Life, Death, Politics and Boobies: George Kocar and Friends, at AAWR

It was perhaps an hour after leaving George Kocar: A Retrospective, on view at Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, that I saw one of the artist’s best-known works silk screened on a T-shirt, worn by someone who didn’t know Kocar’s name. The art was the old Cleveland: You Gotta Be Tough graphic, featuring Cleveland’s skyline in the year of […]

Read more

She Did It Her Way: Patricia Zinsmeister Parker

On December 3, 2024, family of Patricia Zinsmeister Park posted the following on Facebook: “To all of Trish’s countless friends [ . . . ] Trish left this world on Thanksgiving day of this year, in Liestal Switzerland. She chose to ‘move on’ via Voluntary Assisted Death. Trish left a wide and deep mark on those that knew her, loved […]

Read more

CAN’s Most-Read posts of 2024

It’s become CAN’s holiday tradition in the second half of December to let you know which of our stories were the most-read in the last year. In 2024, money and the art world version of “hard news” dominate the list. That’s a stark contrast to 2023’s list, when highlights included Erin O’Brien’s report on artists painting recycled wind turbine blades […]

Read more

Christmas-Adjacent: Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, in Cleveland and Kent

Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night is a Christmas-adjacent, strolling musical performance that combines December festivity, the need for community and tradition, with an aesthetic and rules that accommodate the changing times. New-York-based / Cleveland-born artist Andrew Ratcliff has hosted performances in Tremont since 2021, and will again Friday (December 13, 2024). Meanwhile, yoga Instructor and sound bath facilitator Alicia Patrice started […]

Read more

Expect Miracles: doubting thomas endures

Against all odds, taking no commissions, and without a website, set hours, or staff, doubting thomas art and free verse space is almost a quarter century old. No commission. No website. No set hours, and no staff to keep them. Artists on the edge of homelessness sometimes sleeping on the church pew. “Expect miracles” has become a mantra for the […]

Read more

From The HeArt of Cleveland, Vol. II: The Art Girls are emblematic of one of the Northeast Ohio art scene’s greatest strengths.

This essay was written for The HeArt of Cleveland, Volume II, an anthology of art and writing organized and published by Scott Kraynak, and surveying the creative scene in Cleveland. It’s published with permission. The HeArt of Cleveland, Volume II debuts in November at HEDGE Gallery, with an exhibition of works by artists who contributed to images and text to […]

Read more

“You’ve Got to Find Something Else.”

Thanks to the voters of Cuyahoga County, Issue 55–the cigarette tax for the arts–has passed. And once again, public support for the arts has passed overwhelmingly, with unofficial results reporting 72 percent of voters in favor of the measure. That boosts the tax on cigarettes to 70 cents per pack, which at least in the near term will lift public […]

Read more

Ingenuity 2024: This is Cleveland?

Now that FRONT and CAN Triennial both have ceased operation, what is—or could be–Cleveland’s emblematic arts festival, the one that could contribute to the brand of the city beyond its immediate surroundings, and could draw visitors to town for an iconic experience? I mean, holding aside the constant presence of a world class orchestra and art museum constantly presenting internationally […]

Read more

Daily Bread: Jonah Jacobs’ Dreams Never Made My Bed, the Last Show at Kaiser Gallery

“Breading” is not a word often associated with artistic technique. And neither are oatmeal or quinoa often cited as media for use in painting or sculpture.  Nonetheless, those have been central to Jonah Jacobs’ abstract sculptural practice for 19 years.  And he’s been in a lot of group shows and juried shows, and even won a lot of prizes, including […]

Read more

Creative Impact Fund Winners Announced

Assembly for the Arts recieved more than 400 applications for its $10,000 Creative Impact Fund grants. The organization announced winners Tuesday, September 17. The grants are made possible by the people of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the public entity that administers the cigarette tax for the arts. The individual artist grants represent a tiny fraction of CAC’s […]

Read more
1 2 3 47