In Living Color: Nevertheless, She Created at Bonfoey Gallery

The precipice of spring in Northeastern Ohio can be a gray and dismal place. The clouds, the Lake, the asphalt all conspire to monochrome for days that turn to weeks and resolve into months. Into this wash of wipeout inertia blasts a burst of color in Nevertheless, She Created: Encore, on view at the Bonfoey Gallery from now until April 26, 2025.

This exhibition celebrates Women’s History Month, observed in March, by featuring over 30 artists working in a variety of media—painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, multimedia—that reach from the 1930s to today. The first Nevertheless, She Created exhibition ran in March 2021.

“Each piece serves as a testament to the pivotal role of women in shaping our social and cultural landscapes,” says Alana Cartwright, Marketing Coordinator and Gallery Assistant. “Throughout history, despite numerous barriers, women have demonstrated their profound ability to triumph and inspire future generations with their resilience and determination. Nevertheless, She Created: Encore embodies this spirit.”

Resilience and determination come drenched in color. Upstairs, oranges and soft tans vibrate next to blues and greens. It’s an eye’s delight. The curves of Barbara Stanczak’s “Broken Column,” soft but regimented circles of elm, mirror the curves of its next door neighbor, “Out There (diptych)” by Marilyn Farinacci, a massive canvas of oranges and yellow inscribed with swirling black flourishes, all contained behind a scrim of light, thin lines.

Nearby, two bustling still lifes by Pat Zinsmeister Parker converse with Ruth Bercaw’s stoic geometries, sharing rich orange tones cooled by repetitions of teal and chartreuse. Turn the corner, and a wash of sunset rust and easy lavender appear in Mary Lou Ferbert’s “Four Carousel Horses” and Phyllis Seltzer’s “Scheme (section 2),” a heat transfer print of Cleveland’s Main Avenue Bridge, corners of iron railroad bridges, and old brick factories.

Downstairs, the mood is natural, as landscapes and florals—confined and exuberant—dominate the gallery. Charlee Brodsky’s highly composed tableaux of dogwood branches encircling a tiny pink pig slyly charms (its title: “Sometimes Words, as in a Title, Add Nothing to an Image, But to its Detriment, Take Away the Delight of Pure Visual Effect”); an explosion of floral exuberance blasts out of darkness in Ryn Clarke’s “Final Colors of Summer,” while Lisa Schonberg’s monoprint, “The Earth Laughs in Flowers” (a line written by Ralph Waldo Emerson) fills three panels with layers of intricate ferns and abstract flowers.

Several works by notable artists from the Cleveland School (whose artists were active from 1910 – 1960) are featured here. The saturated colors of Clara Dieke’s cubist-inspired “E341 Still Life” from 1953 still resonate magnificently, and two aquatints on copper produced in 1936 by Elsa Vick Shaw and Dorothy Rutka Porter are quiet still life pieces that entangle the viewer with deceptively simple lines describing strawberries and coxcomb flowers. Ruth Diem Wood’s 1951 painting, “Orchids in Moonlight,” offers a strikingly lit branch and yellow orchids glowing against darkness, an intriguing commentary next to its gallery neighbor, “Fraternity” by Dana Oldfather, whose 2024 painting picks up the yellow of its neighbor and runs full tilt into a tree portrait rendered in warm, rich tones set against cool grey-blues.

And then there are the blues: such a wealth and range of tone and depth, both upstairs and down. Amber Kempthorn’s birdsong images float against delicious blue skies that open the exhibit, while Helen Lewis’ “Back Home Again” is a layered wash of blues on blues on blues; downstairs, Linda Mayer’s “Seaward” freezes a luminous moment of water and light with encaustic, oils, and metal leaf, and in Susan Danko’s “Of Water,” the uncertainty of sky, water, and reflection assemble and disassemble. Blues even appear in the more monochromatic part of the show, as Judy Barie’s “Blue Mist” speaks with the same tones of Therese Cook’s “We Can All Leave A Legacy.”

Stoneware and raku pottery by Diana Bjel and Diane Therese Pinchot offer cooling tastes of cream, white, brown, and black; black and white photographs from Jennie Jones, Garie Waltzer, and Linda Butler present measured compositions of night streets, Coney Island tents and Eiffel Tower shadows, and a still life meta-trick with fruit.

There’s still more to see; experience the vibrant colors and compositions from women artists that inspire, uplift, and recreate portions of their worlds, large and small.

The Bonfoey Gallery is located at 1710 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115. Open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Closed Sunday.