Fri 5/14 @ 5-8PM
Sat 5/15 @ 11AM-6PM
Artist Mary Spain, who lived in northeast Ohio for the last decade of her life, isn’t all well known as many other artists who worked in the area, perhaps because her life was cut short (she died in 1983 at the age of 49).
During her time in Cleveland, she taught art at Chagrin Falls High School while creating and exhibiting her own work, which has a Magritte-influenced surrealist bent, with odd, dream-like settings and a deceptively primitive feel.
She was not exceptionally prolific and following her death, her husband removed her paintings and sculptures from the galleries in Cleveland, New York and Florida that represented her. Now WOLFS Gallery in Beachwood will be opening a show of her paintings and small sculptures on Friday May 14, featuring 20 works from a private collection as well as others from throughout her career.
“She somehow achieved the difficult mastery of lightheartedness,” says WOLFS director Michael Wolf, in the press release for the show, which tells us that “it is rare for such a large collection of Spain’s work to become available.”
This is the first exhibition to take place in WOLFS new 10,000-foot Beachwood gallery in Beachwood. The gallery will host an open house (aka reception) Friday May 14 @ 5-8pm and Saturday May 15 @ 11am-6pm. The show will be on view through Saturday June 26. Go here for more info.