Visual artists have long been fascinated by books, often as a way to distribute reproductions of original works. Impagination, agroup exhibition running from August 19 to October 16, is not about reproductions, but about books that themselves are one-of-a-kind works of art, designed to be held in the hands and leafed through in a narrative sequence. Each participant was selected for the elegant ways they embrace the onus of relevant storytelling in the universal language of the subconscious.

Featured artists include Melissa Bloom, Phyllis Brody, Yiyun Chen, Julianne Edberg, Gene Epstein, Michael Gill, Jeanetta Ho, Amy Jacobs, Karen Koykka O’Neal, Rachel Morris, Wendy Partridge, Zoe Taylor, and Emanuel Wallace.

On her process for blending the pages of a book with imagination, artist Jeanetta Ho states, “capitalizing on the ethereal qualities of handmade milkweed paper, these books weave the seemingly ephemeral, mystical sheets into objects that can be opened to catch the light and release its spirit.”

The patterns of the milkweed fibers pressed into Ho’s pages tell stories that otherwise drift away in dreams of growth, flowering, dying back and then flying again. Spotlight exhibition artist Jackie Miller, on simultaneous display at Heights Arts, pauses that cycle and pans back to identify patterns that form along the threshold between nonsense and poignant clarity. In presenting her body of works in porcelain, Miller asks, “what happens when predator, prey, consumer of carrion (with keen eyesight) and an inanimate object animated only in the mind of a human encounter one another? What if we only observe a split second of their story? I am exploring here those times when we arrive in the middle (or the muddle) of a story without knowledge of what preceded or eventually ensued. Can we suspend our proclivity to imagine a context without the facts or is the pressure to make sense of the momentarily nonsensical ultimately overpowering?”

Indeed, these exhibitions reverberate with meaning as pages pluck strings of symbols linked along chains of stories. The shared experience of the human condition is a burgeoning book and this fall, Heights Arts is turning the page.

For more information on Heights Arts community programs and events, including house concerts, gallery performances and outreach, visit heightsarts.org.

IMPAGINATION | AUGUST 19–OCTOBER 16
OPENING RECEPTION 6-9PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 19

SPOTLIGHT: JACKIE MILLER | AUGUST 19–OCTOBER 16
OPENING RECEPTION 6-9PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 19

TIM MCDONALD QUARTET: FREE GALLERY CONCERT | 7PM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

EKPHRASTACY: ARTISTS TALK + POETS RESPOND | 7PM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

ARTBAR: MIXING POETRY, MUSIC AND CREATIVE COCKTAILS | 7PM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

NO EXIT NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE: FREE GALLERY CONCERT | 7 PM FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7

HEIGHTS ARTS HOLIDAY STORE | NOVEMBER 4–DECEMBER 30

HEIGHTS ARTS
2175 Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118
heightsarts.org
216.371.3457