This Pride Month, the City of Detroit plays host to a pioneering exhibition, what's thought

to be the first queer international art biennial.

Special correspondent Christopher Booker has that story as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

In his Detroit studio, artist Tylen Sawyer works on his latest series,

large-scale portraits of black authors,

including James Baldwin and Octavia Butler, on horseback.

Traditionally, our equestrian portraits have been saved

for like the rich, the high elite.

I'm taking it away from the aristocracy and more or less describing importance to people who are

writers, who are intellects.

History, race, and politics weave throughout much of Sawyer's work.

Themes that he says explore what it means to be American.

That includes his most recent work called Forever Young,

Pulse Night Club 49, a collection of portraits, one for each victim of the 2016

mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

The fact that this happened in a gay club which is supposed to be a safe space.

It just was really tragic to me and really, really sort of like sink shock waves through my mind.

Sawyer, who is gay, only used the colors of the pride flag for the piece, which covers an entire wall at Gallery

Camille, a contemporary gallery in Detroit's Midtown.

Yeah, it's okay to remember the tragedy in them itself, but also enjoy the beauty of who these people are.

It's my goal that those two things are constantly button up against each other.

Forever Young is one of more than 800 works, part of what organizers describe

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