Monday, February 24, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Matt Dibble: Paintings and Drawings
An exhibition of Matt Dibble's paintings and drawings will open at www.elderart.com on March 7th,2014.
Elder Gallery selections
http://bit.ly/1iqe2G6
NOADA ART Expo 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
NOADA ART Expo 2014
Friday March14-Sunday March16, 2014
Opening reception: Friday 5pm – 9pm
Saturday 11am-5pm; Sunday 12pm-5pm
Location: The Transformer Station
1460 W. 29th St, Cleveland,OH 44113
www.transformerstation.org
The Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association is pleased to announce its 2014 ARTExpo the weekend of March14th, 15th and 16th. Once again the Expo will take place within the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation’s Transformer Station, 1460 West 29th St., Cleveland. The Transformer Station, which marked its one-year anniversary earlier in 2014, is a jewel of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The museum is devoted to their private photography collection for part of the year and used by the Cleveland Museum of Art for photography exhibitions during the rest of the year.
The Expo offers a unique opportunity
for patrons to browse and buy fine works of art from among Ohio’s most
respected dealers and galleries. This is the only expo of its kind in the
region and the only place where such a diversified offering can be found all in
one place at one time. All of the participating galleries and dealers have
placed art with major museums, private and corporate collections and will bring
to the 2014 Expo a selection showcasing their best works. This eclectic offering includes a cross section of
historic, regional, international, modern and contemporary, paintings,
drawings, original prints, photography, fiber art and sculpture. All works will be available for purchase and
will appeal to a broad range of tastes, from established collectors to those
purchasing a work of art for the first time.
The 2014 ARTExpo will open on Friday,
March 14 from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM with a gala preview party. Wine and hors
d’oeuvres will be served as patrons peruse the various booths where they can
purchase art in an intimate atmosphere and interact freely with the dealers who
also offer extensive knowledge of all aspects of collecting art including
conservation, framing, appraisals and installation for both private and
corporate clients.
The Expo will continue on Saturday, May 11
from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday, May 12 from Noon to 5:00 PM. As a special
event, on Saturday afternoon at 2:00p.m. noted art historian Dr Henry Adams
will lead visitors on a “walk and talk” though the Transformer Station. He will
browse dealer’s booths with guests and talk about select works of art from
each. On Sunday at 2:00p.m Adams will be present to discuss and sign his new
book, ‘Painting in Pure Color, Modern Art in Cleveland before the Armory Show
1908 – 1913”as well as several of his older books which will also be available
for sale. Dr Adams who has published widely, curated many noted traveling exhibitions
and collaborated on a PBS documentary with Ken Burns, has been singled out by Art News as one of the foremost experts
in the field of American Art.
*As of this date, the
participating dealers are, Bonfoey Gallery, William Busta Gallery, Thomas
French Fine Art, Harris Stanton Gallery, Art, Shaheen
Modern and Contemporary,Tregoning & Company, and Verne Gallery
Please take advantage of the
opportunity to highlight Northeast Ohio’s strong interest and support of the
arts by acknowledging this noteworthy event in your publication. NOADA is an
organization supporting local art businesses and hundreds of local artists. As
such, NOADA does not have an extensive budget for advertising and needs your
help in letting your audience know about this event. Thank you!
For more information regarding the NOADA
Art Exhibition please contact Diane Shaffstein at des@bonfoey.com,
or Mindy Tousley at info@HarrisStantonGallery.com
Sunday, November 10, 2013
FRESH FROM THE STUDIO
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This
exhibition explores recent works from the studio of some of the region's
best working artists. The show offers each artist a moment to reflect on
their most recent work/s and in a short statement, describe how that work fits
in that artists current creative direction. FRESH FROM THE
STUDIO gives the viewer a window into the creative process-in both art and
text.
LIBBY CHANEY
MATT DIBBLE
GEORGE KOCAR
GEORGE KOZMON
JAMES MASSENA
MARCH
SEAN McCONNOR
CHRISTOPHER
PEKOC
A.D. PETERS
ANDREW REACH
DOUGLAS MAX
UTTER
PETER WISE
open to
the public for viewing:
9
November 2013
(through 11/23/13)
Artists will be present
11/15/13 6-8PM
during
the November, THIRD FRIDAY event
only at
located
in the
78th STREET STUDIOS: AN ECLECTIC ARTS MAZE OF OVER
45 ARTS BUSINESSES OPEN EVERY THIRD FRIDAY 5-9 PM
_________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Matt Dibble:Open Studio
Open Studio
Matthew Dibble
Matt Dibble:Open Studio
Curated by: Bill Tregoning
2400 Superior Ave. Suite 215
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
September 21st from 12:00 PM
to 5:PM
| ||
 Matthew Dibble, Art Studio in Cleveland, 9-21-13 |
|
Matt Dibble: Open Studio ~ Please come and visit my very active painting studio in the superior corridor area of Cleveland during the Sparx City Hop http://bit.ly/17FJ33O Saturday September 21st between the hours of 12:00- 5:00pm.
