Search

Cameron Patricia Downey at Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis

Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 10

Midway Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of Super Deluxe, an exhibition of new work by Cameron Patricia Downey. With a limousine at the physical and thematic center of the exhibition, Downey is concurrently drawing on their own personal history, in this case their descendance from Black chauffeurs in the Midwest, and the history of Midway’s building as a former limousine garage.

Super Deluxe circles and jaunts around codes of luxury, pleasure, service and gameplay by a jostling of material, personal recollection, flavor and motion itself. In a sociopolitical context wherein the concept of wealth has footed itself entirely on a project of expropriation and dispossession, the ‘luxurious’ becomes a station riddled with precarity. What is ‘fabulous’ and what is ‘Ghetto Fabulous’ often is in constant, if not eternal flux. Luxury then is a performance — a signifier with no sign, a wealth with no home. This body of work comes about by way of vinyl flooring, gold plating and cornucopias of pork rinds. At the end of the ride and at the nexus of chance and reward is a road map towards making oneself cared for against the odds of material condition.

Cameron Patricia Downey (b. 1998) is an anti-disciplinary artist born and raised in North Minneapolis, Minnesota whose work oscillates between photography, film, body, sculpture, curation and otherwise.

Seeing instruction in the incidental, the precarious and the misremembered, their work strives to archive, unfurl, make-altar-of and bring fantasy to the Blues of Black life and relation.

Downey’s work has been presented at HAIR+NAILS, Minneapolis; Aronson Gallery, New York; Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin; Engage Projects, Chicago; as part of Midway Contemporary Art’s Off-Site program; M+B Gallery, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Strada Gallery, New York. They were the 2023 recipient of the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation’s MN Art Prize and are a recent artist-in-residence with the Walker Art Center’s Moving Image department, Juxtaposition Arts, Loghaven Artist Residency and Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul. Downey graduated from Columbia University in 2021 with a double concentration in visual art and environmental science and is currently a first-year MFA candidate in sculpture at the Yale School of Art.

Downey would like to extend special thanks to Steven and Hunter Downey of Silverback Detailing, Sati VM, Yonci Jameson, M Jamison, Namir Fearce, Arame, Ella, Dallas, Vee, Henry, Tano, Janai, Cristina, Athena, Jaelee and Harmonee of the Contemporary Lab, Juxtaposition Arts, Loghaven Artist Residency, Hair+Nails, and Entity Editions.

Generous support provided by Donna and Jim Pohlad, Nancy Warner and Andrew Duff, Susan and Peter Lindahl, Rosina Yue, Rebecca Heidenberg and Gregory Smith, Melissa and Jon Crow, Jori and Rob Sherer, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This exhibition is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 1
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 2
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 3
Cameron Patricia Downey, French Curl 1, 2024. Linoleum, steel, wood. Dimensions variable (74 x 26 x 20 inches.)
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 4
Cameron Patricia Downey, Pleaser, 2024. Stretched Lincoln town car, Jill Scott jack stand, two channel video (4:48 min loop). 28 x 118 x 64 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 5
Cameron Patricia Downey, Pleaser (detail), 2024. Stretched Lincoln town car, Jill Scott jack stand, two channel video (4:48 min loop). 28 x 118 x 64 inches.
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 6
Cameron Patricia Downey, Pleaser (detail), 2024. Stretched Lincoln town car, Jill Scott jack stand, two channel video (4:48 min loop). 28 x 118 x 64 inches.
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 7
Cameron Patricia Downey, Pleaser (detail), 2024. Stretched Lincoln town car, Jill Scott jack stand, two channel video (4:48 min loop). 28 x 118 x 64 inches.
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 8
Cameron Patricia Downey, Pleaser (detail), 2024. Stretched Lincoln town car, Jill Scott jack stand, two channel video (4:48 min loop). 28 x 118 x 64 inches.
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 9
Cameron Patricia Downey, Pleaser, 2024. Stretched Lincoln town car, Jill Scott jack stand, two channel video (4:48 min loop). 28 x 118 x 64 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 10
Cameron Patricia Downey, Twirler, 2024. Wheel of Fortune, ink on film. 51 x 47 x 52 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 11
Cameron Patricia Downey, Twirler (detail), 2024. Wheel of Fortune, ink on film. 51 x 47 x 52 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 12
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 13
Cameron Patricia Downey, Tell it on the Rock, 2024. Ink on vinyl, wife pleaser, steel, drywall, acrylic nail. 78 x 106 x 7 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 14
Cameron Patricia Downey, Tell it on the Rock (detail), 2024. Ink on vinyl, wife pleaser, steel, drywall, acrylic nail. 78 x 106 x 7 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 15
Cameron Patricia Downey, Auntie Nesting, 2024. Glass, acrylic, metal, light. 46 x 18 x 38 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 16
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 17
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 18
Cameron Patricia Downey, NowandLater I, 2024. Acylic, pork rinds, icee pop, pickle, hot Cheetos, hugs, epoxy, chain. 36 x 30 x 30 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 19
Cameron Patricia Downey, NowandLater I (detail), 2024. Acylic, pork rinds, icee pop, pickle, hot Cheetos, hugs, epoxy, chain. 36 x 30 x 30 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 20
Cameron Patricia Downey, NowandLater II, 2024. Acylic, icee pop, dill pickle, hugs, epoxy, chain. 51 x 20 x 22 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 21
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 22
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 23
Cameron Patricia Downey, Two Steps, 2024. Wig, metal, pipe, shake, DDR. 92 x 38 x 76 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 24
Cameron Patricia Downey, Two Steps (detail), 2024. Wig, metal, pipe, shake, DDR. 92 x 38 x 76 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 25
Cameron Patricia Downey, Insiderie, 2024. Ink on film, acrylic, pickle. 32 x 27 x 5 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 26
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 27
Cameron Patricia Downey, Stone_Blues, 2024. Ink on linoleum, wood. 98 x 146 x 7 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 28
Cameron Patricia Downey, McMansioner, 2024. Linoleum, wood, steel. 34 x 71 x 30 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 29
Cameron Patricia Downey, Edge of Sky I, 2024. Wood, handle, porch light. 36 x 36 x 6 inches
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 30
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 31
Cameron Patricia Downey, Shatona III, 2024. Ink on poly tab. 43 x 29 x 2 inches framed. Editor of 3 + 1 AP
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 32
Cameron Patricia Downey, Shatona I, 2024. Ink on poly tab. 43 x 29 x 2 inches framed. Editor of 3 + 1 AP
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 33
Cameron Patricia Downey, Shatona II, 2024. Ink on poly tab. 43 x 29 x 2 inches framed. Editor of 3 + 1 AP
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 34
Cameron Patricia Downey, Super Deluxe, 2025, exhibition view, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Cameron Patricia Downey At Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 35
Cameron Patricia Downey, Lux, 2024. Epoxy, grape, light, ink on film. 54 x 45 x 7 inches

↳Related Posts

April 17, 2022