Alleyways in a big city can be home to the terrifyingly unknown. Dark, eerie shadows, abandoned alley cats and lost legends alike seem to call the space in-between the two walls home. The belt, located in Downtown Detroit's former garment district is an alleyway that embodies a very different scene. What developed as a partnership between Library Street Collective and Bedrock Real Estate Services in 2015, transformed the alley between Broadway and Library Street which links Gratiot Street and Grand River into a famous city attraction. The alley features enormous murals and installations of artwork from local artists that Detroit watched grow up, as well as national and international artists who spent brief time in Detroit bringing their artistic creations to life. Here are a few of my favorites that I explored this weekend.
Don't Get Lost.
It's not the easiest place to find, but no hidden treasures ever are.
Hush
One of the first murals that you see painted on the alley is by Hush, an artist from the UK who formally trained at the Newcastle school of art and design. He mixes the ascetic of traditional art with western modern splashes of bright color and graffiti. The female form is breathtaking while Hush's expressionist components can be seen in the murals gray background.
Dave Kinsey
One of the bigger murals on the Belt is Dave Kinsey's artwork. He studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Atlanta before settling in California as the place to pursue his artistic career. He uses his contemporary artwork to symbolize the universal essence of human behavior. His ascetic relies on the use of layered and complex artistic components in his pieces. His work is known worldwide.
How & Nosm
Unexpected Punchline
One of my personal favorite murals spans across a giant wall leading you up the ramp of the Grand River Entrance to the Z garage (home of over 20 murals in it's 10 stories). Its creators are two Spanish born brothers Raoul and Davide Perre famous for their New York graffiti, who go by How & Nosm. Their expansive mural shows their unique ascetic with spray paint and crazy images that shouldn't work together but somehow do. What do a cut up fish, random human faces, and machine made components all have in common? They create the high energy and layered mural that is Unexpected Punchline. This mural is one of those rare pieces of art that you could sit and stare at for hours and still not understand, but that's what makes it so elusive.
The Food & Drink Scene
The alley isn't just home to artwork, two contemporary bars with outdoor and indoor components, Standby and The Skip are also offering unique experiences and tastes in Downtown Detroit. Bert's on Broadway is also a local favorite, rumored to have some of the best BBQ Ribs. Enjoy live jazz music every Thursday and Friday, blues on Saturday night and Sunday is open night mic.
Don't have time to visit the attraction yourself? Not to worry, thebelt.org has you covered with a virtual tour of the alley during the night, enjoy!
A place that makes you stop and stare is doing it's job.These artists are the city's future and it's the city's hope that they continue painting their way through downtown Detroit one alleyway at a time.
