Fri 2/28 @ 5-7:30PM
This week, Akron Soul Train, which awards short-term residencies to mostly area artists to work on a specific body of work to be shown or performing in its gallery space, is highlighting the work of four artists in three shows in its upcoming opening.
Davon Brantley is already well known in northeast Ohio. Despite just graduating from the Cleveland institute of Art in 201 he’s already had several solo shows and been part of numerous group shows with his distinctive, vividly colored figurative portrait work. His show at Akron Soul Train is called Chapter 2: Midsommer in Granada. It explores his grief following the death of his grandmother in oversized pieces that amplify emotions. “The exhibit explores the limbo of being at once void of emotion and yet overwhelmed by emotion in combination with Brantley’s meditations on death, life, sexuality, masculinity, colorism, and racial stereotyping,” the artist statement says. Brantley adds, ““I lead the audience through my mind as if they were watching a play, utilizing dramatic compositions, absurd realism, and characters that act out certain emotions and themes in which I play all of the roles. I present a glimpse inside of my mental landscape and inhabitants; finding a ground for what is invisible that bleeds into my waking world.”
The duo of choreographer Elyse Morckel and cinematographer Denzel D. Washington presents the premiere of Wanderlust Blue created from the book Pale Blue Dot by astronomer Carl Sagan and Morckel’s own dance VOID. “Wanderlust Blue,” we’re told, “ruminates on humanity’s struggle with the notion that one’s existence is not the center of the universe.” It follows an entity named BLUE on a journal through the universe.
Finally, the work of Matt Kurtz will be in the CapSoul Gallery in a show called Drumroll to the Solar Eclipse, a recording of a sound performance, featuring a seven-piece percussion ensemble, done during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 at Akron’s Chestnut Ridge Park Amphitheater.
The exhibits open with a free public reception on Friday February 28 and will be on view through Saturday April 5.