Feb 19
5:00 PM – 8:00 PM 

BUTTERFLY BONES: Ceramic Sculptures by Genevieve VanZandt

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Overview

Detroit Shipping Company Presents Genevieve VanZandt’s Ceramic Exhibition Butterfly Bones

Opening Reception: February 19, 2026 | 5–8 PM

Detroit Shipping Company is pleased to present Butterfly Bones, a solo ceramic art exhibition by Michigan artist Genevieve VanZandt, opening on February 19, 2026 from 5:00–8:00 PM at DSC.

VanZandt, a Southeast Michigan native and Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Western Michigan University, draws on decades of hands-on experience—working as a resident artist, instructor, and 3D clay sculptor—as well as studio practice in Detroit. Her artistic journey began with tactile experiences in her family bakery and early explorations in design, leading to a life devoted to ceramics and creative inquiry.

Butterfly Bones invites viewers to explore the intersection of fragility and resilience, whimsy and the quietly profound. The exhibition’s title alludes to paradoxes that unfold throughout VanZandt’s process and imagery: delicate insect forms and skeletal echoes, beauty and decay, impermanence and endurance. Using a mix of hand-built and slip-cast techniques, she collects, organizes, and archives individual components, which are later assembled like visual fragments in a collage. Raw clay and fired pieces are layered, fired, and glazed repeatedly, resulting in richly textured, kaleidoscopic ceramic sculptures that serve as three-dimensional collages imbued with visual metaphors of transformation.

“Butterfly Bones reflects on time, change, and the subtle coexistence of strength and vulnerability,” VanZandt explains. “Each form holds a narrative of metamorphosis, both in material and metaphor.”

Feb 19
Mapped location of BUTTERFLY BONES: Ceramic Sculptures by Genevieve VanZandt
Detroit Shipping Company (2nd Floor) 474 Peterboro Street Detroit, Michigan 48201
(313) 433-4882

Admission

FREE
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