“Reacting to recent news betraying a xenophobic rise in Europe and some US states.”

EXHIBITION RECEPTION ~ Friday July 17th 5-9pm  

at Micro Art Space (within 78th Street Studios, Suite #108) 1300 West 78th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102

Statement:

I am stimulated by the construction of utopian networks, by the virtual passing through reality, new designed symbols, a potential monstrosity, sciences and the Universe.

bio:

Cetusss was born in 1978, in the north of France. He graduated in Math, Physics and Art. He is the Co-curator of Make8elieve – online art and culture magazine (with Michelle Murphy). Cetusss lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland.

EXHIBITION RECEPTION ~ Friday June 19th 5-9pm  

at Micro Art Space (within 78th Street Studios, Suite #108) 1300 West 78th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102

“Veil of Illusion” by Margaret Stamm

My work is an exploration to find truth. A journey that traverses between the Avant-garde to realms of mental pathologies and discredited mumbo-jumbo. It is the bourgeoisie and the bougie, the accessible and the inaccessible, the micro and the macro.

A veil is used to protect and separate us from that which is sacred. In Vedantic philosophy this notion is referred to as Maya, the veil of illusion. The Veil of Illusion, much like our perceived reality, distorts our knowledge of the true nature of the world, while swaddling us with culturally created notions of sanity, happiness and love. Sacred Knowledge is the understanding of the true nature of the world; The body of our planet, her dark continents and the chaos of the unknown. Beyond the body of the Mother Goddess is the Ultimate Truth. The Supreme Being, which is unknowable and known to all. The awe inspiring source of life, both Goddess and God, all that ever was, all that is, and all that forever shall be.

I offer my work as tools for meditation and healing. The veil offers us glimpses of truth, if we meditate long enough on one point the truth may be revealed. Through the fabric and folds of time I propose that every one of us may come in to contact with that supreme being within us which does not see the veil, to finally pull away the curtain of life and enter the stage of the unknown. If we meditate long enough on one point the truth may be revealed.

a solo exhibition by 2-week resident artist Eliza Fernand (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

EXHIBITION RECEPTION ~ Friday May 15th 5-9pm  

at Micro Art Space (within 78th Street Studios, Suite #108) 1300 West 78th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102

“a Rainbow in the Desert” by Eliza Fernand

In the past five years, I have pursued an obsession with quilts. I have traveled across the country and back to study how quilts are made, how they are used, and what they mean.  A quilt is a power object.  A quilt is a sculpture and a painting.  A quilt is a document of time and labor.  A quilt goes to bed with you and keeps you warm, covered, shrouded, draped.

Working in a continuum of sculpture, installation, performance, video, and sound, I am regularly investigating themes of transformation and memory.  I choose materials for their sensual and reminiscent qualities, employing and reconsidering traditional craft-based techniques.  The process of renewing discarded materials is significant to me, as I am recognizing and connecting the concrete and romantic histories these materials hold.  Through fieldwork and examination, I am learning the social and aesthetic traditions of the quiltmaking craft, and conceptualizing my findings into an ongoing series of works.  My intentions as an artist educator are; empowering communities through teaching self-sustaining skills, creating socially engaging projects that demystify the practice of artists, and encouraging cross-media collaboration.

Bio:

After studying sculpture and photography at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and Pacific Northwest College of Art in Oregon, Eliza Fernand has pursued artistic opportunities in a nomadic, cross-country career that eventually led her back to Michigan in 2014. Since receiving her BFA in 2006, she has been a resident artist at programs in New Jersey, Normandy, California, North Carolina, New Mexico, Quebec, Idaho, Washington, Utah, and Minnesota. While living in Idaho, she received multiple QuickFund$ Grants for Individuals from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and began her traveling project Quilt Stories that performed in 25 cities and towns in a tour across the US in 2011.

Fernand has taught youth art programs at public and private schools since 2001, and has been a guest teacher and lecturer at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Boise State University, and College of Western Idaho. Fernand has exhibited her work nationally, most notably at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts and Roulette Intermedium in New York NY; 65 GRAND in Chicago IL; HATCH Gallery in Oakland CA; galleryHOMELAND in Portland OR; and E.A.S.T. in Austin TX. In 2011 she co-founded Shared Space Studio, a community art space in rural West Michigan, where she is the Artist Residency Director and Facilitator.

