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Tag: Murals in the Market

  • Mark your calendar with these upcoming artistic happenings in metro Detroit

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    Fall is almost here, which means a retreat indoors for the next few months. Fortunately, the Detroit area has plenty of art galleries and venues to keep you visually stimulated. (Did we forget anything? Let us know at tips@metrointhed.com and we’ll add online!)

    Detroit Month of Design

    Now celebrating its 15th year, Detroit Month of Design honors the Motor City’s title as the only UNESCO City of Design in the U.S. Exhibitions, installations, workshops, panel discussions, and other artistic events are cropping up around Detroit all month long. This year’s Detroit Month of Design includes work from more than 500 artists and 95 events.

    Ongoing; full schedule of events at detroitmonthofdesign.org for more information.

    Murals in the Market has returned to its original home in Eastern Market. Credit: Jesse Kassel

    Murals in the Market

    Returning to its original location in Eastern Market for its 10th anniversary, this popular street art festival will feature murals by local artists like Amy Fisher Price, Bakpak Durden, and Sheefy McFly. The event will also include panel talks, exhibitions, and a Block Party with DJs.

    Through Monday, Sept. 22; Eastern Market, Detroit; muralsinthemarket.com. No cover.

    Renaissance Festival

    Step back in time to a festive village where jousting knights clash, belly dancers enchant, and turkey legs reign supreme. The Michigan Renaissance Festival turns Holly into HollyGrove — a whimsical world of fantasy and festivity where costumes are welcome, and fun is guaranteed.

    From 9 a.m.–7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 28 (plus Friday, Sept. 26); 12600 Dixie Hwy., Holly; michrenfest.com. Tickets are $18.95.

    Eastern Market After Dark

    This annual tradition sees the Eastern Market district transformed for one night with art installations, brand activations, open studios, DJs, food trucks, and more.

    From 6-11 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18; Eastern Market; easternmarketafterdark.com. No cover.

    ArtPrize

    This annual art festival in Grand Rapids is worth the trip from Detroit. ArtPrize draws more than 800,000 visitors each year to the city for a global art competition that brings exhibitions and installations to galleries, restaurants, parks, and other venues. 

    From Thursday, Sept. 18-Saturday, Oct. 4 in Grand Rapids; artprize.org. No cover.

    DIY Street Fair/Funky Ferndale Art Fair

    This weekend, Ferndale offers two unique art festival experiences. The DIY Street Fair is the place to support indie makers, enjoy food from local vendors, and catch a diverse music lineup with bands like Michigan Rattlers, JR JR, and Agent Orange. If you’re in the mood for a fine art experience, the Funky Ferndale Art Fair is steps away, highlighting the work of over 140 juried contemporary artists.

    From 6-11 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 19, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20, and 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 21; Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue; ferndalediy.com, funkyferndaleartfair.com. No cover.

    Detroit Warehouse: Art and Design Fair 

    Presented by Artclvb, this three-day art fair showcases contemporary, affordable work by emerging and mid-career artists in the historic Boyer Campbell Building. The fair also includes a performance by Battle Elf at 2 p.m. on Saturday and a performance by Ackeem Salmon at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

    From 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 19; noon-7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20; and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 21; Boyer Campbell Building, 6540 St. Antoine St., Detroit; artclvb.xyz. No cover.

    Victorian Festival 

    A cherished tradition since 1989, Northville’s historic downtown comes alive for a charming celebration of local heritage, which includes a parade, live entertainment, vintage baseball, and traditional food.

    From 5-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21; downtown Northville, Main St., Northville; northvillevictorianfestival.com. No cover.

    Nostalgia Nationals and Car Show 

    Rev up your engines and step back in time at this high-octane happening. Held at the recently rechristened Darana Dragway (formerly Milan Dragway), this event celebrates the golden era of drag racing with vintage dragsters, classic muscle cars, and motorcycles thundering down the track as well as a classic car show, showcasing gleaming chrome and polished paint from the ’50s through the ’80s. 

    From noon-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20; Darana Dragway, 10860 Plank Rd., Milan; milandragway.com. Tickets are $15-$60.

    Season Fair

    A new art fair in the renovated Michigan Central. The inaugural edition features Detroit-based artists Carole Harris, Alberte Tranberg, Lynn Bennett-Carpenter, and Jova Lynne.