I’ve been preparing for an exhibition of new paintings to be shown at www.tregononingandco.com in 2014. My studio is located at 2400 Superior Ave. Cleveland,Ohio 44114 on the second floor of the new world headquarters of www.hotcards.com Parking at the rear of the building.
I’ve been preparing for an exhibition of new paintings to be shown at www.tregononingandco.com in 2014. My studio is located at 2400 Superior Ave. Cleveland,Ohio 44114 on the second floor of the new world headquarters of www.hotcards.com Parking at the rear of the building.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Northeast Ohio artists shine in the 77th Midyear exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art
By
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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The National Midyear exhibition at the Butler Institute of Art is a classic exercise in artistic comfort food.
It’s a juried, annual exhibition that draws entries from all fifty states and that attracts artists of a conservative bent, working in traditional media with traditional subjects.
That’s just as true today of the 77th version of the show, now on view at the Butler through Sunday, Aug. 18, as it has been in the past.
This year’s Midyear won’t challenge, thrill or disorient, but it will give pleasure. And that latter point is especially true of the entries from Northeast Ohio. For the most part, they consist of new works by some of the region’s best artists.
View full sizeSean McConnor of Greenville, Pa., won a well-deserved First Place award in the 77th Midyear exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art for "Vase, Book, and Letter. Also noteworthy are a pair of large, handsome abstractions by Matt Dibble of Cleveland, one of which won the show's Third Place award.
In both works, the artist appears to draw heavily on the early 1950s Abstract Expressionist styles of Willem de Kooning and Conrad Marca-Relli. Dibble’s abstractions, made with house paint and patches of torn paper fastened as elements of collage, are energetic and vibrant, if derivative.
Similar comments could be made about much of the work in the Midyear. There’s enjoyment to be had, for sure, but nobody’s breaking out in wild new directions.
The Midyear attracts a certain kind of artist, which makes it very much a part of the institution's amiable, approachable identity.
The strategy of Louis Zona, the Butler's admirable director, is to appeal to a wide range of tastes - without stinting on the avant-garde. He's proud of having collected works by Jackson Pollock and Norman Rockwell in recent years.
The Midyear falls on the middlebrow side of the museum's personality. In it, you’ll see paintings reminiscent of the 1930s industrial landscapes of Charles Sheeler, excellent portraits and character studies painted from life, some wonderful still lifes, landscapes with an Impressionist air and abstractions that are generally decorous and decorative.
Installed in a rambling, amiable, mix-and-match manner, the show includes 90 works by 76 artists from 19 states. Some 39 works are from Ohio, making the Buckeye State the best represented in numerical terms.
The Ohioans are also among the best artists in the show.
Particularly outstanding are a pair of still lifes by Carol Stewart of Bexley, which evoke a kind of mesmerizing, low-grade ecstasy of being surrounded by familiar objects. She paints glassware and crockery on tables that seem to have been tilted up slightly toward the viewer, emphasizing the flatness of the picture plane.
Judy Takacs of Solon is represented by a handsome character study of a bald man cradling his face in his wrinkled hands.
John Smolko of Kent is displaying a colored pencil drawing of a comely young woman dressed in shorts and a tank top lying on a bed in a twisting, visually striking pose. The drawing grabs attention largely for its crisp technique and excellent life drawing, which make it feel like the equivalent of a pianist running through scales or arpeggios. It’s an artistic exercise.
A painting by John Jude Palencar of Medina, entitled “Pagan,” is a meticulously realistic image of a dancing male nude, painted in the drab, sharp-focus, deadpan style of Andrew Wyeth. It gets points for weirdness because in place of the man’s head, there’s a cow’s skull.
The Midyear was juried by Jerald Melberg, a gallery owner in Charlotte, N.C., and Thomas McNickle, a very traditional landscape painter from Pennsylvania.
They deserve credit for awarding First Place in the show to Sean McConnor of Greenville, Pa., for a simple, subdued, quietly elegant still life, “Vase, Book, and Letter.”
It’s a modest work, measuring only 17 by 24 inches, but with its somber palette, and dry, dusty-looking surface, it envelops you in a quiet world of humble objects that seem to have powerful inner lives. It achieves a lot with very little. That’s the nature of artistic alchemy.
By giving this painting the top prize, Melberg and McNickle are sending a very smart message to everyone else in the show, and to anyone who sees it.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
THE NINE: The Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association in the 2nd Year of its Rebirth
THE NINE: The Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association in the 2nd Year of its Rebirth
Issue Spring 2013 | Author Douglas Max Utter
How many serious commercial art galleries are there, here in northern Ohio? Venues that aren’t museums or college campuses, but where people actually make a living by selling art? Places an exhibiting artist, or an aspiring collector, or any informed visitor might find to be professionally impressive? Maybe 50, 100? Probably less.
Of course the nation’s heartland isn’t its artistic epicenter, not by the numbers anyway. Even 100 galleries here wouldn’t be that big a deal from a national perspective. In New York the Chelsea area alone has three times that many. But Northeast Ohio is not the desolate frontier either. Just as we have world-class music, film, and performance, we have some impressive visual and conceptual art. In fact there are plenty of individuals and collections who go shopping in northern Ohio, including major museums. Some even come from New York to do just that. After all, art tends to be cheaper around here. Additionally, much complex and beautiful work is made within sight of Lake Erie’s shores. And of course top shelf national and international work can be purchased through local vendors. Right now, despite growing community support (like CPAC’s Creative Workforce Fellowships for local artists, or the emphasis on home-grown art at the new MOCA) these artists and the galleries representing them remain an underappreciated resource. It’s a buyer’s market. If there’s anything lacking here, it’s probably broad-based professional organization, and it turns out there may be a cure for that.
Though there’s no point in counting storefronts, a number that means something on the Ohio scene just at the moment is the number nine. That’s how many galleries and dealers are currently working together under the banner of the Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association. NOADA enjoyed a trial run some twenty years ago, mounting a fine arts exposition in the English Oak Room in downtown Cleveland, and after a long period of quiescence began to regroup last year. NOADA’s initial, resurgent joint effort, its Expo 2012, was the closing exhibition at the old MOCA facility, helping to mark that institution’s transition to a new level of prominence, and attracting a large local audience of its own.
“Collegiality, professional conduct,” says Tom French, NOADA’s president, summing up a couple of goals on the agenda of the small but distinguished band of fellow gallerists and dealers. French’s own family-run business has been going strong for twenty-five years, and like several other fine art dealers in the greater Cleveland area French’s operation hasn’t included a bricks-and-mortar display room – so far, anyway. Northern Ohio is his base of operations, a place to live and sometimes store his stock-in-trade. But virtual shows take place online or in catalogues, attracting clients from all over the map. A widely distributed base of private collectors commonly makes up the bread and butter clientele of most galleries, but French has also sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Chicago Institute of Art, and several dozen other public institutions. Then there are the art fairs, great and small, around the country and abroad, racking up frequent flier miles for French. A large part of the fine arts market has always been a matter of going on the road.
In this French is fairly typical – certainly he’s not the only member of NOADA whose business model has involved a lot of traveling. The Lesko family (of Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery) did the same thing until they settled into the West 78th Street arts complex a few years ago. Even those with a firmly established physical showcase–like the Verne Collection, Tregoning & Co., and Corcoran Fine Arts–have always needed to find ways to reach out to a wider client base.
Other NOADA members are William Busta Gallery, Bonfoey Gallery, Harris Stanton Gallery, Riley Galleries, and 1point618, and if they have one thing in common it’s a track record for professionalism, not to mention sheer longevity. Bonfoey’s dates back more than a century, and Tregoning has been in business since 1973. Several others are approaching the quarter century mark.
One advantage the Cleveland art market hasn’t enjoyed is the sort of annual or biennial cooperative art expositions found in many other cities. We have neighborhood art cum food events like Tremont’s second Friday Art Walk, and Gordon Square’s Third Friday events (made especially interesting every month by the major galleries that take part, including three from NOADA’s roster). But even short Cleveland memories still recall the attempt to start a homegrown art fair made by NOADA’s first incarnation back in the early 1990’s. When Tregoning and Bill Busta (William Busta Gallery), French himself, and principals from Bonfoey Gallery, James Corcoran, Michael Verne, Thomas Riley, Harris Stanton, and 1point618 Gallery, among others, began to talk about a revival, it was an idea whose time had come – again.
This year’s Expo should be even more interesting. On display for three days starting on May 10, Expo 2013 will fill Fred and Laura Bidwell’s new Transformer Station museum, just off Detroit Avenue in Ohio City. The museum itself opened on February 1st , with a selection of photographs and photo-based art from the Bidwells’ own collection. Among the highlights of the upcoming Expo will be works by rising art star, Sedrick Huckaby, courtesy of French’s gallery. Another not-to-be-missed artist on the international scene is the British artist Jane Millican, whose pencil drawings are part of Lesko’s stock in trade, along with Clevelander Judith Brandon’s works on paper.
The Transformer Station space isn’t overly large for a show of works in numerous mediums (Riley is known for their amazing glass objects, for instance), culled from nine different galleries. But it represents the vanguard of twenty-first century changes happening here in our own art world, making the right statement at the right time about the seriousness of NOADA and its aims.
NOADA ARTExpo 2013 Gala Preview, 5 pm to 9 pm Friday, May 10, $50. Exhibit hours 11 am to 5 pm Saturday, May 11 and noon to 5 pm Sunday, May 12, $10. Transformer Station, 1460 West 29th Street, Cleveland.
Raptor Square, by Laurence Channing, courtesy of Bonfoey Gallery
Though there’s no point in counting storefronts, a number that means something on the Ohio scene just at the moment is the number nine. That’s how many galleries and dealers are currently working together under the banner of the Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association. NOADA enjoyed a trial run some twenty years ago, mounting a fine arts exposition in the English Oak Room in downtown Cleveland, and after a long period of quiescence began to regroup last year. NOADA’s initial, resurgent joint effort, its Expo 2012, was the closing exhibition at the old MOCA facility, helping to mark that institution’s transition to a new level of prominence, and attracting a large local audience of its own.
“Collegiality, professional conduct,” says Tom French, NOADA’s president, summing up a couple of goals on the agenda of the small but distinguished band of fellow gallerists and dealers. French’s own family-run business has been going strong for twenty-five years, and like several other fine art dealers in the greater Cleveland area French’s operation hasn’t included a bricks-and-mortar display room – so far, anyway. Northern Ohio is his base of operations, a place to live and sometimes store his stock-in-trade. But virtual shows take place online or in catalogues, attracting clients from all over the map. A widely distributed base of private collectors commonly makes up the bread and butter clientele of most galleries, but French has also sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Chicago Institute of Art, and several dozen other public institutions. Then there are the art fairs, great and small, around the country and abroad, racking up frequent flier miles for French. A large part of the fine arts market has always been a matter of going on the road.
In this French is fairly typical – certainly he’s not the only member of NOADA whose business model has involved a lot of traveling. The Lesko family (of Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery) did the same thing until they settled into the West 78th Street arts complex a few years ago. Even those with a firmly established physical showcase–like the Verne Collection, Tregoning & Co., and Corcoran Fine Arts–have always needed to find ways to reach out to a wider client base.
“She Wore Her Quilt,” by Sedrick Huckaby, courtesy of Thomas French Fine Art
One advantage the Cleveland art market hasn’t enjoyed is the sort of annual or biennial cooperative art expositions found in many other cities. We have neighborhood art cum food events like Tremont’s second Friday Art Walk, and Gordon Square’s Third Friday events (made especially interesting every month by the major galleries that take part, including three from NOADA’s roster). But even short Cleveland memories still recall the attempt to start a homegrown art fair made by NOADA’s first incarnation back in the early 1990’s. When Tregoning and Bill Busta (William Busta Gallery), French himself, and principals from Bonfoey Gallery, James Corcoran, Michael Verne, Thomas Riley, Harris Stanton, and 1point618 Gallery, among others, began to talk about a revival, it was an idea whose time had come – again.
This year’s Expo should be even more interesting. On display for three days starting on May 10, Expo 2013 will fill Fred and Laura Bidwell’s new Transformer Station museum, just off Detroit Avenue in Ohio City. The museum itself opened on February 1st , with a selection of photographs and photo-based art from the Bidwells’ own collection. Among the highlights of the upcoming Expo will be works by rising art star, Sedrick Huckaby, courtesy of French’s gallery. Another not-to-be-missed artist on the international scene is the British artist Jane Millican, whose pencil drawings are part of Lesko’s stock in trade, along with Clevelander Judith Brandon’s works on paper.
The Transformer Station space isn’t overly large for a show of works in numerous mediums (Riley is known for their amazing glass objects, for instance), culled from nine different galleries. But it represents the vanguard of twenty-first century changes happening here in our own art world, making the right statement at the right time about the seriousness of NOADA and its aims.
NOADA ARTExpo 2013 Gala Preview, 5 pm to 9 pm Friday, May 10, $50. Exhibit hours 11 am to 5 pm Saturday, May 11 and noon to 5 pm Sunday, May 12, $10. Transformer Station, 1460 West 29th Street, Cleveland.
Friday, February 22, 2013
A Visual Conversation: The Paintings of Matthew Dibble
by Katherine Aimone
www.artswrite.com
In the spirit of the Abstract Expressionists, Dibble is an experiential and experimental painter. When describing his inclination to use unusual materials, he notes: “I’ve taken a drop cloth right off the floor, cut it up, and fastened to the canvas. Sometimes I don’t even use a brush. I might use sticks, rags, trowels, thumbtacks and bare hands….”
His description of the process behind the creation of the large-scale painting titled Fondue Party (2013) underscores this idea:
Dibble’s physical stature corresponds with the scale of his work, and there is an active athleticism in the dynamic surfaces of his pieces. In the realm of both materials and method, one can see that his dual life as a painter and roofer are inevitably intertwined. During the past year, he began attaching large canvases to an easel with thumbtacks for practical reasons, prior to incorporating them into the compositions. In Clifton and Baltic (2013), enamel and charcoal are punctuated by the staccato of the tiny metal circles.
The same improvisational freedom reigns in Temple Hum, also painted this year. Its vertical format compresses and energizes forms similar to the more restful and languid ones in the horizontal Clifton and Baltic. Painterly surfaces merge and commune with one another—visual sensations advance and recede to create a sense of depth. Detailed areas show a history of separate painted or drawn surfaces that have been cut and unified. In these works he seems to be exploring detailed passages while working toward overall coalescence, giving birth to a fusion of forces.
