This Detroit liquor store doubles as an art gallery

Detroiters are innovative, and art is blooming on the walls of many unique spots in the city. This one, however, is among the most intriguing.

From the outside, Liquor Basket, located on Gratiot Avenue right behind the Faygo factory on the city’s east side, looks like your usual liquor store. Walking in, though, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the art lining the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and adorning the aisles.

The brain behind the unique combination is Detroit artist Dominick Lemonious, whose family has owned the liquor store for around three years. Along with Chef Montrell’s Kitchen, a vegan eatery inside the store that stays open until 1 a.m., Lemonious says the shop has “probably the biggest variety of Black-owned liquors in the area.”

“We got healthy food, Black-owned products, and art that’s expressing people that look just like us,” Lemonious says. “This is unique because people come here already. They come in and you can’t help but notice [the art]. It’s a space where people are comfortable. Before we got here, the community had been coming to this store for like 20 years.”

Bringing art to the store has always been an idea of his, but meeting other creative minds through the Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club inspired Lemonious to finally make it happen.

“I got connected with some artists like Oshun Williams, Elonte Davis, and they kind of really pushed me to make that extra step,” Lemonious says. “The first show that we had came own two, three weeks ago. It was called Love Appreciation Celebration. That was Elonte Davis and that was crazy. The DIA came here a couple times… it got a lot of a lot of buzz.”

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Now, since many people still don’t know about the spot, its second and current show is titled Welcome to the Basket, featuring more than 20 talented artists, almost all based in Detroit.

“A lot of these artists don’t really have traditional gallery setting art, so are looking for a different place,” Lemonious says. “We wanted to take a show to actually specifically highlight and let people know, ‘We here, this is what we got going on, this is some of the stuff that we do in our store’… I want this space to be like, ‘When you come to Detroit, you gotta come see the Liquor Basket.’”

Lemonious curated Welcome to the Basket alongside Tzu Poré, another Detroit artist who is featured in the show and has experience laying out art exhibitions and hanging art.

Tzu Poré’s passion for what Liquor Basket embodies hits close to home.

“They’re operating in the neighborhood that I grew up in and so it’s just an homage to when I was a kid, it was like Black-owned everything in Detroit. I feel like I’ve known that space since forever… I’m a lifelong east-sider,” Tzu Poré says. “It’s a safe space for my community, and they’re literally operating within the heart of the east side, just outside of downtown proper. It’s historically where my community has operated in commerce, entertainment, ceremoniously. It’s our area, so it’s very important to the community.”

For many Detroiters, art is seen as a luxury that is not always easily accessible, to view or to own. Lemonious’s main goal with Liquor Basket is to “bring art to the people,” and the mission is already being accomplished.

“A lot of people in the community that I live in don’t have a piece of art on the wall, art created by living, working artists,” Tzu Poré says. “A lot of my people don’t understand the value in controlling and keeping one’s narrative, by way of investing in one’s community in terms of the artifacts… I feel like we are in the state of a renaissance. Detroit is an epicenter of that. And I’m talking about where minorities of all kinds, all of us who have had a story of liberation struggle, we are finding an audience now at long last and a lot of people have created space where it’s multi-use.”

Customers are often equally in awe of Liquor Basket’s next-level ambiance. People who walk into the store thinking they’re just getting a snack or a drink are pleasantly surprised when they also get to look around at beautiful Black art while they shop.

“A lot of people probably don’t have time or don’t know where to go to the galleries or just probably never go to a gallery, so this is a space where everyone can go and they’re really excited. People are now learning how to buy art and starting art collections because we kind of influence that, they see it and they see the value in it,” Lemonious says. “Art is therapeutic. Art makes you feel good and then when you see pictures of people who look like you hanging up in a positive light, it does a lot of good for you. You’re thinking you’re just getting some chips or some snacks or whatever and you walk into a whole gallery. Little kids come here too and they get excited when they see the art, so it’s cool for everybody.”

As a visual artist himself, Lemonious has his own work up at Liquor Basket too, featuring common themes including affirmations and sign language, which serve as powerful avenues of positive communication. One of his pieces, titled “Detroit Worldwide,” reflects Detroit culture’s global influence, and will serve as an anchor for the space, remaining on the wall throughout every show.

The artist wants Detroiters to feel his work’s motivating messages themselves when they come into the store, and learn about great local creativity in the process.

“Detroit is already an authentic city. We want to be number one at everything we do, and you can’t do that in Detroit if you’re not authentic,” Lemonious says. “There are so many crazy artists out in the city, but a lot of people just don’t know who they are, they don’t know really how to tap in, so this is a space to be like, ‘these are the people you should look out for.”

The Welcome to the Basket exhibition is up until May 17, but the walls won’t be empty for long. A new exhibit, titled Shooters Only, is going up May 24, and will focus on Detroit photographers.

“It’s hard for them to find a space to highlight their work, you really don’t see too many photographers in traditional gallery spaces,” Lemonious says. “So, we’re doing a show for Detroit photographers because they are phenomenal.”

During openings of Liquor Basket exhibitions, and following other creative events in the city, local artists often head to the store to hang out – surrounded by Black art, liquor, food, and community support.

“It’s one of the cool kid hang-out spots,” Lemonious says. “Artists, they come here and they hang out. We’ll go to a lot of shows, there’s nothing to really do after that, everybody comes back to the basket.”

To Tzu Poré, Liquor Basket is a revolutionary space that showcases the city’s growth.

“We are fine art revolutionaries,” Tzu Poré says. “We’re in a renaissance period. To me, renaissance is revolution and revolution is renaissance, and one of the main critical things that I think that people ought to know about the art that I’m doing, the art that’s coming out of Detroit at large, and Liquor Basket particularly, is, we understand that it’s all about our narrative, and it’s up. It’s our time.”

Scroll down to see a gallery of Liquor Basket photos and the current exhibition.