For more than 10 years, Loren Naji’s iconic sculpture “They Have Landed” sat politely on a slip of greenspace in front of the West 25th RTA station, but now it’s gone. “They just threw it away,” said Naji during a Feb. 16 phone interview. “Can you imagine?” Its role as public art was clear: The sculpture was marked with a […]
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Orlando Caraballo and Jennifer Whitten are a serendipitous pairing at Akron Soul Train, elevating domesticity through both subject matter and materials. Whitten’s Intricacies and Caraballo’s Capicú are on view concurrently through March 4th. Cleveland native Orlando Caraballo is the education director at the Cleveland Print Room and earned his B.F.A. in drawing and printmaking from the Cleveland Institute of Art. […]
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There’s a spirituality in nature that is simply felt. There’s no real defining this feeling, it just is. Susan Squires taps into this mindful awareness in her current exhibition, Nature Studies, at the Shaker Lakes Nature Center. On view through Monday, March 27, the show consists largely of small works of encaustic on wood slabs. The works focus on what […]
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State of the Art: Constructs, on view through February 26th at the Akron Art Museum, is not to be missed. A bewilderment of massive installations and explorations of light, color, and sound, this exhibition completely transforms the space it occupies and offers something intriguing at every turn. Spearheaded by curators from the Akron Art Museum and the Crystal Bridges Museum […]
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Potion Park: The Kaleidoscopic Garden of Steve Ehret and Kat Francis, on view at the Canton Museum of Art through March 5th, merges the fantastical styles of these partner artists. Described as a “dream world” in didactics, the exhibition consists of only thirteen works. The show includes works by each artist, as well as pieces the pair created together. Perhaps […]
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Tell me the last time you walked into a gallery and the first thing you noticed was the smell. KINK Contemporary consistently delivers the unexpected, and I shall not survive you by artist/florist Kate Rutter was no exception. This show, which lasted for less than a week, asked us to peer a little deeper and find sweetness in surrender. Rutter […]
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Arts funding in Cuyahoga County could get a significant boost by the end of 2023. Just before Christmas, 2022, The Ohio legislature passed a bill that includes permission for Cuyahoga County to put before its voters a revision of the cigarette tax that supports the arts. Governor Mike Dewine signed the bill January 2. Jeremy Johnson, director of the advocacy […]
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Nicole Malcolm’s solo show Please Come To My Party is among the most “meta” exhibits we’ve seen in some time. At several levels it is a show about the artist’s life: Malcolm’s work is nostalgic, exploring her personal trajectory and sentiments. The exhibit draws partly on work made while she was a student at Ohio University, and partly on work […]
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To close 2022 and begin 2023, Akron Soul Train presents its Winter SOULstice Alumni Show, beautifully and intuitively curated by Meryl Engler. The exhibition, which offers high-quality art by local artists, has something for everyone, from prints, to paintings, to textiles. It exceeded expectations on every level and is one of my favorites I’ve seen in the space. Since its […]
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