DOUG JONES is a Detroit-based artist, designer, and arts advocate, originally from Jackson, MI. A 2022 Cranbook Academy of Art MFA graduate and Windgate Fellow, Jones’ portfolio includes awards and recognitions from the American Institute of Architects (2018) and (DD 139) the Detroit Design 139 Biennial (2019). Over the past 5 years, he has committed to large-scale public art projects and collaborations throughout Greater Detroit and independently worked with more than 4,500 residents to develop 61 works on public display in an effort to make the arts more accessible to traditionally marginalized communities using his techniques. Concurrently, Jones continues his ongoing work towards new visual language and his recognized development of an innovative approach to abstraction, figuration, and cartography. His work presents contemporary questions rather than modernist universal answers in this current age of data. This year, CAA recruited Jones to teach as a Post -Graduate Studio Fellow in its MFA Photography Department. DougJones.Art
Irwin House Gallery has been supported in part by the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation in the presentation of Doug Jones’ Mare Incognitum: Unknown Waters.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2023 – Mare Incognitum: Unknown Waters is an immersive exhibit featuring new large and small-scale mixed media works, including a soundscape and a map that explores mermaid stories and tales of the sea, including the artist’s own, from around the world.
Through collage, paintings, film, sound and print ephemera, Mare Incognitum: Unknown Waters delves into the intersection of myth, lore, and our relationships to water, through history and local geography.
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 15, 2023, 6:00 – 9:00 pm with sounds by DJ WIN. Irwin House Gallery.
Doug Jones “Idlewild: Michigan: Safe Space” 2023. 48 in. x 60 in. Acrylic mixed medium on canvas.
Irwin House Gallery has been supported in part by the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation in the presentation of Doug Jones’ MARE INCOGNITUM: UNKNOWN WATERS.
Born on Detroit’s East Side, Elonte Davis says he picked up a camera and never put it down. He carries the instrument like his keys – never leaving the house without it, capturing spontaneous, classified and often unseen stories in Black life throughout each day. Davis harnesses an intimacy in his photos that can only be discerned from the nucleus of the culture, allowing him to offer a genuine sense of the breadth of Black Detroit, as well as in other places he has visited and documented. Through his lens, the invisible are seen, heard, and celebrated; their tales in earnest, revealed.
Davis exhibited for the first time in 2021 and has since shown his work throughout the city, including at Riverside Detroit, Irwin House Gallery, ImageWorks in Dearborn, and the Detroit Historical Museum. Some of his recent assignments have included work for the Motown Museum and Rolling Out Magazine. Elonte Davis’ work is sought and collected for its raw honesty. He may be very well evolving into our current-day Gordon Parks.
THIS IS WHERE I’M AT and this is what I’m doing is a multi-media exhibition featuring the work of emerging Detroit photographer, Elonte Davis. The exhibition launches at The Carr Center with up to 65 candid photographs of local children engaged in ordinary, everyday moments at home and in Detroit’s neighborhoods and public spaces. Videos culled from the photographer’s experiences with his young subjects and their families will provide a soundscape and multi-layered experience of Black kinship, childhood, and family dynamics as well as the joy, individuality, vulnerability, hope and humanity of a range of the inner-city’s youngest citizens.
Organized by Detroit’s Irwin House Gallery with Steed Society Art, this is a traveling exhibition that hopes to expand and encompass youth in urban landscapes across the country including, but not limited to, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
Together, we hope that Davis’ unfiltered photographic eye will engender empathy and appreciation between Greater Detroit’s diverse populations, while serving as a historical record of life in the city for many Detroit and turning an eye towards Black futures across the globe.
Opening Reception: Friday, July 28, 2023 6:00 – 9:00 PM The Carr Center 15 E. Kirby @ The Park Shelton, Detroit, MI 48202
We are thrilled to host the Concert of Colors Art Afterparty on behalf of Black Women Rock Official, Friday, July 21, 2023 from 7-11 pm. The exhibition has been curated by Sabrina Nelson and Sudani Shaah and features 15 dynamic artists who absolutely rock, with sounds by DJ Lovebeam!
The exhibition and afterparty follow three days of Concert of Colors and a conversation moderated by Jessica care Moore at The Carr Center from 12-2 pm.
Ivan Quiñones II is an emerging sketch artist based in Pontiac, Michigan. During Black History Month, Irwin House Gallery highlights the work of Quiñones in his first solo exhibition, “The Price of Speech.” This new body of work, was inspired by a conversation piece he created at the end of 2022 titled, “Not Your Negro” – which looked at the controversy surrounding NBA player Kyrie Irving. The exhibition includes additional works that address freedoms of speech and the larger systemic issue of silencing voices of truth and protest.
“Ivan’s mixed use of styles and media is both skillful and intriguing. He has a strong sense of self that communicates clearly through his work,” said Misha McGlown, Irwin House Gallery’s director. “We are excited to present his first solo show and to support him in sharing his voice and vision with the world.”
Rolling Out Magazine interviewed Quiñones before the show. Read the full interview HERE.
For Black History Month, Black Leaders Detroitblessed not-for-profits throughout the city by gifting them with surprise grants to push their mission further. On their website they share how Black Detroiters do not lack creativity, viable economic strategies, entrepreneurial zeal, or innovative business models, Black Leaders Detroit aims to diminish the disparities by providing the one thing that has been lacking: financial support.
“Sixteen Black-owned and operated arts and cultural spaces in Detroit have partnered with the city’s Office of Arts, Culture & Entrepreneurship (DetroitACE) to highlight and cross-promote exhibitions and programs at each location throughout Black History Month. The project, titled Sacred Spaces, invites Detroiters and tourists alike to learn about, visit, support, and follow the venues through February 28, 2023…”
On February 13th, Irwin House Gallery will host an open-mic poetry event honoring John Sims and inspired by his annual Square Root of Lovehe event pairs poetry and the beverage of love – wine – in a space that has been transformed to celebrate Sims and his lifetime of cultural and artistic achievement.
The open mic feature will be led by BWardPoetry, an emmy award-winning poet, community organizer and artist whose passions are rooted in love, vulnerability and healing.
Guests and poets are invited to share their reflections on love, and celebrate and learn about John Sims Projects.
On his birthday, Sims’ life and work are being celebrated simultaneously at Antioch College in Ohio and in Sarasota, FL.
Irwin House Gallery has been supported in part by the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation in the presentation of Doug Jones’ Mare Incognitum: Unknown Waters.
