Visual Artist

Glanton Dowdell was well known in Detroit during the 1960s for his involvement in the arts and activism. He was a self-taught artist and spent most of his time learning to paint while in prison. He was 33 years old when he had his first solo show at the Grand River Art Gallery where most paintings depicted somber prison scenes.

Visual Artist, Gallerist, & Educator

Charles McGee believed opposites were necessary to create harmony; white & black and green & red. Line, shape, and color was a recurring beauty of McGee’s work. McGee’s artwork is displayed throughout the city and he has touched the hearts of so many Detroit creatives such as Lester Johnson, Skip Davis, James H. Dozier, and more. In addition to working as an artist, McGee taught art at Eastern Michigan University, University of Michigan, and the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. He also established Gallery 7 and a small namesake School for the Arts. He was a man for community and his legacy lives on through his art and memories of him shared by other creatives.

Visual Artist

Harold Neal was essential to the Black Arts Movement in Detroit (1965). Neal was determined to reject the abstract art that had been popularized by white artists at the time. He once said: “Artists must stop being specialists and must be like any other Black man fighting for his freedom [rather than] going along with tired white boys who introduce a series of dots one year and are hailed by critics.”

Visual Artist

LeRoy Foster was one of Detroit’s most well known Black artists during the late 1940s-1970s. He was best known for his public murals and portrait paintings; one of which is “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass” for the Frederick Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library.

Visual Artist & Educator

Jon Onye Lockard always drew everything around him at a very young age; which benefited him as he aged and became a traveling portraitist during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Lockard adopted the name “Onye” which comes from “Onye Eje” the Nigerian Igbo language for “artistic traveler”. He was always on the pursuit to present Black culture and history. Mr. Lockard was Taurus Burns’ first art educator at Washtenaw Community College and Burns said “If I hadn’t met him I probably wouldn’t be on the path I am now. I was like a sponge. He saw my potential and helped build my confidence.”

Visual Artist, Gallerist, & Educator

Shirley Woodson is best known for her brightly colored, figurative paintings and collages. In addition to her contribution to the Detroit art community as a visual artist, she was a gallerist at Arts Extended from 1959-1972 and a K-8 art educator and Supervisor of Art Ed in Detroit and Highland Park throughout the 1960s until 2008 when she retired from education.

Visual Artist & Educator

Lester Johnson is a long-time artist and educator in Detroit. He is a multimedia artist that uses music, African textiles, patterning, totems, and photography in his work. His use of patterning and prints is inspired by the matriarchs of his family who created textile work. Images of these women, a work glove with his father’s ID badge, and an old Taurus Burns painting can be seen in the artwork on display behind him in this photograph. The artworks of his that are inspired by or dedicated to musicians is because he believes “music is a good vehicle of expression”. In addition to being a working artist, Johnson taught at the College for Creative Studies for 35 years where he mentored countless Detroit creatives, such as Dalia Reyes and Taurus Burns.

Visual Artist & Educator

Ray Katz is an artist and educator from Detroit. After he graduated high school he served in the United States Air Force for four years and during his service he became interested in the arts. He was first interested in [figurative] drawing, but as time progressed he switched to 3D work and sculpture. His artwork transcended the human figure and became abstract. He is best known for his abstract, metal sculptures; yet while they are an abstraction, they are not absent of the complexities of the human experience. In addition to his work as an artist Katz taught at Oakland Community College for 48 years; building the program’s foundation for what the school is today.

Art Historian, Author, Collector, & Educator

Dennis Nawrocki has always had a knack for writing and art history. With a Master’s degree in English and Art History, he shared his knowledge as a professor at multiple different colleges; including the College for Creative Studies where he taught art history courses. His career in writing art reviews began in Chicago where he was working for MOCA and when he returned to Detroit he worked for Essay’d and Detroit Art Review. As an appreciator of the arts Nawrocki has accumulated a multitude of artwork from Detroit artists; particularly those from the Cass Corridor artists of the 60s-70s.

