Participating Artists: Jamille Berry, Caleb Brazill, Stanley Brown, Jerri Burks, Therrin Burns, Alyce Carter, Sereal Crawford, Dwayne Curry, Ashley Hawkins, Joseph Lucas II, Scott Maciejewski, Billy Medley, Kimberly Petteys, Khiry O’Neil, Alsendoe Owens, Ray Smith, Willie Whitehead, Lauren Williams, and Promise Vos.
WILD THINGS marks the third iteration of the Artist-Curator series, featuring curators Mandy Demorest, Detroit Angel Tweety, and John Peterson, all artists from the Progressive Art Studio Collective Westland studio. The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday, March 13, 2025 from 5-7pm. For this exhibition, they have selected artworks from all three PASC studios that explore the presence of animals in the natural world. The chosen works highlight the connections between human experience and the animal kingdom, showcasing the delicate balance between nature and humanity. Adding depth to the exhibition, short poems, animal quotes, and fascinating facts selected by the curators accompany the artworks.
From the curators’ perspective, many encounters with wild animals occur at zoos, evoking nostalgic memories of childhood field trips. Sereal Crawford’s Untitled Structure 3 recalls the penguin exhibit at the Detroit Zoo, while Therrin Burns’s Wolf nods to the ancestral lineage of domesticated dogs and the enduring strength of their wild counterparts. Dwayne Curry’s Steven Spielberg and ET blurs the line between the human and extraterrestrial worlds, embracing anthropomorphic qualities that suggest deep interconnection.