Crossroads & Intersections
Art Department Gallery
Wayne State University
5451 Cass Avenue
Detroit
November 11, 2026
Sydney G. James is one of the best, hardest-working artists in Detroit. She’s long been a favorite of mine. I’ve been writing about her since her early days at Red Bull House of Art and through major mural works of her own and for her part in landmark museum shows like Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit (one of her works from that show is on display here).
Now, I get to write about Sydney G. James as a curator. It’s no surprise that she’s got an excellent eye for putting together an exhibition, too.
Tucked away on Wayne State’s campus inside its Art Department Gallery, her exhibition Crossroads & Intersections is billed as an exploration of the “intricacies of the Black family structure post the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”
It’s a multimedia blitz with something for everyone — paintings, photographs, textiles, and mixed-media works — that never comes across as too busy or bustling. You can settle in and view the art here without feeling overwhelmed by what’s on display. That’s thanks to the arrangement of works plus the flood of natural light this gallery boasts.
The exhibit is a who’s who of the Detroit art world from Sterling Toles to Lina C. Stephens (I’m still thinking about her “Beaded Chair” piece, a chair covered in Venetian glass beads, which welcomes you into the gallery and centers the whole show), Richard Kinney, Richard Lewis, Senghor Reid, Judy Bowman, Hubert Massey, and, of course, James herself.
I’ll highlight some of my favorites, starting with the elegant functionality of Halima Afi Cassells’s macramé plant hanger. Midbrow’s Randiah Camille Green wrote about Cassells’s work earlier this year when it was featured in a show called Vernal at Buffalo Prescott, where Cassells was serving as artist-in-residence. Cassells talked about her macramé practice, explaining that “each knot matters. Each moment matters. And sometimes, you know, we like to hurry up and get to the finish line.” It turns out her work is just as powerful in a very different setting, this much more formal gallery, where it hangs in front of a window overlooking a reflecting pond and sculpture garden designed by world-renowned architect Minoru Yamasaki. What a gorgeous pairing!
Hubert Massey’s works are often larger than life. We’re talking huge, like a 1,500-foot-long community mural at the Stellantis Jeep plant, or a 30-foot-by-30-foot fresco inside Huntington Place in downtown Detroit. Here inside Crossroads & Intersections, we get to see a smaller (for Massey, at least) charcoal drawing from 2025 simply titled “James.” It feels like we’re seeing behind the curtain of Massey’s process, like it’s him at the beginning with a spark of an idea. It’s a refreshing addition to Massey’s massive portfolio of public art.
The only miss here is the location. As much as I love the Art Department Gallery and its shows, it’s off the beaten path and gets less traffic than other spots. Maybe the answer is to promote the Art Department Gallery better and get more people out, but I’ve found these galleries on university grounds to always get a little buried in the noise of everything else that’s happening in Detroit’s cultural scene.
If this is the beginning of Sydney G. James’s curating career, we’re in for wonderful work ahead.
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