The activity and exciting buzz in Dibble’s work is, however, not achieved out of a frenzied way of working. He characteristically sits for a period of time in his studio prior to painting, letting go of thoughts and allowing spaciousness. Although he chooses to ask questions that prompt him to push his work, he practices this inquiry without creating stumbling blocks. In his artist’s statement he describes the process of bringing himself into focus:
A willingness to move in a natural way between styles and media (all related in language) contributes successfully to Dibble’s evolution as an artist. He creates and finds intersections between his many incarnations of work: “I’m always revisiting my past work. A thin line connects my work and life: past, present and future. But most important is the present.”
The artist also does small drawings that he has created since he was young. Drawing is the grounding force for his work, and he returns to create them when painting feels like too much for him.
He has used these evocative drawings to create a second large-scale body of work made by projecting and enlarging them on canvases. These paintings seem to serve as a compositional bridge between drawing and nonobjective pieces. Bits and pieces of the distinctive language of line emerge in the shapes and overall compositions of the abstract works. He notes: “The connection between the two works seems to be a bridge that links the mind and feeling.” The artist’s ability to deal with seeming dualities, harmonizing them in ways that are complementary, guides the evolution of his work and life.
www.artswrite.com
Too much thinking can be an obstacle for me when painting; the ‘judge’ always seems to get in the way. My connection can only be found in the moment, and I often come back to a sense of my feet on the floor while painting. During these moments some real work is possible…. As artists, we do much better trying to keep things simple. We do better to compare ourselves solely to ourselves. Self-inventory is useful, while self-condemnation is not. Without calling our whole identity into question, there are inquiries that we can fruitfully ask. How am I developing as an artist? Am I doing the work necessary for me to mature? Did I work today? Yes? Well, that’s good. Working today is what gives us currency and self-respect. There is dignity in work. —Matthew DibbleMatthew Dibble’s large-scale abstract work has evolved over the course of many years of day-to-day dedication. The energy on his canvases is scrappy, adventurous, unapologetic, and direct. The volume of work he produces reflects his energy and determination to evolve as a painter.
Matthew Dibble in studio, Cleveland, Ohio
His description of the process behind the creation of the large-scale painting titled Fondue Party (2013) underscores this idea:
I started by covering this canvas with white enamel house paint, then attaching newsprint. I draw into the newsprint with conte crayon and then cut the lines out with a razor blade. I painted over the lines with a sponge brush and black enamel. Then I began to pull pieces of the newsprint off and moved them around and back, working until the image made sense. This usually happens quickly.
Fondue Party, 2013, enamel and newsprint on canvas, 55 x 82 in.
I take in new impressions all the time. For instance, I remember working on a roofing crew, mopping down hot tar. I was fascinated with the shapes that occurred with the tar floating on the brown recovery board. I see abstract relationships everywhere…Black, floating shapes in Clifton and Baltic lead the eye in an almost circular movement, guiding the viewer through the subtleties of the many pieces of a complex and interesting puzzle. An eccentric energy in the overall piece keeps the viewer returning to the composition, wandering through inviting spaces. The highly textural nature of the surface is a byproduct of moving pieces of painted and worked paper around and reworking it.
Clifton and Baltic, 2013, enamel, charcoal, and thumbtacks on canvas, 52 x 60 in.
Temple Hum, 2013, enamel, charcoal, and thumbtacks on canvas, 48 x 44 in.
…I begin to let go of my old ideas, my habitual way of doing things, my grasping approach. I notice another part of myself, a deeper, quieter part. Instead of trying to make something happen, I try to allow this other voice to surface.Private Memory (2013) is done on a large sheet of blueprint paper with enamel, charcoal, and pieces of paper. In this mixed-media painting the crisp edges of elements of Temple Hum settle into a state of blurred, organic flux. “I can’t say I understand intellectually how a painting is created. After I start, the process begins to guide me and I feel my way through,” he notes.
Private Memory, 2013, enamel, charcoal, and paper on canvas, 50 x 46 in.
The artist also does small drawings that he has created since he was young. Drawing is the grounding force for his work, and he returns to create them when painting feels like too much for him.
He has used these evocative drawings to create a second large-scale body of work made by projecting and enlarging them on canvases. These paintings seem to serve as a compositional bridge between drawing and nonobjective pieces. Bits and pieces of the distinctive language of line emerge in the shapes and overall compositions of the abstract works. He notes: “The connection between the two works seems to be a bridge that links the mind and feeling.” The artist’s ability to deal with seeming dualities, harmonizing them in ways that are complementary, guides the evolution of his work and life.
The way I’m working right now feels very natural and the language makes sense. I was 45 years old before I began to paint well, struggling for many years to find my way. It is a mystery to me why I stayed with it, but all of my work is tied to one thing—a search for meaning.