Visual Artist & Author

Ann Mikolowski was an important member in the Cass Corridor art movement during the 60s-70s and she was the co-founder of The Alternative Press with her husband Ken Mikolowski. The Alternative Press held a space for artists and writers to collaborate on poems, illustrations, drawings, paintings, and more. Ann Mikolowski was well known for her miniature portraits and waterscape paintings.

Visual Artist & Educator

Sergio De Giusti moved to Michigan from Italy when he was 12 years old, and his Italian roots are never absent in his artwork. De Giusti refers to himself as a “Renaissance man” because he works in multiple mediums. He is primarily known for his relief sculptures and has many public works throughout the city of Detroit. De Giusti has taught at Wayne State University, College for Creative Studies, and the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center.

Visual Artist

Carole Harris is a textile artist with a background in architecture and interior design. For years she worked as an interior designer and even owned her own firm, “Harris Design Studios”. Harris began quilting in 1966 and through practice and research in quilting methods her work has lived many lives. Some of her more recent textile work is a blend of her interior design & architecture background and cityscapes & ruins of Detroit. Quilting and textile work has a rich history of storytelling and her work is riddled with stories awaiting to be shared.

Graphic Designer, Educator, & Collector

Skip Davis has been and avid lover of Detroit since he moved there in 1966 and still loved it after the ‘67 Rebellion when a family member claimed “It looks like your city’s had its teeth punched out.” The rich arts & culture community in Detroit is what keeps Skip Davis going. When Davis was working as a graphic designer in Harmonie Park, his clientele were all Detroiters ranging from people on the people mover to non-profits to Comerica Bank and Chrysler. In addition to being a graphic designer, Davis was an adjunct professor at the College for Creative Studies and is a collector of Detroit art. His home is filled with work from Detroit artists such as Charles McGee, Gilda Snowden, Sergio De Giusti, and Taurus Burns.

Visual Artist, Gallerist & Educator

Rose DeSloover is a conceptual artist from Detroit whose work incorporates color, text, and found & natural materials. She was a faculty member at Marygrove College for 44 years, not only was she an educator, but she directed their gallery for twenty-three years, bringing attention to the Detroit art community. During the 70s she lived in an apartment in Palmer Park where she met creatives such as Dennis Nawrocki and Gary Eleinko and created one of her first conceptual artworks. The ball of yarn she is holding in her photograph is the artwork in question… it was created through intuition and divine timing and led her to an understanding of what she was doing with her art. There is a Jewish story about the power of the red string and how it serves as a symbol of protection and good luck; and without knowing, that is what she made. Her red chain was so long that when tied to her second story window it could touch the ground outside the apartment; serving as a protection of the people living in that space because there’s a great deal of power in the red strand.

Visual Artist & Educator

Hugh Timlin’s interest in sculpting began when he was three years old. To him, clay and wood, or any other material that came to hand, were tools not toys. Throughout the course of his life he was known for elevating natural materials to create everything from small sculptures to large public works. His art often addressed themes of spiritualism, social justice, philosophy, and sexuality. In 1998 Hugh Timlin’s monument for children with cystic fibrosis was erected at Mt. Elliott Cemetery, marking the graves of two young victims of the disease. Hugh Timlin was a humanitarian at his core and was dedicated to bettering the lives of others. In addition to working as an artist, Timlin was an educator at Wayne State University where he had the opportunity to mentor future generations of Detroit creatives as well as managing his family’s farm where he and his wife raised seven children.

Visual Artist & Educator

Jan Rosenbaum is a photographer from Detroit that now resides in Maine where in 2014 he was told he had only a year and a half to live. His time in Maine is spent documenting his life through pictures and stories which can be read here. After college he began exploring national parks and pawn shops; and in a pawn shop in San Francisco is where he bought a camera. As an educator at Wayne State University he taught photography and the history of photography; one of his students was Detroit photographer, Donita Simpson.