Homesickness Series and Portraits of Home focus their lens on the sprawling neighborhoods of Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, many rendered endangered and unrecognizable due to generations of disinvestment and abandonment. Both series frame endangered or absent homes in these cities as they appear today, represented as white voided façades or empty lots. Familiar middle-class homes serve as an entry point for viewers to connect to the experience of the individual people and families who occupied each site. Through the incomplete picture provided by negative shapes and empty lots, viewers are invited to consider the collective loss of identity, memory and belonging these works represent; as well as our shared protective impulse for the people and places we love.

Whitney Sage is a multidisciplinary artist and educator from metro-Detroit currently serving as Assistant Professor of Art at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Whitney graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a BA in Art Education and Painting. Whitney earned an MFA in Studio Art from the Sam Fox School of Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis.