Detroit-based art exhibit comes to Oakland University Art Gallery

“The Fortress” is a complex of workshops and residency studio spaces in North End, Detroit where Steven Kuypers and Steven McShane have created a unique workspace, which includes artist residency studios, and an array of production machines for metalsmithing, woodworking and new and alternative technologies. Their collaborative work encompasses the use of traditional and experimental materials and techniques and the aesthetics of social and relational sculptural practices.

“Sculpture inhabits the same spaces as the viewer,” said Kuypers. “Whether it’s an object or sound or performance, it is a way to create moments in the viewer’s life as opposed to representing something from another time.”

With themes of enterprise and transformation, this exhibition embodies metaphors for the city of Detroit’s strength, perseverance and endurance.

The new works in this exhibition, created in 2014 and 2015, comprise five sculpture-installations: “The Fortress Archive,” Sauna Tower,” “Reclaimed Tractor,” “Fortress Sign,” and “Can you lift it?”

“The Fortress” is a nexus for contemporary art in Detroit and the values of labor, craftsmanship, community involvement and the production it supports.

View this free exhibit at the OU Art Gallery from March 7 – April 5, 2015.

Catalogue launch and artists’ talk: Thursday, April 2 at 5 p.m.

Visit the gallery online: ouartgallery.org and on Facebook.