ARTISTS: Halima Afi Cassells, Wesaam Al-Badry, Candida Alvarez, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Dawoud Bey, LaKela Brown, Ashanti Chaplin, David Antonio Cruz, Olayami Dabls, Bryce Detroit, Chantell Donwell, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Olivia Guterson, L. Kasimu Harris, Scott Hocking, Doug Jones, Louise Jones, Joanna Keane Lopez, Paul Kremer, Le’Andra LeSeur, Dameon Miller, Keisha Miller, Mario Moore, Ebony G. Patterson, Benjy Russell, Neha Vedpathak, Jordan Weber, Rosha Yaghmai

PROGRAMMATIC PARTNERS: Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum, Bryce Detroit and The Garage, Kim and Rhonda Theus and Canfield Consortium, Tanya Stephens and Haus of Imagination & Gardens, and Tyree Guyton’s The Heidelberg Project.

In this moment of intense climate change and ever shifting policy, what does it mean to care for, tend to, and  remember a landscape?

Library Street Collective announces The Sea and the Sky, and You and I, opening Saturday, May 17 at the Shepherd. The second portion of a two-part exhibition series focusing on the intersecting histories–and current landscapes–of Detroit through the work of artists’ practices, The Sea and the Sky, and You and I, presents artists and cultural organizers who consider the enduring relationships between humans and subterranean, terrestrial, and imaginary landscapes in Detroit and beyond.

An interpretation of a lyric from “All Blues”, a 1959 jazz composition written by Miles Davis, The Sea and the Sky, and You and I considers the histories of place and human impacts on the environment. With a strong focus on Detroit, over half of the artists in The Sea and the Sky, and You and I are based in the city, engaging with themes of Drexciya, detritus, land use, and more.

Detroit has a long history of artists and cultural producers who have been self-organizing independent public art and community-focused projects, and programmatic partnerships with artist-led organizations in Detroit will result in a kaleidoscope of events occurring in tandem with the exhibition at the Shepherd. Programmatic partners include Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum, Bryce Detroit and The Garage, Kim and Rhonda Theus and Canfield Consortium, Tanya Stephens and Haus of Imagination & Gardens, and Tyree Guyton’s The Heidelberg Project. Please check the website here for more information on the programs that they will run in tandem with the exhibition.

The Sea and the Sky, and You and I presents expanded notions of how artists render and make visible our strong connections to landscapes, and the symbiotic relationships between history, environments, humans, and climate, highlighting how artists are shaping discourses for the future, by taking lessons from the past and applying them to this moment. The Sea and the Sky, and You and I is curated by Allison Glenn, Artistic Director of the Shepherd, and on view through August 30, 2025. Special thanks to Allie McGhee for the inspiration for the title.

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