For Immediate Release
High resolution images available upon request
SPACES provides a venue for newly-emerging artists living and working in Northeast Ohio
(Cleveland) SPACES presents twelve artists who are in on a secret about the Rust Belt: It is a vibrant place for creative thinkers to work and live. Northeast Ohio offers rare opportunities for exposure; allows artists to play a direct role in the economic vitality of the community; and is an inexpensive alternative to major metropolises outside of Ohio.
SPACES recognizes the talents of artists in our backyard, side yard, front yard, and driveway in Flash Forward, an exhibition featuring Northeast Ohio college graduates who jump creative fences in the contemporary art scene while continuing to live and work in the region. The exhibition opens with a free public reception on January 30 from 6–9 p.m. and will be on view through April 3, 2009. Admission to the gallery during hours of operation is free and open to the public.
The curatorial committee is comprised of Northeast Ohio artists and art educators: Gretchen Goss, Qian Li, Stephen Litchfield, and Laila Voss. The committee selected each artist based on work that displayed great promise of forging the art landscape of the 21st century. The committee writes, “[ … ] we intend not only to provide a venue for this work, but also to give the viewing public a sense of the art-making strategies that will give form to future art work from this region.”
SPACES’ Executive Director Christopher Lynn writes in his introduction to the catalog, “The Rust Belt continues to tighten as industries head elsewhere or disappear and cities fumble for new identities and sources of revenue. By creating opportunities for individuals and valuing their social contributions, a gravitational pull can be instilled into a region. …These artists represent the core around which cultural and economic volume can accumulate to revitalize our region.”
Artists include Jon Nathaniel Cotterman (Cleveland Institute of Art ‘07), Dragana Crnjak (Myers School of Art, University of Akron ’02), Yumiko Goto (Cleveland Institute of Art ’04), Ann Hanrahan (Kent State University ‘07), Mike Jones (Myers School of Art, University of Akron ’04), Jaime Kennedy (The Ohio State University ’06) & Kelly Urquhart (Miami University ’07), Amy Kreiger (Youngstown State University ’06), Peter Philip Luckner (University of Akron ’04), Lorri Ott (Kent State University ’04), Glenn Ratusnik (Kent State University ’03), and Jennifer Schulman (Kent State University ’06).
Flash Forward includes a full-color catalog featuring an essay by guest writer Kevin Concannon, Associate Professor of Art History at Myers School of Art, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. Funding for the catalog is provided by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Also on view:
SWAP: Leonardo Marz (Monterrey, Mexico) joins SPACES as an artist-in-residence (December 17, 2008 through February 11, 2009) to create a new body of work and engage with the Cleveland community. Marz has worked with a number of professionals and specialists from diverse disciplines, including those outside of the arts field, his own audience, and other artists, to explore issues of production and consumption. Marz’s work is on view January 30 through April 3, 2009.
Marz has won numerous awards, including Young Creators Grants in 2006 and 2008 in Mexico. His work was recently included in the Istanbul Biennale, and he has exhibited all over Mexico. His art has also been shown at the Museo de Las Americas in Denver and Chelsea Gallery Space in New York.
SPACES gratefully acknowledges the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nimoy Foundation for their generous funding.
SPACELab: Eileen Doktorski presents Oblivion (on view January 30 through February 27, 2009), an installation that examines the current state of consumer culture through juxtaposition of the forces of nature versus the will of man. Following Doktorski’s SPACELab exhibition, Yoshiko Kanai transforms the experimental project space into an installation that explores emotions connected to the familial archetype and the inevitability of change experienced in the life of an immigrant. Kanai’s installation, Listen to Utopia, is on view March 6 through April 3, 2009.
Related Events:
Friday, January 30, 2009, 6–9pm
Opening Reception
Free and open to the public
Major support for SPACES comes from The Cleveland Foundation; Donna and Stewart Kohl; Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation; The George Gund Foundation; Kulas Foundation; John P. Murphy Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Nimoy Foundation; Ohio Arts Council; and Process Creative Studios. SPACES gratefully acknowledges the citizens of Cuyahoga County for their support through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.
