Artists showcased at Southwest Detroit Business Association's HQ

A new monthly exhibition series aims to showcase the diversity of Southwest Detroit artists to the stakeholders and others who visit a local business association's headquarters.

The big picture: Southwest Detroit is renowned for its prominent murals, but more awareness is needed regarding the breadth of its artistic cultures and mediums. Sabrina Lin, an intern with the Southwest Detroit Business Association (SDBA), highlights this as she helps organize the exhibitions.

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• The SDBA aims to exhibit three to five artists per month in its atrium with around two pieces each — though the effort is still new and open-ended, Lin tells Axios.

What they're saying: "We're trying to get more people to know Southwest Detroit art. There's variety, there's a uniqueness that's only available in Southwest Detroit because of its rich culture and … heavy Hispanic influences, along with influences from other immigrant populations surrounding the area," Lin says.

Between the lines: The first exhibition month was March, which is Women's History Month. The program then took a hiatus and returned in July. Exhibitions are planned for August and September.

"If I Cross Your Mind Pray For Me" and "promised to live forever and then gave me the sun instead." Both are by Julianna Sanromán . Courtesy of the artist

Zoom in: Painter Julianna Sanromán , 25, is among the artists shown through the end of July for National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month .

• Sanromán, whose affinity for art began in high school, tells Axios she has been creating for around seven years as a process to "work through grief" and explore themes around migration and reclaiming pieces of the past. Her parents were deported when she was young, she says.

"I lived both here and in Mexico for the majority of my life, and … my work has always represented my parents or my siblings," Sanromán says. "At first, I really just wanted to remember everything about them."

• She adds that starting to show her work recently has felt very vulnerable.
• "I've loved showing work in Southwest. The narrative is something a lot of the community members come up to me and share similar experiences with … You find a little bit of solace in that shared immigrant experience."