Various Small Fires borrows its name from artist Ed Ruscha’s conceptual book, Various Small Fires, self-published in 1964. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he created a series of small photo-conceptual artist’s books which featured mundane subjects and photographs of fires with deadpan titles. The Various Small Fires exhibition is inspired by the liminal moments of the everyday that are ignited through the eyes of artist storytellers.

In the spirit of Ruscha, artist Maira Kalman created a book, Women Holding Things, which featured select recent paintings by Maira, accompanied by her insightful and deeply personal commentary. Artists in the Various Small Fires exhibit similarly lay bare the essence of people’s lives—their tenacity, courage, vulnerability, hope, and pain. What are things we hold dear—as well as those that burden or haunt us? The weavings, quilts, paintings, ceramics, and drawings celebrate life and the act and art of living. The artists Orville Brown, Mary Burkhardt, Melissa English Campbell, Lucy Copper, Amber Esner, Jenny Mendes, Jason Milburn, Chen Peng, Nell Simons, and Mary Ann Tipple all offer their unique ways of examining and understanding all that is important in our world—and ultimately within ourselves.

BE/longing: With or Without You explores absence and togetherness, presence and loss, and memory and remembrance. Allison Bogard Hall, Nana Agyare, Julia Briggs, Jacqui Brown, Martha Cliffel, Melissa Harris, Anne Manley, Sylvia Munodawafa, Julie Ezelle Patton, Scot Phillips, Bobbi Reagins, Lacey Talley, and Anna Tararova all respond to the precariousness of life through the expression of longing, grief, and spirituality. Each artwork represents feelings of alienation stemming from the longing for family and home, feeling distance and togetherness from a community, and the feeling of missing someone, something, or someplace.

At Tinnerman Lofts:

At Tinnerman Project Space, new prints and drawings by Rebekah Wilhelm and Julia Schenkelberg are on view in SYMBOLS/SPACES. These artists both have studios in the Hidebrandt Building where their interests intersect capturing symbolist, alchemical, and conceptual experimentations with the phenomena of light, science, and matter.

To make an appointment to see these shows, contact Liz Maugans, director at Yards Projects, at 216-570-0324 and yardsproject@gmail.com.

YARDS PROJECT SPACE
AT WORTHINGTON YARDS
725 Johnson Court
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
yardsproject.com

EVENTS:

Various Small Fires, through September 28

BE/longing: With or Without You, October 11, 2024–January 4, 2025