BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:900@coolcleveland.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York;VALUE=DATE:20251121 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York;VALUE=DATE:20251124 DTSTAMP:20260402T051200Z URL:https://coolcleveland.com/events/cleveland-artist-derek-hess-shares-hi s-roots-at-cleveland-museum-of-natural-history/ SUMMARY:Cleveland Artist Derek Hess Shares His Roots at Cleveland Museum of Natural History DESCRIPTION:[caption id="attachment_170082" align="alignnone" width="700"] Photos by Anastasia Pantsios[/caption]\nFri 11/21-3/22/26\nMost fans disco vered the art of Cleveland’s Derek Hess through rock &\; roll. He got his start drawing flyers for the underground rock shows he booked at the Euclid Tavern in the ’90s\, which evolved into screenprint posters that earned him national acclaim and had him doing concert posters for bands su ch as Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam in addition to his loud ‘n’ heavy favorites such as The Jesus Lizard.  He created a following for his merch \, and many of his fans transformed his distinctive art into tattoos. He l ater evolved into a fine-art career\, drawing on his identifiable style an d imagery but adding more layers of personal meaning.\nAstute fans likely noticed that his imagery included of dinosaurs\, fossils\, skulls and othe r icons of natural history. They were inspired by childhood visits to the Cleveland museum of Natural History\, where his show Rock of Ages: The Evo lutionary Art of Derek Hess\, will open this Friday November 21 and remain on view through March 22\, 2026 in its upstairs Corning Gallery. It’s i ncluded with regular admission.\nThe show emphasizes Hess’ connection to the museum and its catalog of prehistoric items\, but it covers the full scope of his career and the many sources that fed his work. A selection of his concert posters are there\, of course\, including an oversized blowup of his dramatic skull image for a Jawbox show at Peabody's Down Under. To wering some ten feet tall\, it's even more dramatic.\n\nAcross the way\, t here's a wall devoted to Hess's personal history. An oversized photo depic ts Hess drawing at the museum. On one side\, there's a photo of Hess\, age 5\, on a trip to the museum with a group of children. On the other\, ther e’s an early painting done by his father\, who taught at the Cleveland I nstitute of Art\, which Hess also attended (different departments).\nHis f ather’s life also partly inspired another interest of his: World War II in which he served. Some of the most striking drawings in the show depict fish\, another passion of his\, transformed its fighter planes\, studded w ith World War II insignia\, ejecting bombs — in the form of fish cracker s. Hess is known for his dark\, often bleak imagery\, but he has a sense o f humor too.\n\nOne large drawing on brown paper depicts a Lake Erie sheep shead (he likes to fish but says this one gets no love from him except as an artistic subject)\; many of the others are reproductions of drawings he ’s long sold. But to show one pair of large drawings on view he tracked down the private collector who lent them for the show: drawn on maps\, the y’re framed in silver metal with studs\, evoking a vintage fighter plane .\nThere are examples of his flower drawings\, his series of animals dress ed in suits assuming tongue-in-cheek human roles. Many of the pieces are r eproductions because the original has been sold\, a good problem for an ar tist to have.\nIn the show\, Hess shares his art-making in another way. On e wall will be festooned with pages from his sketchbook. In front of it is a table with some of the items that inspired him such as toys and CDs of his favorite music (he was a host on WCSB-FM\, the college station now emb roiled in controversy). Visitors are invited to make their own sketches in spired by his work.\n\nWhether a visitor is or isn't a rock &\; roll fa n or passionate about dinosaurs (one expects that will interest most of th ose who pay admission to this museum)\, Hess's drawing skill and the way h e finds diversity in a specific repertoire of images is inspiring.\nrock-o f-ages-the-evolutionary-art-of-derek-hess\n[mappress mapid="3265"] ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://coolcleveland.com/wp-content/uploads/202 5/11/Derek.jpeg CATEGORIES:college,Teen,Kids,Education,History,Visual Arts,----WRITERS----,Anastasia Pantsios,Preview,RSS,Science END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR