I enjoy student shows and attend them whenever I’ve a chance. While most student shows are filled with, well, student-grade work, I almost always find a gem or two. So I wasn’t disappointed when the bill of fare for this exhibition at the Galleries at Cleveland State U. proved to be bog-standard stuff, which is to say most pieces…
Category: Artists
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Reviews, Thumbs-Up-Down, Uncategorized
Jason Milburn at William Busta Gallery
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Jason Milburn, who has maintained a studio in NE Ohio since graduating from the Cleveland Art Institute 10 years ago, is showing a passel of large drawings at the William Busta Gallery. The cartoon-inspired ink drawings are populated by vaguely familiar figures in suburban scenarios that are awash with anxiety and menace–‘High School Art Teacher in Hell,’ so to speak. The drawings…
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Reviews, Uncategorized
Lawrence’s Annoying Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art
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I have nothing against Thomas Lawrence, indeed, I like his work, but—good grief!—he could make some annoying paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art has two of the offending paintings hanging side-by-side. Lawrence (died 1830) had well-earned success throughout his life. A prodigy, he found success early and later became President of the Royal Academy. He…
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Thumbs-Up-Down, Uncategorized
Thumbs-up: Neel, Thumbs-up (also): Pearlstein
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By happenstance or cunning plan, The Cleveland Museum of Art has two large paintings hanging next to each other by artists of whom I am fond– Alice Neel and Philip Pearlstein. Juxtaposed this way, the relative merits of each can be studied. Except for a long detour in the Picasso Amusement Park, a straight line…
Aside
I visited Cleveland State U’s new gallery space on Euclid today. Neither of the two show–Animatopoeia, and Dante Rodriguez: New Works–warmed my winter-insulted bones, although Animatopoeia has some interesting sculpture I would provide a link to the gallery’s web site but the site provides minimal information.
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Uncategorized
Gaertner at the Cleveland Museum of Art
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I’m an idiot, but you already knew that. After writing about discovering Frederick Gaertner in this post, I belatedly realized I had seen–on numerous occasions, no less–one of his paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. For some reason, I never connected that Gaertner with my Gaertner discovered at the Bonfoey Gallery. The Museum’s “The Furnace”…
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Reviews, Uncategorized
Julie Friedman at Busta Gallery
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In her show, Perennial Shift, at the William Busta Gallery, Julie Friedman exhibits a print maker’s love of process. Initially, the pieces (a useful generic term) reminded me of the silhouettes you can have made at Coney Island or Cedar Point. Like those silhouettes, these are cut-outs; most are black on white. On closer inspection, they are the product of a labor-intensive, and…
anecdotes, Artists, Bio, Books, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
Book Thief
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In the summer before third grade, we moved to a small town far from Dayton. The ramshackle house we rented was across the street from the public library. With its pink-marble columns, the library seemed to exist in another world. I began spending all of my free time there. My frequent visits to the library…