“[Pat’s in the Flats] was a dive bar with a shitty sound system that no one seemed to be able to comprehend. It was a venue that offered an uninhibited space for creative expression, [and] Pat [herself] was the magic.” – Shawn Mishak[1] In 1987 Patricia Hanych took over her family’s restaurant-bar at the bottom of Literary Hill in Tremont, […]
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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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It is not often that the Cleveland Museum of Art constructs an exhibition centered around a single object. Even more rare is an exhibition that focuses on revealing the object’s extensive conservation history. Though the CMA has encouraged discussion around conservation in the past—such as with objects like the Cambodian sculpture Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan (c.600) and Caravaggio’s The Crucifixion […]
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In recognition of his several decades of promoting access to public art in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, Greg Peckham was selected by the Cleveland Arts Prize to receive this year’s Robert P. Bergman Prize. “Greg exemplifies the values celebrated by the Bergman Prize,” says artist, friend and mentee, Mark Reigelman II (CAP 2018). “His thoughtful leadership, generosity of spirit, and […]
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Few art events in Cleveland have provoked a level of energetic discussion comparable with what accompanied Everlasting Plastics, the exhibition commissioned by SPACES for US Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale Architettura. It was an unprecedented accomplishment for any Ohio organization to win the international honor—especially one with a budget tiny by comparison to typical Venice Biennale commissioning organizations. Curated […]
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CAN Journal exists in part to bring more people into the conversation about art of Northeast Ohio. To advance that cause, Collective Arts Network, the nonprofit publisher of CAN Journal, its blog and weekly e-newsletter, announces Broadening the Conversation—a collaboration with Northeast Ohio university art and art history faculty, including from Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University, to […]
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Tucked into the campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, the art venue known as The Gund has steadily grown into a site where the appeal of the exhibitions extends beyond its small campus. The gallery’s five current exhibitions, on view through December 14, may appear disparate at first glance. Yet the more time one spends within them, the more […]
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“Long-term transformative change has to start locally,” Ariel Vergez says. He’s the lead artist for the Storer Avenue Phoenix Project, a Transformative Art Fund awardee working in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood. The project was awarded $393,700. After a series of workshops and studio sessions, the project takes flight from 11 am to 6 pm Saturday, September 6, in The Art Garden […]
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