Tyree Guyton

Tyree Guyton is a native of Detroit, Michigan, where he founded the Heidelberg Project in 1986. Through large-scale, community-driven installation works Guyton has for decades leveraged his art practice to redress the inequities caused by racism, economic imbalances, politics, and the systematic inability of the government and other support agencies to help Detroit’s poorest residents. His efforts have transformed a neighborhood facing conditions of poverty, drugs, abandoned houses, and vacant lots into a destination attracting an average of 200,000 visitors a year. 

Clocks are a recurrent motif found throughout many of Guyton’s projects and exhibitions. Often multicolored and rendered with a playful or childlike quality of line, their whimsy belies an urgency; displayed across the facades of buildings, they become a reminder of the temporarily of the man-made, of cycles of decline and renewal, of the need to take action to restore and support the environment–be it built or nature–before it reaches the point of no return. A deep commitment to social change has always been at the forefront of Guyton’s professional practice. Prior to founding the Heidelberg Project, he served in the United States Military, worked in the automobile industry, and worked as a firefighter. 

Exhibitions of Guyton’s work have been held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit among others.