The federal government of the United States shut down as I write this, now in the sixth week, and funding for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program has run out, and the president has been bombing small boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, accusing them—so far without evidence—of smuggling fentanyl into the US. Meanwhile Israel says the cease fire […]
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The idea that Ohio’s art scene looks to New York for validation has some sad truth, but sometimes Ohio brings both the spark and the fuel, and New York is just the place where they meet. Such was the case for an upcoming exhibition at moCa Cleveland, which was conceived during a conversation at Frieze—the international contemporary art fair that […]
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Sixty years ago, Iran was an ally of the US. The two countries had made deals involving nuclear technology in exchange for access to petroleum, and it was the polite remains of that relationship that led to Andy Warhol’s 1976 trip to Iran to take photos of Empress Farah Pahlavi–wife of the Shah–as reference to make a painting of her. […]
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What are they thinking? That’s what artists wonder when they submit their work to juried shows, and what audiences must often wonder when they go to the openings. The jurors of the 2025 Paul and Norma Tikkanen Prize for Painting, administered by the Ashtabula Arts Center had interesting things to say. The jurors—all based in Florida–were artist and educator Pip […]
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Why do people look at art? What draws them to shows? What do they want from an exhibit experience? Is it as simple as human connection? Is it to see what an artist has to say, or see what a hundred artists have to say, or see their own work in the context of others? Is it to experience fine […]
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Cleveland’s Big Triennial Era reaches the finale of its long denouement in Fall 2025. After announcements early last year that neither the FRONT nor the CAN triennials would proceed for a third iteration, both had unfinished business. CAN Triennial Exhibition Prize shows, for example, continued to roll out, one season following another, with solo exhibitions by selected artists at the […]
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We’re late to this party, but an exhibit recently closed at BAYarts–Erjon Hajnaj: My Light & Shadow—makes us wonder how many highly skilled artists are out there, operating below the radar, actively practicing their craft, either working toward their first shows or just rarely showing their work. Hajnaj was born in Fier, Albania—one of the Balkan countries, directly across the […]
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Nostalgia gets a bad rap. We think of it as sappy, perhaps, a self-indulgent waste of time. But there’s another aspect of reveling in one’s past, of longing for one’s roots: For a person who has left one place for another in search of opportunity, or one who has blood connection to a place they’ve perhaps never known, it’s reconnection […]
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No one goes to an art exhibition expecting to be able to touch the art. But at the 10th International Artist Book Triennial Vilnius, on view at the Morgan Conservatory, it’s necessary to remind people. The reason, of course, is that books are best experienced by turning their pages. Artist books, though, are art, and fragile, and unless otherwise noted […]
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The local impact of NEA grant cancellations has been a mix of real financial damage, fear and uncertainty, along with tentative hope due to the timing of the cancellation, and the timelines of affected grants. The whole dynamic is complicated by the slow pace of bureaucracy, the requirement of matching funds, and the lag time for the period of activity […]
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