Platypus Trio, 2013, oil, enamel, and newsprint on canvas, 80 x 80 in.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tremont ArtWalk to celebrate 20th Anniversary
For Immediate Release:
Tremont ArtWalk to celebrate 20th Anniversary on
Friday February 8, 2013, 6-10pm in Historic Tremont
Cleveland, Ohio –Tremont ArtWalk
6pm, Dedication by invited guests Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson
and Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman at Brandt Gallery, 1028 Kenilworth Avenue
Since the late 1980s, artists have been moving into the historic
Tremont neighborhood. In September 1990, Tremont resident Jean Brandt exhibited
the art installation, "Olde Stuff" by Terry Durst, in her storefront
law office on Kenilworth Avenue. Two years later Ron Naso, owner of Studio
Gallery on Professor Avenue and artist Robert Ritchie teamed up with Sandy
Rotokowski of Edison's Pub and The Literary Cafe's Andy Timithy and Linda
Baldizzi for a multi-venue Halloween art celebration. The seeds a "Tremont
ArtWalk" were being sown.
Two months later, in December 1992, the same team marked the
opening of Wildflower, an exhibit and performance space in Lemko Hall, with
another neighborhood "ArtWalk". To celebrate, The Lit exhibited
paintings by Tim Herron, another Tremont resident and proprietor of The Manly
Pad. Herron customarily left his sketchpad at the end of the bar at The Lit, to
be reviewed and even added to by others; echoes of this custom continue today
in the monthly drawing club that meets on Friday nights in the back room of The
Lit.
The first official Tremont ArtWalk occurred on February 12,
1993--the second Friday of the month. Seven businesses pooled their resources
to promote the event, with a card designed by Mikel Mahoney that included the
ArtWalk logo and a neighborhood map. These seven businesses included not only
two exhibitional galleries but also Bookworm and Bugjuice (a bookstore on
Kenilworth Avenue) and The Guerilla Theater.
From these humble beginnings 20 years ago,
Tremont ArtWalk has blossomed, now boasting monthly participation from almost
30 restaurants, pubs, galleries, museums, churches, social clubs, boutiques and
specialty merchants.
Much of this activity would be hard to imagine
without the tireless energy and creativity of local artists and residents who
have made Tremont ArtWalk the premier monthly event in Cleveland's original
arts neighborhood.
Come out and celebrate with us - Twenty years of
ArtWalk February 8, 2013.
20
A show of Artists that shaped the Tremont ArtWalk.
2393 Professor Avenue,
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
Artists include Dana DePew, Matt Dibble, Dana
Oldfather, Jeffry Chiplis, Amy Casey, Bruce Edwards, David Szekeres, Laila
Voss, Stephen Yusko, Jeannene Mathis-Bertosa, Scott Radke, Jim Votava, Barbara
Merritt, Angelica Pozo, Steve Mastroianni, Douglass Max Utter, Tim Herron,
Rebecca Yody, Clay Parker and Reverend Albert Wagner.
Open for public viewing for
free from 6-7:30pm, one night only.
Followed by the Amazin'
Cajun Crawdad Bash party in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the Tremont
ArtWalk. The party runs from 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. and attendees must be 21 and
over. Tickets are only $20 and include:
Samplings of Amazing Cajun Cuisine from Chef Johnny of Zydeco Bistro (a Tremont Farmers' Market prepared food vendor) www.zydecobistrollc.com
MENU: Crawfish étouffée, Jambalaya, King cake, Lagniappe (vegetarian) & Red beans
Live music from Mo' Mojo a hard driving, high energy, Zydeco-based “Party-Gras” Band. The female fronted group features three-part harmonies, accordion, fiddle, guitar, rubboard, sax, trumpet, harp, bass, percussion, and drums. http://www.momojomusic.com/
Craft Beer Cash Bar $4
If you can't attend the Bash there are a lot of great things free to all on the Tremont ArtWalk which runs
6-10pm:
Great Art in Tremont!
Free Lolly the Trolley throughout Tremont to enjoy the ArtWalk!
Tremont Wide business specials!
Samplings of Amazing Cajun Cuisine from Chef Johnny of Zydeco Bistro (a Tremont Farmers' Market prepared food vendor) www.zydecobistrollc.com
MENU: Crawfish étouffée, Jambalaya, King cake, Lagniappe (vegetarian) & Red beans
Live music from Mo' Mojo a hard driving, high energy, Zydeco-based “Party-Gras” Band. The female fronted group features three-part harmonies, accordion, fiddle, guitar, rubboard, sax, trumpet, harp, bass, percussion, and drums. http://www.momojomusic.com/
Craft Beer Cash Bar $4
If you can't attend the Bash there are a lot of great things free to all on the Tremont ArtWalk which runs
6-10pm:
Great Art in Tremont!
Free Lolly the Trolley throughout Tremont to enjoy the ArtWalk!
Tremont Wide business specials!
A limited number of tickets
are available so order them now at www.crawdadbash.eventbrite.com or by calling
Tremont West at 216-575-0920 ext, 103.
Make it an Amazin' Cajun
night out and celebrate Tremont!