Her intentions as an artist and teacher are reusing discarded materials for art, empowering communities through teaching self-sustaining skills, creating socially engaged projects that demystify the practice of artists, and encouraging cross-media collaboration. She is currently investigating the traditions and techniques of quiltmaking, and conceptualizing her findings through interactive, collaborative projects.

Eliza Fernand work-in-progress at Micro Art Space:

Last fall Jimmy Riordan was informed that he had a huge tumor growing in his abdomen. The growths initial description was limited to a single measurement. Its longest dimension. 20.5cm. Made up of experiments in a variety of mediums, 20.5cm explores the body, trauma and mortality the use of metaphor and the imagining of the internal as landscape.

Jimmy Riordan is an Alaskan artist and educator. Technically trained in book-arts his practice extends beyond the bounds of any specific medium. Riordan’s projects have involved earth building, comics, letterpress and translation. All united by his interest in autodidactics, the self-taught and group learning.

Jimmy Riordan working at Micro Art Space during his residency:

RECEPTION: Friday March 20th 5-9pm at Micro Art Space (suite 108 within 78th Street Studios, Cleveland Ohio)

Artist’s Statement:

The primary aim in my work is to illustrate and analyze concepts that I find enthralling. The resulting objects deal on many levels with formal and conceptual issues. In my work, I hope to show an equal blending of art, craft, and the presentation of engaging ideas in intriguing ways. The works are meant to involve the viewer on many levels: physically, visually, and intellectually.

My sources include mythology, science, history, and American Folk Art. The objects I make reflect the sensibilities of a person steeped in New England practicality who, for better or worse, ended up learning about things like art history, existentialist philosophy, and post-structuralist theory. Many of my sculptures are based on themes from classical mythology viewed through the lens of contemporary events. I have a strong interest in how my themes surface and re-surface throughout human history in many varied (but related) guises. I very much enjoy how masks and figurative sculptures are used in disparate cultures to play out everyday dramas that echo age-old narratives.

My current body of work is heavily influenced by my many experiences on boats. My father was a commercial fisherman and I spent a significant amount of my early life on boats and docks. Being out on the ocean at night away from the land is a powerful experience; it teaches you something about how quiet and sublime the world can be. Boats are powerfully metaphorical and the ones in this exhibition are laden with layers of interwoven meanings.

Craft is an important aspect of my work. I identify strongly with the idea of the artist as a kind of Daedalean hybrid: artist/artisan/shaman. Visual art, like mythology, has the power to compel us with its resonant imagery. It is my hope that my works will, in some small way, enrich the viewer and make her/him see the world as slightly more tragic or laughable (or possibly both at the same time).

current Photo+Video students at the Cleveland Institute of Art

group exhibition Happened Then, Happening NOW

the exhibition is at both Micro Art Space and at FORUM Artspace (2 galleries located at 78th Street Studios, Cleveland)

EXHIBITION RECEPTION ~ Friday February 20th 5-9pm  

at Micro Art Space (within 78th Street Studios, Suite #108) 1300 West 78th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102

“Tomorrow Is Forever” by Mallorie Freeman:

During my one-month residency at Micro Art Space, I have explored, through a variety of media the idealization of love and feminine beauty. Intricate drawing + collage works are paired with hand-made chocolate boxes; each is adorned with edible opulence. I am examining the motifs employed to attain the hearts’ desires. These works unite in February, the month of love.

Mallorie Freeman, preparing for installation working on a hair piece

BIO:

Mallorie Freeman was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She lived with her sister and mother, who was a pop singer in the 1960’s, owner of a modeling agency, television producer, and a makeup artist. The prominence of femininity, creativity, and entrepreneurship greatly influenced Mallorie from a young age.

She attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a scholarship and continued her education at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Mallorie has participated in a number of regional and national exhibitions.

lips box, created out of cast chocolate, gold leaf, and disco dust (all edible materials)

EXHIBITION RECEPTION ~ Friday January 16th 5-9pm  

at Micro Art Space (within 78th Street Studios, Suite #108) 1300 West 78th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102

AM DeBrincat creates two-dimensional works on canvas that blend photography, printmaking, and painting. Her work explores the cultural collision between photography and painting, and the link between images and our understanding of what’s real. She harvests images from the internet and approaches Google as an externalized, searchable collective unconscious. “Experimental Fitness” presents new work inspired by both historical and fictional sources, including archival photographs of Queen Victoria and Wyatt Earp and photos of the fictional character Diamond Lester.

Bio:

AM DeBrincat a New York-based artist, curator, writer, and the Founding Editor of ArtFile Magazine (www.artfilemagazine.com), a curated online forum for art and culture. DeBrincat graduated cum laude with her BA in English Literature and Spanish from the University of Oregon in 2001 and received a MFA in visual art from Parsons the New School for Design in 2012. DeBrincat’s work has been exhibited throughout the US, including at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center and The Kitchen (New York), Femina Potens Gallery (San Francisco), La Luz de Jesus Gallery (Los Angeles) and at VOLTA NY 2014, where Kianga Ellis Projects curated a solo presentation. She is the recipient of grants from the George Sugarman Foundation and the Money for Women Fund, and has received funding from the Arts Council of Berkeley, California; Parsons the New School for Design; and The Wassaic Project, where she received a fellowship to be an artist-in-residence in 2013. AM DeBrincat’s work has been featured in numerous mainstream and alternative publications, including the Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, and Two Coats of Paint. In 2013, she was awarded participation in an ongoing residency program through the Manhattan-based non-profit Chashama, and, when in NY, she works out of her Chashama studio at the Brooklyn Army Terminal building in Sunset Park.

AM DeBrincat, working on her series for “Experimental Fitness” at Micro Art Space:

North Coast
New paintings and wall mural engaging Cleveland iconography, by New York artist Jonathan Allen

In this solo exhibition, Allen presents ten new paintings that explore Cleveland architecture, culture and history, referencing photographs and famous events. Imagery of local buildings, historic disasters, museums, and bridges surface in dreamlike mixed-media paintings that merge collage, drawing, and painting techniques. Over his two week residency at Micro Art Space, he is also creating a large-scale wall mural, that stretches over 20 feet long and seems to fragment and extend the gallery space. This site-specific painting incorporates imagery from sketches and field research Allen is conducting over the course of his time in Cleveland.

BIOGRAPHY

Jonathan Allen was born in 1975 and holds a BA in Visual Arts and Art History from Columbia University. Allen’s paintings and collages have been exhibited at a number of New York art spaces including Lu Magnus, BravinLee Programs, PS122, Socrates Sculpture Park, Exit Art, Rotunda Gallery, and Artists Space. He participated in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace & Swingspace residency programs and the Bronx Museum of Art’s Artist in the Marketplace program, and has been awarded residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy, Cill Rialaig in Ireland, and Blue Mountain Center. In 2008, Jonathan Allen was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant; he has also received grants from the Puffin, George Sugarman, and Chenven Foundations. In 2010 Brooklyn Arts Press published SUPERSTRUCTURE, a monograph on his work, and in 2013 he collaborated with poet Anselm Berrigan on Loading, a solo exhibition and book. In September 2014 a solo exhibition of his work opened at THELMA Sadoff Art Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is currently preparing his third NYC solo exhibition, scheduled for 2015. His work has been reviewed in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Village Voice, NY Arts Magazine, Exibart, and Vogue.com among others. His work is represented in numerous private collections, and the Microsoft and Credit Suisse collections. He is Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s On-Site Assistant for Building 110: LMCC’s Art Center on Governors Island, and lives in Brooklyn.

Jonathan Allen’s work-in-progress during his current 2-week Residency here at MICRO ART SPACE:

cairns a solo exhibition by 4-week resident artist Robin Latkovich (from Cleveland, OH)

EXHIBITION RECEPTION ~ Friday November 21st 5-9pm  

1300 West 78th St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102

“cairns” – new paintings by Robin Latkovich