Ecstatic: Keith Haring at the Akron Art Museum

To a younger viewer, the work of Keith Haring might read more like Instagram than Street Art.  Trendy current commercial success stories like Timothy Goodman and Mr. Doodle proudly carry on the tradition of laundering the vernacular of graffiti and reselling it back to the masses as a slice of an Experience. Haring’s aesthetic is really popular again: his figures […]

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A Dollop of Grandeur for Your Living Room

  On view now at Gallery W in Westlake is a Mad Men-esque battle of the sexes, each grid-based piece by Bruce Checefsky, Marilyn Farinacci, and Freddy Hill hoping to land itself a spot in your permanent collection. Powerful ideas scaled for your mantle, magnificent form that’s immediately obtainable. The only work you can’t walk out with is the Checefsky […]

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Khehla Chepape Makgato Pop-Up Show at Harris Stanton, Cleveland

  Loose canvas sits heavy on the gallery walls with thick, dripping paint and geometric printed fabrics forming wrapped heads and caped shoulders out of the jumbles of colorful strokes.  But what makes Khehla Chepape Makgato’s raw, swirling, energetic paintings truly portraits are their unmistakably piercing stares.   Walking into Harris Stanton’s great little space on W 9th St. in […]

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Akron Soul Train Offers Funding, Focus, Support, and Exposure to Regional Artists Through New Residency Program

“The world doesn’t need more art,” Michelle Droll tells me. “It needs more artists.” At work Michelle pulls virtual systems apart and puts them back together. At night, she comes home and does the same with her old art, creating “sculptural kebabs” out of brightly colored pieces of foam, occasional ceramic parts, and bits of paint itself. Through each iteration, […]

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Rubber City Prints Brings the World to Their Living Room

One of the area’s best Print Shows in years is tucked away in plain sight at Rubber City Prints’ new home on Main Street in Akron. The 1920s house with solid door and window frames, winding floor plans, and endless possibilities holds a budding print shop, complete with funky old letter presses, a hydraulic press that used to be housed […]

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Katy Richards: Fluid Depths at HEDGE

Katy Richards’ new work showcases her classic exuberance for the materiality of oils, as well as her obvious firsthand knowledge of her new waterlogged subjects. The paint oozes around the surface of the works, alive, about to swim off the canvas. The scale of Richards’ new work is impressive, with statement pieces like “Dance of the Butterfly” as large as […]

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CIA At Home in Crocker Park

For those with a soft spot for the 78th Street Studios , which once was home to American Greetings’ Creative Studios, it’s a particular treat to see “Creative Studios” splashed across the swanky new Crocker Park storefront of Gallery W.  And crazier still is to see two of Lane Cooper’s works in the window, familiar faces welcoming the public into […]

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