Sugar, Sugar
Saturday, May 12th 7-11pm

Sugar Sugar started as a three-person show with work by Clare Gatto, Jova Lynne, and Megan Kelley. Each of them studied photography at Cranbrook and recently moved to Hamtramck and Detroit. We at the Public Pool liked the idea of showing their work but asked them if they might be comfortable pushing the boundaries of whata three-person photo show might be. Let it loose, we said, experiment, explore, discover something new, invent, make it completely fresh, make it something that affords the viewer the possibility of discovery too. Well, they loved the idea, and we loved it that they loved it. So there we all were feeling very happy and loving it. And so, Sugar Sugar was scheduled. And yes, Sugar Sugar, rolls right off the tongue. It’s awfully nice to say.

In the artists words: “Sugar, Sugar” dives into self created worlds that act as containers for alternative space. Working with the body to challenge the ways in which one engages with identity politics- “Sugar, Sugar” aims to bring to the surface the delectable consumption of the self and other. We investigate the use of the digital in the way narratives of race, gender and sexuality have been constructed. From ghost forms, to ootheca, to saliva- our characters are agents designed to complicate expectations.

More about the artists:

Clare Gatto is an image-based digital artist currently working in Detroit, MI. After receiving a BFA with a specialization in photography from the Ohio State University in 2012, Clare co-founded MINT collective, a collaborative, multidisciplinary artist-run space in Columbus, OH. Clare is both a frequent collaborator and a contributing editor for Refigural magazine, and currently establishing BULK Space as a FLEX Collective member in Detroit. Clare is the recipient of the Mercedes Benz Financial Service New Beginnings Award and Warren and Margot Coville Scholarship, as well as a recent graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art, receiving an MFA in Photography in 2017.

Jova Lyn​​ne is a transdiciplinary artist and curator based out of Detroit, MI. Of Jamaican and Colombian heritage, Jova was born and raised in New York City. Jova graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA in 2010 with a Bachelors of Arts in Video Art and Education. She has worked at the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, NY as well as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Jova is a grantee of the Astraea Foundation’s Global Arts Fund, which has supported her work on media based projects in Kingston, Jamaica and Berlin, Germany in addition to her work in Detroit. Jova moved to Detroit in 2015 to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography at Cranbrook Academy of Art which she completed in May of 2017. Jova’s work investigates themes around female empowerment and the construction of identity by exploring histories of colonialism and brutalist theories. transdiciplinary practice. Jova is a co-founder of BULK SPACE and Black Artists Meet Up-Detroit and is currently the 2018 -2019 Ford Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Detroit.

Megan Kelley is a multidisciplinary artist interested in the transformation of digital space to a private space. By building environments that deny physicality of objects that they create, Megan questions what we bring into the non-physical world and what stays behind. Their interest in the relationship between the digital and the physical was first realized while splitting their BFA at University of Cincinnati between photography and ceramics. This unique training in both digital and sculptural medias led their investigation to Cranbrook Academy of Art for an MFA in photography. Now based in Detroit, Megan continues their work and is a co-founder of Flex Collective and Bulk Space.