Sat 5/25 @ 5 – 11pm
By John Benson
There’s something about the attraction of the meow that beguiles people into worshiping the cat.
Obsequious to a fault, dogs just don’t have the same appeal. Sure, they can be a man’s best friend. They see for the blind and smell crotches like their life depended on it, but there’s something to be said about playing hard to get. The cat understands the dance with humans. Seemingly, all cats are Don Draper to our desperate George Costanza.
Hoping to capture this feline phenomenon is local gallery BUCKBUCK which opens “Purr: A Juried Art Cats-travaganza” Sat 5/25 at its Lorain Road venue in Cleveland. The juried show is in conjunction with Ohio University’s Anna Tararova.
Cool Cleveland talked with BUCKBUCK co-owner/co-curator Joe Lanzilotta about this cat-centric affair.
Cool Cleveland: First of all, what was the impetus behind “Purr: A Juried Art Cats-travaganza”?
Joe Lanzilotta: A friend of ours came to us and wanted to do a cat show. We thought that would be a great idea to kind of satiate the appetites of all of those people who crave cats. Cats have become this phenomenon, and I don’t know where it comes from. They are these huge cultural icons, whether you’re laughing at them or cuddling with them. …[E]specially on the Internet, cats have taken it by storm. You can’t help but find hilarious cat stuff all over the Internet. We’re just kind of riding on that idea that the cats have become this cultural phenomenon.
So what kind of feedback have you gotten from the cat lovers of Cleveland?
We’ve gotten quite a good response from it. We got over 100 pieces that we had to choose from all over the country. The girl we’re teaming up with, Anna Tararova, recently did a smaller version of this show at Doubting Thomas and she came to us and wanted to do something a little bit bigger and juried. So we were like, “Why not?” It sounds like it could be popular and after the basketball show we did last November, which was also juried, we had a huge response. We had a strange and large turnout for that, so we’re kind of hoping to set it up in a similar way as the basketball show.
What kind of reaction did you expect from artists?
We weren’t really sure what to expect, I guess. I thought we’d get a million photographs of people’s family pets, which we got about half a million. You’d be surprised at the creative things that people come up with. From human-sized cat toys to lithographs of cats to these beautiful portraits of strange looking cats and cat masks. Then you have the people who you can tell only do cat artwork. That just blows my mind because they spend all of their time doing cat art.
You know the guidelines say submitting two-dimensional pieces but you’re describing things of the three-dimensional variety.
I don’t know. We wanted people to send a digital version of their work so we could figure out how to place it and then we got a lot of three-dimensional stuff. We got people who did ceramic work that’s really cool and weird, cat-meets-whale-meets-strange monsters. We were like, “We have to accept that stuff. Why the hell not?” It makes the show better.
How does “Purr: A Juried Art Cats-travaganza” fit into the BUCKBUCK mindset?
I guess kind of just going in random directions, kind of doing something that you might not expect to see in a gallery of our size. We kind of just take things as they come, and if we like the idea and we think it’ll get a good turnout and it’s something different, then we’re open to doing it. This was one of those things. We figured we’d get a weird group of people. Cat people tend to be very, very strange. I don’t know. We wanted to do something that got other people involved, something open to the public. This kind of just fit into everything we’re doing.
As for the jurors, we’re thinking there may be a few who look like dogs wearing fake mustaches in hopes of getting back at their archenemies.
Yeah, no. Just a couple of guys with beards and Anna.
Invariably, there are going to be some folks who feel their personal cat(s) would really get something out of “Purr: A Juried Art Cats-travaganza.”
You know what? I hate to say no cats allowed but the APL will be bringing kittens in. So if you’re inclined to bring your own cat, I’d say hold off on that and maybe take a cat home with you.
The opening reception for “Purr: A Juried Art Cats-travaganza” takes place at 5 to 11 p.m. Sat 5/25 at BUCKBUCK, 3910 Lorain Road, Cleveland. For more information, call 216.407.9558 or visit buckbuckcle.com or facebook.com/events.
[Photo, top: Tim Logan; Bottom: Patti Pogodzinski]
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.