. Frazier’s work deals incisively and singularly with the psychological and biological lineage that unites her grandmother, mother and herself, revealing at the same time the unavoidable issues of race, class, conflict and substance abuse that surround them.

The emotionally charged relationships captured on film, at times appear to blur the line between real life and performance, making viewers part of a private and otherwise inaccessible world, and engaging them in an uncomfortable exercise in voyerism that urges us to reconsider any preconceived or idealized notions of family and community.

Mother May I is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and curated by Luis Croquer, Director and Chief Curator.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is supported through generous contributions from individuals and invaluable support from members. Additional support is provided by The Kresge Foundation, The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, MASCO Corporation Foundation and Erb Family Foundation.

Image: LaToya Ruby Frazier
Me and Mom's Boyfriend Mr. Art, 2005
gelatin silver print
Courtesy of Higher Pictures

PR Coordinator + Exhibition Coordinator Assistant
Carlie Dennis tel 313 8326622 e-mail cdennis@mocadetroit.org

Opening Night Thurs. May 27th
8:30pm Performance: LaToya Ruby Frazier
Artist LaToya Ruby Frazier presents a performance narrative with slide show
9pm Music: Japanther w/ Tyvek
admission: $6.00 All ages

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
4454 Woodward Ave Detroit, MI 48201
Museum Hours: Wednesday, Saturday, & Sunday: 11 - 5 pm
Thursday & Friday: 11 - 8 pm
closed Monday & Tuesday

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