What a great addition to the downtown arts scene…read more
This museum/art gallery is the new permanent home to the Mott Warsh art collection. It displays artwork crafted in a variety of mediums (paintings, fabric, charcoal, photography, mixed media, sculpture, pen & ink drawings, etc) primarily by artists of the African diaspora, showcasing the history and culture of African American artists and their legacy upon the art world today. Some of the work is infused with political statements, historical narratives, etc. It's all pretty interesting stuff and most of the pieces give one pause when thinking about how they came to be. I'm glad there is a newer voice in the local fine art scene and MW Gallery seems to be evoking necessary conversations about art, history and multiculturalism, opening a new dialogue about racial issues, too.
The gallery, which opened in 2016, is a regular participant in the city's Second Friday Art Walk now, along with other galleries, shops, street artisans, and "pop up" galleries located along the Saginaw Street corridor. I try to hit the MW Gallery every month during Art Walk because it's a refreshing change of pace from some of the "watered down" art forms at some of the other galleries, yet is more serious and often significant than some of the installation art exhibitions found elsewhere. Overall, the museum is a great addition to the Second Friday Art Walk scene, filling a huge void that desperately needed satisfying. It's too bad it took so long to do so, but now there is a gallery more reflective of the city's urban roots.
The collection comprises work by more than 125 different artists, most of which dating from after 1940. Some pieces in the collection are temporarily on loan at other locations, including Applewood Estate, Flint Public Library, Genesys and many more.
The gallery, located in the Phoenix Building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint, is not a large museum per se, but it does include some truly significant works of art, carefully straddling the lines between entertainment, culture and education remarkably well. I've been here several times now and I feel that the artwork shown is usually highly significant and seems to have been curated to pack the most visual and emotional punch. The gallery's small "black box" theater offers a new short film regarding art/history of the African diaspora every month as well.
In short, this gallery definitely is pulsating with beautiful, thought-provoking art. Is some of it "controversial?" Perhaps to some people, but not really. I've been pretty impressed with the collection ever since I first toured the gallery last year. Now, I made a point to stop in every time the city-wide art walk is on, at the very least, just to see the latest exhibition, occasionally popping in other times as well.
If you're interested in something other than "cookie cutter" style art and crave something more thought-provoking, then you might want to check out the MW Gallery. If I wanted to look at a pretty, nineteenth century watercolor, I'd go somewhere else. If I want to look at something more thought-provoking, then this is the place.