REAL ART DETROIT

Share this post
mighty real/queer detroit at the scarab club
kimfay.substack.com

mighty real/queer detroit at the scarab club

Kim Fay
Jun 9
Share this post
mighty real/queer detroit at the scarab club
kimfay.substack.com

The Mighty Real/Queer Detroit project spans seventeen venues in metro Detroit, showcasing 140+ Queer artists with 700+ works of art. The exhibitions present a month-long historical examination of the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and its longtime allies, featuring established and emerging Detroit artists, as well as artists whose careers were shortened by HIV/AIDS.

As a further exploration, Mighty Real/Queer Detroit at the Scarab Club will address loss and remembrance by including significant, rarely seen and unexhibited art objects. Works by artists who died of AIDS in the 1980s and ’90s will be exhibited for the first time, including never before seen work by artists Brian Buczak, Timothy Gass, Marcus Mannino and Constantino Tsatsanis. A special tribute will be offered to the legendary Detroit artist, LeRoy Foster, and poets Beth Brant and Terri Jewell.

Maureen Petrucci Honi soi qui Mal y pense (Shamed be the person who thinks ill of it) acrylic, prismacolor, gold leaf on canvas 20x16in

Maureen Petrucci’s blend of pencil and acrylic produces this softly stylized image. The subject’s features are exaggerated blurring gender associations. A clutched head scarf framed with a golden halo harkens to the Madonna who weeps for her son, which can also be interpreted as carrying the burden of a loss from HIV/AIDS or secreting one’s identity for fear of persecution.

Constantino (Gus) Tsatsanis Letter to patrick burton pencil 11x8.5in

Constantino (Gus) Tsatsanis’ drawing, which is delightfully not centered, flows like the text itself. The narrative curls and twists through ordinary experiences punctuated by exceptionally poignant moments, not the least of which is the author’s untimely passing creating this letter priceless to the receiver of these intimately hand-written words and images.

Patrick Webb Couples oil on linen 50” in diameter

Patrick Webb’s Couples reminds of van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters in its monochromatic treatment of subjects gathered around a single source of eerily mysterious glowing light. The shape of the canvas contributes to the configuration of souls.

Jack O. Summers Mixed Company #12 mixed media 22.5x18in

My emphatic apologies for this image as it’s displayed under glass and the gallery isn’t in possession of a clean image either. I am posting anyway because its maker, Jack O. Summers, is so dear to the Detroit art community and was recently lost to us, he had to be included not only in this show but in this article. Summers is one of the few collagists whose work never presents as collage until you’re right up on it. His dramatic imagery is reimagined so perfectly it could almost be painted. We miss you, Jack.

Mighty Real/Queer Detroit is a not-for-profit organization that provides a platform for artistic exploration of various queer perspectives crossing generations and disciplines. This month-long exhibition coinciding with Pride Month is a visually beautiful and moving stage to promote positive and meaningful messaging for a community historically suppressed and overlooked by traditional institutional systems.

Works in this show by: Charles Alexander, Brian Buczak, Patrick Bunyan, Jeff Britting, Jan Brown, Patrick Burton, Brian Carpenter, Stephanie Crawford, Julio Dominguez, LeRoy Foster, Timothy Gass, Katy Hait, Erin Brott-Holtzman, Richard Jerzy, Marcus Leatherdale, Marcus Mannino, Ron Madalinski, Annie Meyer, Merel Noorlander, Kasper Ray O’Brien, Henry Petrucci, Maureen Petrucci, Deborah Rockman, Gregory Sobieraj, Joe Sposita, Jack O. Summers, James Stephens, Jarrad Tacon-Heaslip, Constantinos (Gus) Tsatsanis, Patrick Webb, Frederick Weston, S. Kay Young

On view through July 9th at The Scarab Club 217 Farnsworth Detroit

MR/QD participating galleries: Cass Cafe, College for Creative Studies, Detroit Artists Market, Galerie Camille, N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Playground Detroit, Anton Art Center, David Klein Gallery, Affirmations Center, Hatch Art, M Contemporary Art, Norwest Gallery, Oloman Cafe, Public Pool, Collected Detroit, Metropolitan Museum of Design Detroit.

If you are enjoying this newsletter, please consider supporting it by going paid for as little as $5/month. Thank you in advance.

Become a Paid Subscriber

*images are mine

direct quote from gallery materials

OTHER SHOWS OPEN THIS WEEK

The Wright Museum

detroit contemporary

KickstART

Bulk Space

Image Works

Disco Walls

Wayne State Galleries

Reyes Finn

DIA

Louis Buhl & Co

Cranbrook Art Museum

River's Edge Gallery

Next:Space

Paul Kotula Projects

Stamelos Gallery

MOCAD

Umoja Fine Arts

Library Street Collective

Swords Into Plowshares

Color/Ink Studio

Hill Gallery

Share this post
mighty real/queer detroit at the scarab club
kimfay.substack.com
Comments

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Kim Fay
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing