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Detroit Institute of Arts Kicks Off ‘The New Black Vanguard,’ with Photographs by Contemporary Black Artists

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has kicked off an exhibition of works by 15 emerging Black photographers, named “The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion.” The exhibition opened on Friday (Dec. 17), and will run through April 17, 2022.

The New Black Vanguard highlights portraits, conceptual images and fashion editorial photographs put together by New York writer and critic Antwaun Sargent. This exhibition is free to attend with museum admission, and museum admission is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Reservations are required by phone at 313.833.4005 or online at the DIA’s ticket website.

This exhibition features more than 100 photographs by “The New Black Vanguard” photographers, a “global movement of emerging artists working throughout the African diaspora, in Africa, Europe, and the U.S.,” according to a statement from the DIA. It will feature works by Campbell Addy, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Micaiah Carter, Awol Erizku, Nadine Ijewere, Quil Lemons, Namsa Leuba, Renell Medrano, Tyler Mitchell, Jamal Nxedlana, Daniel Obasi, Ruth Ossai, Adrienne Raquel, Dana Scruggs and Stephen Tayo. In addition, Detroit-area photographers Mishira Davis, Justin Milhouse, Christian Najjar, Ray Rogers, Corey Turner, and Bre’Ann White are also featured in the “New Gazes” section of the exhibition.

In other news, the DIA has also kicked off the 13th Annual Community Group Exhibition, highlighting artwork made in 2021 by Detroit-area artists in the DIA’s Community Group Program. The show opened online earlier this month and will run through Sunday, January 2, 2022.

The exhibition, now in its 13th year, highlights more than 150 artworks from roughly 80 individual artists in the DIA’s Community Group Program. The show also features images of the artists working at their craft, plus video of the artists describing their “work, motivations, and intent in their own words,” according to a release from the DIA.

“Working with community members to tell their stories through artmaking and watching them connect with parts of themselves in the artwork we share – it just doesn’t get better than that,” Byron Nemela, DIA Studio Programs Coordinator, said in a statement.

Attendees are encouraged to share the exhibition online using the hashtag #CommunityArtatDIA. For information and to attend, visit the DIA’s official website.

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