On paper, India Solomon is an unlikely artist. She went to college at 16 years old to study public policy, worked as a probation clerk for the 43rd District Court at age 17, and later got her master’s degree in urban planning.
Now she’s an abstract painter and designer who’s celebrating her first solo exhibit and the opening of her brick-and-mortar Fluid Spaces.
Her work looks like an obscure city map with circle blotches, stray lines, and dots.
“I always put the meaning back on my subject,” she says. “Abstract art is not a specific, definitive thing. The words to describe it maybe don’t even exist in the English language. So, when people ask me to describe it, sure I can make up some stuff that sounds nice, but what does that even mean? It’s meant to give you that space to imagine, to dream, to dig into emotions and feelings that you don’t get to talk about. Or for some people, it’s just nice to look at.”
Meeting with Solomon, who’s bubbly and well-dressed when she greets us at Fluid Spaces, feels like chatting with a friend in their living room.
Located in Ferndale at 399 W. Marshall St., Fluid Spaces is as fluid as the name implies. It’s a retail space for pillows, blankets, mugs, shirts, and bowls printed with Solomon’s colorful patterns. Products from other local businesses like Not Sorry Goods and Konjo Me coffee are also sold here. Eventually, she hopes to host parties, pop-ups, and tiny desks in the space.
“The concept of fluid spaces just really takes us out of these traditional views of space, and it’s just another element of sustainability for me,” she says. “So this is a store, but it can also be my workspace. People have done photo shoots in here… I’ve been talking about having resident artists that completely get to transform the space themselves. I have an idea for what I want this space to be but not a full one, and the beauty in that is that we get to co-create it.”
Originally, Solomon wanted to be a lawyer as she thought it was the best way to be an agent of change in communities of color. But the Detroit-raised artist became disillusioned working in the court system at such a young age and realized she could have a bigger impact as an urban planner. After graduate school, she began working with nonprofits doing community building in Detroit neighborhoods.
“I landed my first job out of grad school with Enterprise Community Partners and I was managing grants for about 30 nonprofits across the city,” she says. “It was a really beautiful place to get to know the full range of people-based work that was happening across the neighborhoods, and I built really amazing relationships with leaders of those organizations… For me, it’s always been about resourcing ways for people to be their best selves, which translates to the art practice.”
But after a bout of burnout and a bad breakup, she decided to turn to painting in 2020. Growing up, her family always had a DIY attitude, and she remembers painting and decorating walls in her childhood home. She never thought about painting for expression, however, until she was an adult.
Solomon went back and forth between her consulting firm CityShares and full-time work until she realized she needed something in her life that brought her joy.
“Nonprofits have stepped in because the city has failed. But while I’m concerned with solving these failures, I’m also committed to living a version of my life where those things don’t exist… So, if you want to talk about a path without obstacles for Black people, for Black families, here’s my version of that,” she says, gesturing openly to the art-filled space.
She started off selling prints of her work and ended up meeting fellow Detroit artist Sheefy McFly, who was doing the cover art for a friend’s album at the time. She casually mentioned that she “kind of paints stuff,” and McFly invited her to his studio.
“So we got to the studio space and we did three of our first collab pieces in one night and it was the best thing ever,” she says. “He was just about to do his biggest mural yet, which was the Monroe Street Midway. It was that same week that he had just gotten notification. He’s like, ‘I’m doing the biggest mural of my life and I don’t have a team. I’m a solo artist. I don’t know how I’m gonna get this done.’ I had just quit my job, I got all this free time and I said, ‘I can help you out.’ … So, literally, after I completely abandoned my whole nine-to-five illusion, my first apprenticeship was with Sheefy on the Monroe Street Midway.”
Solomon has since been featured in several group exhibits, including one last year at the now-defunct Nicole Tamer Gallery in Detroit’s David Whitney building with Matthew Giffin.
Places, on view at Norwest Gallery of Art, is Solomon’s first solo exhibition, featuring more than 20 paintings in varying sizes. Her hand-painted lifestyle wear and home goods are also featured in the gallery’s new “Hype Market” pop-up shop.
She glances over her products at Fluid Spaces, stopping at a couple of frosted mugs embellished with circles and stray lines. “This is a good story,” she says.
While she was in school for her master’s degree, Solomon did an open fellowship in Bangalore, India, where she connected with a family member who runs a school for children with autism.
After Solomon started putting her art on pillows and other home goods, she learned the family member had started a design studio in Bangalore that employed kids and young adults from the school.
“I started to see the products that they were printing and manufacturing and saw these frosted glass mugs and asked if they could manufacture them for me with my work on them,” she says. “Now it’s like this mutually beneficial relationship. So we’re growing together, two women of color-owned businesses on literal other sides of the world.”
Fluid Spaces held a soft opening on Mother’s Day and will have a grand opening from noon-7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31.
Where to see her work: Places is on view at Norwest Gallery of Art until Sunday, May 28; 19556 Grand River Ave., Detroit. Hours for Fluid Spaces are Wednesday and Friday noon-7 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m.
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