Thu 1/11 @ 5:30-8PM
Mark Soppleland, a 30-year professor at the University of Akron’s Myers School of Art, makes work that is conceptually and visually complex and rich. It’s been seen extensively, in galleries and public art projects.
His latest show, at the Harris Stanton Gallery Akron, is called The Shrine of Realization and other Extraordinary Objects and Visionary Images and features both new paintings and “lit sculptures,” based on found images and objects. He says, “The use of cultural detritus brings complex symbolic and cultural baggage to a meeting with efficiency and historical process, creating greater potential to evoke multiple levels of associative memories.”
The use of light in his sculptural work, he says, represents the “power of the object, a symbolic representation of a part of ourselves, to expand beyond its physical limitations, and by extension, to begin a discussion of our own potential abilities.” The paintings are part of his Organic Algorithm series which deals with how the flood of digital data that currently exists influences and controls different aspects of our lives.”
The show opens with a wine and cheese reception Thu 1/11 @ 5:30-8pm; Soppleland will talk at 6:30. The show will be on view through Sat 2/10. At the same time, Harris Stanton’s boutique gallery will display a small selection of work by the late Marvin Jones, who headed the printmaking department at Cleveland State University where he taught from 1974 through his death in 2005.
Akron, OH 44313