SaveArtSpace x PLAYGROUND DETROIT are pleased to announce our open call for immigrant and first-generation artists. We invite immigrant and first-generation artists to submit new or previously shown artwork for our billboard curation. Curated by Martyna Alexander.

Generations of Multitude is looking to highlight artwork that demonstrates the beauty and struggles of holding many contrasting priorities close to you and the challenge of finding your whole in a world that asks for concise oneness and the quick read. 

We are prioritizing artists who are first and second-generation immigrants but also others who deal in the diaspora of dual or multi-faceted cultural identities.

We’re welcoming all works inherently about or influenced by an artist’s split identity and the idea of fitting into multiple worlds, cultures, or ideologies.

We invite artists of all ages and talents to submit their artwork between April 18 and June 10, 2024. This is an opportunity to have your work placed on billboard ad space in Metro Detroit, Michigan.

Open call for art ends June 10, 2024. There is a $10 donation per image submission to participate, each donation is tax deductible and goes to the production of public art. Selected artists will be announced after June 24, 2024.

Opening July 26, 2024, SaveArtSpace will launch public art installations for each selected work on billboard ad spaces in Metro Detroit. The public art will be on view for at least one month.

Curator

Martyna Alexander is a Detroit-based artist and designer, and daughter of a Polish-Korean immigrant and Michigan local. Her work often compares the strange harmony of the strict and systematic to the expressive, organic, and spontaneous - oppositions that mirror the many tensions of her interests and modern life. Originally, she worked in corporate settings as a designer for over 10 years, now using her design tools to create new abstract and anti-solution-based works of art through painting.

She identifies with the fascination common among her generation for both positive tech and more traditional anti-tech activities and lifestyles, each expressed visually and as contradictions in her work. Her practice is an examination of labor and how to use our time to healthfully survive in modern society in balance with the harsh contrasts of multiple cultures, ideologies, and identities.

Connect with Martyna on Instagram at @martyna_alexander.

Participating Organizations

PLAYGROUND DETROIT is a contemporary art gallery and creative agency based in Detroit, MI established in 2012. As a social enterprise, the mission is to support and develop opportunities for creative professionals, artists and residents in order to enhance and sustain Detroit’s creative economy.

Founded in 2015, SaveArtSpace is a non-profit organization that works to create an urban gallery experience, launching exhibitions that address intersectional themes and foster a progressive message of social change. By placing culture over commercialism, SaveArtSpace aims to empower artists from all walks of life and inspire a new generation of young creatives and activists.