    From Thursday, Sept. 25-Sunday, Sept. 28; Michigan Central, 2001 15th St., Detroit; season-fair.com. Tickets are $24-$75.

    Frankenmuth Fire Arts Festival 

    This two-day festival sits at the intersection of creativity and fire with glassblowing, blacksmithing, ceramics, fire dancers, smoked cocktails, and more. The event also features hands-on workshops, live demonstrations, vendors, and the Iron Pour — where molten iron is poured into molds created by festival-goers. A unique weekend of family-friendly fun.

    From 2 p.m.-11 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26-Saturday, Sept. 27; Heritage Park, 601 Weiss St., Frankenmuth; frankenmuthfire.org. No cover.

    Detroit Institute of Arts

    The Detroit Institute of Arts is gearing up for Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation, its first major Native American art exhibition in over 30 years and one of the Midwest’s largest showcases of contemporary Indigenous art. Featuring around 90 pieces by more than 60 Anishinaabe artists from the Great Lakes region, the exhibition spans painting, sculpture, photography, beadwork, film, and more. Created in collaboration with Anishinaabe advisors, including members of the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes, the show will be presented in both English and Anishnaabemowin.

    Opens 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28 (runs through April 5, 2026); Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; dia.org. No cover for residents of the tri-county area.

    Holly Trevan (Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi), “Zibé,” 2024. Credit: Courtesy photo

    The Detroit Fiber Festival

    Presented by the Peacock Room, this one-day event highlights the city’s textiles scene with vendors, live demonstrations, lectures, a keynote presentation on Detroit designer Adler Schnee, and more — all held inside the fabulous Fisher Building.

    From 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28; The Fisher Building, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; eventbrite.com. No cover for festival, tickets are $10 for “Detroit’s Own Ruth Adler Schnee” presentation.

    Michigan Fall Festival 

    It’s time to get into the spirit for the most wonderful time of the year in the Midwest. This family-friendly outdoor event welcomes the autumn season with traditional fall fun and festive Halloween activities like cider and doughnuts from Yates Cider Mill, kid’s games and activities, a petting zoo, bounce houses, and more. 

    From 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2 and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 3; Canterbury Village, 2359 Joslyn Ct., Lake Orion; michiganfallfestival.com. Advance tickets start at $5 (veterans and active-duty members get in free with military ID, plus children under 5). 

    Color | Ink Studio

    Seeds of Inspiration features new work by printmaker Celeste Roe, and the title of the show is quite apt: she literally took inspiration from seeds. “I am interested in their shapes and the potential they hold to unfold into something new,” she said in a statement, adding, “There is a certain mystery involved in making prints, in that all the work is created on the plate, not on the paper. It’s not until the paper is placed on the plate and run through the press that the image appears.” The exhibition features original hand-pulled prints that have not been previously shown.

    Opening reception from 2-4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4 (runs through Oct. 31); Color | Ink Studio, 20919 John R Rd., Hazel Park; colorinkstudio.com. No cover.

    Outside in the Middle features work by Aleiya Lindsey Olu, Bilge Nur Saltik, Sophie Yan, and Aaron Blendowski, who have created an indoor installation.

    Through Oct. 4; Matéria Gallery, 4725 16th St., Unit B, Detroit; materia-art.com. No cover.

    Riverbank Arts

    Flint Atelier: Creative Practice & Pedagogy highlights what organizers call “Flint’s cultural guardians”: leaders connected to the University of Michigan and Mott Community College that show “how artist-educators shape both their own creative practices and the cultural future of their students and communities.” The exhibition features works across mediums from artists including Guy Adamec, Jjenna Hupp Andrew, Rob Carter, Yazmin Dababneh, and others.

    Runs through Oct. 24; Riverbank Arts, 400 North Saginaw St., Flint; riverbankarts.org. No cover.

    A2 Artoberfest Fine Art Fair

    This art fair features 100 jury-selected artists, hands-on workshops, youth exhibits, live music, food, and more.

    From 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12; downtown Ann Arbor; a2artoberfest.org. No cover.