All proceeds benefit free community programs and events including: Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival, Tremont Farmers' Market, Taste of Tremont, Arts in August, Tremont Steeplechase, Tremont BrewHaha and more!
For info on the 20th Anniversary Tremont ArtWalk visit www.tremontartwalk.org or https://www.facebook.com/events/319331508180023/?fref=ts
All proceeds benefit free community programs and events including: Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival, Tremont Farmers' Market, Taste of Tremont, Arts in August, Tremont Steeplechase, Tremont BrewHaha and more!
For info on the 20th Anniversary Tremont ArtWalk visit www.tremontartwalk.org or https://www.facebook.com/events/319331508180023/?fref=ts
About Tremont West Development Corporation
TWDC is a non-profit organization that works with residents,
business owners and other community partners to create a dynamic community.
TWDC strives to maintain and improve the living, business, and cultural
conditions for all of Tremont. For more information call
216-575-0920 or visit http://www.tremontwest.org.
216-575-0920 or visit http://www.tremontwest.org.
###
Media Contact:
Michelle Davis
Director of Marketing
and Fund Development
Tremont West Development
Corporation
2406 Professor Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
Phone (216) 575-0920,
ext. 103
Fax (216) 575-0998
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Shaheen Modern and Contemporary in Cleveland honors the Bill Radawec legacy
Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
The late Bill Radawec, a nationally admired Cleveland artist who died in July at age 59 after a yearlong battle with lymphoma, was a miniaturist who practiced a gentle art of nuance and fine distinctions.
A retrospective of Radawec’s work, now on view at Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art in Cleveland, is full of delectable microphenomena, which attune the eye and the mind to small visual events that might easily be overlooked.
A tiny, copper-painted bird lies on its side on a square piece of plywood painted to resemble a piece of turf, which is in turn mysteriously set on the floor in a corner of the gallery. Another bird, this one painted silver, sits in a small wire basket suspended from the gallery ceiling.
On the walls, two small video cameras whir quietly on their mounts, turning this way and that, scanning the interior for some inscrutable purpose not revealed to the visitor. Also on the walls are pastel-hued geometric paintings inspired by paint chips and images of contrails left behind by jetliners in patches of clear blue sky.
A collection of small, wooden boxes mounted on the walls at oddly differing levels might escape notice entirely. But if you get close and peek inside, you’ll be treated to bizarre miniature tableaux, including one in which a woman strips naked at what appears to be an open-air tea party, while a construction worker stands nearby with a coil of cable in his hands and another fellow guzzles a bottle of wine.
The show is an eclectic mix of objects and images resembling the visual equivalents of Zen Buddhist koans, or riddles, that could produce effervescent moments of intellectual bliss if understood properly. Taken as a whole, the show is a fitting introduction, and tribute, to an artist known for having an odd, quirky and eccentric sensibility, liberally spiced with a well-developed sense of whimsy.
View full sizeA whimsical sculptural construction by the late Bill Radawec evokes the mystery of small events which take place around us everyday.Born in 1952 in Parma, Radawec grew up there as the son of William Radawec, a firefighter, and Irene Radawec, a homemaker. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea in 1974 and pursued a master’s degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1975 and 76, but he ended his studies short of completion.
Radawec taught in Berea schools from 1979 to 82 and then spent the following decade teaching in Cleveland public schools. It wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles in 1992, however, that he began attracting serious attention as an artist and as a promoter of works by other artists.
Radawec’s widow, Ibojka Toth-Radawec, explains that in 1992, commercial galleries were closing in Los Angeles because of a recession. Radawec responded by inaugurating a series of exhibitions in the apartments or homes of friends, under the rubric “Domestic Setting.”
The shows caught the attention of the noted critic and curator Peter Frank, who gave Radawec a plug in LA Weekly, which in turn helped turn the shows into something of an underground movement.
“He loved to promote other artists,” Toth-Radawec said.
Radawec returned to Cleveland in 2000 to care for his aging mother after his father’s death. And he continued to produce art and to participate in exhibitions that caught the eye of reviewers from Art in America and other publications.
The show at Shaheen, assembled and installed with the assistance of his widow and friends, is characteristically oddball, with works hung high or low on walls or stuck in corners, as if to require extra effort and to encourage the viewer to take nothing for granted.
The cumulative effect is that of a quiet sense of joy and delight. Radawec never swings for the fences in any individual work but seeks instead to prick the conscience and tickle the funny bone.
Radawec was a conceptual artist, motivated more by ideas than by a drive to fashion imposing objects. His work pulls you in close and asks you to attend to fine details, like a comedian with a flat affect who tells short, droll stories with enigmatic punch lines.
At times, Radawec’s work is autobiographical. One framed panel re-creates a section of plaster wall in Radawec’s Los Angeles apartment, which formed a crack after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
The images of jet contrails were inspired by the arcs of jetliners changing course on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists took control.
It’s not strictly necessary to understand the personal meanings behind Radawec’s work in order to enjoy it. It casts a spell, even if you don’t know the back stories.
