Photocentric: A Good Run

Photocentric Gallery–the white-walled venue in North Collinwood that provided space dedicated to art grounded in or connected to photography–will close June 1. The gallery was the anchor tenant in the revitalization of Waterloo’s famous “Gold Building,” and for that reason alone its two-and-a-half year run will have lasting impact. “While we had some exciting photographic exhibitions, performances and outdoor events, […]

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The Edge of Things, at Photocentric

  In my photography I explore historical, environmental, and personal connections to the land. Typically, I build tabletop dioramas out of everyday materials, crafting these fabrications as an elaborate still life meant only for the camera’s lens. Once constructed, I use lighting to dramatically transform these tableaus, bringing to the surface hidden truths that belie our understanding of the natural […]

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Altered: A Three-Way at Photocentric

Photocentric’s recent exhibition, Altered felt like traveling in three different realms: through cities, through space or under water, or–in a macro vs micro way–examining tiny details of a gritty environment. The show brought together a group of photographers who just about couldn’t be more different. The completely distinct color palates and photographic pursuits of Rita Montlack, Steven Mastroianni, and John […]

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Memoir

Michael Loderstedt returns to his hometown with a film camera and notebook to create a memoir of life growing up on a barrier island. The following is an excerpt from the accompanying book to this exhibition, The Yellowhammer’s Cross. On the island, if you weren’t fishing you were probably sick or worse. The Divining Rod 1970 The sun was starting […]

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Holding Pattern: Michael Loderstedt interviews Kahlil Pedizisai about Collinwood Now

Michael Loderstedt had the opportunity to interview photographer Kahlil I. Pedizisai about his work included in the upcoming Collinwood Now exhibition opening at Photocentric (15515 Waterloo Rd.) August 7- 29, in collaboration with Cleveland Heights Now opening August 6 at Foothill Galleries (2450 Fairmont Blvd). These two projects ask both new and seasoned photographers living in their respective neighborhoods to […]

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Galleries and Museums Slowly Re-Open

In the most complicated and difficult atmosphere in recent memory, Cleveland galleries and museums are beginning to re-open their doors, after being closed nearly three months in response to the COVID pandemic. While commercial galleries as retail businesses have been permitted to open since mid-May, Governor Mike DeWine’s announcement Thursday, June 4 specifically named galleries and museums among a long […]

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2019: A forward-looking retrospective

Elsewhere on the digital pages of CAN, Brittany M. Hudak and Michael Gill have written fine-grained and big-picture analyses of the year in Northeast Ohio art. Hudak remembered the year in a series of particular exhibits; Gill contextualized local developments within larger trends in the artworld. This post, then, is calibrated towards the medium scale—events which made a great immediate […]

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Photocentric: Hopeful

It’s rare these days for Cleveland galleries to publish catalogs with their exhibits. And while catalogs are very much not the point of art exhibits, they are excellent documents: they capture slices of history, collections of work and their relationships to the times. What happened on Waterloo in North Collinwood Friday, December 6, 2019, was one of those times. A […]

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