REVIEW: Creators, Innovators & Dreamers @ Fawick Gallery 9/12/11
Are the days of “high art” over? If so, the artists showcased in “Creators, Innovators and Dreamers” don’t seem to know it. The show’s a product of the Cuyahoga County Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (your cigarette taxes at work). It’s described as an “investment in greater Cleveland’s leading artists” through the Creative Workforce Fellowship program.
Based on the variety (of both approach and materials) seen in these works by this year’s fellows, today’s art ignores labels intended to neatly categorize art and place it into little boxes of propriety. But hasn’t that always been the case? Scandal and new art seem lifelong partners (think of the outrage that still attends Jackson Pollack and his paint can splashes).
That said, two more traditional works brought me back for second and third looks: Randall Tiedman’s vast painted landscapes — dreamscapes seemingly spun from visions of the Flats and its deserted factories; and Roberta Williamson’s carefully crafted desk full of mementos from the past [pictured].
But all showed spark and imagination and why art still matters. Other winners displaying their projects are William Brouillard, Laura Cooperman, Stephanie Craig, Matthew Hollern, Michel Ina, Brian Andrew Jasinski, Kasumi, Michael Loderstedt, George Mauersberger, Paul O’Keeffe, Michael Romanik, Sai Sinbondit, Mark Slankard, Niki Smith, Douglas Max Utter, Jonathan Wayne, Brent Kee Young, and Stephen Yusko. For more information about these artists and their creations see http://CPACBiz.org/FellowsBios.pdf.
There are a few more days to see this free show (it continues until Sat 9/30) in the Fawick Gallery, Kleist Center for Art & Drama at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea. For more information on the “Creators, Innovators and Dreamers” art exhibit and upcoming exhibits, call 440-826-2152.
PS: When the cigarette tax passed several years ago people might have wondered how Cuyahoga County citizens would actually benefit from the new funds directed to Cuyahoga County Arts and Culture (CAC). So far, it looks good, at least as far as how much money goes directly to support art and artists (95% according to the organization’s website). For more about Cuyahoga Arts and Culture see http://CACGrants.org.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.
Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.