One Critic Takes a Look at the Year’s Best

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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DANA OLDFATHER IS OUT OF THE WOODS AT THE MCDONOUGH MUSEUM

Dana Oldfather’s paintings have always walked a fine line between abstraction and reality. Visual contextual clues could be found, if you dug deep enough—often hiding beneath her trademark bombastic layers of paint—but her new work, which will be on view at Youngstown State University’s McDonough Museum of Art this fall, shows the artist at her most representational. With this comes […]

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Three Exceptional Artists at the McDonough Museum in Youngstown

The McDonough Museum of Art is delighted to present the work of three dynamic artists for our fall exhibitions: Excavations: The Prints of Julie Mehretu, organized by Highpoint Editions-Minneapolis, is a spectacular collection of Mehretu’s work in the medium of printmaking. Best known for her large-scale paintings and drawings, Mehretu layers maps, urban planning grids and architectural renderings with whorls […]

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“Tightly Unwound” at Gallery W is a Masterclass in Technique

Gallery W might not be on your radar, but it should be. For nearly three years, this large space in the ground floor of the new American Greetings Corporate Headquarters at Crocker Park has held many truly excellent exhibitions, featuring work by prominent area artists like Jenniffer Omaitz, Corrie Slawson, Libby Chaney, Eva Kwong, Eric Rippert, Christi Birchfield, Bruce Checefsky, and […]

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CAN Triennial Artist Roster Announced

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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Heights Arts Presents Drawn Together and Its First Members Show

Opening March 9 in the Heights Arts main gallery, Drawn Together: Emotional Intelligence and the Vernacular of the Heart explores the Buddhist concept of the brahma-viharas, also known as the four divine emotions, through drawings by John Carlson, Suzanne Head, Tony Ingrisano, and Dana Oldfather. Drawn Together explores the emotions of loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), vicarious or sympathetic joy (mudita), […]

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Focus on Abstraction: Dana Oldfather, Tony Watkins, Mark Keffer, Margarita Benitez and Markus Vogl at The Galleries of CSU

Soon after the end of the Second World War, Abstract Expressionism blew a hole in art history. The cultural effect was comparable to the Manhattan Project. Abstract Expressionism (AE) effectively transformed Western art, replacing the tattered late-modern remains of aesthetic intention and technique with guiding principles derived in part from psychoanalysis and Freud’s theories of the unconscious. Accidental marks, the […]

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MAKERS: Dana Oldfather

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterwards you can remove all traces of reality. There’s no danger then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark. — Pablo Picasso   “It feels very natural and good to be using figures again as the bones of these new paintings,” said Dana […]

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Thump…Dump, Clump, Lump… Bump!

“Did you ever hear of Mickey, how he heard a racket in the night, Thump…Dump, Clump, Lump… Bump, and shouted ‘Quiet down there!’” So begins In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. A stocky, dark haired boy stands on his bed; buckling forward with clenching fingers and eyes, shouting back at a noisy and uncertain night.  The story goes that […]

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