Mongerson Gallery

An artist, activist, and educator, Harold Neal’s life and work helped define Detroit’s visual culture and political identity. A crucial figure in Detroit’s Black Arts Movement, Neal’s artwork grapples with representing African American experience, beauty, community, and resistance. Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1924, Neal moved to Detroit as part of the second Great Migration of African-Americans to the north. It was in Detroit where Neal found his artistic voice and spiritual home. Although he struggled to find work due to racial discrimination, he remained committed to pursuing his career as an artist. In 1948, Neal enrolled at the Society of Arts and Crafts, where he studied alongside other notable African-American Detroit artists Hughie-Lee Smith, Charles McGee, Henri King, and LeRoy Foster. These artists and others in their circle became Neal’s key collaborators and peers as the Black Arts Movement began to take shape in Detroit.

From the 1950s onwards, Neal was very active in Detroit’s African American art scene. He participated in annual exhibitions for Negro History Week, held weekly salons to discuss art and jazz in his home, and served as editor-in-chief for a Detroit arts newsletter. In 1958, Harold Neal, Charles McGee, Ernest Hardman, and Henri King founded the Contemporary Studio, and arts collective that hosted fairs, workshops, and eventually a gallery to promote members’ work. One of the first Black-owned galleries in the Midwest, Contemporary Studio “signaled the beginning of a revolutionary era for art in Detroit,” according to the Chicago-based publication Negro Digest. Neal also exhibited work widely throughout other Detroit galleries, including Arwin Gallery and Detroit Artists Market.