Sunday, July 27th marked the closing of the MOCAD’s (a Knight Arts grantee) summer program, an eclectic assembly of exhibits with a light-hearted summer feel. The video gallery hosted, Projecting (see video above), a trio of works by video artist Dara Friedman: Musical (2007-2008), Dancer (2011), and PLAY (2013), all which feature everyday people assuming performative roles in public spaces, singing, dancing and acting out improvised scenes as couples, respectively. The observation of some of the most universal human experience paired with the privacy of the MOCAD’s detached, darkened video gallery, creates a feeling of real intimacy around the viewing experience.

Viewers take in La Bella Crisis.

Informal materials and an “art fair” feel were the hallmarks of this large-scale installation.

Dominating the main gallery, with the open floor plan configured into a convention-style “art fair” of small, booth-like installations, was La Bella Crisis, by Puerto Rican artist José Lerma that had the interactive, informal and frenetic feel of an art-rave.

The exhibition catalog includes excellent supplementary information about this fascinating collection of work. All images courtesy of the artist and the MOCAD

Also closing was the solo exhibition by Ohio-born and Detroit-raised artist Steve Locke, there is no one left to blame. The collection of portraits, some of which are mounted conventionally, and some of which are freestanding on metal supports, creates a little forest of portraits which nearly universally feature subjects with their tongues sticking out. Some appear defiant, some vulnerable, some aggressive; all are in an attitude largely absent in traditional painted portraiture, a conscious choice explored in detail in the excellent interview included in the program notes.

the yogi, one of Locke’s freestanding mounts.

the pilgrim, by Steve Locke.

The MOCAD will be dark for August in preparation for the September 12th opening of The People’s Biennial, co-curated by Jens Hoffman and Harrell Fletcher as a proposed alternative to the standard contemporary art biennial. It questions “the often exclusionary and insular process of selecting art that has at times turned the spaces where art is exhibited into privileged havens seemingly detached from the realities of everyday life.”

Hats off the to MOCAD for a fresh summer scene and a provocative fall in the making!

MOCAD: 4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-6622; www.mocadetroit.org