Art writing works like the hands of a clock: it runs late, on time, or strikes early. Art writing works within history, alongside it and incongruously too. Sometimes farsighted and other times myopic, art writing covers territory narrow and wide, academic and vernacular. Encompassing many different things, it includes today’s online reviews and medieval treatises about how to paint. Art […]
Read more
When the room has emptied, when the breath lets go, when the wire pulls taut, when the light keeps shining: places without people still tell stories we can hear. Maxmillian Peralta reveals his new work—a significant departure from his earlier, court-painting-inspired portraiture—in Flat Affect, on view at the Massillon Museum’s Studio M Gallery, June 21 through August 3. Peralta received […]
Read more
There are few times when a threadbare cliché—such as, say, thinking outside the box—seems made for a moment. When Grace Blackley and Maddie Harbert were in the early stages of their design degrees at Kent State University, they learned one of the first foundational lessons students are taught to master early on in the program: to draw a square. The […]
Read more
The printed CAN Journal—CAN’s most visible and best-known outlet—typically doesn’t publish exhibit reviews. That’s because we want them to be timely, and our quarterly schedule often means exhibitions would be closed by the time a review could appear in print. Because the state of arts journalism is a current discussion in the region (including the essay in this issue by […]
Read more
In the past several months, various Cleveland neighborhoods and communities have begun to benefit from seven projects awarded nearly $3 million in total last year through the City of Cleveland’s Transformative Arts Fund (TAF). The money came from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a response to the Covid pandemic. During a short application period in 2024, 103 proposals […]
Read more
Summer 2025 Photo Poet Hollis Mehling’s site-specific works focus on the quintessential magical grunge that hangs in the air on Coventry Road like smoke. An analog reflection on the Midwestern, Rust Belt grit that births new imaginations and interpretations of the neighborhood. A space influenced by old and new, whimsical and poetic, holding all the sensory experiences felt on a […]
Read more
Your easy, chronological guide to exhibits and opportunities at Northeast Ohio galleries, studios, and museums coming in the next few months. More information about many of these exhibits can be found elsewhere in the pages of CAN Journal. These listings are based on announcements from each presenting organization, at press time. Due to changing circumstances, events may be added, cancelled, […]
Read more
Reunion In Summer 2025, the Archives partners with Mary Urbas, the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), and the Bostwick Design Center Gallery in presenting Reunion. This exhibition, originated and curated by the indomitable Mary Urbas, will open with a public reception from 5:30 to 8 pm on Friday, June 13, and continue through Saturday, August 9. Urbas has had a […]
Read more
by Tyron Hoisten The Akron Black Artist Guild (ABAG) is making a strategic shift—moving beyond traditional funding models and stepping into media as a powerhouse tool for amplification, sustainability, and legacy building. In a world where attention is currency, ABAG recognizes that media isn’t just a stage—it’s a megaphone with an endless shelf life. A well-told story can be shared, […]
Read more
Art House adopted a strategic plan in 2017. It has been updated twice. My attention often shifts to the wall where I taped the eight-page matrix. I have color coded it and starred achieved goals. I reflect on what we’ve accomplished, ideas that have fallen away or didn’t pan out, and the items that are ongoing—always needing work/attention/changes. Accounting processes […]
Read more