Adrian Deva is a painter and an art educator who has been present in the Detroit scene in the last twenty years. Born in Prishtina Kosovo (1974) he has competed a part of his education at the University of Prishtina, BFA in Visual Arts and has attended college courses in architecture and urban planning. He has completed his MFA at Eastern Michigan University. He is a lecturer at Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan but has also taught courses at Eastern Michigan University, and Stacion Center for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina, Kosovo. 

His work has been exhibited since 1993; In Detroit he has exhibited since 2001 in venues such as Museum of New Art - MONA,  Detroit Artist Market, Galleri 2987, Whitdel Arts, Tangent Gallery , Galley 555, Russel Industrial Complex, Finite Gallery, etc. Locally and regionally at Stamps School of Art & Design (UM), Ford Gallery  (EMU), Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor Art Center (Ann Arbor, MI),  Muskegon Museum of Art (Muskegon, MI), etc. He has also exhibited nationally at The Painting Center (NY, NY), Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts (LA, CA), LH Horton Jr Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College (Stockton CA), College of Southern Idaho (Twin Falls, ID), Hera Gallery (Wakefield, RI),  and internationally at Polis University of Architecture + Urban Planning, (Tirana Albania), Sining Makiling Gallery, University of Philippines, Assoziacione Culturale Luci e Obmbre (Bologna, Italy), Artist Centre, Sir JJ School of Arts (Mumbai, India),  Fórum Eugénio de Almeida (Evora, Portugal), Artcite Gallery (Windsor, Canada). His work is included in several private and public collections including the ones of Henty Ford Hospital and Eastern Michigan University.

Alex Youkanna

Communication has always been a struggle for me. As a child, it was because Aramaic was my first language, As an adult, it is because of being a minority for more than just my skin color. Through art, however, I’ve found the clearest and most effective channel for communicating my life experiences. My practice is an expression of personal experiences, conveyed in my most comfortable way of communicating. I am currently interested in sharing my story, thoughts and feelings through objects that I feel comfortable communicating with. I am interested in the relationship that these objects have with one another and how they make each other stronger. 

Arturo Herrera

I am an American Mestizo artist from Honduras via Canada who is now living in Detroit. My work explores issues across national boundaries, including the politics of race and language, borders, and sexuality. I received bachelor's and master's degrees in fine art at the University of Windsor, Ontario with concentrations in sculpture, photography, and performance art.

My most recent work has focused on the relationship between identity, migration, and human/nonhuman connections, and has been featured in Voyager: Migrational Narratives at the Emery Community Arts Center in Farmington, Maine; the Venice International Performance Art Week in Venice, Italy; and Untergeschoss Der Pandora Gallerie, in Berlin, Germany.

Previously, my work has been shown at the Detroit Historical Museum, as part of the show Looking For America, an event organized by the New American Economy; the American University School of Public Affairs; at CuriosityConnects.us; and at the University of Michigan as part of Border Control, The New Media Caucus Symposium.

Ivan Montoya

Ivan Montoya (b. Chihuahua, Mexico, 1995) is a Detroit-based painter and illustrator. As a first-generation immigrant, he uses motifs from the supernatural and mesoamerican folklore to visually represent his experience of existing between cultures.

Ivan earned his BFA from the College for Creative Studies in 2017 and received the Imre J. Molnar Artistic Achievement Award, appointing him as merit-based valedictorian. Following graduation, he attended the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, MO. Since then, Ivan has worked as a freelance illustrator, artist and muralist, partnering with clients including The Platform and 1x Run, as a part of the Murals in the Market Festival. Ivan has been featured by Spectrum, 3x3 Mag and The Society of Illustrators, and has work in the Guillermo Del Toro Bleak House Collection.

Jetshri Bhadviya

Jetshri Bhadviya is a multi-media artist, curator, designer and multimedia artist. Bhadviya currently works as an adjunct professor at Oakland University in the Photography Department and at College For Creative Studies (CCS) in the Foundation and Fine Art Department. She also completed her one year full time AICAD Teaching Fellowship at CCS in the Photography Department.

