Exhibition Event
Exhibition Event, Andy T's Urban Vision, 2001-2024
Thursday, March 21, 2024, 5 – 7 pm
Mardigian Library, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Participants and
the flagThe Stamelos Gallery Center presents an event in the context of the exhibition Andy T’s Urban Vision, 2001-2024.
Help complete the collaborative flag Home of the Brave! Instead of the standard white star, contributors are asked to create their own icon/symbol/logo that expresses their individuality or their belonging within a community that gives them strength to be who they are. Items must be no bigger than 3.5” in any direction and must be able to be pinned to the flag. Supplies will be available at the event to help collaborators finish their contributions.
Home of the Brave! consists of a hand-knitted rendition of the American flag, according to the flag proportions for personal use, measuring five by eight feet. It was crafted during a series of do-it-yourself gatherings known as Stitch n’ Bitch sessions organized by Jada Bowden, Michael Nagara, & Andrew Thompson. The flag was initially exhibited as part of the group exhibition Uprising, curated by Rocco DePietro and Gloria Pritschet at Hatch Art in Hamtramck, MI. This collaborative artwork, assembled collectively, draws its title from the lyrics for the U.S. national anthem. Instead of stars as symbols of statehood, participants in the workshop added personal items that indicate how a local community gives them strength. The sculpture places emphasis on the role of individuality, diversity, and locality in the formation of political identity.
Please go to this web address to learn more about the flag and how to contribute to it: https://bit.ly/Home_of_the_Brave
Home of
the Brave flag, Photo by Brooke Palomba
Learn MoreAbout the Exhibition
exhibition titleAndy T's Urban Vision, 2001-2024
Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024 - Sunday, Apr. 21, 2024
Andy T's Urban Vision, 2001-2024 is the first mid-career retrospective of Detroit-based installation artist Andrew W. Thompson, popularly known as “Andy T.” As a sculptor, Thompson gives new life to discarded objects such as tires, grocery bags, plastic bottles, and mailing envelopes, thereby integrating questions of environmental, social, and economic sustainability into the context of art. Treating art as a “fundamental life-organizing principle,” the artist observes, researches, and interprets how everyday items circulate, shape, and express social beliefs and cultural customs. Over the past two decades, Kansas City and Detroit have stimulated an artistic investigation of sociocultural topics such as electoral mapping, fluctuations in money’s value, urban planning methods, waste management tactics, food sourcing policies, body image and clothing choices, and the effects of information storage on knowledge growth.
The Stamelos Gallery Center is located on the first floor of the Mardigian Library at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. For more information, see below for contact information. Anyone requiring accommodations under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act should contact lacotton@umich.edu.
Featured University Art Collection Piece
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), Serigraph print, 1974
Gift of Gilbert M. Frimet,
Collection of UM-Dearborn (1980.065)
Photographed by Tim Thayer
This powerful serigraph print from the permanent collection was created by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), one of this century's most widely acclaimed artists.
Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but moved to Harlem, New York, at 13. He is among the few painters of his generation who grew up in a Black community, received instruction primarily from Black artists, and was influenced by the experiences of Black individuals.
Lawrence's artwork portrays the lives and struggles of the Black community, capturing their experiences through several series focused on figures such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman, as well as themes related to life in Harlem and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His style is characterized by vibrant colors and abstract forms.
In the 1940s, during a time of widespread segregation, Lawrence broke racial barriers by becoming the first Black artist whose work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
He stated, "If at times my productions do not express the conventionally beautiful, there is always an effort to express the universal beauty of man's continuous struggle to lift his social position and to add dimension to his spiritual being."
Researched and written by:
Julianna Collins, Stamelos Gallery Center former intern, UM-Dearborn art history/museum studies graduate, Class of 2025
Contact Us
- Stamelos Gallery Center
- 1st Floor, Mardigian Library, UM-Dearborn
- 4901 Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI 48128
- Directions
- Laura Cotton
- Art Curator and Gallery Manager
- 313-593-5087
- lacotton@umich.edu
- Autumn Muir
- Registrar and Gallery Assistant
- 313-593-3592
- aumuir@umich.edu
