At the center of “Super Deluxe,” an exhibition featuring the work of Cameron Patricia Downey at Midway Contemporary Art, hovers a black limousine that rests on four blocks, situated underneath the gallery’s exposed structural steel. The automobile acts as a central focal point and symbolic heart of Downey’s body of work that both celebrates and interrogates the meaning of luxury within the Black community. 

Born and raised in north Minneapolis, Downey is an alum of Juxtaposition Arts – the north Minneapolis teen-staffed art center – and a graduate of Columbia University. Their work has been shown and acquired by the Walker Art Center, they’ve exhibited in the Twin Cities, around the country and beyond, and they’ve had a solo museum exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara. On Jan. 16, Downey opens their first solo exhibition in Italy at a gallery called T293. The next day, Downey is featured in a group show at Hair + Nails’ gallery in New York. You can also still catch “Super Deluxe” through Jan. 25. 

An anti-disciplinary artist, Downey uses a range of mediums in pursuit of art that layers together theory, culture, personal history and social commentary. “Super Deluxe” uses materials like linoleum and vintage lamps to relish in the material meaning of luxury. There’s a sideways “Wheel of Fortune” homage, a collection of colored wigs connected to a video game dance pad, and a photograph of a figure in a pinstriped suit and a white wide-brimmed hat stretched out in the back seat of a limousine.

Reflecting on the exhibition, Taylor Jasper, an assistant curator at the Walker, noted Downey’s work engages with visual languages that are “both deeply personal and broadly resonant, but also rooted in cultural signifiers that evoke the complexities of Blackness.” 

The comment was made in a conversation between Jasper and Downey last week at the gallery. The conversation ranged from the blues and repetition to consumerism and the eroticism of particular materials. In the dialogue, Downey said the gallery was originally built to store limousines, and that their great grandfather had been a chauffeur in St. Louis. They recalled learning how to drive a 2001 Dodge Caravan on the edge of its life. 

“I remember, even in that setting, against all odds, my mom being in the passenger seat and imparting upon me little tips and tricks as to how to make the ride the smoothest and the most luxurious for the people riding in it,” Downey said.  

Their mother would tell Downey stories of her grandfather’s car, which had automatic windows, a rarity at the time. Downey also found out their father was a limo driver at one point as well. 

“I think I’m always interested in cars,” Downey said. 

Downey said they approached the object in the show with a feeling of being OK with their own desire toward them. 

“Since luxury is this recurring theme, I think surfaces and veneers and adornments are something that show up again and again,” Downey said. “Flooring as being like the basis for the home space is a really interesting thing, but then linoleum is something else all together, because you actually have to have a floor to have linoleum – it isn’t the floor itself. It’s just like the signifier that there’s a floor there.” 

In “McMansioner,” (2024), Downey creates a geometric sculpture using wood and steel, wrapped in brown linoleum. The piece separates itself from the conventional use of linoleum, as something you put on the floor, and elevates it into a kind of monument. The piece seems to marvel at the linoleum for its place in memory and stories and also finds a new narrative for it.

In a pair of hanging sculptures called “NowandLater” I and II (2024) made from plastic-covered ice pops and other snacks like pork rinds, pickle and hot fries, Downey transforms the food item into glimmering adornment with the help of acrylic and epoxy.

The artist got the idea working on a commission for Metro Transit, and the sweet frozen treats were offered on a day of working.

“I was just struck by how elegant and beautiful these really modular things are that are just sugar water,” Downey said. They noticed how the treats were both a delicacy and immensely accessible. “I love that light passes through it.”

At the end of the talk-back last week, an audience member asked if Downey felt conflicted about having to consume to make work. Downey responded that they consider themselves a Facebook Marketplace warrior, and is drawn to objects that have had a previous life.

“I get to engage with this haunting by using an object that has lived or has existed at different points in time,” they said. “Inherently, there are some specters present. And I think that, for me, connects back to memory being this really unstable breeding ground for making work.” 

In a way, the work moves between nostalgia and a reshaping of memories and materials into new forms. “Super Deluxe” both delights in the ghosts of desire from a past time and context, and asks what new truths these memories can shape into the future. 

“Super Deluxe” is open through Jan. 25 at Midway Contemporary Art, 1509 N.E. Marshall St., Minneapolis. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. More information here. 

Sheila Regan

Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at [email protected].

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