Kara Walker, “Goliath VS David,” Ink and cut paper on paper, 2022. (Photo: Jason Wyche, courtesy of Sikkema Malloy Jenkins)
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an ambitious exhibition bringing together more than 80 local, national, and international contemporary artists. Titled 20 Years of MOCAD: A Practice of Multiplicity, the four-part exhibition looks back at the museum’s contributions to and collaborations with the city of Detroit, while also considering the many ways artists have helped shape the institution over the last two decades.
Since opening in 2006, MOCAD has provided a place for artists to experiment, collaborate, and test new ideas. The anniversary exhibition reflects that history through works spanning painting, sculpture, installation, sound, performance, and socially engaged practices.
“Twenty years is a significant milestone for MOCAD. This moment celebrates the Museum’s cultural legacy and its impact across the communities we serve,” says Marie Madison-Patton, MOCAD’s co-director and chief operating officer. “This anniversary allows us to celebrate our history while also thinking about what we want MOCAD to be for the next 20 years.”
Rather than presenting that history chronologically, A Practice of Multiplicity is divided into four sections that each focuses on a different aspect of MOCAD’s identity.
Part I: Process Driven Purpose highlights experimentation through four sound installations by Apetechnology, Ben Hall, Vanessa Reynolds, and Sterling Toles. The works focus on sound as both an artistic medium and a part of the creative process, reflecting the museum’s long-standing interest in giving artists room to experiment with how work is created and presented.
The exhibition expands significantly with Parts II through IV. Part II: Artist as Architect looks at the role artists have played in shaping not only MOCAD’s exhibitions, but also its identity as an institution. Works by artists—including KAWS, Mike Kelley, Kennedy Yanko, Danielle Dean, and Ragnar Kjartansson—explore how artists can reshape spaces, experiences, and even ideas about what a museum can be.
Detroit itself takes center stage in Part III: Detroit as Material. Rather than treating the city simply as a backdrop, the section brings together artists who respond directly to its architecture, communities, histories, and changing landscape. Artists including Scott Hocking, Sydney James, Charles McGee, Sabrina Nelson, and Shirley Woodson show how the city can become an active part of the creative process.
The final section, Part IV: A Practice of Multiplicity, brings together artists whose works draw from lived experiences and they reexamine social, cultural, and political histories. Featuring artists such as Sanford Biggers, Rashid Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Julie Mehretu, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, and Nari Ward, the section considers how contemporary art can preserve cultural knowledge while opening up new conversations around memory, identity, and place.
The anniversary celebration will also extend beyond the museum’s galleries. New public-facing works by Olayami Dabls and Metabolic Studio will transform parts of MOCAD’s exterior, continuing a history of inviting artists to change how visitors experience the building itself. Dabls’ Sankofa mural and Metabolic Studio’s Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy will activate the museum’s architecture and surrounding spaces as part of the exhibition.
Together, the four-part exhibition offers a look back at 20 years of MOCAD without treating the anniversary as a finished chapter. Instead, it shows how the museum has continually changed through the artists, communities, and city around it, while leaving room for that evolution to continue over the next 20 years.
MOCAD’s 20th anniversary exhibition brings together more than 80 artists who have helped shape the museum over the last two decades.
© Hank Willis Thomas. (Photo: courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)
© Nari Ward Studio. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London, and GALLERIA CONTINUA. (Photo: Nicholas Knight)
The exhibition begins with experimental sound installations that highlight process, collaboration, and artistic experimentation.
“Sterling Toles, s(h)elves,” 2022. (Photo: Clare Gatto)
Martha Friedman, “Two Person Operating System,” Steel, rubber, pigment, glass jar of Vaseline, 2016. (Photo: courtesy of the artist)
Other sections look at how artists have shaped MOCAD and how the city of Detroit itself can become part of the creative process.
Metabolic Studio's statement neon, 2006, edition 1/12. Adapted from a 1984 statement by Sherrie Rabinowitz of Electronic Café International.
Mike Kelley, “Repressed Spatial Relationships Rendered as Fluid #1: Martian School (Work Site),” Aluminum, steel, lead, 2002. (Photo: courtesy of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts)
The anniversary celebration extends beyond the galleries with works that explore memory, identity, history, and the museum’s relationship to its surroundings.
Liz Cohen, “La Cascada (The Shadow) | La Cascada (La Sombra),” Dye sublimation print on aluminum, 2024. (Photo: courtesy of the artist)
Gordon Newton, “Copernican Communication,” Wood construction, 1983. (Photo: Daniel Sperry)
Exhibition Information:
20 Years of MOCAD: A Practice of Multiplicity
September 9, 2026–April 4, 2027
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)
4454 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48201, United States
My Modern Met granted permission to features photos from the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
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