A month-long Detroit Month of Design exhibition hosted by The Congregation Detroit, The Prelude introduces NOVA24 with an interior experimental filmmaking space and outdoor photography exhibit.
Curated by festival co-founders Mara Magyarosi-Laytner and Raymar, The Prelude calls for photographers and filmmakers in the city of Detroit and beyond to exhibit their most innovative and conceptual work.
What does the future of photography and film look like? The Prelude proclaims the trailblazers of this medium are right here.
Welcome to NOVA24.
Exhibition Dates
September 1-30, 2023
The Congregation Detroit
9321 Rosa Parks Blvd
Detroit, MI 48206
Opening Reception
Friday, September 8th
6-9pm
Artist Talk
Tuesday, September 19th
6-8pm
Closing Reception
Sunday, October 1st
2-5pm
Featured Artists
Lo Braden
Lo Braden, alias Lo Cayne, is a black queer portrait and fashion photographer from Detroit, Michigan. Braden’s photography aims to show the beauty and glamour of black people, through careful consideration of color theory, composition and concepts. Their hope is that they can plant seeds with what they capture and it will grow as inspiration for others to do the same.
In the future, they believe that we’ll be able to take whatever we see and project it onto a screen. We will be able to show our perspective and our own point of view straight from our brains. However, that technology doesn’t exist just yet, so the closest thing to that concept is the camera. One of the main reasons why they love photography is because they get to “take a vision that I have in the form of a dream, or sudden burst of inspiration- and capture it. Then share it with others.”
Mara Magyarosi-Laytner
Mara Magyarosi-Laytner is an artist, educator, and curator in the Detroit area. Her work pairs experimental photography methods to explore identity through a symbolic and poetic lens. The artist and her work have been shown in many spaces across the United States and internationally, including the ScotiaBank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto, Canada, and exhibitions in Italy, France, and Hungary. Mara has been featured in multiple articles and periodicals, including Complex, The Hand Magazine, and Aeonian Magazine. In 2022, her work from The Untended Garden was a Photo Lucida Critical Mass Finalist. The Untended Garden book, published by Starling Common Press, is coming soon!
The Untended Garden is a visual reflection structured in three acts – the expectations of women as informed by society and culture, the transformation that women reach as they break through during their coming of age, and the resolution of self that comes from the acceptance of flaws and the reality of aging. Through these experimental images from the second act, this project explores multiple facets of the cyclical nature of life in a garden as a metaphor to reflect on the experience of women.
Christian Najjar
Christian Najjar is a Photographer native of Detroit. Her work often focuses on fashion portraiture while blending street style with refined art concepts emphasizing diversity and inclusion. Her work touches on elegant beauty, often embodying minimalism yet complex subject matter. The goal is to make her subjects and audience feel comfortable and empowered.
Raymar
Raymar, based in Detroit, Michigan is an artist and May 2022 graduate of College for Creative Studies who uses photography, film, and music to explore fashion forward aesthetics and to embrace the topics of identity and individuality. Beyond art, family is a huge part of the artist’s personal life so the coverage of those relationships and dynamics will often appear in his work as well. He bridges each of his worlds together to create a harmonious conversation through imagery and audio.
Using found footage from childhood documentation and new imagery, “918” is an experimental film installation by Raymar that visualizes his current understanding of time as it relates to self growth & evolution. The piece explores past to present, and present to future via projection mapping onto record vinyls as they relate to not only his love for music--but also its innate ability to timestamp memories he may not remember otherwise.
Tryst Red
Tryst Red is a Detroit-based artist (b. 1994). Tryst graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art with her MFA in May 2023. She attended Wayne State University for Undergrad, where she received her BFA in Photography and Art History. Tryst has exhibited her work in multiple group shows in Detroit. Her solo show, "Skin & Scales" was held at Tom Gibbs Studio in Ferndale, MI, in August 2021.
Tryst's practice focuses on personal experiences made shared sensations. She investigates the relationships individuals have with themselves and their environments — this includes exploring the physical and mental connections between a body and memory. Her work emphasizes collaboration, whether it be social practice — focusing on the connection between the artist and the subject, or immersive installation, utilizing projection and the mirror, encouraging the audience to sit with feelings of familiarity.
Miles N. Reuben
MILES NAASIR REUBEN is an award-winning independent filmmaker, screenwriter, cultural strategist and graphic designer. Growing up in Detroit, Miles is inspired by his forever changing city - from its past roots to the potential future. He combines his observations of his environment and the diverse people of the city of Detroit, MI with his admiration of black artistry of all forms, science fiction, comic books, and early 2000’s Cartoon Network’s Toonami shows, all while centering his work through the lens of blackness. Believing that Black stories are universal, and that they can translate to all people in multiple genres and forms of expression, Miles creates narrative films that provide humanity to those who exist on the intersection of blackness, queerness, spirituality, etc.
Since the start of his freelance career in 2019, Miles has directed a number of short narrative films and commercial documentaries including the critically acclaimed NILE: A Visual Embodiment of a Sonic Experience which went on to be selected in 12 Film Festivals, including Detroit Narrative Agency, Cinema Detroit’s “Ethics & Aesthetics” Film Series 2021 & The Michaeux Film Festival, and nominated for “Best Picture” in four film festivals - winning People’s Choice Award for Best Experimental Short on the streaming platform, Argo. Miles is the founder of the production company, filmTOY Studios, which strives not only to create films that are inclusive on screen and behind it, but also to provide access to anyone who wishes to come in and explore their own path within filmmaking.
Miles’ goal is to create permanent moments of inclusion and true accessibility for underrepresented individuals in film through filmTOY Studios and in the greater Detroit area. Miles earned a BFA from Wayne State University in 2021.
Ian J. Solomon
Ian John Solomon (1997) is a Detroit based photographer and videographer with an intense love for his community. After receiving a BA in broadcast journalism from Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and time as a congressional reporter in Washington D.C., Ian realized his passion for storytelling and community required a more liberating medium apart from traditional journalism. Since 2018, Ian has been building a photographic practice that centers his community, its healing and communal stories. Ian hopes to foster his community to grow, connect and amplify through photography as he does.
Outdoor Exhibition Printing & Installation