Artists: Isabelle Albuquerque, Lita Albuquerque, Alma Allen, Theodora Allen, Thomas Beale, Julia Bland, Marco Brambilla, Dominic Chambers, Zoe Crosher, Dawn DeDeaux, Michele Oka Doner, Amir H. Fallah, Sylvie Fleury, Hilma’s Ghost, Alteronce Gumby, Brad Kahlhamer, Soull OGUN/L’ENCHANTEUR, Maya Lin, Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, Reverend Joyce McDonald, Ryan McNamara, Mary-Ann Monforton, Jordan Nassar, Simphiwe Ndzube, Raúl de Nieves, Yoko Ono, Ozioma Onuzulike, Minga Opazo, Paulo Nimer Pjota, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Bat-Ami Rivlin, Rashaun Rucker, Lauren Seiden, Nolan Simon, Michelle Stuart, Ian L.C. Swordy, Kelly Tapia-Chuning, Nari Ward, Marie Watt, Faith Wilding, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Carmen Winant, Margo Wolowiec, and Suyi Xu.

Library Street Collective and The Bunker Artspace: Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody are delighted to present their collaboration Grace Under Fire, a group exhibition of over forty artists that explores how we continue to find hope in difficult times. The exhibition will open on Thursday, October 24, 2024 and will run through January 11, 2025.

At a moment when every perspective of the world’s pain and injustice is just a click away, where can we turn to find consolation and healing?

Curated by Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow (Co-curators of the BRD Collection) and Kyle DeWoody (2024 Bunker Guest Curator), Grace Under Fire is a collaborative exhibition with Library Street Collective at the Shepherd. The show is a companion to A Wing and a Prayer, curated by Kyle DeWoody and Zoe Lukov, which will open at The Bunker Artspace in December 2024 and feature works from the personal collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody. The two exhibitions feature art that reflects avenues to both respite and resilience, primarily through the lens of community, spirituality, and connection to nature.

It feels significant to explore this question in a decommissioned church in Detroit, a city that has experienced both great ebullience and great hardship. The church, a place that witnessed generations in prayer, pain, and transcendence, is a pinnacle space for community to gather, to share both burdens and celebration, to revel and soothe together. It is also a place for spiritual sustenance. In the spiritual realm, we can look to the divine, the signs, or the cosmos for answers beyond the material. Whether through meditation, prayer, ritual, or practice, we can be both centered and elevated in spite of the trials we face. For some, nature is church, offering interconnectedness, healing, and immense creative potential.

Grace Under Fire explores the paths back to ourselves—as a collective, as beings of the earth, as spirits. It offers these as places where we can find grounding, restoration, sanity, and ultimately strength to persevere in light of all we face. Perhaps despite everything, we might just build something better.

And in the end if all else fails, “Sing [& shout] the Body Electric…” - Walt Whitman

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