    The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is renovating for its 20th anniversary, including adding a window to invite the public into its gallery. Credit: Image courtesy of Ply+, Architects behind MOCAD’s renovations

    MOCAD

    Ahead of its 20th anniversary, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is closing its main building down for renovations, from infrastructure to its Woodward Avenue facade, including adding a window to invite the public into its gallery. In the meantime, MOCAD will continue to hold programming in its Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead including Heart Land, a solo exhibition by Detroit-based artist Mary-Ann Monforton that features sculptural works built around themes of wealth and power.

    Opens Friday, Oct. 24; Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead at MOCAD, 4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit; mocadetroit.org. No cover.

    Printmaking typically involves creating an edition of identical works of art, but this exhibition leaves things to chance. Curated by Elizabeth Isakson-Dado, Chance Operations: Monoprints, Make Ready, Test Prints, and Artist Proofs features ten unique printmakers “celebrates the anti-edition, an exploration of the range printmaking can take when we eschew the perfect image and honor the parts of the process many artists try to hide — the states, the proofs, the mechanical press malfunctions, the fingerprints — and see the layers as a new composition, greater than a sum of their parts.”

    On view through Dec. 19; Signal-Return Gallery, 9301 Kercheval Ave., #1, Detroit; signalreturnpress.org. No cover.

    Curated by Oshun Williams, Rooted tells the story of the artist Joe Cazeno III. “Shaped by the soil of the ’80s, their culture, family, and the people who poured into them, these pieces honor where he comes from — the lessons, the love, the labor, and the legacy,” the gallery says.

    Open from noon-6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon-4 p.m. Sundays; Norwest Gallery of Art, 19556 Grand River Ave., Detroit; norwestgallery.com. Donations are encouraged.

    Prometheus, Absence of Light presents work by Puerto Rican artist Emanuel Torres, a series of abstracted paintings that the artists says are inspired by light — or its apparent lack in our current moment in society.

    Through Oct. 11; David Klein Gallery, 678 Livernois St., Ferndale; dkgallery.com. No cover.

    Cranbrook Art Museum

    Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley highlights the whimsical, Seussian art of twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas. The exhibition includes works from the last 15 years while highlighting the brothers’ creative process.
    From Nov. 2-Feb. 22; Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills; cranbrookartmuseum.org. Tickets are $8-$12.

    This article appears in Sep 17-30, 2025.


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    Metro Times editorial staff

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  • Murals in the Market is restoring beloved works of art ahead of its Eastern Market return

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    Organizers behind Detroit’s Murals in the Market have been quietly restoring three works of art in Eastern Market to celebrate the festival’s 10th anniversary and upcoming return to the district.

    Muralists Ed Irmen and Jay Kopicki are at work completely repainting a mural by Chicago-born artist Hebru Brantley, one of the festival’s first when it debuted in 2015.

    “It’s a pretty big honor to be able to recreate somebody else’s work and to be trusted to do it the right way,” Irmen tells Metro Times during a break. “It’s really important that we preserve a lot of these pieces because ultimately time takes its toll, and especially with this being from the first festival that we ever had, it makes it of pretty significant importance to the market.”

    The mural is located at the corner of Russell and Adelaide Streets and features Brantley’s “Flyboy” character, an aviator, goggles-wearing child that symbolizes freedom and dreams. It’s also a nod to the famed Tuskegee Airmen from World War II.

    Within the past week, Irmen and Kopicki have also restored a watermelon-themed “Welcome to Eastern Market” mural made in 2017 by Zak Meers, as well as Scott Hocking’s 2018 installation “Seventeen Shitty Mountains,” made from concrete tubes salvaged from the old Detroit Water and Sewerage Department building in the district and painted in neon Day-Glo colors.

    After years bringing dozens of murals to Eastern Market, the festival rebranded as Murals in Islandview in 2023 following parent company 1XRUN’s relocation to that neighborhood. Earlier this summer, organizers announced Murals in the Market would return to Eastern Market for its 10th anniversary.

    1XRUN co-founder Jesse Cory says murals typically last between five and ten years before the paint starts fading and chipping. He adds that organizers did not necessarily intend for the festival’s murals to last this long. “All we asked was for [business owners] to keep the murals up for at least a year,” he explains, adding, “The fact that it’s a walkable mural gallery, I think the business owners like that it exists.”

