In no particular order, here is a list of my ten favorite exhibitions, artists, performances, etc. in the North East Ohio arts scene during 2019. 1. CHARLES BURCHFIELD AT THE CMA: THE OHIO LANDSCAPES Early last year at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the Focus Gallery, Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes, 1915–1920 was a truly magnificent glimpse into the formative […]
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Are video games art? Back in 2012, The Museum of Modern Art in New York purchased 14 video games for their permanent collection, and several museums have shown video games on their walls, including a major exhibition earlier this year at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and last year at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Video games are […]
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OPEN WORLD: VIDEO GAMES & CONTEMPORARY ART Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries, and Judith Bear Isroff Gallery October 19–February 2 More than 166 million Americans play video games. Visual artists are gamers too, yet video games are rarely examined as a major influence on contemporary art. Open World draws attention to this phenomenon through the presentation of artworks including painting, sculpture, textiles, […]
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Open World: Video Games & Contemporary Art Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries October 19–February 2 According to a 2015 Entertainment Software Association survey, 155 million Americans play video games. Visual artists are gamers too, yet video games are rarely examined as a major influence on contemporary art. Open World: Video Games & Contemporary Art draws attention to this phenomenon through […]
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Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries June 29–September 22 Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World brings together the work of contemporary artists who use classical fairy tales to address the complexities of our world today. While some embrace the stories’ promises of transformation and happy endings, others plumb the […]
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When I arrived in Akron last Sunday for the Nick Cave performance titled HEARD•AKRON, the skies were grey and there was a chill in the air. I was honestly freezing as I found my seat on the ice-cold concrete of the Bud and Susie Rogers Garden. And then, as if on cue, as hundreds of people waited for the show to […]
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Nick Cave: Feat. Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries February 23–June 2 Nick Cave’s (b. 1959) dazzling trademark soundsuits were originally conceived as a kind of protective armor in the wake of Rodney King’s 1992 beating by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. “I started thinking about myself more and more as a black man—as someone discarded, devalued, viewed as […]
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Tomorrow (Saturday, February 23) the new exhibition Nick Cave: Feat. opens at Akron Art Museum – showcasing some of the artist’s most iconic bodies of work, including his signature soundsuits. These dazzling sculptural costumes are made of thousands of found objects, buttons, old toys, and other everyday items, but their visual brilliance conceals a darker message. Cave made his first […]
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Jeff Donaldson: Dig Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries Through January 21 Spanning the artist’s entire career from his activist roots in Chicago to his influence on future generations as a professor at Howard University, Jeff Donaldson: Dig presents new scholarship and features works never before seen in public. In 1968, Donaldson, along with Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu and […]
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Jeff Donaldson: Dig Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries October 27–January 20 Jeff Donaldson: Dig, the artist’s first museum retrospective, explores Donaldson’s four-decade career. Spanning his activist roots in Chicago to his influence on future generations of artists as a professor at Howard University and vice president of the Barnes Foundation, this major exhibition presents new scholarship and features works never […]
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