Fri 11/10 @ 5-7:30PM
Fri 12/16 @ 5:30-7:30PM
Akron Soul Train opens its winter residency exhibitions this week with a pair of shows, one featuring work by Cleveland poet/visual artist Raja Belle Freeman, the other showcasing mixed-media work by Pittsburgh native/Cleveland resident Debra DeGregorio.
Freeman’s show, Consider This Your Trigger Warning, takes a political stance, contrasting the beauty of the Black man and the respect he deserves with his public destruction by society.
“This exhibit seeks to sensitize a society once more and to fight for what should not be buried,” she says. “I found myself regularly discussing the cyclical nature of the consumption of Black bodies in the media. Someone was killed, we’d mourn them collectively, our passion for them would dissipate, someone new would be killed, and again, and again. My work focuses not only on this cycle, but on how it leads to collective desensitization when it comes to the destruction of people of color.”
Debra DeGregorio’s show co≈rrelate aims to demonstrate “the contents of the mind in a windstorm,” incorporating drawing, collage and “micro installations” of string, paper and pins. She looks at ideas of connection and disconnection through information she’s collected over a period of months, borh online and in person.
“Whether conveying a sense of comfort or loneliness, [I am] interested in the common underlying threads of experience; within the works, the shares, the viewer, the artist and oneself,” she says.
The shows are open for free, public viewing Wednesday November 8 through Friday December 16. The opening reception takes place on Friday November 10 with a closing reception on Friday December 16 @ 5:30-7:30pm. At the closing reception, Akron Soul Train will announce its residencies for 2024.