Jan 312025
 

Pictured are selections from Gustavo Prado’s Tempo, located in the windows of the University of Akron’s Polsky Building. You can also see the pieces lit up at night which give it a very different look. It is one of several works that are part of Curated Storefront’s ongoing project to transform downtown Akron.

From their website about the work-

Employing sculpture, performance, photography, and video, Gustavo Prado examines shifts in perspective to produce works that investigate different conceptions of reality. He focuses on light, site, and context to create a body of work that dissects the need to constantly negotiate inhabited space as a means of deriving an understanding of personal identity.

Exploring the complexities inherent in the act of gazing, Prado makes inquiries into a series of notions that are both intrinsic and extraneous to the field of art, such as surveillance, appropriation, voyeurism, aggregates, artificial intelligence, narcissism, information overload, and the right to privacy. He uses off-the-shelf materials that he slightly alters, enabling viewers to recognize the source material while understanding potential deviations from the intended use. Through processes of combining seemingly disparate materials and subject matter, Prado tests cultural assumptions of what can or should belong together.

Jan 312025
 

 

Curated Storefront is an Akron arts organization started in 2016 that is working to turn downtown Akron into an arts destination. Their projects include a collection of public murals and art in store windows. They also offer studio spaces to local artists.

One of their projects, Outside the Box, is a series of up-cycled shipping containers that house pop-up galleries and rotating murals.

Below are more selections from Outside the Box and information on the works from their website.

El Mac, “Stardust”

From the information plaque-

This mural titled Stardust depicts El Mac’s son as a baby looking up towards the sky, which creates imagery that the artist hopes “can be relatable to people and hopefully it suggests youthfulness and new beginnings. I had fun with the rendering , patterns, movement, and shapes. It was challenging for me and I think it’s beautiful, so I hope others do too.”

Palehorse, “Garuda”

About Palehorse’s mural from Curated Storefront

Painting of the deity Garuda from Hindu mythology. Garuda (King of Birds) symbolizes the harmonious union of earthly strength and celestial freedom. As the divine messenger, he traverses between realms, embodying the bridge between humanity and the sacred. His outstretched wings form a shield of protection, a testament to his role as guardian and defender against adversity. Garuda’s presence inspires us to embrace our inner courage and navigate life’s challenges with unwavering determination. Just as he faces the serpents of life, we too can rise above obstacles, guided by his example. As you gaze upon this mural, may Garuda’s symbolism ignite your spirit, reminding you of your own capacity to soar to new heights, find peace amidst chaos, and stand strong in the face of all trials. Jai Guru! OM Garuda!

With over 20 years of experience as a professional illustrator, the catalogue of work created by Palehorse now serves as a breadcrumb trail, highlighting his intense curiosity and a relentless quest for deeper meaning and self-discovery. Years of seeking and following delightful and mysterious curiosities, eventually led to a devoted spiritual practice, arising from an ever-expanding love for sacred art, mystical scriptures, ancient cultures, plant medicine ceremonies, world mythology and travel.

The artwork of Palehorse aims to become more refined and meaningful as he increasingly becomes more spiritually adventurous through the years. His aesthetic harnesses the ancient power of traditional Thai ornamental design, blended with Indian motifs and symbols derived from the Thangka paintings of Tibetan Buddhism. As a follower of Paramhansa Hogananda, these inspirations are then filtered through the lens of an American yogi/psychonaut/illustrator, who was born in the late 70’s and grew up skateboarding, surfing, getting tattooed and playing guitar in metal bands.

John Comunale “The First Energy Monster”, Recycled tires and golfballs

John Comunale, whose work is pictured above, is an Akron artist with many works located around the city.

Studio Haz – Joshua Hall and Diana Paz- “This and That”

About the Studio Haz mural from Curated Storefront-

This mural is a visual dialog, a conversation between order and fluid organic forms. It is the first collaboration between the two artists.

Diana Paz is a Venezuelan Multidisciplinary artist based in Miami, FL. She has been fully dedicated to her art since 2012, right after graduating from her graphic design studies. Navigating between artistic expressions, she explores materials, shapes, spaces, textures and colors; reinterpreting elements from her native region as well as others taken from her everyday life. The result is a balanced union of elements; coming all-together in the cleanest and simplest way.

Joshua Hall, AKA Baghead, (born January 5, 1988) is a contemporary Latin- American artist from Miami, Florida. His work is derived from 90’s skateboarding, street typography, and early animation. He is known for his wooden sculptures as well as being a muralist. In his practice, Joshua reflects on his suburban adolescents; recounting them in fluid, abstracted and sometimes sculptural forms.