    There is always an ephemeral nature to street art, and mural festivals often paint over their walls, including Murals in the Market in certain high-traffic areas of the district. But Cory says the nonprofit that operates Eastern Market selected the three works for restoration because they have become part of the identity of the district.

    “It wasn’t necessarily about how well-known the artist is,” Cory says. “They wanted things that they felt represented the spirit of the market.”

    “Seventeen Shitty Mountains” was an instant hit, even being relocated by Eastern Market to a more visible area.

    The installation now has a fresh coat of fluorescent paint. It’s a cheeky reference to “Seven Magic Mountains,” an installation by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone made from neon-painted rocks in the Nevada desert.

    Courtesy photo

    Scott Hocking’s 2018 installation “Seventeen Shitty Mountains” is made from concrete tubes salvaged from the old Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

    “[Hocking] painted them these Day-Glo colors, I think, to represent those rock sculptures that are in Nevada,” Cory says. “I think it was kind of like Detroit’s version of that, like, ‘You have your rocks, we have our sewer tubes.’”

    The Brantley piece had become so degraded that 1XRUN got the blessing of Brantley to completely re-create the mural from scratch using high-quality photos and color-matched paint, starting over with a blank white slate of primer.

    “From what you would see less than a week ago to today, the vibrancy is popping off the wall,” Irmen says. “It’s hard to believe it was ever these colors.”

    For the Brantley mural, Irmen and Kopicki developed a technique where Kopicki starts from the bottom and draws the lines, with Irmen following behind.

    Irmen describes the effect as similar to an image slowly loading line-by-line on an old-school internet connection.

    “It kind of gives it that dial-up loading screen kind of vibe,” he says. “You’re seeing the image come together as we’re moving down the wall.”

    The Murals in the Market festival has been the backdrop to big development projects in the historic shopping district in recent years. In 2018, it was named one of the world’s best mural festivals by Smithsonian magazine. Eastern Market has also seen an influx of football season tailgaters with the Detroit Lions doing so well and Ford Field nearby.

    Murals have flourished in the city as Mayor Mike Duggan has cracked down on graffiti. Cory says the festival has not had any issues with the murals being vandalized or tagged.

    “Many people that are from the graffiti culture, we work with them on an ongoing basis,” Cory says. “We have a good relationship.”

    He adds, “The pressure on the city to buff, all the stuff that they’ve done to put pressure on graffiti pushed a lot of people who did want to paint outside … it pushed them more into becoming a muralist. Our culture crosses over.”

    A watermelon-themed “Welcome to Eastern Market” mural made in 2017 by Zak Meers. - Courtesy photo

    Courtesy photo

    A watermelon-themed “Welcome to Eastern Market” mural made in 2017 by Zak Meers.

    Cory says funding for this year’s festival came from Eastern Market, as well as the Gilbert Family Foundation and General Motors, a new sponsor this year. He also says the festival has become financially established to be able to pay all artists this year, a festival first.

    “It’s good to be back, and it’s good to be funded,” he says. “In years past, we always announced it before we raised a dollar. … The first year was really tough, the second year was really tough, the third year was really tough, the fourth year was really tough. This year, I think the value is there, the tenure of it is there.”

    He adds, “Detroit’s a very unique place … We have a huge art community, and we have a very substantial arts economy. It’s a whole industry. You don’t see that in other cities.”

    This year’s festival is set for Sept. 15-22, bringing more than a dozen new murals to the district from local artists like Amy Fisher Price, Bakpak Durden, Freddy Diaz, Ijania Cortez, Ivan Montoya, Nicole Macdonald, Phil Simpson, Sheefy Mcfly, and Tony WHLGN, among others.

    New this year, the festival’s headquarters will be situated in a warehouse at 1520 Winder St., which includes an exhibition celebrating 10 years of 1XRUN’s visual artist residency program at Detroit’s Movement music festival. Other festival programming includes panel discussions, tours, and DJs.

    Irmen says he hopes to finish the restoration work before the festival starts. He and Kopicki are also creating new murals for the festival, as well as working with 1XRUN behind the scenes.

    “I can’t wait to see what the artists put up this year,” Irmen says.

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    Lee DeVito

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