Fred Torres Collaborations is proud to present LIVE FROM DETROIT a group exhibition of new art from the Motor City curated by Monica Bowman, the founder and owner of the Detroit based gallery The Butchers Daughter. LIVE FROM DETROIT features works by Kevin Beasley, Susan Goethel Campbell, Kate Daughdrill, Christina Galasso, Dick Goody, Cynthia Greig, Chido Johnson, Leon Johnson, Laith Karmo, Nate Morgan, George Rahme, and Marvin Shaouni. LIVE FROM DETROIT will be on view from April 14 through June 11, 2011 at Fred Torres Collaborations, 527 West 29th Street, 3rd Floor.

Detroit has again made national news. This week the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Detroit’s population dropped by 25% since the last census in 2000. This city, once the fifth largest in the country, is now home to less than 750,000 residents—its lowest population since the 1910 census. Yet, while Detroit has seen losses in industry and the population that supported its manufacturing business, it has also seen an influx of artists and energy: a new creative Renaissance. Detroit has a thriving cultural scene separate to the emptiness. Curator Monica Bowman says it best, “Artists working in Detroit have access to almost unlimited resources: raw materials, land, vast enclosed spaces, low rent, a viable community committed to cultural renewal. Choices beyond blind circumstance. Through economy we have reclaimed and rediscovered abundant options and fleeting luxuries: time, space and the notion of closeness. Our work: symbiosis for the sake of sustainability (i.e., what I need you may have: what can I offer you?)”

The artists in LIVE FROM DETROIT have a unique view of the socio-economic developments of the past few years and are able to interact and react to the events shaping Detroit, producing an exciting commentary about the state of one city, on the soil of another. This exhibition creates context for artists operating within a certain geographical boundary. It exposes their work to a national audience and illustrates the scope of their imprimatur. The goal is to foster discourse about community, materials, social intimacy and sustainability. Works on view include collage, installation, monoprint, objects d’art, painting, photography, public interventions/relational aesthetics, sculpture, video and works on paper.

Monica Bowman (b. 1977, Detroit, MI) earned her M.A. in Museum Studies from Georgetown University in 2008 with a specialization in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York. She is the founder and director of The Butcher’s Daughter art gallery in Ferndale, Michigan. Since opening in 2009, Bowman has curated twelve exhibitions featuring local and national artists and is currently an adjunct instructor of business practices for fine artists at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.