June 21, 2018 (Detroit)—The inaugural Detroit Art Week (DAW), a celebration of contemporary art and culture in Detroit that takes place July 20–22, 2018 kicks off with “Rhythm, Repetition, and Vocab,” an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) with ten works by Detroit artists Carole Harris and Allie McGhee, organized by Amani Olu, DAW founding director. The exhibition is on view July 20–Nov. 4, 2018 and is free with museum admission, which is free for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents.

Harris and McGhee's distinct abstract aesthetic – having endured and evolved for more than 50 years – has brought the artists critical acclaim. Harris is a fiber artist whose process emulates that of a painter, often revising her earlier decisions and doubling back in a medium that traditionally progresses linearly. McGhee is a painter who frees his canvases from their flatness through the kinetic energy created by using them not only as support, but almost as the subject. In diverging from tradition, these two Detroit veterans have converged on common ground. “Repetition, Rhythm, and Vocab” presents Harris and McGhee together in homage to the harmony of their improvisational languages and to the city in which they found their voices.

“When Amani presented this opportunity to us, we were excited to form a meaningful partnership with him and Detroit Art Week,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. “Detroit is so rich in local artistic talent, and we’re happy to shine a well-deserved spotlight on Carole’s and Allie’s art. It will be a great exhibition and we hope it touches visitors and gives them one more reason to be proud of Detroit.”

Harris’ bold, colorful quilts are made with dresses from friends, scraps of t-shirts from family members, wools from Ireland, indigenous Panamanian textiles and simple bedspreads and commercial fabrics. Each fragment bears layers of information and history, and Harris adds more personality to the pieces through painting, rust dyeing and detailed stitching. Among her works on view are “This Ain’t What They Used to Be,” 2018; “Bearing Witness,” 2017; and “Other People’s Memories,” 2016.

McGhee conveys a sense of universality through his textural abstractions and sculptural paintings, but unlike many abstract expressionists, his art manifests curiosity about life at both the cosmic and atomic levels. His works from the last two years emerged out of research conducted in laboratories at University of Michigan on the nature of microscopic vision, where he observed cardiac specialists and doctors studying childhood diseases. These artworks are rich in texture and color and convey the meeting of the macroscopic and the microscopic. His works in the exhibition include “Strata Data,” 2018; “Hi Fi,” 2018; and “Black Sky,” 2017.

Amani Olu, DAW founding director and organizer of the exhibition, will moderate a conversation with Harris and McGhee at the DIA on July 20 at 4:30 p.m., exploring what it means to live and make art in Detroit, how the artists maintain a long-standing artistic practice, and the role art can play in community-building.

Following the talk, there will be an opening reception following from 6 to 8 p.m. A celebratory dinner for the artists will take place immediately after the opening, from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. at Flowers of Vietnam, 4430 Vernor Hwy. Tickets are available for purchase here.

DIA Hours and Admission

9 a.m.–4 p.m. Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. General admission (excludes ticketed exhibitions) is free for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents and DIA members. For all others, $14 for adults, $9 for seniors ages 62+, $8 for college students, $6 for ages 6–17. For membership information, call 313-833-7971.