MOCAD celebrates two decades of making space for Detroit artists

In Sterling Toles’ piece, “PT,” the Detroit artist explores the themes of recovering from trauma and reclaiming one’s humanity through an unlikely source–a potential transformer. 

The installation features a large electrical device illuminated by a ring light and surrounded by bright orange vinyl curtains. Toles said his art showcases objects that conduct energy, a metaphor for the pain and trauma that can weigh heavy on a person. 

“This PT (potential transformer) is basically taking a very large amount of electrical energy, distilling it down to where it can go to smaller places. I took that as a symbol of what we have the capacity to do as humans,” he told BridgeDetroit. “The hallmark of our humanity is that we have the ability to not merely transfer what we experience as humans, but transform what we experience through our own application and our action and our ability to engage with other people.”

PT is one of the pieces featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s latest exhibition, “20 Years of MOCAD: A Practice of Multiplicity.” The show brings together more than 80 local, national and international artists that have helped shape the Midtown institution since opening its doors in 2006. Some of those names include Detroit legends Olayami Dabls, Tyree Guyton and Shirley Woodson, as well as newer artists like Bryce Detroit, LaKela Brown and Conrad Egyir. 

MOCAD Co-Director and Artistic Director Jova Lynne said in a written statement that selecting the artists for the show was “an enormous curatorial undertaking,” and one of the biggest challenges was the physical limitations of the museum.

“Our selection process considered artists who have played meaningful roles in MOCAD’s history, while also thinking about how their practices speak to one another across generations, disciplines, and cultural contexts,” she said. “We wanted to create a dialogue between artists and works that might not ordinarily be presented together, allowing new connections and interpretations to emerge.” 

Lynne added that the exhibition was a way to reflect on the museum’s history while thinking about its future. 

“What made this exhibition particularly meaningful was the responsibility of telling an institutional story that has never been singular or linear,” she said. “MOCAD has always been a space for experimentation, risk-taking, and dialogue, and we wanted the exhibition to reflect that complexity. Bringing together more than 80 artists across generations, disciplines, and moments in the museum’s history allowed us to celebrate the many voices that have contributed to its identity.”

Spanning multiple disciplines like installations, paintings, sculptures and sound, 20 Years of MOCAD, unfolds in four parts that chronicles MOCAD’s evolution. 

• Part I: Process Driven Purpose, highlights four experimental sound installations by contemporary artists and runs through March 21. 
• Part II: Artist as Architect, explores artists as architects of space, experience and institutional possibility. 
• Part III: Detroit as Material, examines how artists engage the city as an active material rather than a backdrop.
• Part IV: A Practice of Multiplicity, highlights artists whose work is rooted in community, care and lived experience. Parts 2, 3 and 4 run until April 4. 

Lynne said over the years, MOCAD has reimagined the idea of what a contemporary art museum can be.

“Experimentation has always been central to our identity, not only in the work we present, but in how we think about the museum itself as a platform for artistic production, dialogue, and discovery,” she said. “One of MOCAD’s greatest strengths is its willingness to work across disciplines, bringing visual artists, musicians, performers, and cultural practitioners into conversation.” 

Process driven purpose 

This is the third time Toles has shown his work at MOCAD. The first was the museum’s 2021 group exhibition, “Dual Vision,” and his 2022 solo exhibition, “s(h)elves?” 

Initially a rapper and producer in Detroit’s music scene, the eastsider has added mixed media artist to his resume. Toles often uses repurposed objects for his pieces.

When Lynne asked Toles to be a part of the latest exhibit it took him about a week to put together “PT” and another piece called, “s(h)elves, which features a picture of a man taped to an electrical device. 

Toles said he hopes that visitors that see the exhibit will leave with a sense of curiosity and an appreciation of beauty in their everyday lives. 

“We all want to experience something beautiful, but it’s hard to experience beauty when we have all these rules about perfection and about the way things should be,” he said. “It’s like, ‘How much more joy would we experience if we were able to see the beauty in everything that we encounter?’” 

Leith Campbell is another Detroit artist who enjoys finding objects to repurpose. As part of the artist collective Apetechnology, she makes post-industrial folk art with friend Chip Flynn that often mixes robotics with animatronics and sound. 

“We get together and collect junk from junkyards, finding old motors and pneumatics and hooking them up, so we can just do crazy things,” Campbell said. 

In 2012, Apetechnology created a large installation for MOCAD called “Vision in a Cornfield,” transforming older cars into works of art. For 20 Years of MOCAD, the group has the installation “Whip Salad” on display. The piece features four machines with a kiosk where people can activate and move them. 

“They have very interesting motions with chains and gears and linkages that attract the eye at the same time as providing their own sort of soundtrack,” Campbell said. 

‘Kings of the East’

Meanwhile, in Part III of the exhibition, acclaimed Detroit artist Sydney G. James pays tribute to the city’s east side with her painting, “3-1-3 Kings of the East.” The artwork, created for 313 Day earlier this year, depicts three artists James admires who also hail from the east side–Sheefy McFly, Tony Whlgn and Philip Simpson. 

“They’re three of my favorite brothers,” she said. “Tony brings healing vibes. He’s all about peace. We get more excitable energy from like Sheefy, whether it’s his work, his music, personality. And Phil brings his smile.” 

James said wants the three artists to feel familiar to people, like they’re a friend or family member. And she hopes that the piece is a gateway for people to look up McFly, Whlgn and Simpson’s works. 

“They’re not gonna ask permission,” James said. “They’re gonna figure it out, and they’re gonna create their own spaces, even if they’re not welcome into your space. That’s what I love most about them.” 

20 Years of MOCAD: A Practice of Multiplicity