View full sizeA small construction hung on a wall in the Bill Radawec retrospective treats viewers to an overhead view of an unlikely scene in a mysterious roomlike setting, in which a woman strips bare while ladies appear to sip tea at a table and a guy in the corner guzzles a bottle of wine.The most important personal narrative is that of the artist’s romance. He met Toth-Radawec at a gallery opening in Kent in 2004, four years after he returned to Northeast Ohio from Los Angeles. They married on Sept. 16, 2010, on the intensive-care floor at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where Radawec was undergoing treatment.
Toth-Radawec says the ceremony was a first in the history of the unit.
The show at Shaheen is a first attempt to come to grips with Radawec’s artistic legacy. It admits the viewer into an aesthetic world shaped by one of the gentler artists who have worked in the region in recent decades. And it shows that Radawec’s unusual sensibility
lives on in the body of work he left behind.
The late Bill Radawec, a nationally admired Cleveland artist who died in July at age 59 after a yearlong battle with lymphoma, was a miniaturist who practiced a gentle art of nuance and fine distinctions.
A retrospective of Radawec’s work, now on view at Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art in Cleveland, is full of delectable microphenomena, which attune the eye and the mind to small visual events that might easily be overlooked.
A tiny, copper-painted bird lies on its side on a square piece of plywood painted to resemble a piece of turf, which is in turn mysteriously set on the floor in a corner of the gallery. Another bird, this one painted silver, sits in a small wire basket suspended from the gallery ceiling.
On the walls, two small video cameras whir quietly on their mounts, turning this way and that, scanning the interior for some inscrutable purpose not revealed to the visitor. Also on the walls are pastel-hued geometric paintings inspired by paint chips and images of contrails left behind by jetliners in patches of clear blue sky.
A collection of small, wooden boxes mounted on the walls at oddly differing levels might escape notice entirely. But if you get close and peek inside, you’ll be treated to bizarre miniature tableaux, including one in which a woman strips naked at what appears to be an open-air tea party, while a construction worker stands nearby with a coil of cable in his hands and another fellow guzzles a bottle of wine.
The show is an eclectic mix of objects and images resembling the visual equivalents of Zen Buddhist koans, or riddles, that could produce effervescent moments of intellectual bliss if understood properly. Taken as a whole, the show is a fitting introduction, and tribute, to an artist known for having an odd, quirky and eccentric sensibility, liberally spiced with a well-developed sense of whimsy.
View full sizeA whimsical sculptural construction by the late Bill Radawec evokes the mystery of small events which take place around us everyday.Radawec taught in Berea schools from 1979 to 82 and then spent the following decade teaching in Cleveland public schools. It wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles in 1992, however, that he began attracting serious attention as an artist and as a promoter of works by other artists.
Radawec’s widow, Ibojka Toth-Radawec, explains that in 1992, commercial galleries were closing in Los Angeles because of a recession. Radawec responded by inaugurating a series of exhibitions in the apartments or homes of friends, under the rubric “Domestic Setting.”
The shows caught the attention of the noted critic and curator Peter Frank, who gave Radawec a plug in LA Weekly, which in turn helped turn the shows into something of an underground movement.
“He loved to promote other artists,” Toth-Radawec said.
Radawec returned to Cleveland in 2000 to care for his aging mother after his father’s death. And he continued to produce art and to participate in exhibitions that caught the eye of reviewers from Art in America and other publications.
The show at Shaheen, assembled and installed with the assistance of his widow and friends, is characteristically oddball, with works hung high or low on walls or stuck in corners, as if to require extra effort and to encourage the viewer to take nothing for granted.
The cumulative effect is that of a quiet sense of joy and delight. Radawec never swings for the fences in any individual work but seeks instead to prick the conscience and tickle the funny bone.
Radawec was a conceptual artist, motivated more by ideas than by a drive to fashion imposing objects. His work pulls you in close and asks you to attend to fine details, like a comedian with a flat affect who tells short, droll stories with enigmatic punch lines.
At times, Radawec’s work is autobiographical. One framed panel re-creates a section of plaster wall in Radawec’s Los Angeles apartment, which formed a crack after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
The images of jet contrails were inspired by the arcs of jetliners changing course on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists took control.
It’s not strictly necessary to understand the personal meanings behind Radawec’s work in order to enjoy it. It casts a spell, even if you don’t know the back stories.
View full sizeA small construction hung on a wall in the Bill Radawec retrospective treats viewers to an overhead view of an unlikely scene in a mysterious roomlike setting, in which a woman strips bare while ladies appear to sip tea at a table and a guy in the corner guzzles a bottle of wine.Toth-Radawec says the ceremony was a first in the history of the unit.
The show at Shaheen is a first attempt to come to grips with Radawec’s artistic legacy. It admits the viewer into an aesthetic world shaped by one of the gentler artists who have worked in the region in recent decades. And it shows that Radawec’s unusual sensibility
lives on in the body of work he left behind.
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