Commissioner Detroit: The Inaugural Collection
Commissioner Detroit’s inaugural commission with artists Amna Asghar, Judy Bowman and Darryl DeAngelo Terrell explores identity, imagination, and exposes the artist’s hand through a range of motifs and materials. From the airbrushed clouds of Asghar’s subversive dreamscape to the raised fists in Bowman’s figurative collage and the photographed hand of Terrell’s alter ego Dion, each piece leaves us with an indelible trace of the human touch.
This exhibition is presented alongside Curated Conversations | The Art of Collecting, an info session and talk on August 24 at 7 PM with creative producer Octavia Yearwood, multidisciplinary artist Morel Doucet, emerging collector Michaeljohn Green and Commissioner cofounder Dejha Carrington for potential members to ask questions, dive deeper and sign up to the program.
Visit the Exhibition at Soho Beach House
On view August 24—September 25, 2022
House visitors: Schedule a curator tour Wednesdays from 4—7 PM, starting August 31 through September 21, 2022. Choose a time here to visit.
House members: Take a self-guided tour of the second floor alcove near the photo booth at the time of your convenience, or schedule a visit for the curator perspective.
About the Artists
Amna Asghar’s work looks to the American experience through a multitude of cultural motifs: from her family’s Pakistani popular culture ephemera to Disney movies to Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Orientalist paintings to Hudson River School works, to currents of contemporary political thought. Amna draws from her own life in the Detroit area where she grew up and now resides, making sophisticated works that mix imagery across cultures, creating conversations between communities. For more information about Amna, click here.
Judy Bowman is a mixed-media collage and fine art print artist who was born in 1952 and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Her art practice centers on exalting America’s Black culture that moves beyond institutional racism and disparaged perspectives of the Black experience. Considering herself a visual griot, she pays tribute to personal memories from her coming-of-age in Detroit’s Eastside and Black Bottom neighborhoods. For more information about Judy, click here.
Darryl DeAngelo Terrell is a BLK queer lens-based artist, and digital curator, currently based in Detroit. Terrell's work is centered around the philosophy of F.U.B.U. (for us by us), thinking about how their work can aid a larger conversation about Blackness and intersectionality. Their work explores the displacement of Black and Brown people, femme identity and strength; the Black family structure, sexuality, gender, and safe spaces. Darryl earned their MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Photography. For more information about Darryl, click here.
The second flood alcove at Soho Beach House is produced by Octavia Yearwood as a space for conversation, community and connection. Special thanks to Knight Foundation, Louis Buhl & Co. and We The People of Detroit for their partnership, and to Miami curatorial partner Primary, New World School of the Arts, Mitchell Wolfson Sr Foundation and The Jorge Pérez Family Foundation’s Pérez creARTE grant program. A resounding applause for Commissioner members, who, through their contributions and participation, demonstrate that collecting art and supporting artists is better when we’re together.