Through photography, videography, sound, and performance, she explores how bodies activate a space and how they are perceived in a social, political, and spiritual environment. She is interested in awkward, surreal, unnatural and unorganized bodily states by objectifying the body and the space it exists in. Bhadviya’s works question gender and identity politics by highlighting the social interactions with other people and social exchanges such as agreement, disagreement, and negotiation. Generating conversations to deepen the connection between mind, heart, soul and body beyond the social constructs to connect with an authentic-self are some of the experiences her performance and sound pieces bring.

She has conducted workshops at Cranbrook as the Photography Department Assistant and was a teaching assistant at American University in Dubai. Her professional experience includes serving as a videographer for the Detroit Skyspace Project of James Turrell at the Detroit Riverfront and Curatorial Assistant in the Contemporary Department of Detroit Institute of Arts. She has additionally worked as a freelance designer, photographer, and instructor for a number of organizations in Dubai. She has exhibited her work in many places including The Peanut Factory in North Carolina, Cave Gallery, Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall, and David Klein Gallery in Detroit, the Arts at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and the Society of Photographic Education in New Orleans, as well as many venues in Dubai.

The Sheikha Manal Young Artist Foundation named her one of the top- ten artists in Dubai in 2011; she also received the Toby Dewan Lewis Fellowship Award in 2015 presented to only 15 graduating MFA students in US every year.

Natalia Sarrazin

Natalia Sarrazin (b. Bogotá 1988) is a Detroit-based artist-maker. Raised in Santiago, Chile, she holds a BA in Jewelry and Silversmithing from the School of Jewelry, Birmingham, UK and an MFA in metal-smithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including Germany, Munich, London, UK, Santiago, Chile and Detroit, Michigan.   

Robert Platt

Robert Platt received his BA in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University and an MA in Painting from The Royal College Of Art, London, UK. In 2009 he gained a Practice-Based Ph.D. in Contemporary Art Practice (Painting) from Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. Since  2011 he started teaching at The Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and holds the position of  Associate Professor of Art in addition to Associate Director for The University of Michigan Center For Japanese Studies. Platt’s work has been written about in Art in America, and Frieze magazine. He has been actively involved in residencies in India, Japan, Europe and has participated in two Arctic expeditions. He regularly exhibits his work both nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions in Japan, Ireland, South Korea and New York.  Group exhibition highlights include A Rose is Rose, The Butcher’s Daughter, NYC, and Displacements, Renmin University, Beijing, China. His works are included in the public collections of Toyota, and Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo collection. 

Associate Professor, Penny W. Stamps
School of Art & Design, The University of Michigan
Associate Director The Center for Japanese Studies,
University of Michigan
Email: rbplat@umich.edu
https://stamps.umich.edu/people/detail/robert_platt
Personal Website: https://www.robertplattart.com/

PhD -Painting, Kyoto City University of Arts, 2010
MA – Painting, The Royal College of Art. 2001
BA (Hons)- Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University of Art & Design, 1996

Yvette Rock

Yvette Rock received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in New York City and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She spent one year as a Visiting Scholar during her post-graduate stint at U of M. It was during this time that Rock conceived of Detroit Connections, a program that  fostered collaboration between U of M and Detroit schools and organizations. She has worked as artist-in-residence with InsideOut  Literary Arts Project, founded a local after-school program, is a community  activist, and collaborates with artists of various disciplines. Rock has exhibited  throughout southeast Michigan, including the Carr Center, Detroit  Artists Market, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Ellen Kayrod Gallery, and  National Conference of Artists. She is the founder and CEO of Live  Coal Gallery, a social venture whose purpose is to foster a passion for  art, community, and learning. In 2018, she opened The RED, a children's art museum in Detroit. Live Coal is a 2017 and 2019 Knight Arts Challenge winner. Rock is a 2019 Facing Change: Documenting Detroit fellow. She lives in Detroit with her husband and four children.