For years, Marcus Jones and Akunna Olumba noticed a stunning lack of art galleries and shows in their city of Detroit, Michigan. Especially when it came to ones that specifically showcased Black artists.
"I’ve always felt the want to support our people,” Jones told The Michigan Chronicle. “As a Black business owner, I knew that I needed to create a safe place for people that look like myself. And so, the goal and the intention for building this restaurant was to provide a safe place for our people to go that wasn’t dark and didn’t feel like a club or look like a dive bar or any of that.
So from the moment they opened Detroit Pizza Bar in 2022, they knew early on that they wanted the walls of their restaurant to double as a gallery space for artists in their community, like Conrad Egyir (@conrad_egyir), Olivia Indigo (@oliviaindigo) and Joshua Thaddeus Rainer (@jaw_shwa).
“But something that really resembled downtown was right here in the neighborhood,” Jones continued. “And so, with that mindset, I also wanted to carry that same momentum to the neighborhoods and be able to open my doors to both visual artists and performing artists.”
And that meant transforming the space to fit the new need.
“I wanted the space to feel like a gallery,” Jones said. “So the lights upstairs are designed specifically to have downlights so that we could hang artwork and photos. I painted the walls light and bright so that it could feel more like a gallery space when you came in up to the second floor.”
The paintings — many of which are available for sale — come and go. But as their business grew, so did their reputation as an unconventional art gallery.
And soon there was no separation between “first” and “second” floors. The entire building became a work of art, in and of itself.
Michigan Chronicle reporter Cody Yarbrough said that, more and more, Black-owned restaurants are becoming synonymous with Black art.
Local muralist Bakpak Durden has four paintings splashed across Yum Village, an Afro-Caribbean eatery.
Inside See You Tomorrow, a “soul-warming” breakfast spot, guests are greeted by Cameron Jenkins’ blazing phoenix, brought to life through vivid paints.
When Julian Hill — the owner of See You Tomorrow — first saw the finished phoenix, he was visibly moved.
“That phoenix symbolizes the struggles and the rise of Detroit, our entrepreneurs and our people,” Hill told the Detroit Free Press. “The mural 100% gave us that belief when we were trying to open — it transformed the entire place. It represents growth, positivity and transformation.”
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A version of this article originally appeared in the 2024 Art Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header images: “Face” by Olivia Indigo / “Joseph's lullaby” by Conrad Egyir / “Becoming Israel” by Joshua Thaddeus Rainer
