Imagination Maps

Participating Artists: Sherri Bryant and Robert Duncombe

Exhibition Dates: November 7 - November 30, 2024

Location: PASC Detroit Gallery, 9301 Kercheval Ave, STE 2, Detroit, MI, 48214

Gallery Hours: Th, Fr, & Sa, 12 pm – 5 pm and by appointment

Curated by Anthony Marcellini, Founder & Manager of PASC, & Amber Nax, PASC Detroit Gallery Assistant

Imagination Maps is our first two person exhibition showcasing full bodies of artwork from two of our most prolific artists, Sherri Bryant and Robert Duncombe. This exhibition present two artists who work in a parallel patterned and decorative abstract style. Each artist presents elements that may start with a reference but become abstract through their repetition.

Robert Duncombe’s artworks, appear like stained glass or aerial views of industrial agriculture, but are actually made up of geometric figures holding hands, like rows of paper doll chains. These pieces Robert refers to as communities of people. Sometimes he depicts all the artists including himself and staff in the studio, and sometimes he includes the surrounding community.

Sherri Bryant’s artworks are richly patterned detailed abstractions, that evoke maps, or more recently, cellular biological networks. Often these artworks start with referential imagery or contain small symbols, but hide amidst Sherri’s elaborate webwork of color. These artworks require the viewer to zoom in and out, embracing their intricate and expansive nature.

The exhibition title, Imagination Maps, references one of Sherri’s paintings, Imagination Map, which was recently acquired by Cranbrook Art Museum, and is on view starting 10/25/24. This exhibition pluralizes Sherri’s title, as a way to refer to the charts of relationships both these artists create. Documenting their experience as a kind of wayfinding in our world, demarcating the landmarks of the most significant people and things along the way.   

Sherri Bryant is a Detroit based artist who works out of the PASC Detroit studio. When asked what inspires her artwork Sherrie says "I was born in Detroit, and my family is from here too. I like to work here because I was born here, and I live here. I've been drawing since I was little. I like to work with many colors. I draw lots of things, flowers, bubbles, faces and shapes. I create lots of things, and I just want to create more. I keep challenging myself to do things differently." Her work is intricate and detailed involving colorful shapes, symbols and text, integrated into her artworks, reminiscent of landscapes or maps. In addition to several PASC exhibitions her artworks have been exhibited at Art Space 200, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI (2023/24); Art Gallery at Westland City Hall, Westland, MI (2022/2024); The Scarab Club, Detroit, MI (2021). And her artwork is in the collection of the Cranbrook Art Museum. 

Robert Duncombe lives in Dearborn and works out of the PASC Southgate studio. Robert draws everything from people to boats, to animals, in a distinct style reducing his subjects to simplified forms of angles and curves, often repeating his subjects in lines or patterns. His objects tend to be drawn with a thick outline contrasting with a lined cross-hatched interior. Robert is a versatile artist using pens, colored pencils, watercolor, acrylic paint, graphite, and markers to realize his forms. Robert has exhibited at The Scarab Club, Detroit (2021), Swords Into Plowshares Gallery, Detroit (2022), PASC Southgate Gallery, Southgate, MI (2022), the Art Gallery at Westland City Hall (2022), PASC at the Belt Gallery (2023) and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), 2023/24.

Launched in 2021, PASC is the first progressive art and design studio and exhibition program in Detroit and Wayne County dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities and mental health differences to advance artistic practices and build individual careers in the art and design fields. PASC is a program of Services to Enhance Potential (STEP), a non-profit service organization founded in 1972 that provides services and support for more than 1,400 individuals with disabilities and mental health differences across Southeastern Michigan.