Exhibition Reviews
Chuck Close @ Contessa Gallery
The works at Contessa include one-of-a-kind pieces and rare limited editions as well as recent prints that have never before been exhibited. The result is a knockout show that proves Close, at age 69, to be continually increasing his range by delving into new media, formats and techniques. »
Tiedman and Utter @ Arts Collinwood
Tiedman has made a major breakthrough in recent years with his brooding, multifaceted landscape paintings, which he calls "inscapes." He produces the works purely from his imagination, which opens up endless possibilities for rendering the landscape as a metaphorical minefield. His densely layered landscapes invite viewers to mentally drift in and out of dimly... »
Mark Fox @ Shaheen Gallery
Ohio native Mark Fox is known for his delicate and airy wall-mounted assemblages, made from hundreds of small, quirky cutout drawings that are attached to each other using tiny strips of linen tape. Like lace, they create playful shadows as light passes through them and dances on the walls beyond. »
Christian Wuffen @ Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
The art of Christian Wulffen is all about deeply questioning the identity of and meaning behind everyday materials, objects and experiences. In his solo exhibition "It Is, It Is Not," on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland through Sunday, May 10, he presents 17 pointedly austere works – drawings, photographs, sculptures and... »
Neil MacDonald @ Akron Art Museum
Neil MacDonald's paintings begin with an interest in the way that disparate information leads to confusion. As a result, his complex and meticulous paintings are perplexing at first glance; in many of them, it's hard to know exactly what is happening. That's part of the point. In the solo show "Dreamland: Recent Paintings by... »
Curtis Mitchell @ Sculpture Center
From a purely visual standpoint, New York artist Curtis Mitchell's work often appears harsh and guttural. Over the past two decades, he has created sculptures and installations using such materials as broken glass, dirt and ketchup. He has also exhibited scorched Oriental rugs and color photographs doused with solvents and reduced to drippy, discordant... »
Bob Peck @ Artchitecture Gallery
As an artform, graffiti has evolved rapidly in recent years -- due largely to social and political forces aimed at squelching it. Once identified solely with gangs, vandalism and other criminal activity, graffiti has now been embraced wholly by the art world, high-end fashion designers, and, most recently, corporate manufacturers of everything from gym... »
Jennifer Omaitz @ 1point618 Gallery
The paintings of Jennifer Omaitz often appear at first like blurred photographs of variously colored swirling lights. But up close, they're all about paint. Omaitz, a current graduate student in the painting department at Kent State University, uses her own photographs as a starting point for her paintings, which often evoke the sights and... »
Ivelisse Jimenez and Lorri Ott @ exit (a gallery space)
From the mid-1960s on, many artists have explored the elastic boundaries of painting as a unique form by abandoning its most obvious conventions. Traditional materials such as canvas and rectangular wooden stretchers were among the first to go. More recently, like-minded painters have made use of an array of commercially manufactured materials such as... »
Kristen Cliffel @ William Busta
Kristen Cliffel's clay sculptures are at once goofy and serious. Elaborately constructed and extraordinarily detailed, they often take years to create. Her solo show of 11 large ceramic sculptures at the William Busta Gallery, titled "The Sweet Life," is the result of more than three years of studio work and is her most ambitious... »