Marcel Stewart wants Black people to expand their horizons. The Detroit artist recently spoke to rolling out about an upcoming show he’s featured in and his career.
What is going on with the next event you’re featured in?
The event is actually going to be tonight, [July 7] at 7 p.m. It will be at The Detroit Pizza Bar on McNichols in the 6 Mile area. So feel free to come by. There are going to be drinks. There will be art for people to check out and look at. I’m definitely going to show some of my artwork there. The curator is Robert Lockett, so he’ll be in attendance along with a few other people, so like I said, come by, show some love, look at some art, and get embraced in the culture.
Why should someone who has never been to an art show attend one?
My first, and most important reason, is personal exposure. As an African American or any diverse individual, I think we all need to stretch our horizons further than we have ever tried. So if no one has even experienced art, I think they need to capture that just as a piece of culture. Just like how we all need to visit the library, how we all need to visit a specific location to have it embedded in our culture.
Beyond that, I think they’ll be able to, not only see art, but they’ll also be able to have a drink and something to eat at The Detroit Pizza Bar. It’s a Black-owned location that’s in the center of Detroit. With that, you’ll also be able to visit a number of different other locations around the city within that vicinity. It’s right on 6 Mile, so you’re close to the 96 freeway, you can hop on that and go straight to downtown Detroit and do tons of other things. I think it’s something to kick off the evening, and kick off the weekend.
Who were some of the Black artists you looked up to growing up?
The very first artist, when I became a professional artist that I went and chopped it up with, one-on-one, face-to-face was Phil Simpson. He does the smiles, that’s what he’s known for throughout Detroit. He does murals, paintings, everything. That was the first personal interaction that I had.
Then, as far as African American artists I’ve always admired and looked up to, as far as their style and development goes, is Richard Mayhew as well as Sam Gilliam. They practice these very colorful paintings. Richard Mayhew does landscapes, but he does it in a very vibrant manner.
Then you have Sam Gilliam, who does very large abstracts that are on a traditionally sized canvas. They’ll be hanging outside of a museum or some sort, but it’s things like that caught my interest because it was things outside of the ordinary. That’s always where I wanted to travel. It’s like out of bounds, so to speak, or outside of the universe, and bring that back, create my own reality, and then showcase it to people so they could understand where my mind is.
