(L) Mario Moore in the studio. Photo by Danielle Eliska, (R) LaKela Brown in the studio. Courtesy of the LaKela Brown
Before any formal proposal or gallery space came into view, artists LaKela Brown and Mario Moore were already deep in conversation. The Detroit natives both celebrated for their individually powerful visual languages and found common ground in what they saw changing around them the city of their birth, a place steeped in cultural richness and Black legacy, shifting under the weight of redevelopment and gentrification.
“Being born and raised in Detroit gives us pride, but also a sense of protectiveness that feels both excited about the growth, but also alarmed by some of the changes, Brown said.
“We want the people who stayed invested in Detroit for decades to have agency and be the main beneficiaries of what we are witnessing.”
This shared sentiment became the seed for Beneath Our Feet, an evocative joint exhibition rooted in Detroit’s soil, literally and symbolically. The exhibition explores land cultivation, Black foodways, economic sovereignty, and ancestral memory through sculpture, painting, and a showstopping collaborative bronze coin at its center.
Beginning stages of collaborative coin sculpture, by LaKela Brown
“The initial spark for the show and work was a conversation LaKela and I were already having,” Moore explains.
“One dealing with land cultivation and food sovereignty within Detroit.”
At the heart of the exhibition is a striking bronze coin that functions as a visual thesis statement. The sculpture is a literal and metaphorical object of value bearing the marks of history, culture, nourishment, and representation. Each artist contributed one side.
Brown, who sculpted the tail side, draws on her years-long use of coins in her practice to unpack issues of representation and alternative economies.
“Because I was doing the ‘tail’ side of the coin I thought about how plants often provide powerful cultural symbolism and decided to use a bunch of collard greens arranged in a kind of bouquet,” she says.
“Collard greens are a very important plant in African-American cuisine, and I wanted to honor them for the nutrition they have provided over the centuries to my people.”
Moore’s side of the coin features a portrait of Brown herself a powerful nod to the Black women who have long anchored communities through food, culture, and leadership.
“For the coin work I was looking at a small coin series Lakela did around 2015. I think the idea of a Black woman on a symbol of currency is a powerful image,” Moore says.
“When we talked about this collaborative work I wanted to do a portrait of Lakela for the ‘head’ side. The text is taken from a famous quote by Sojourner Truth.”
The exhibition builds on deep art historical frameworks, including Moore’s recent series of paintings that draw from 17th-century Dutch garland devotional paintings. In the original works, religious icons were encircled by elaborate floral arrangements. Moore reimagines this composition through the lens of Black ownership and agriculture, placing contemporary Black subjects within a visual language historically associated with wealth, sanctity, and European tradition. He recalls what drew him to this specific art historical reference during a visit to the Nasher Museum in North Carolina.
Garland of Resilience, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Library Street Collective
“They have an incredible Garland painting on view that always blows my mind every time I see it.
“I wanted to know more about the work and that made me do research about these types of paintings. I don’t think I am subverting or reclaiming anything. To reclaim solidifies the concept that this work and tradition was not for me and I feel like all of art history is mine to claim. I think the work that I am making reveals a devotional aspiration.”
Instead, Moore sees his work as part of a continuum, one that reveals a devotional reverence for Black land, labor, and legacy.
“The series of paintings I have created uses this tradition but also creates something new, with the devotional framework of each painting surrounding Black land ownership, land cultivation and entrepreneurship.”
For Brown, the work is equally devotional, albeit filtered through a distinctly sensory lens taste, scent, and memory. Her sculptures and installations emphasize the intimacy of Black domestic life, particularly around food. That instinct drew her to the field of ethnobotany, the study of how people of specific cultures use plants.
“When I learned about ethnobotany I wondered what plants would be considered culturally relevant to me and my community,” Brown says.
“Then I immediately thought of all the holidays and family gatherings throughout my life and I could almost smell and taste the greens my grandmother and mother made without fail for every occasion.”
The connection between the viewer and artwork often manifests in shared sensory memories.
“Whenever I talk to someone who grew up with a Black American experience who is viewing my work, they always tell me a story about how their family cooked their greens, or they ask me if we kept the stems in, or whether we ripped or cut the leaves,” she says.
“It becomes an instant memory trigger, and I can feel their enthusiasm!”
That enthusiasm pulses throughout Beneath Our Feet, a show that insists on the value of memory, place, and stewardship. By rooting their practices in the land and in one another, Brown and Moore invite Detroiters to not only see themselves in the work but also to feel the weight and worth of their legacy reflected back.
As the city continues to transform, the exhibition offers a call to remember what and who is beneath our feet.
Beneath Our Feet
Runs Until July 30th
Library Street Collective
1260 Library Street
Detroit, MI 48226
Hours- Weds- Sat 12pm-6pm
