Fri 6/19-Fri 8/21
For the better part of the last decade, HEDGE Art Gallery has spotlighted some of Northeast Ohio’s most promising and emerging talent out of its 78th Street Studios location.
This mission continues with its upcoming exhibit Material Girls, running 6/19 through 8/21 at the Cleveland venue. The artists are Cleveland Institute of Art graduates Katy Richards and Nikki Woods, who have been on HEDGE Art Gallery director Hilary D. Gent’s radar for four years. Overall, the two painters will be showing off more than 40 new pieces of work. This marks their debut at HEDGE.
Cool Cleveland talked to Gent about the impetus behind Material Girls and how Don Draper affected the work.
Despite its title, we’re guessing Material Girls is not a Madonna exhibit.
No, it’s not [laughs]. The work of Katy and Nikki is very similar in style. The name of the title kind of refers back to the heavy use of paint and the thick color they use. It’s very feminine. Everything has this underlying feminist aspect to it, and it has a lot to do with the type of work they’re designing. A lot of it has this kind of floral and decorative take but it’s not necessarily a still life, if that makes sense.
How does their work garner an exhibit title of Material Girls?
The work is very luscious. It’s thick, impasto paints. It’s big, large brush strokes and very vibrant. It has this materialistic sensibility. You look at 2D paintings and a lot of times you don’t understand the paint. This paint speaks to you. It’s thick and the colors are very loud and in your face.
With the color and strokes in mind, how does the feminine sensibility appear?
Katy’s work is about the human body. And you can really pick up on the fleshiness that she’s painting, although they’re very close-up images. At first it doesn’t speak to you like, “Oh, that’s someone’s leg or face.” It’s more of like a close-up capturing the intimate qualities of the flesh. Nikki’s work focuses on a more decorative nature. So everything that she does has some kind of floral or interior design motif or influence, but it’s not necessarily a decorative painting. It’s commentary on craft, commentary on decorating. Kind of like if you look at Ladies’ Home Journal from the 1950s and flipped through it. It was like very cute, feminine, pretty advertisements. That’s a lot of what the paintings embody.
Ah, so she’s basically commenting on Don Draper’s work?
There you go, exactly. Also, there’s a lot of underlying sexuality in both of their works.
How does Material Girls fit into your vision of HEDGE Gallery?
I show a mix of emerging artists and professional artists. I did a show with Cleveland Institute of Art and Kent State University earlier in the year to really reach out to artists that are still in school and still trying to exhibit their work. I’m going to start doing that every year so I have some outreach into the student body.
Can you offer perspective on the current state of the art scene in Cleveland?
It definitely has changed. I’d say people are just beginning to understand the importance of collecting, and of collecting local art. If you’re living in Cleveland, I think people realize that the arts are significant here and that we have a lot of incredible talent. That’s another one of my goals at the gallery is to really educate people about the importance of collecting and investing in local artwork.
Material Girls opens with a reception during 78th Street Studios’ Third Friday 6/19 from 5-9pm.
[Written by John Benson]