The Metro: 50-year legacy of Destroy All Monsters celebrated in pair of exhibitions
Influential Detroit avant-garde collective Destroy All Monsters is the inspiration behind two exhibitions on display now through March 2026.
Cary Loren, founding member of Destroy All Monsters, assembling a display part of "Noise, Visions, and Ruins" at the Detroit Public Library, Main Branch.
Somewhere between the psychedelic 1960s and the arrival of punk in the late 1970s, Detroit had a unique imprint on American music with an avant-garde, noise rock scene. Destroy All Monsters was an influential band and art collective at the time.
Their sound was radical, experimental, and noisy.
The band was formed in Ann Arbor in the early 1970s by Cary Loren, Mike Kelly, Jim Shaw and Niagra.
The group’s influence on art and music in Detroit is being recognized with a retrospective at Cranbrook Art Museum called “Mythic Chaos: 50 Years of Destroy All Monsters.” Also on display through March is a sister exhibition, “Noise, Vision, and Ruins” at the Detroit Public Library, Main Branch and curated by Cary Loren.
Both exhibitions are open through March.
The Metro’s David Leins spoke Loren about the group’s origins, and what to expect from the exhibitions.
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