Art Historian, Visual Artist & Educator

Dawnice Kerchaert is a sculptor that works with industrial and natural materials. She has made kaleidoscope-like public works made out of colored plexiglass in addition to her natural material works. Kerchaerts natural material sculptures resemble birds nests or baskets, but they are non-functional vessels. She has studied ancient and indigenous practices in weaving and basketry in order to master her practice. Aside from working as an artist Dawnice Kerchaert has been an art educator at Oakland Community College as well as Paint Creek Academy for the arts.

Visual Artist & Educator

Donald aka “Sunn” Anderson was always a creative child; he’d always ask for art supplies and paint by numbers so he could use the leftover paint to create new artwork. At twelve years old Sunn Anderson moved from Indianapolis, Indiana to Detroit, Michigan in 1967 during the rebellion. “The city was on fire upon arrival”. Having bore witness to the rebellion it aided Anderson in creating protest and political activism paintings. From 1974-1978 Anderson served in the United States Army; he received the GI Bill and enrolled at Wayne State University taking all art classes until his GI Bill ran out. Anderson has taught many artists around the city as a professor at WSU and CCS, in addition to framing at Hudsons, UAW art enrichment courses, and Young Artists & Co. He has worked alongside Sabrina Nelson, Olayami Dabls, and George N’Namdi. Donald Anderson lives up to his street artist name, “Sunn”. He spreads his light wherever he paints, whether it be in Greektown or down by the Riverwalk. His brightly colored and loosely painted figures and cityscapes give viewers an inside look into Anderson’s life in Detroit.

Visual Artist & Curator

Carl Wilson is a self-taught printmaker and graphic novelist. Two major works of Wilson’s is his graphic novel Dead & Lost in Detroit and his linocut series Her Purse Smelled Like JuicyFruit. These two bodies of work encapsulate the raw and real honesty that Wilson possesses. His black and white prints are the embodiment of love, loss, strength, and determination. Wilson has even said “Art saved me, it frustrates me, and it’s who I am” and this is evident in his work. In addition to creating art, Carl Wilson has curated exhibitions for the Carr Center and the Scarab Club and also received the Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2013 and is an alumni of the historic Yaddo Artists’ Community.

Visual Artist & Educator

Susan Goethel Campbell is a multidisciplinary artist that works with printmaking, drawing, photography, videography, and installations. Detroit is a large inspiration in her work when it comes to urban wildlife living amongst industrial grounds. She often works by abstraction and uses natural materials and dyes in her work. During her printmaking process Campbell will use varying sized nibs of a Japanese screw punch tool to subtract sections and create aerial vies of cityscapes. In addition to being a working artist, she was an educator at Cranbrook and CCS. She has taught alongside Gilda Snowden, and Campbell and her late husband, David Campbell, were good friends with Hugh Timlin.

Visual Artist, Curator, and Art Advocate

Bryant Tillman is an impressionist painter, who was under the mentorship of Detroit artist, Bradley Jones during the early 80s. Tillman is also inspired by the work of Vincent van Gogh, and this is reflected in the colors and textures Tillman applies to his paintings. His goal is to create something realistic with an impressionist style all while remaining true to local color. Tillman has fifteen impressionistic paintings in Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital from his body of work “My Island”. Throughout his creative process explains that he is ““moving the brush around and looking for the happy accident… is an accidental stroke a valid one?” In addition to creating art, Tillman had an impact in the Cass Corridor art scene where he curated exhibitions, wrote art reviews, and assisted James H. Dozier in advocating for and informing people about arts & culture events happening throughout the city.

Multi-disciplinary Artist & Educator

Who is Russell A. Taylor? The answer is not Satori Circus or Konrad Lee…no… he is much more than that. Russell A. Taylor is a jack of all trades; and embodiment of many talents and personalities. He is a performing artist, poet, educator, and more. The birth of Taylor’s character Satori Circus happened in 1988 when he adorned his face in white makeup for a performance in his punk band Fugitive Poetry. Afterwards Satori evolved from a pale white face to black and white clown makeup with expressive eyebrows, grins, and frowns. The birth of his character Konrad Lee began in 2011; an orange-faced man with unruly hair that sings and dances. Russell A. Taylor has written countless performances and has performed at Theatre Bizarre and in galleries and theaters throughout Michigan. He is the perfect mix of serious, sexy, and sophisticated; molding him into the showman he is today.

Visual Artist, Gallerist, & Collector

Adnan Charara was born in Lebanon and lived in Seattle and Boston before coming to Detroit. Charara has been interested in the arts since he was old enough to talk; at two years old he received his first hammer. He has always been fascinated by the power hammers possess; “You can build or destroy with it”. Inside of Charara’s studio is a painting with an interchangeable saying “You are like a hammer OR life is like a hammer”. His paintings and sculptures are childlike yet serious. He paints and sculpts cartoon characters to address social and political issues in a playful manner. In addition to working as an artist, Adnan Charara opened Galerie Camille in 1987. His gallery began as a means to display and sell work he has collected, but over the past few decades it has transitioned to a public space for artists to exhibit their artwork.

Visual Artist, Writer, & Educator

Kim Fay was surrounded by the arts as a child because her father was an artist and he would take her to art museums. At eight years old she saw the work of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and thought “this is it… these are my guys”. And since then Fay has delved head first into the realm of abstract painting. In addition to painting, Kim Fay worked on the sets of Hollywood movies that were filmed in Detroit from 2010-2011. She was responsible for scenic art and renting artist’s paintings to be used in films. After her time on set, she began teaching at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center and CCS and writing art reviews. The first review she wrote was in 2015 when Nick Cave and his partner came to visit Detroit. Since then she has written countless reviews for Dan Gilbert’s TBD Mag, Detroit Art Review, and most she has branched out on her own and has created “REAL ART DETROIT” a website that houses reviews of exhibitions across the Detroit area.

Visual Artist & Brick Mason

Eric Fogle moved to Detroit in 1985 and became an important member of the Cass Corridor art scene; however, it was brick masonry that introduced him to the arts. In the mid to late 80s Fogle became friends with Detroit creatives Gilda Snowden, Peter Williams and John Sinclair. At one point in Fogle’s life he lived right next door to the Willis Gallery and frequently exhibited and partied there. Eric Fogle’s colorful paintings and silkscreen prints are abstractions of nature and the human form. He will often paint with his eyes closed and switch between his dominant and non-dominant hands while painting with his fingers and brushes. In addition to working as an artist and brick mason, Fogle used to work at the DIA doing reception and managing their theater.

Visual Artist, Gallerist, & Educator

Maria Prainito-Winczner is a painter that is interested in immediacy, experimentation, and absurdity. There is a humor and wisdom to her colorful & rebellious artworks; figures, tiny creatures, and genitalia are recurring symbols in her paintings. In addition to working as an artist, has taught at Eaton Academy, OCC Auburn Hills and the College for Creative Studies. Prainito-Winczner is also the current curator of Hamtramck gallery, Public Pool.

Visual Artist, Businesswoman, & Gallerist

Uta Brauser was born in Germany and lived there until she moved to Italy at nineteen years old. Brauser has been a working artist since she was in her early teens; she would sell portraits and sculptures at art events and flea markets in Munich, Germany and she continued selling her artwork once she moved to Italy, only this time it was on a much larger scale. At twenty-one years old Brauser owned her own studios and storefronts where she sold fine and commercial art to Italian patrons. In the early 90s she moved to New York City where she had exhibitions in galleries and art fairs, and would soon open up her own gallery, Fish with Braids, which was a building in Jersey City between a fish store and a hair braiding place. Uta Brauser first visited Detroit in the late 90s and was impressed by the arts & culture of the city in addition to seeing forty-story buildings with broken windows. In 2013-2014 Brauser was on Instagram and saw what artists in the street scene of Detroit were doing, and as an avid spray painter herself, she wanted to be a part of it. In 2017 Brauser moved to Detroit and bought two properties; the home she lives in and the “Packard Art House”, in which both places house a myriad of artwork by local studio and street artists. Uta Brauser is a woman who advocates deeply for street artists and views graffiti as an art form and not defacement.

Visual Artist

Chris Turner is a self-taught sculptor and painter. His interest in the arts began while he was working for the Iron Makers Union; the idea of taking nothing and turning it into something fascinated him and the same carpentry tools are used in creating his sculptures. Turner began painting in 2002 and since then his subject matter is primarily of people he knows and the idea of connections/relationships. Text is often used in his paintings as well, he will layer the same letter or words over and over using spray paint and stencils which aid in creating movement and vibrancy to his work.

Visual Artist

Darcel Deneau is a mosaic artist that uses stained glass and found objects in her work, but her artistic endeavors did not start there. She has always been fascinated by the arts and even taught herself how to use a sewing machine at eight years old. While in college during the late 90s and early 2000s Deneau was pursuing a BFA in painting where she would go back and forth between images of Detroit and figurative work. In 2009 her friend invited her to a mosaic workshop in Mexico, resulting in her current art practice. Darcel Deneau’s mosaics are very painterly in their approach and depict the urban landscapes of Detroit.

Visual Artist & Educator

Jeff Cancelosi is a multidisciplinary artist that works in graphic & web design, drawing, and photography. Cancelosi and his wife moved to Detroit in 2007 and during this time he was a stay-at-home father and working artist; a balance of caretaking and creating. In his drawings he likes to explore the question: “What is drawing and what is art and the idea of the mark?” In addition to Cancelosi’s drawings he is a frequent visitor of Detroit’s art events and advocate for all forms of Detroit’s creative population and photographs them during exhibitions or in their studios.

Visual Artist & Educator

Laura Macintyre is a multidisciplinary artist and art educator. No matter which medium she is creating with, it will inform her for the next; “Whatever I’m doing in a painting will express itself in my pottery”. Macintyre has been teaching art education at Grosse Ile High School for over twenty years and has shared her knowledge in the arts with future generations of creatives. Throughout Macintyre’s journey as an educator she has continued her art practice. Laura Macintyre is greatly inspired by the landscapes of Detroit and Hamtramck. She finds beauty, curiosity, and insight from crumbling curbs, crushed juice boxes laying desolately in the street, decaying urban wildlife, and the food growing in her neighbors gardens.

Visual Artist & Educator

Melissa Jones is a sculptor and painter. She has referred to her artwork as “psychological self portraits” because they address person issues, feelings, concerns. yet she intends to find a way that makes them up to interpretation by the viewer. The subjects of Jones’ epoxy sculptures are typically humans, animals, or some hybrid of the two. In addition to working as an artist, Jones was an art educator at West Bloomfield Middle School for eight years where she had the opportunity to mentor the minds of future creatives.