In October, Chicago-based artist Martinez E-B returns to his hometown with a one-person show at Waterloo Arts. “B Side,” is a multi-media exhibition featuring video, sound, painting, drawing, and found and altered objects. The artist’s primary material, however, is himself, or rather his own experience of inhabiting a world of normative “whiteness.” “Soul Sway” is the name Martinez E-B gives […]
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Sixteen years ago, the Waterloo Arts Fest was one of the art district’s first events, and although only a couple bands played for a small audience in the Beachland parking lot, it helped provide a vision for a more active neighborhood. Over the years the festival grew, but the goal remained the same: to model a lively city street for […]
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There is no visual fluff here, Steve Cup’s linoleum block and digital prints read like somebody violently screaming into a pillow. Cup’s images are evocative and word, “Woah!” was often heard at the opening. Cup’s art boldly supports the trending #Enough Movement. Enough of racism, gun violence, social injustice, political chaos, global warming, and enough living in fear, each of print […]
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Breaking Point is one artist’s visual response to the first year of the Trump presidency. In this body of work Steve Cup explores what he—and perhaps others—see as a rapidly deteriorating sense of community as the country reaches all-time levels of divisiveness. Spanning personal works, private commissions and commercial work, each piece represents an immediate, often emotional reaction to the […]
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Last Spring, Megan Dardis, a painting major, then in her junior year at Cleveland Institute of Art, took advantage of the school’s Creativity Works program, which provides funds to help students engage in a community project. Dardis was determined to use the opportunity to try her hand at mural painting and approached Waterloo Arts for assistance. After discussing materials and […]
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Art is always about a relationship with the world. Sometimes that means trying to explain it, or re-interpret it, or document it, or comment on it, but sometimes it is simply a way of understanding how the world works. In Memory External—works of Matthew Gallagher and Mike Lombardy, on view now at Waterloo Arts—the key to understanding the works is […]
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The Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition ran this year from June 2 to July 21. The exhibition features recent work from American and Canadian artists, many of whom are from northeast Ohio. Amy Callahan, executive director at Waterloo Arts, noted the importance of displaying the Cleveland artists alongside their national counterparts: viewers familiar with Cleveland art gain a fresh perspective on […]
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On Friday, June 2, the Waterloo Arts District will open a street-wide Juried Exhibition managed by Waterloo Arts. The Juried Exhibition was spearheaded by Gallery Committee member, Diane Shoemaker, in Spring 2014 and after a successful first year, the show was moved to June/July, so it would be on view during the Waterloo Arts Fest, the district’s most attended event. […]
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One advantage of a small organizations is the ability to nimbly respond to fortuitous opportunities. One of the exciting aspects of an artist-in-residence program is how often these opportunities organically develop, as did the Cuban art book exhibit coming to Waterloo Arts this spring through CAN Journal and the Creative Fusion program of the Cleveland Foundation. Laura Ruiz Montes is […]
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Driving down St. Clair Ave, approaching 45th Street, you can’t miss the electrically colored monkey painted by Scott Pickering, or the shocking pink and orange logo on DayGlo Color Corp’s building. But if you don’t drive through that neighborhood, you might miss all together that Cleveland is home to this radically fun paint company. Ironically, DayGlo is one of […]
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