Liberty Realm
Stanley Brown, Buildings in Red, 2022, colored pencil, pen and paint-marker on paper, 18 x 24
Participating Artists: Alsendoe Owens, Ashley Hawkins, Bobby Brooks, Darlene Mahan, Debbie Osteen, Jeremy Dillard, Jeremy Taylor, Jotina Ballard, Keisha Miller, Lewis Foster, Mandy Demorest, Sereal Crawford, Stanley Brown, and Thomas Saunders.
Curated by James Benjamin Franklin
May 7 – June 5, 2022
Opening Reception, Friday, May 6, 6-8pm
PASC Detroit Pop Up Gallery
@ The Vella Group
1410 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207
progressiveart@stepcentral.org
Liberty Realm is the inaugural exhibition in PASC’s Detroit Pop-Up Gallery featuring 32 artworks by 13 PASC artists from across all three PASC studios. The exhibition has been curated by Detroit artist James Benjamin Franklin, who has been a supporter and collector of PASC artwork since our programs inception. James’ selection highlights the range of approaches to image-making at PASC and spans from figuration to complete abstraction, with several artworks combining both methods. For James all the artworks selected communicate a range of complex, and sometimes competing emotions, from joy, to humor, to introspection, to immediacy.
“Since being introduced to PASC, I have witnessed amazing work come to life and the incredible joy it brings to the artists, especially when it is shared with the public,” says James. “This program has such a positive impact on the community because it shows the magic we unlock when people are shown a path to express themselves creatively.”
This exhibition also marks the first gallery in Detroit dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities and mental health needs, and the start of a five month exhibition run in PASC Detroit Pop-up Gallery space. This space has been made possible through a partnership with The Vella Group, an organization which provides strategic and communications services to nonprofits, who has offered PASC their store-front. It is also partially funded through a grant from MACC. The PASC Detroit Pop-Up Gallery will run four different exhibits, each with a different curator or curatorial team, through Sept. 30.
James Benjamin Franklin is an artist who lives and works in Detroit, MI. He has had several notable solo exhibitions such as 2022 "Practice", Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI; “Framed In Memory,” Proyectos Monclova, CDMX (2021); and a solo exhibition at the KMAC Museum, Louisville, KY, in 2021. His work has also been shown in several group exhibitions including the FRONT Triennial, Cleveland, OH; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; and the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS. Franklin received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017.
PASC was launched in January 2021 as the first progressive art and design studio in Detroit and Wayne County dedicated to supporting adults with developmental disabilities and mental health needs to advance independent artistic practices and individual career paths in the art and design fields. PASC runs three studios in Westland, Detroit and Southgate, Michigan, as well as a virtual art studio program, and we support over 100 artists across Wayne County. PASC is a program of Services to Enhance Potential (STEP) a non-profit service organization, founded in 1972, that provides services and supports for 1300+ individuals with disabilities and mental health issues across Southeastern Michigan.
