A herd of botanical rabbits, and a giant worm that doubles as a comfortable couch. These are just a couple of the earthly, yet otherworldly things found at Vernal 2026, a spring-inspired contemporary arts exhibition. Through June 27, it’s on display at Buffalo Prescott’s Detroit headquarters — with a public opening public, family-friendly opening on Friday, May 22 from 5-9 p.m.
On April 25, Hour Detroit attended the Vernal Soiree fundraiser, in which the exhibition was unveiled, and had the chance to speak with a few of the artists exhibiting their work. Here’s what we learned about some of the pieces.
Jessica Wildman Katz’s “Kindling”
Jessica Wildman Katz — who also created the aforementioned giant worm — grew wheatgrass root from a vacuum-formed mold of a rabbit-shaped cakepan. The result? A piece she calls “Kindling.” Katz is one of several resident artists — the others being Halima Afi Cassells, Cyrah Dardas, Sara Nickleson, and Tony Printz. Vernal features work from them as well as artists based in metro Detroit and beyond.
Cristina Umaña’s “Mesa De Centro”
Cristina Umaña is a Colombian artist based in Mexico City. When she speaks with Hour Detroit, she’s visiting Detroit for the first time and already got to see the newly reopened MOCAD. She’s here with her friend Ana Winograd, who drove her 3D installation over 2,000 miles from its previous resting place, Casa Wabi Sabino.
The work is called “Mesa de Centro,” which is Spanish for coffee table. A stack of white tables with human-like hands and legs piggyback off one another.
Coffee tables are a central fixture in many family homes — Umaña imagined it as “this creature that is witnessing what happens around the table,” she tells Hour Detroit. “I was also thinking about…this idea that everybody’s holding each other, and everybody’s trying to support each other in their own way. But for the most part, it’s like, a joke, and a game.”
On the very top, there’s a small flower bouquet. At her childhood home in Bogotá, Umaña’s mother has placed a fresh bouquet of flowers on the coffee table for the past 11 years. She does this in memory of Umaña’s late sister.
“Mesa de Centro” is made from canvas and zippers. The extremities are stuffed with Styrofoam; and the nails are hand dyed. She drew it first; a seamstress helped her sew and and piece it together. She and Winograd had to downsize it to fit Buffalo Prescott’s gallery space — it was originally 20 pieces. But no matter where it is, there’s always fresh flowers on top.
Amelia Burns’s “Evil Eye”
Based in Detroit, Amelia Burns is an artist and street photographer. Her work explores contemporary American culture; in her quest to capture it, she’s been to nearly every state, save three (Alaska, Idaho, and North Dakota).
This can be seen in her two companion pieces, Evil Eye and Evil Eye Transmuted onto Organza, 2026. Both incorporate the same set of digital images; the former as a print on photo rag paper; the latter onto transparent curtains of organza, suspended from the ceiling with steel rods.
Several of the images were captured in Detroit. Two came from the same session on Belle Isle: a woman in Juggalo face paint riding a bicycle, and two garden eels inside an aquarium tank.
“I collect many, many images, and then I’m creating intuitively,” says Burns, a Cranbrook Academy of Art grad raised in Upstate New York. “I don’t have a set idea before I make it.”
She gives images she’s captured new meaning and context through collage. According to Burns’s artist statement, her work often explores “authenticity and artifice in contemporary Americana.”
When asked to elaborate on this, Burns says, “In Americana, and especially modern Americana, there’s representations of nature, but it’s not necessarily the natural world.” She continues, “We live in a really artificial environment. … Even our national parks are these sorts of blocked-off areas of nature. We have paved pretty much everything else, and we have very little to do with the natural world, in a certain sense. However, we idolize nature with statues of nature, plastic ornaments of nature.”
Tryst Red’s “Garden Veil”
Tryst Red is an artist and photographer who often works with projected images and videos. Her piece in the exhibition, “Garden Veil” (2026) is a sublimation print “activated” by a digital projection.
The print is embellished with embroidery and a mirror; and the image is projected back onto itself, along with double exposures of photos depicting natural settings, such as a forest and a vernal pool.
“Garden Veil” is part of her larger series Daydreamer, which she’s been working on since 2024. In the series, Red examines her relationship to physical spaces — she asks questions like “Was the physical experience of being in that location the same as the memory of being in that location, or am I fictionalizing and idealizing the space?” she says.
Jack Craig’s “Silvered Stone Light”
“Silvered Stone Light” (2017) is a lamp created by Detroit-based furniture designer Jack Craig. The body is constructed from marble, and it’s coated with a silver nickel “drip.”
“Basically, I’m torching metal and slowly dripping it and making these exoskeletons that are slowly forming 3D line drawings that then capture other objects,” says Craig. “So, there’s some stone in there that’s being grabbed, and held for eternity.”
Behind the Organization
This is the second installment of the Vernal exhibition — the first Vernal exhibition took place a little over a year ago.
“In our second year, we’re really focused on sustainable growth,” says Leto Rankine, managing director of Buffalo Prescott. “This year we brought in four international artists for Vernal. We’re going to continue to explore those connections, while supporting local artists as much as possible.”
Launched in 2024, Buffalo Prescott is a nonprofit arts organization. It describes itself as “an artist incubator and cultural hub dedicated to nurturing the growth of the city’s contemporary art ecosystem.”
The residency program gives artists access to affordable studio space. Additionally, it aims to create an environment that’s welcoming to the artist — as well as their partner and children (if applicable).
“Our current residents are some of the most dynamic individuals I’ve ever met,” said founder and director Samara Furlong in speech at the exhibition’s April 25 opening. “Watching this exhibition unfold while our while our daughters play in the backyard is the reason Buffalo Prescott exists.”
Furthermore, the residents can show their work to a larger audience. In December, they displayed at Untitled Art, an annual fair in Miami. And this past April, they had a booth EXPO Chicago — the city’s largest contemporary arts event that draws thousands of collectors each year. As Rankine notes, their booth had “an overwhelmingly positive reception.”
On April 25, Buffalo Prescott celebrated the exhibition’s opening with the Vernal Soirée fundraiser. This year’s sponsor list included notable names like billionaire art collector/philanthropist Jennifer Gilbert (former wife of businessman/philanthropist Dan Gilbert) and JJ and Anthony Curis, the couple behind Detroit’s Library Street Collective and Little Village.
The exhibition was curated by Furlong and features works from the following artists:
- Halima Afi Cassells
- Cyrah Dardas
- Sara Nickleson
- Tony Printz
- Jessica Wildman Katz
- Jillian Blackwell
- Amelia Burns
- Jack Craig
- Casa de la Crema
- Carolina Colichio
- Molly Gochman
- Olivia Guterson
- Carolina Jiménez
- Louise Jones
- Evan Mazellan
- Jo Messer
- Rajni Perera
- Tryst Red
- Dessislava Terzieva
- Cristina Umaña Durán
- Hailey Urbano
- George Vidas
- Madison Warp
How to See Vernal 2026
Vernal 2026 can be viewed by appointment through June 27, and during a public opening on Friday May 22 from 5-9 p.m. at 11411 Buffalo St, Detroit. For more information, visit buffaloprescott.org/vernal-exhibition-2026.