FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Detroit: Breeding Ground - A discussion on sculpture within the social landscape at the Museum of New Art.

 
    Andrew Thompson

 
On Sunday November 1st at 4pm the Museum of New Art (MONA) will host a panel discussion and the release of the exhibition catalogue for its current show - Detroit: Breeding Ground.

This panel focuses on the state of artists and their artwork within the social landscape of Detroit. Focusing primarily on a loose definition of sculpture, the panel will discuss the potential gap between the arts community and the public within Detroit exposing how art, namely contemporary art, is or is not effective within the communities.

   Kevin Beasley

In at least the past four years there has been a lot of art new activity related to the visual arts in Detroit. Most notably the opening of MoCAD, the completion of the DIA renovation, the recent distribution of the Kresge Arts Fellowships and the College for Creative Studies massive expansion, all of which has reinvigorated the vitality of the arts within our community. Just in the past year there has been everything from the opening of artist run galleries, to public art projects funded by the Skillman and Kresge Foundations. At the foot of it all are the artists and their artwork that not only support the activity, but in most cases are at the center of it.
 

This panel will explore the impact of the artists and their artwork on the community while asking the critical questions of how are the artists and their practices effective socially to both patrons of the arts and the general public? Why is sculpture especially relevant in Detroit right now and what does this mean? What exactly is public art to this community?

With very few major outlets for artists in Detroit to reach the greater population, the opportunity to redefine our relationship with the people of the city could never be greater. How do we define public art within a contemporary context that can also engage a larger audience?

  Nathan Morgan

Since a majority of the artists in Breeding Ground are “sculptors,” sculpture will be questioned as a medium for socialization, and cultural awareness.. Under the current circumstances that exist in Detroit, how does the art community grow and best impact the cultural life of our city?

  Detroit Projection Project

The panel and exhibition coincide with the publication of "Detroit: Breeding Ground" which displays a cross-section of artists and viewpoints present here in the city. It serves as a companion resource to the exhibition consisting of multiple texts and images from various writers, critics, artists, and patrons of the Detroit arts community. Contributing writers include Vince Carducci, Patrick Gantert, Dennis Nawrocki, Michael Stone-Richards, and Michael E. Smith.

  Chris Samuels


Panelists:
Dick Goody (moderator)
Dick Goody was born in Windsor, England, and received his M.F.A. from The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. He is a painter, curator, writer and Associate Professor of Art at Oakland University and the Director of the Oakland University Art Gallery where he has written over thirty exhibition catalogues on contemporary art. As a curator, his exhibitions have been reviewed in Art in America and Sculpture Magazine. In 2008, one of his short stories appeared in the Telegraph Journal published by the
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. In May 2009, he served on the selection panel for the 2009 Detroit Kresge Fellowships. Goody lives in Detroit.

Vince Carducci
Vince Carducci has written on art and culture for many publications, including American Art Review, American Craft, Artforum, Art in America, and Sculpture. His essay “Tom Otterness: Public Art and the Civic Ideal in the Postmodern Age” is contained in the collection, A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture Since 1980, published by the International Sculpture Center Press. He has taught at College for Creative Studies, Oakland University, and Wayne State University. In 2007-2008, he coordinated the Critical Studies/Humanities program at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Chido Johnson
Chido Johnson was born in Nyadiri, Zimbabwe. He received Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Sculpture in 1996 and in Painting, with a minor in Drawing, in 1997 from the University of Georgia, Athens. He obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the University of Notre Dame, IN in 2000. Currently, he is the Section Chair of Sculpture at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally.

Rebecca Mazzei
Rebecca Mazzei is the assistant dean of the College for Creative Studies. She is the former award-winning arts and culture editor of Metro Times. Prior to her work as editor, Mazzei served for four years as a director at Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago.

Michael E. Smith
Michael Edward Smith was born in 1977 in Detroit and studied art at both the College for Creative Studies, Detroit and Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT. Smith currently lives in Ferndale, MI with his wife and son and teaches at the College for Creative Studies. Smith has been exhibiting his work locally and nationally since 2005, and his first major solo exhibition will be in March 2010 at Koch Oberhuber Wolff in Berlin, Germany.

Benjamin Teague
Benjamin Teague was born in Durham, NC. He is a graduate of The Corcoran College of Art + Design and Cranbrook Academy of Art. Benjamin has taught at The Corcoran College of Art + Design, Louisville Technical Institute, University of Louisville, and University of Michigan. He is a sculptor, painter, ceramist, musician and performance artist. Benjamin is currently the Associate Curator for The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art.

   Abigail Newbold



The Museum of New Art (MONA)
has been Detroit's contemporary museum since 1996. Over the years, the museum has become the proving ground and springboard for hundreds of artists, both new and established. In the last year alone, MONA has initiated Detroit artist swaps with four major cities (Chicago; Berlin; Bregenz; Beijing). The Detroit exhibition in Berlin inspired the German television journal Aspekte to produce a segment on Detroit culture; and the Austrian display of Detroiters' art caught the eye of the director of Kunsthalle Wien, who is planning a Detroit exhibition at that museum.
 
The Museum of New Art, the first artist-run museum in the world, has most recently announced the winner of its inaugural Prinzhorn Art Prize for contemporary artists. The winners of this year’s Prinzhorn Prize have been chosen because their work is conceptually and emotionally rewarding, both illuminating current artistic dynamics and offering poignant insight into the human condition. All six artists demonstrate adventurousness, conceptual strength, and skillful execution in their work.
 
The Prinzhorn Prize will be given annually, and invites an exhibition from each artist to be showcased at the museum’s new Detroit location. The first of these is a benefit exhibition exploring the career projects of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and all sales of their work will be donated to help fund the museum projects over the coming year, - and will open December 11 of this year at its Detroit satellite.

Prinzhorn Prize 2009:

Christo & Jeanne-Claude (Lifetime Achievement recipients)
Olaf Breuning
Nicole Eisenman
Tracey Emin
Dana Schutz
Jessica Stockholder

The Museum of New Art (MONA) is located at: 7 North Saginaw, Pontiac MI.

MONA's new Detroit satellite is located at: 1600 Clay Street, Detroit in Building 2 at the Russell Industrial Complex and will open December 11, 2010 with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude benefit exhibition.