Muse GR Art Gallery Owners, Stephen and Taylor Smith, are pushing the boundaries of what a traditional art gallery can be with their Art Pod.
Simply put, an Art Pod is a mobile art gallery.
Muse GR created their Art Pod by renovating an old shipping container.
They painted the exterior black. They removed the front side and replaced it with wood paneling. They added a sliding glass door so passersby can peek in to admire the art on display, even if the Art Pod isn’t open.
Inside, they added white walls where artists can hang their masterpieces. Wood floors create a warm, inviting space.
But they didn’t stop there.
They bring furniture – couches, chairs, and side tables – into the Art Pod, which draws people inside and encourages them to hang out and appreciate the artwork on display.
Muse GR didn’t just create a mobile art gallery – the Art Pod is a cool place where people love to hang out and have fun enjoying art as a community.
Muse GR is the official art gallery who created the Art Pod.
Located at 727 Leonard Street in north west Grand Rapids, MI, Muse GR is an interactive art gallery. The space is always changing to meet the needs of whichever event, gallery, or workshop is using the space.
Fun Fact: Muse GR made the juried list for top 5 ArtPrize venues in 2018.
Muse GR was started by couple Stephen and Taylor Smith.
Stephen Smith is an artist and photographer. Taylor Smith is a writer and digital marketer who has experience working with nonprofits.
After getting married, the creative duo decided to take a risk. Instead of buying a home they invested their nest egg into creating a non-profit art gallery.
Their goal was to create a space where the community could connect through artwork.
They dreamed of a place that could double as a cool, safe space that inspires youth. A place where young people in the community could learn marketable skills in art and discover their passion and purpose.
The Smith’s brought their vision for Muse GR to life by renovating an old building.
Warm wood floors, a storefront full of windows, and white walls are the perfect blank slate for any creative looking for a space to bring their vision to life.
The Art Pod made its debut at ArtPrize 2021 as an exhibit in the Time-Based category.
Time-based entries are durational and have multiple iterations and changes. The visitor has to spend time with the exhibit to fully appreciate and understand it. These entries include (but are not limited to) performance, video, dance, music, and interactive works.
The Art Pod was enormously popular at ArtPrize 2021.
Here’s why…
The Art Pod isn’t something you just look at. The Art Pod is a piece of art that you step into. It’s a fully immersive experience.
When you step into the Art Pod, you literally become part of the exhibit. Without you and the talented artists, the Art Pod would just be a renovated shipping container.
The first thing you notice when you enter the Art Pod is the air inside feels different – almost magical.
You feel the music reverberating in your bones. The hip hop lyrics speak to your soul.
The art on display is deeply meaningful and moving. You get goosebumps as you listen to the artists explain the inspiration behind their pieces and you fully immerse yourself in the artists’ struggle.
As you think about how much effort, thought, and energy the artists have put into their pieces you can’t help but be overwhelmed with emotion.
The Art Pod is so much more than a mobile art gallery – it’s a bubble where artists can be vulnerable and fully connect with the community.
It’s a safe space where artwork can move you so substantially, your perspectives change.
It might sound dramatic, but it’s true. The Art Pod is an art gallery unlike any other.
Muse GR art gallery owner, Stephen Smith, won the $10,000 prize for his “Art Pod” exhibit in the ArtPrize 2021 Time-Based juried award.
This means that ArtPrize visitors can still experience the fully immersive art exhibit, Art Pod.
But, instead of voting for the Art Pod you will be voting for the artwork on display inside of the Art Pod.
Two exhibits are on display in the Art Pod at ArtPrize 2022 – “Ugly Clothes” by Muse GR owner Stephen Smith and “We Reach Across The Same Blue Sky” by artist Cary Okoro.
While the two bodies of work inside of the Art Pod have dramatically different styles, they are united by a common theme: identity.
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This thought-provoking four piece exhibit consists of three massive digital drawings, displayed on custom BIG Wall Décor wall art. The fourth piece is a smaller. It’s a wordplay label for the exhibit, printed on GLOSS Metal Prints custom metal wall décor.
The three large digital drawings each show a different character. They are all drawn with a black outline on a clean, white background.
The characters are wearing pieces of clothing from luxury brands like Prada, Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton.
