Detail shot of Self Portrait, Detroit.

NYC-based, Detroit-born curator Wayne Northcross reviews the recent Schroeder, Romero & Shredder gallery exhibit, Detroit Redux, featuring work from Marsha Pels and Frank Schwere. The two artists both spent a couple years in the city creating art influenced by, as well as depicting Detroit in various ways. Northcross explores the many conotations that come with the city’s reputation, and explores the relationship between the city and it’s artists. He begins the article describing the current art-world view-

Detroit is a myth. In a twisted, ironic way, the city has become an art-world Shangri-La, a place where artists are discovering — thanks in part to insanely low rents — creative possibilities to remake and reform a large geographic area with public art projects, interventions and community building. Detroit has become a rich backdrop for contemporary art.

And then poses the question,

Who would want to visit or live in Detroit? Sculptor Marsha Pels, for one. And her experience, based on what I have read about her sojourn, really sucked. Pels, together with photographer Frank Schwere, recently shared an exhibition at Schroeder, Romero and Shredder. The title of the exhibition was Detroit Redux, and it aimed to translate the concrete reality of Detroit’s urban structure into mythic lore and personal history.  -Wayne Northcross

Read the full article here- Detroit Redux, HYPERALLERGIC.

Detroit, Self Portrait from Pels is a stand out piece in the exhibit, using the Grand Central Station as a reference in the ribcage of the decomposing skelaton. The upright piece still hangs erect as what’s left of the framework crumbles below it.

Marsha Pels Self Portrait, Detroit, 2009 – 2011. Painted cast bronze, cast polyurethane foam, bones, LED lights. (Photos source: Schroeder Romero & Shredder website)

 

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