The collaborative team of Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick recently filled the Galleries at Cleveland State U. with posters, postcards, and photos from their magical world of speculative fiction and false history–Truppe Fledermaus and the Carnival at the End of the World. While Kahn and Selesnick’s magic realism reminds me of artists like Magritte, or…
I attended the annual Cleveland Museum of Art Staff Exhibition the other day. Like last year, the show is in the museum’s lower level by the parking garage. Unlike last year when renovations forced traffic through this area, the exhibition space is now well off the beaten track. The quality–like last year–is uneven. Exhibitors come…
The Cuban-born, Cleveland-based artist Augusto Bordelois is showing some striking works at Cleveland State U. The exhibition, titled “Based on a True Story,” is filled with large-format paintings full of bold colors and simple shapes that burst their frames and overflow the shallow space, as in the accompanying photo. The designs are strong although simple;…
Just now there is a lot of news and information about O’Sickey. The Canton Museum of Art is hosting an exhibition of his work through July 21, and the Bonfoey Gallery’s exhibition runs through the 13th. The Bonfoey exhibition–Travels: Provence and Maine–consists of an outstanding collection of large works that provide those or us unfamiliar…
Stephen Pentak has responded by email to my review of his exhibition at the Bonfoey Gallery last fall. Because my readers might be interested in the exchange, Mr. Pentak has generously agreed to let me post the correspondence. I have appended the emails to the original review.
The contemporary figurative artist Eric Fischl has written, with the aid of Michael Stone, his autobiography–Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas. Because Fischl’s work stands to the side of several currents in contemporary art, he has a (mild) reputation as a rebel. His lifestyle, according to this book, is one of pop-culture…
The works in Virgie Ezelle Patton’s show at William Busta span the last two decades. That’s a lot of time to cover in a typical exhibition, but not enough time for a retrospective, especially for an artist born in 1928. All works on view were done after the artist reached 65. I mention this because…
Yesterday, my son, John-Parker, was incredulous when I told him I didn’t have a favorite among my paintings. “Being an artist,” I told him, “is similar to being a musician. Sometimes I’m the composer and the theme is very important. Other times I am the performer and don’t care about the subject as much, but focus on…