LESTER JOHNSON (Detroit, MI. 1937)
The artist Lester Johnson received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Michigan in the late 60s, where he started experimenting with abstract art inspired by Jazz music. Among the Gallery 7 original cohort, Johnson developed an original practice combining the complexity of his African heritage with the most sober industrial minimalism. After success at Gallery 7, Johnson became a professor of Fine Arts at the College of Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, where, for thirty-five years, he worked with the next generation of Detroit artists. Johnson has exhibited his work at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) in Detroit, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Centro de Memória e Cultura dos Correios in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, and numerous galleries across the United States. His work is also extensively represented in both private and public collections: Osaka University of the Arts in Japan; Museu Afro-Brasileiro at Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil; Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago-Detroit Branch, Martin Luther King Community Hall, Wayne State University, and Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit; Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, among others.
ALLIE MCGHEE (Charleston, SC. 1941)
Throughout his career, the artist Allie McGhee has been an essential pillar of the Detroit art community. He received an undergraduate degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1965 and was one of the founder members of Gallery 7 in 1969. In the last six decades, McGhee has systematically created abstract paintings in various styles, from lyric and informal abstraction to geometric composition and draped canvas color fields. His work has been largely exhibited in art museums and institutions such as Detroit Institute of Arts, Wayne State University, Cranbrook Art Museum, Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit; California African American Museum in Los Angeles, August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh; Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta; Kresge Art Museum in East Lansing. His work is in numerous public collections, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Detroit Institute of Arts; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint; St. Louis Museum of Art; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and Toyota City Hall, Toyota, Japan.
ELIZABETH YOUNGBLOOD (Detroit, MI. 1952)
Born in Detroit and educated in southeastern Michigan, Elizabeth Youngblood is an artist, educator, designer, and maker. From her high school education at Cass Technical High School to her undergraduate education at the University of Michigan, through graduate work at Cranbrook, she has always maintained a dual interest in making by hand and designing for production. In the 70s, Gallery 7 became a formative space of learning, thinking, and making while she was a burgeoning artist and designer. Youngblood’s art-making practice includes working in the mediums of drawing, ceramics, weaving, bookbinding, and more. She’s been a faculty member at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and SUNY Purchase, NY, managed branding with Unisys, and designed at The New York Times. After her time on the East Coast, Youngblood returned to Detroit, where she maintained a studio practice and continued investigating the intersection of her interests. In 2024, the Stamps Gallery at the University of Michigan organized Youngblood’s first institutional exhibition.
