test pit – a small preliminary excavation made to gain an idea of the contents of an archaeological site. Much like an archaeologist, New York artist Fred Wilson has made a career digging to uncover long lost or hidden treasures.[1] Wilson burrows into the conventional Western history of art, mines academic and historical writing, and in many cases, he physically […]
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Cleveland painter Frank Oriti recently moved into a new studio in the Screw Factory. Much larger than his previous space, sunlight pours into the room through an immense wall of windows. His tools and easels are all carefully set and at the ready, and giant heaps of oil paint wait for his brushes. I have been an admirer of Oriti’s portrait paintings […]
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Somewhere in my attic there is a box filled with tattered and torn old zines. I’ve held on to these photocopied and unevenly stapled collections of anarchist poems, punk album reviews, crude drawings, and suburban-nihilist thought for over twenty years. But zines have moved beyond my limited, largely 1990’s perception, and are starting to get their “fair dues” as an art form. MOCA Cleveland […]
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Lori Kella is so much more than a photographer. There is a bit of magic in the images currently on view at the Cleveland Print Room. “Seven Summits” is her visual interpretation of the highest mountain peaks on each of the seven continents. If you’re not familiar with Kella’s work, she’s known for creating elaborate dioramas, including tiny trees, fake […]
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Adrienne Slane’s studio in Geauga County is perfectly situated in a copse of tall trees, surrounded by marshes and shadowy forests. It’s the kind of fairy tale location entirely appropriate for the creation of her enchanting cut-paper collages. Clearly a collector at heart, every available surface in Slane’s studio is covered with her coveted items – seashells, postage stamps, buttons, scissors, […]
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When I saw the title of the new show at the Transformer Station: “Dan Graham/Rocks”, I was excited. My knowledge of this video/conceptual artist consisted of a grainy documentation of a Minor Threat performance at CBGBs, so I was eager to learn about his connection to Cleveland. A connection that seemed to be inferred by the title (obviously playing off […]
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When I asked Cleveland photographer Steven Mastroianni why he still makes photographs the traditional way, his answer was all about silver. For Mastroianni, it’s that moment when the image miraculously appears on the paper that counts. Alone in his darkroom, under the amber glow of the safelight, light causes a chemical reaction on the paper that produces a thin layer of silver – seemingly […]
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Shortly after leaving his graduate painting program in 1966, Bruce Nauman had an epiphany: “If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. At this point art became more of an activity and less of a product.” When artists in the late 1960s such as Nauman, Lynda […]
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You may have seen Michelle Murphy’s work recently in the NEO Geo exhibition at the Akron Museum of Art, fitting comfortably amongst artists that use geometry and formal elements as a means of expression. Indeed, Murphy does have definite connections to the famed Op Art school of thought espoused by Julian Stanczak and others at the Cleveland Institute of […]
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The first time I visited SPACES was in 2007. It was a memorable night for two things: seeing the brilliant work of my high school classmate, Libby Black, and trying to hide the giant sweat stains that had formed in my armpits. The heat was unbearable. What art gallery of this size does not have air conditioning? And yet the […]
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