Flint, MI—MW Gallery will soon welcome renowned painter and Michigan native Lula Mae Blocton for a free public artist talk.
From the very beginning of her career, Lula Mae Blocton has been described as a colorist. She has put color, abstraction and light at the center of her preoccupation as a painter, while also fighting for the acceptance and visibility of Black, feminist and LGBTQ+ communities.
Blocton, who now lives and works in Connecticut, was born in the small town of Ecorse, MI. She attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, completing her BFA in 1969 and continued her studies at Indiana University earning an MFA. Blocton spent 25 years as a faculty member at Eastern Connecticut State University before she retired in 2013 as an emeritus professor.
On January 4th, 2025, Lula Mae Blocton will discuss the evolution of her career and her art-making process with the Mott-Warsh Collection’s Director, Curator and Collection Educator, Stephanie James. This program is presented in conjunction with MW Gallery’s exhibition Beyond the Physical World: Abstraction from the
Mott-Warsh Collection, on view September 13, 2024 through January 25, 2025.
The exhibition at MW Gallery features two works from Blocton’s Twisted Forms, Transparent Band series created between 1981 and 1996. During this period, space and horizontal expansion became the center of her exploration.
Blocton remembers “In this series, I aim to create images that would expand the viewer’s perception of space into multiple dimensions.”
The works expressed a new level of energy and dynamism, and the series resulted in drawings and paintings of incredible precision level.
For promotional materials please contact Michaela Mosher at michaela@mfo.com
Artist Talk: Lula Mae Blocton will take place on Saturday, January 4, 2025, 2 p.m. at MW Gallery, located at 815 S. Saginaw St., Flint, MI 48502. Gallery entrance is on E. Court St. This event is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays 11:00am – 6:00pm ; Saturdays 11:00am – 5:00pm; and on the 2nd Friday of each month, form 11:00am – 9:00pm Flint ARTWALK is held
Please call (810) 835-4900 or visit http://www.m-wc.org for more information.
About MW Gallery and the Mott Warsh Collection
MW Gallery is the permanent home of the Mott-Warsh Collection (MWC)—a privately owned, publicly shared fine art collection that comprises over 1100 works by artists of the African diaspora and those who reflect on it. The gallery features expansive exhibitions drawn from the collection and facilitates community engagement with art through its programs.
The MWC was established by Maryanne Mott and her late husband Herman Warsh in 2001. Their primary intent was to bring art into non-traditional venues where it could be encountered by people as they went about their daily lives. They formed community partnerships with institutions that had an interest in making the collection visible to their memberships, clients, visitors and participants. Today, rotating exhibits of MWC artworks can be found in the public library, churches, health clinics, colleges, universities and more in the greater Flint region. The collection also lends to internationally and nationally touring museum exhibitions
