PLAYGROUND DETROIT has partnered with upcoming festival Midtown Getdown to feature local visual artists to add vibrancy to this backyard event with on-site painting.

Midtown Getdown is a monthly summertime party-market featuring cutting edge Detroit music, art, and food. Craft vendors, artists, and pop-up shops showcasing Metro Detroit’s wide range of talents will be on display behind one of Detroit’s legendary venues, the Majestic Theatre.

Artist and muralist Marlo Broughton will be working with a local youth arts organization to paint a mural along the Majestic Theatre’s entire back wall facing E. Willis and their parking lot in which the festival will be held. An additional sixteen artists have been curated by PLAYGROUND DETROIT to join Marlo in the activities by painting large-scale panels that will visually create a city-scape.

Each month the event will feature five to six creatives, beginning on Saturday, June 11th with Ghostbeard, Kelly Guillory, W C Bevan, Shaina Kasztelan, & Ffty (Check out their bios below and back in with us this July for the announcement of the participating artists in the second edition of Midtown Getdown!). The panels painted during the festival will be on display in an exhibition later this year from which the proceeds will be donated to a local youth arts organization.

The first edition also features music from some of Metro Detroit’s hottest electronic acts include: Dantiez (son of techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson and Singer/Songwriter Ann Saunderson), internationally known techno artist Justin James (protégé & label mate of Richie Hawtin), along with Adam Westing, ADMN, Gabi and Twin Cousin.

This FREE event is open to all, and will kick off with a special edition of Deep House Yoga, a unique yoga experience set to the beat of house music. An outdoor biergarten, craft cocktail tent, and a selection of Midtown Detroit eateries & food trucks will provide a wide range of delicious summertime fare.

Ghostbeard: “I am a Detroit mural artist. I studied at Art Institute of Pittsburgh and the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, graduating with a BS in digital media in 2005. I have been drawing since a child and painting since a teen. I apprenticed under my big homie and best friend Patch Whisky for a couple of years before ever painting my own wall.  I have since continued on to paint large scale murals in multiple states along the east coast and down south. I have also been fortunate enough to paint for some of the worlds largest mural festivals, such as Murals in the Market in Detroit’s Eastern Market, Wynwood district for Art Basel and Pow Wow! Hawaii in Honolulu. I am currently working on new merchandise for the upcoming year as well as taking a few spraycations along the way.”

@Ghostbeard on Instagram // Ghostbeard on Facebook

Shaina Kasztelan (b. 1990, Sterling Heights, MI) is an American artist living and working in Detroit, MI. She received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies in 2012 with a concentration in painting and a minor in ceramics. Past exhibitions have taken place at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Detroit Artists Market and the Red Bull House of Art. Kasztelan is also known for her mural work throughout the city in places such as Selden Standard, Mootown, and Vicecream. 

@clowntearz on Instagram // shainakasztelan.com

Ffty: Born in Detroit, Paul Johnson made his introduction into the city’s art scene via pictures known by his social experiment called “Pinches.” Influenced by his travels to Thailand and later studying in Melbourne, Australia, Ffty proceeded to share a body of work in his exhibition titled “Holding Up // Holding On.” After arriving back to the states he immediately left off to Brooklyn, New York where he showed a smaller body of work from a series called “Cloudscaping.” Upon arriving back in Detroit was accepted into the Red Bull House of Art Residency producing his most current series “Rencendence” and “Holding Out.”

Forever trying to remain a child in today’s adult lifestyle, Ffty’s painting focuses on Kawaii concepts and draws inspiration from anime and manga. Fifty is a hopeless romantic trying to illustrate the “perfect girl.”

W C Bevan was born in the 80s. He has practiced art making in Ohio, Tennessee, New York City, and Detroit. WC recently has been working in black and white with a focus on visual movement, imaginary architecture, and exotic rhythms.

@wcbevan on Instagram

Marlo Broughton: (b. 1987) “I  started out doing fine arts and ended up becoming more interested in experimenting and developing my own style. I began painting and drawing at a early age. My parents started to find ways for me to learn from it. I got into technical drawing in my early teens which carried on into my adult years. I enrolled into Wayne State University to pursue an Industrial Design degree. Through that journey I found myself and accepted myself as a creative. I experimented with all types of art from music to ceramics to see how it will help develop my work as a painter/illustrator. I took some of those methods from other genres to help develop the thought process that I use today to create works of arts. This passion helped me gain several opportunities in Detroit and internationally. I’ve painted at the Eastern Market with 1XRun and released a few prints and original work through them. I was fortunate to be apart of a installation with the DIA called ‘KEYS IN THE CITIES’ for which I painted a piano that remains on public display. My art is something that comes from my mind and heart. I want to show and break the stereotypes of this world through art. I don’t believe in being boxed in and living in a robotic nature. Therefore my mission is to make awareness of our limitless power everyday to bring people together to break these boundaries and bring people together. That’s my soul mission.”

@marlobro on Instagram

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