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 more troubling elements—poverty, addiction and exploitations of power.

No matter their approach, each of the Dread & Delight artists dismantles and reassembles the tales in imaginative ways. In a 1980s arcade-like video by Ericka Beckman, the story of Cinderella becomes a means to talk about women’s proscribed social roles, while Timothy Horn’s nearly life-size carriage made of crystallized candy addresses queer identity and notions of the so-called rags-to-riches American dream. For The Ice Queen, Ana Teresa Fernández crafted a pair of high heels from ice, then wore them while standing over a street grate until they melted away, reversing the politics of Cinderella’s transformation. In Alison Saar’s tar- and gold leaf-covered sculpture Blonde Dreams, the story of Rapunzel becomes a vehicle for reconsidering racial constructions of beauty. MK Guth’s 1,800-foot-long braid Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping, meanwhile becomes the site for a conversation about values and desires. In her illustrations of the Grimm’s lesser-known story “All Fur,” Natalie Frank underscores the tenacity at the heart of the tale by presenting the heroine neither solely as victim nor merely as passive recipient of a happy ending.

Many of the fairy tales featured in Dread & Delight are readily familiar. Others are lesser known and provide an opportunity to explore the rich breadth of the fairy tale tradition. Throughout the exhibition, artists engage with fairy tales across time—from early Italian, French, and German anthologies to Walt Disney’s 20th-century animations and postmodern retellings by authors such Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. Collectively they remind us that fairy tales have never been merely children’s tales. Rather, these age-old stories of wonder are powerful tools for making sense of life’s stark—and often dark—realities.

Dread & Delight is accompanied by a scholarly publication charting five decades of fairy tales in the visual arts and featuring a new work of fairy tale fiction by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link.

Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World was organized by Weatherspoon Art Museum at The University of North Carolina, Greensboro and curated by Dr. Emily Stamey. Its presentation in Akron is made possible through the generous support by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, The Tom and Marilyn Merryweather Fund and Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLC. Media sponsorship provided by Western Reserve PBS.

Joe Vitone: Family Records
Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Gallery
Through October 27

Joe Vitone: Family Records is an ongoing series of portraits of photographer Joe Vitone’s relatives living in and around Akron, Ohio. Begun in 1998, this body of work documents evolving interpersonal connections between parents and children, siblings, spouses, cousins and other relations within working-class communities of the Rust Belt region. In the gallery, listen to the artist telling his family’s stories via joevitone.oncell.com. What follows is the artist’s caption for his 2004 work, Lerrynn Hummel and son, Paul Massey, on patio of her grandmother’s apartment, where temporarily staying, Valleyview Apartments, 31st Street, Barberton, Ohio.

“Lerrynn has recently had problems with her boyfriend and Paul’s father. She and he were renting-to-own a nice farmhouse in Doylestown when he developed cancer. He was prescribed OxyContin for pain associated with this disease. Lerrynn, herself, was taking Percocet prescribed for back pain. She began sharing her partner’s Oxy. Both of them lost their jobs. They lost everything and moved from the farmhouse. She is temporarily at the apartment of the grandmother, who raised her, Beverly Lemmon. Beverly, herself, moved to this location with husband, Jack Lemmon, to be near her granddaughter, Arathea Booth, and because she liked the swimming pool, though she admits she has never swum in it. Lerrynn helps out around the apartment, cleaning and caring for her kids and the kids of relatives who regularly drop in.”

̶ Joe Vitone

Joe Vitone: Family Records is organized by the Akron Art Museum with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ohio Arts Council and the Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation.

Mernet Larsen: The Ordinary, Reoriented
Judith Bear Isroff Gallery
Through September 8

Included in Mernet Larsen: The Ordinary, Reoriented, Seminar illustrates Larsen’s interest in reverse perspective, where the figures in the background are larger than those in the foreground—the opposite of conventional two-point perspective. The artist renders an everyday scene in a sterile academic interior but wreaks havoc on our grounding within the space. The table and the floor are receding as they move toward us in such a way that the floor appears to flip to a ceiling. Meanwhile, the angle between the wall and the floor is obtuse, and the table is merely a floating plane. Having taught art for many years at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Larsen is intimately familiar with the tedium of classroom settings and faculty meetings. Her perspectival gymnastics work in tandem with the figures’ subtle facial expressions and body language to tease out unspoken dynamics within the room.

Mernet Larsen: The Ordinary, Reoriented is organized by the Akron Art Museum with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.

 

NICK CAVE: FEAT | THROUGH JUNE 2
Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries

MERNET LARSEN: THE ORDINARY, REORIENTED | THROUGH SEPTEMBER 8
Judith Bear Isroff Gallery

JOE VITONE: FAMILY RECORDS | THROUGH OCTOBER 27
Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Gallery

DREAD & DELIGHT: FAIRY TALES IN AN ANXIOUS WORLD | JUNE 29–SEPTEMBER 22
Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries

Akron Art Museum

One South High Street

Akron, Ohio 44308

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