Library Street Collective and presenting sponsor Bedrock Detroit are proud to announce CHARLES MCGEE: STILL SEARCHING, a retrospective exhibition at 1505 Woodward Ave honoring the eminent 92-year-old Detroit artist. The exhibition will coincide with the unveiling of a new monumental outdoor mural by McGee entitled UNITY at 28Grand (28 . Grand River, across Clifford St. from STILL SEARCHING).

STILL SEARCHING traces McGee’s 70-year-long career through an array of works that encapsulate two of the artist’s most enduring themes: chronicles of the black experience and a love of nature. The retrospective also reflects McGee’s evolution across mediums, with works ranging from charcoal drawings and photography to avant-garde three-dimensional and multimedia pieces.

Approximately one block from the site of the exhibition, the monumental outdoor mural Unity, measuring 118’ 6’’ x 50’ 9’’, will be completed in May on the north elevation of 28Grand, Bedrock’s new 13-story, micro-loft building in Downtown Detroit. The artist states that his ambition for the mural is to reach new audiences, and that he has further plans for public installations in the future.

McGee, who was born in 1924 and has lived in Detroit since the age of 10, has previously completed public art projects in and around Detroit at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan and the Detroit People Mover Broadway Station, among other sites. Additionally, his works are on permanent display at the Detroit Institute of the Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Nationally, his work has shown at the Brooklyn Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art and in touring exhibitions under the umbrellas of the Smithsonian and Corcoran Gallery of Art of Washington D.C. He is a founder of Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit.

Charles McGee’s art and outlook are inspiring for us all. His enduring creativity throughout a long career and at 92 years old is just as impressive as his sustained optimism regarding the future of the city of Detroit and its people. The rich talent expressed in his diverse twelve artworks in the Detroit Institute of Arts collection demonstrates his growth as an artist and human being, as well as his inner strength in facing the challenges of each new day with imagination and hope. - Valerie J. Mercer, Curator and Department Head General Motors Center for African American Art, DIA