While one of the drawings is black and white, the other two have colorful pops of red, blue, green, and yellow.
All of the pieces are striking – visually compelling. They quickly catch your attention and draw you into the Art Pod.
As you approach the pieces and get closer, you notice words like “appropriation” and “vulture.” One of the pieces has the question, “do brands add value to humans? Or do humans add value to brands?” written across the bottom.
The fourth smaller piece – printed on shiny metal – might look like the Louis Vuitton logo at first glance. Upon closer inspection, you realize it is actually a “L” and “W” representing the logo for the piece “Label Whore.”
Together, these four works of art make you think critically about hype culture and the impact it has on your identity.
“Ugly Clothes” makes you stop and think, does wearing a certain brand make me more valuable? Or are these brands manipulating me into thinking I am not valuable without them?
If you only take one thing away from the “Ugly Clothes” exhibit, artist Stephen Smith hopes it is this…YOU HAVE VALUE… and your value comes from within.
As technology advances it is apparent that the future of artwork is digital.
BIG Wall Décor is the preferred way to print digital artwork as wall art for digital artists, like Stephen Smith, for four reasons: quality, portability, large sizes, and affordability.
BIG Wall Décor prints your custom artwork on soft, durable fabric.
You submit your artwork file. BIG Wall Décor’s graphic designers review the file and upload it to the printer.
Your custom artwork is printed on fabric using state of the art printers with exact color and quality match.
Your printed artwork will look just as sharp and vibrant as it does on your device.
One of the biggest fears when moving your masterpiece to a new gallery or exhibition is that it will accidentally be damaged in transit.
BIG Wall Décor’s lightweight, portable metal frame comes apart and reassembles with a few twists on each corner connector so you have peace of mind that your artwork won’t be damaged in transit.
The portable frame packs into a long rectangle box and is easily transferred in a small car, without any sweat.
If you want people to notice your artwork from across the street and be captivated instantly, you need one thing…
Oversized artwork.
BIG Wall Décor prints your custom wall art in massive sizes – up to 72” x 108” (6 feet x 9 feet)!
Your artwork printed in such a large size guarantees you get an audible “WOW” from the crowd.
BIG Wall Décor’s #1 goal is to support emerging artists.
One of the ways BIG Wall Décor does this…they make printing your masterpiece artwork in the size and quality of your dreams affordable.
On average, printing your artwork with BIG Wall Décor costs 2-3 times less than printing your artwork on the same size canvas.
The savings are so significant, it doesn’t make sense to print your artwork anywhere else.
Create your own custom BIG Wall Décor masterpiece today.
This layered painting consists of a natural green landscape that represents artist Cary Okoro’s heritage from Switzerland, Sweden, and her husband’s heritage from Nigeria below a light blue sky.
Layered on top of the landscape are profile paintings of Okoro’s two children and recreated paintings of Okoro and her husband as children on canvas in neutral browns.
The next layer on top of the profile paintings are translucent papers with text excerpts that tell parts of the Okoro’s family history.
The top layer pinned over the stories and text are historical family images printed in light blue ink on clear paper.
The layering is powerful imagery that shows how the Okoro family stories and experiences fuse to create a unique family identity.
For example, one of Okoro’s husband’s family photos is overlaid on text that reads “her mother died when she was just 13 years old.” This story is part of Okoro’s grandmother’s history.
By the time all of this family history from Okoro and her husband disseminates down to Okoro’s children, the stories fuse. Each of Okoro’s children have one identity, which is a combination of the layers of family history.
This masterpiece shows how the Okoro’s family layers come together to create one story and by extension represents all of us.
We are united by how our family’s experiences layer to create our identity.
No matter where you come from, we are all oriented on this same Earth with the same sky.
We all are more similar than we realize. Truly, we all belong to each other.
Sign up for an ArtPrize account with your name, zip code, and email address. You can also create a password so you can log in each time you visit ArtPrize in 2022. If you have created an account for previous ArtPrize competitions, you will need to create a new Visitor Profile this year.
When you log into your ArtPrize Visitor Profile, you will automatically be on the map. Click the blue “map” at the top and a drop down menu will appear. Click “Artist” and then search by artist name to find work from a specific artist.
Vote for your favorite ArtPrize entries by clicking the star in the lower right hand corner of each piece online while logged into your account.
