Through Sun 8/18
Fri 5/3 @ 7-8:30PM
It took decades for largely self-taught Cleveland painter Michelangelo Lovelace (he briefly attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, but he dropped out to earn a living) to start to attract attention for his work — and then he passed away in 2021 at the far-too-young age of 61, just as his work was starting to get recognized beyond northeast Ohio. He developed skills that put him beyond the category of “outsider” art, but his work exudes some of the charm of that genre, where visual information is presented matter-of-factly and without judgment.
He was a figurative painter who took inspiration for the streets around him, packing his works with specific details about urban life — its buildings, businesses, billboards, signs and especially its people — showing viewers both its beauty and decay, both the liveliness and warmth of city neighborhoods, and their desperation and poverty. In his bustling works, so much is going on that it can take a while to absorb it all. But all of that is essential to his underlying “message”: this is who we are as Back people, and it’s complicated.
The Akron Art Museum has just opened Art Saved my Life, a retrospective show of his work from 1992-2000. It will be on view through Sunday August 18. There’s also a preview party on Friday evening May 3. Get tickets here.
akronartmuseum/michelangelo-lovelace-art-saved-my-life/
Akron, OH 44308