Fri 5/21 @ 5-8PM
Two of Cleveland’s most prominent artists will be sharing wall space at HEDGE Gallery starting this week. AlmostREAL features new work by painter Douglas Max Utter and printmaker/ collagist Liz Maugans, influenced by the extraordinary events of the past year and the unreality of “reality.” Both artists heavily infuse their work with their personal experiences during that time.
Maugans’ work juxtaposes images, patterns, colors and words drawn from a variety of sources to create unexpected associations. “She continues to interpret the idea that word can be image and vice versa, balancing between pathos and wit in her earnest and brash mixed media paintings and collage prints,” says the exhibit’s press release. “Maugans supplies sympathy with the human quandary, one that in its cutting irony, is all the more sincere.”
Many of Utter’s recent paintings are influenced on bingeing on TV shows during the pandemic and based on cell-phone screen shots of those shows. He began blending those images with his longtime themes taken from Christian iconography and Western painting.
The show will officially open Friday May 21 @ 5-8pm during Third Friday, and run through Friday July 2. There’s a preview reception Wednesday May 19 @ 5:30-7:30pm.
Go to HEDGE Gallery’s website for more information.