Dara Friedman: Projecting
José Lerma: La Bella Crisis
Steve Locke: there is no one left to blame
May 16—July 27, 2014
Opening: May 16, 7pm
Museum Of Contemporary Art Detroit
4454 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
T +1 313 832 6622
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is pleased to present the work of Dara Friedman, José Lerma, and Steve Locke in three expansive solo exhibitions.
Dara Friedman: Projecting
Dara Friedman: Projecting features three distinct works spanning the last seven years that focus on performance and public space. Musical is a confluence of 60 singing performances that took place on the streets of Midtown Manhattan, creating a sprawling American musical that is at times both uproariously funny and devastatingly sad. In Dancer, Friedman worked with Miami-based dancers capturing their movements that echo the architecture and vibrancy of Miami. Friedman’s newest video work, PLAY, presents 17 couples, some real-life couples, others paired by the artist, all of them actors, who develop and play out scenes of intimacy.
Additional support for Dara Friedman: Projecting is provided by Gavin Brown’s enterprise. Dara Friedman: Projecting is organized by MOCAD. It is curated by Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Executive Director of MOCAD and coordinated at MOCAD by Exhibitions Coordinator Zeb Smith.
José Lerma: La Bella Crisis
In La Bella Crisis, Puerto Rican artist José Lerma revisits MOCAD’s history by transforming the museum’s main gallery, once an auto showroom, into a series of booths like those typically found at international art fairs, where art is routinely displayed and sold to the public. Lerma’s installation, created specifically for this site using found materials, paintings, and personal artifacts, will evolve over the period of a month with the artist laboring in the gallery every day to create an ever-changing still life and socio-political portrait.
Visitors are encouraged to speak with Lerma while he uses the gallery as an artist studio and to return on June 13 to see the finished piece, which addresses issues concerning labor and comments upon the effects of transient economic models, the authenticity of simple objects, and the beauty of impermanence.
Born in Spain, raised in Puerto Rico, and now living in New York and Chicago, Lerma is best known for producing playful, intricately rendered portraits of long lost historical figures. In recent years, Lerma has expanded his painting practice to include repurposing nontraditional materials such as reflective fabric, plastics, and industrial carpet. Lerma incorporates found objects such as electric keyboards, patio light fixtures, and military parachutes. In dialogue with changing artistic practices over the past decade, Lerma explores various uses of materials for his paintings while considering the medium’s relationship to history.
Support for José Lerma: La Bella Crisis partially provided by Kavi Gupta CHICAGO|BERLIN and Andrea Rosen Gallery. José Lerma: La Bella Crisis is organized by MOCAD. It is curated by Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Executive Director of MOCAD and coordinated at MOCAD by Exhibitions Coordinator Zeb Smith.
Steve Locke: there is no one left to blame
Originally organized by The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston and curated by Helen Molesworth, Barbara Lee Chief Curator, there is no one left to blame is an exhibition of new work by Detroit-raised artist Steve Locke. In a selection of paintings and neon pieces, Locke attempts to capture a vulnerability not normally associated with conventional ideas of masculinity. Instead, Locke complicates our conceptions and subtly suggests the possibility of new ideas and expanded freedoms.
Locke currently lives in Boston where he is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Additional support for Steve Locke: there is no one left to blame is provided by the Patrice K. Aaron Family Foundation, Burt Aaron, and Spectrum Neon.
Exhibition programming support is generously provided by the Taubman Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts. Additional funding for programming and educational initiatives is provided by the Edith S. Briskin/Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and Renaissance Media.
