In the afternoon before the opening of Lakeland Community College’s May Show, the poster that would later greet visitors was covered in brown paper to keep the identity of the Best-In-Show winner a secret. During a walk around the galleries that afternoon, it was impossible to ignore Mark Giangaspero’s imposing pastel portrait in grays and blues, Altered Identity. The image […]
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You will not find Lundsville, Pennsylvania on a map. It is the invention of photographer and Cuyahoga Community College instructor Mike Majewski, and the setting of his exhibition at FORUM Artspace. Though Lundsville does not exist, Majewski describes his show as a “documentary” of sorts. Like a social realist painter or author of historic novels, he uses fiction to recombine […]
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A Flowering Pep Talk, curated by Cleveland Institute of Art student Rachel Moell, filled PopEye Gallery during its pop-up, one-night run May 18. The exhibit unfolded with bold color combinations that clung to the walls and wrapped around the room with intensity. Artwork embracing confident hues connected one piece the next and offered distinct perspectives on networks. PopEye Gallery is […]
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“This is a sculpture show,” Matthew Gallagher says of his mini-retrospective exhibit at Hedge Gallery. “Everything is sculpture. There’s no such thing as the second dimension.” He insists on this point (which is perhaps debatable – literally a matter of perspective) because much of what he does as an artist ends up hanging on a wall, yet is more akin […]
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An exhibition title like Portals_Thresholds naturally raises the question, “Portals to where?” To give away the game: They take us back to where we are already, but via an unfamiliar route, offering new perspectives. Portals_Thresholds is now on display at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Reinberger Gallery. It features works by Sara Ludy, Rachel Rossin, Rafaël Rozendaal, and the collaborative […]
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On view through May 26 at the Morgan Paper Conservatory, Color Waves features signature work of Antonio Vélez Celemín and his collaborations with Luciene Fávero, prints by Iris Nevins, Steve Pittelkow, among other international artists. In this rare exhibition we get a glimpse of the art of master paper marblers and their refined craft. Marbling is two-dimensional yoga; it strives to teach […]
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The number of artists who applied to the curated CAN Triennial exhibition was enormous, and the range of their experience and accomplishment, the diversity of their techniques and perspectives all were inspiring. We should not be surprised: this is emblematic of the energy and intensity visible every week in the Cleveland art scene. In all, curators William Busta, Angelica Pozo, […]
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On Saturday night (May 19, from 6-10pm), I highly encourage you to make your way down to Slavic Village to see the exhibition Blowout. In the storefront of a turn of the century building on the South side of Fleet Avenue, photographer Steve Mastroianni has turned over his studio to artists Terry Durst and Jon Gott for a show seemingly tailor-made […]
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It’s hard to pin down Elizabeth Emery. She is a printmaker, painter, sculptor, installation artist, gallery owner, feminist, avid cyclist, and podcaster – Emery can’t be reduced to a “category” or descriptor – she is the kind of person that I find endlessly fascinating. She’s also one of only six area artists chosen to participate in the FRONT Triennial this Summer. Emery seems to […]
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The art world, like so many other worlds, is enamored of youth, always celebrating this year’s crop of “next big things.” And some of the best-known artists of the last century made their impact young, with many spending the rest of their careers coasting on their early breakthroughs. Cleveland’s William Martin Jean upends all of that. With a 60-year career […]
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