Detroit will host its first contemporary art fair this week, when Season (25-28 September) debuts with presentations by 11 galleries plus a special exhibition featuring ten local artists on the sixth floor of Michigan Central, the city’s renovated former train station. Season has evolved out of Detroit Art Week, which was launched in 2018 by the curator, writer and public relations entrepreneur Amani Olu. Like its predecessor, Season aims to bring Detroit to the art world’s attention while also seeking to activate the lively collector scene already simmering in the city and the greater Midwest.
Olu, a collector himself, says he has watched the local scene flourish firsthand. “I didn’t parachute in on this Detroit revitalisation narrative,” he says. Olu arrived in Detroit for family reasons in 2016, after 11 years in New York. But he didn’t get involved in Detroit’s arts community until 2017, when “my friend Ingrid LaFleur, the only artist I knew in Detroit, ran for mayor”, he says recalls. LaFleur asked Olu to be her press officer, and he accepted.
Jova Lynne, Heavy is the Crown, Henrietta Lacks, 2023 Courtesy of Matéria Gallery
Detroit Art Week debuted in 2018 and grew even bigger in 2019. “The interest we were getting for 2020 was insane,” Olu says. Alas, the summertime festival went on hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic. After teasing a return of Detroit Art Week this summer, Olu re-imagined the citywide contemporary art festival as Season to fill what he felt was a gap in the local cultural landscape.
“I was looking at market consolidation,” Olu says. “Private money, hedge funds—they’re here. They’re at the art fair table. They’re consolidating.” What’s more, he was aware that many galleries are not interested in participating in huge fairs, or simply cannot afford to. “The future of fairs is going to be smaller and regional,” Olu adds. A stand at Season costs $2,500, he says. The works on offer will be available for purchase at the fair and via an online viewing room for two weeks afterwards.
The roster of participating galleries was assembled through a mix of outreach by Olu and referrals between dealers. Galleries taking part include four Michigan locals (Library Street Collective, M Contemporary Art, Matéria Gallery and What Pipeline), four galleries from New York City (High Noon, March, Osmos and Tappeto Volante), and one each from Buffalo (Rivalry Projects), Pittsburgh (April April) and Toronto (MKG127).
Kat Quay, Memory Palace, 2025 Courtesy of the artist
The ten artists featured in the special exhibition Detroit Presents were selected through a mix of invitations and an open call. The fair’s programme also includes the Season Talks series of panels, plus studio visits and extended hours at local galleries as part of Off Season. There will be special large-scale installations at the fair too, including paintings by Hannah Rose Dumes and sculptural server racks by Kat Quay.
Regional fair renaissance
From San Francisco and Dallas to Atlanta and North Adams, Massachusetts, smaller art fairs have been finding success in a challenging market. But even these more modestly scaled and affordable events can have a hard time reaching local audiences. “I do see that more in Detroit, that you will have people of all walks of life coming to see shows,” says the artist Amna Asghar, who will exhibit new paintings on original wallpaper in Detroit Presents. “The mode of Detroit is a little bit more DIY.” True to that spirit, Asghar has started her own initiative, Youth & Asia, to draw outsiders into the contemporary art conversation.
Amna Asghar, Youth and Asia, 2021 Courtesy of Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. Photo credit: Courtesy of the artist
While Asghar believes fairs “can very easily feel like a mall”, she recognises that the format is an efficient way to see art and build relationships. While What Pipeline has done fairs every year since opening in 2013 to meet with far-flung peers and collectors, the gallery often connects with Detroit-based buyers abroad. “What we’re most looking forward to [at Season] is an opportunity to continue to meet new people that are in our own backyard,” says Daniel Sperry, a co-founder of What Pipeline.
Sperry also appreciates that Season is engaging with a meaningful site. “The train station has been an icon of many different chapters in Detroit, from its industrial heyday, when it was an operating train station, to its abandoned state for many decades as an icon of blight,” Sperry says. “And now, of course, it’s been restored and is being put back to use.”
Mary Ann Aitken, Untitled (Broadway), around 1985-89 Image courtesy the Estate of Mary Ann Aitken and What Pipeline, Detroit. Photo: Alivia Zivich
Olu is hoping the fair sparks yet another renaissance in Detroit’s creative community—one where fine art is part of everyday life. “Not everyone feels comfortable going into a gallery,” he says. “Not everyone understands how to move around a museum in a way that feels authentic. And these are culturally sophisticated people who may still feel there’s a barrier there. I think this fair is going to make it a lot more accessible for everyone that desires to be involved.”
- Season, 25-28 September, Michigan Central, Detroit
