Irwin House Gallery held a memorial in honor of John Sims earlier this month, but will host another event Feb.13 on what would’ve been Sims’ 55th birthday. Beginning at 6 p.m., the Irwin House event will be similar to a party Sims held every year called the “Square Root of Love,” where guests listen to love poems, engage in discussions and enjoy some wine, she said. The event will be hosted by community organizer and poet Brittini Ward, who was a poet laureate for one of the gallery’s past exhibits.
“Just like many of us from humble beginnings, he’s a product of our Detroit neighborhoods and Detroit Public Schools,” McGlown said. “He was able to take that upbringing and sense of self that people have who grew up in Detroit…and really take that out into the world and do incredible work.”
Detroitisit has mapped out five powerful Detroit art exhibits that you should see (and be inspired by!) this new year. Read more about Irwin House Gallery as well as the other galleries mentioned in the feature HERE.
Emerging Detroit artist, Quadre Curry, never backs down from a creative challenge. When asked to transform Irwin House Gallery’s accent wall into a tribute for the late John Sims, there was no hesitation. In less than three days, the matt black surface became a brilliant, flaming Confederate flag – symbolic of Sims’ twenty year project that dissected, reimagined and disempowered the flag and other symbols of visual terrorism.
“As a tribute to Sims’s annual birthday and Valentine’s Day event, the SquareRoot of Love, Irwin House will host a candlelight open mic poetry night called Love Language on Monday, Feb. 13 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Irwin House’s Black History Month programming is part of a city-wide initiative in partnership with Detroit’s Office of Arts, Culture & Entrepreneurship called Sacred Spaces that highlights Black-owned art spaces in the city.”
Read more about the mural and Black History Month @ IHG on the Metro Times website HERE.
There is much in story for Black History Month at Irwin House Gallery this year, including Ivan Quinones II’s solo exhibition in the main gallery, tributes continuing for the late, great John Sims, and an intimate exhibit featuring several of Detroit’s emerging artists in the RED (BLACK & GREEN) room. Read the full story in the Metro Times here.
This week’s Metro Times cover story is a tribute to the late Detroit artist and activist John Sims, who died last month at the age of 54. It was written by Omo Misha, Director of the Irwin House Gallery, where Sims was an Artist-in-Residence and co-curator. The cover art was created by Shawn D. Barber or California, who was a student and friend of Sims.
While a memorial event was held for Sims at the gallery over the weekend, Misha says another opportunity to remember the artist will come on Monday, Feb. 13 — what would have been Sims’s birthday.
“John touched so many lives, across disciplines, continents, racial, and cultural lines,” Misha says. “Even in his physical absence, he is bringing creative communities together. Many of us are bonded, I believe, in the spirit of moving his work and visions forward.”
Born in Detroit, Sims was a mathematical and conceptual artist, writer, producer, and cultural activist whose inspired and courageous career spanned more than 20 years. Sims lectured and produced programs and exhibitions not only nationally but internationally in countries such as France, Hungary, Spain, and Argentina. His work has been featured locally as well as in the New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, NBC News, The Guardian, The Root, Art in America, Science News, and the science journal, Nature. Sims himself, was a force of nature whose work and legacy will continue in Detroit. Sims passed away in his Sarasota, Calif. home and studio Dec. 11, 2022. The news of his sudden passing has shaken arts and academic circles around the world. Read more on the B.L.A.C website here.
John Sims was a personal friend to the gallery, and one of our staunchest supporters. Like anything he believed in strongly, he fought for it fiercely. And, when John fought, the opponent was not likely to win. He was going to be bigger. He was going to be louder….He was probably going to be smarter (but that doesn’t mean he was always right). Either way, he was going to win. He was a good person to have in your corner and it felt good to be on the receiving end of his activism.
With that, Sims was also a frequent subject of Detroit Metro Times coverage. They understood the value in his voice and later, as Sims became an arts and culture writer for publications around the world – “Yeah, I’m doing that now, too,” he said, as though it were something he just woke up that day and decided to do – that included the Detroit Metro Times.
Metro dubbed John a Renaissance Man in 2017 and encouraged us to dance to Sims’ Pi-Day Anthem. In 2018 they covered our Aretha tribute exhibit, in which Sims co-curated, as well as his video-poem, Hurricane Aretha. In 2019, they twice looked at his Detroit background, including publishing Sims’ own summary of the residency project, Don’t Forget the Block. Over the next couple of years, Sims covered the Aretha movie, Greg Tate, Pi Day for the publication, so it was only befitting that MT allowed us to share this heartfelt tribute to John, the man, the towering figure who brought so much life and enlightenment to us all….
A memorial celebration of the immense and inspired life of John Sims will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 at Irwin House Gallery; 2351 W. Grand Blvd. (between LaSalle & Linwood) Detroit; 313-932-7690. An interment ceremony will follow, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023 at the historic Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery East, 4280 E. 13 Mile Rd.
John Sims was a giant in the arts, a giant in activism, and a giant in any room he entered but, most of all, he was a friend and ally that we were happy (and felt protected) to have in our corner. There are no words to express the immensity of this loss, not only for Irwin House Gallery and his family, but a hole is being felt in arts communities worldwide. John filled a space with his art and activism that only he could. But one thing we know for sure, is that an army of his colleagues around the world will be working – individually and collectively – to move his name and his works forward in this lifetime.
John had work for everyone to do. And for us, there were Detroit projects in the wings, including a mural and presenting his annual Square Root of Love happening. As John had far-reaching tentacles that never slept, he was planning projects with others in Detroit as well. I know that we are all committed to carrying out these ideas, as best as we can, in his ever-present absence.
PBS came to visit us and speak to some of the “Gift of Art” artist, and the curator, Dr. Chanel Beebe. There is no reason for you to miss it as there are a number of ways you can see the segment on-line:
– On PBS “One Detroit”HERE. – On the PBS websiteHERE. – AND on YouTube …or just click either of the images on this page!
Thank you PBS One Detroit for shining a light on our work and the amazing work of Detroit artists in this show!
PBS came to visit us and speak to some of the “Gift of Art” artist, and the curator, Dr. Chanel Beebe. There is no reason for you to miss it as there are a number of ways you can see the segment on-line:
– On PBS “One Detroit”HERE. – On the PBS websiteHERE. – AND on YouTube …or just click either of the images on this page!
Thank you PBS One Detroit for shining a light on our work and the amazing work of Detroit artists in this show! The “Gift of Art” is open thru December 23, 2022.
Artwork by Donald Calloway from “Cheap Wine & Chicken”
Donald Calloway’s “Cheap Wine & Chicken” continues at Irwin House Gallery through January 3rd. More than three-hundred of Calloway’s loyal patrons and friends attended the December 3rd opening, enjoying music, dancing, art, cheap wine and chicken!
Thanks to our friends at Explore 360 Tours you can also view the exhibit HERE and enjoy a few flix from the opening!
Visit the Irwin House Gallery for access.
Donald Calloway and friends from opening night.Photos by Annistique. View more from the evening HERE.