Steiner, “Repetitive Nature”

About Steiner and Repetitive Nature

The bright and psychedelic colors and mutation of the third eye on the leopards represent human negative effects on nature. However, nature is ferocious (like a leopard) and fights back, reclaiming what is left behind by humans in a cycle that is repetitive. Nature finds a way.

Raised on surf/skate art and comics, and influenced by the likes of Jim Phillips and Todd McFarlane, Steiner began spray painting walls during middle school in the 90s. After traveling abroad and formal art training he returned to his street art and graffiti roots. He has lived and painted in San Francisco and New York, and now resides in Los Angeles. His work is reminiscent of the Toxic Avenger. It shows man’s effect on nature and manipulation of the environment. His work often has mutated beasts with multiple eyes, bright un-earthy colors and smoke ring cloud (pollution) backgrounds … so the 3 eyed Simpsons fish is a good reference to sum it up … an actual issue with a somewhat humorous delivery.

Axel Void (Alejandro Hugo Dorda Mevs), “Untitled”

L.E.O. (Reginald O’Neal), “Dr. John Henry Clarke And the Mundari People”

About L.E.O. (Reginald O’ Neal)

L.E.O. (Reginald O’Neal), born in 1992 in Miami, Florida, began painting in 2012 and soon met his friend and mentor, Alejandro Dorda, also known as Axel Void, who would teach him classically.

In 2014, L.E.O. took his first trip to Europe to complete murals in Austria, Norway, and Spain, as well as exhibit in a collective show alongside his teacher in Berlin, Germany. In the years since, Reggie has focused on canvas work, residencies, and murals that embody his community surroundings, experiences and beliefs.

Gabriela Ayza Aschmann, “Momentum Absence Act”

From Curated Storefront about the Gabriela Ayza Aschmann’s mural-

It has two faces. What we see and what may be behind. Is it the absence of oneself that creates emotional instability? Sometimes we are in a sea of fire and we have to warp to hold on to ourselves so we can be our own lifesaver. With the vertigo of falling, you create a dance that in the end only you can learn to enjoy. Emily Dickinson wrote, “I was falling and in each crash hit, I ran into a world.”

Born in 1991 Cologne, Germany, Gabriela Ayza Aschmann is a Spanish-German artist currently based in Miami, Florida. She lived and studied in Andalusia, graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Seville, Spain. She continued learning with workshops and follow ups from different artists. In 2020, Gabriela attended her first artist residency with Void_ Projects in Miami, FL. Later, she followed her next artist residency at Gotulist Froyar, Feror Island, Denmark. Her last two shows titled I have an idiot inside me and Mom, let me be an animal for one day opened in Miami, FL where she presented a mixture of her personal collection of paintings.

Her practice represents the search for the poetic. She begins with considering that listening to ourselves and our environment brings us closer to the core of our existence. In her paintings one can find humor, sweetness and hardness at the same time. The artist observes and empathizes how humans are, measurably, beasts and brutes. Bluntly, she questions why humanity hides its beastiality: What is so dangerous about our depths? Her work is focused on oil painting, although in her process we can find poetry, theater, analog photography and other sculptural aspects.

 

Johnny Robles, “Gloria Bow”

About Johnny Robles and the mural from Curated Storefront

Johnny Robles is a multi-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of art, technology, and nature. Studies in color theory, geometry, and science, combined with his natural and spiritual world interests are central to his work.

The artwork’s title, Gloria Bow, is derived from a glory rainbow, a halo of interlocking colors made up of tiny droplets of water reflecting sunlight scattered back towards the viewer. This phenomenon we see in nature can be experienced from tall buildings, a mountain top, or an airplane. Over the years, the artist’s experiences of observing glories have marveled and served him as reminders that nature seeks each of us. This painting intends to engage passersby in a moment of solitude, clarity, or stillness.

 

May 042024
 

Ewuresi Archer’s Indescribable Charm was created for Land Studio’s rotating space The Art Wall in Cleveland’s Public Square. Archer is a Ghanaian American artist who is based in the city and graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

From the artist about this work-

Indescribable Charm is a piece about capturing the indescribable feeling of tranquility through a vibrant landscape. With exaggerations in the textured grass with natural shades of green contrasted with bright oranges and distorted landscapes, this piece provides a space for people to stop, think, and reflect. Within this charming scene, a figure stands front and center with features associated with African Americans. My art is about celebrating myself and my culture; with this piece, I’m celebrating the beauty of black people. Putting an African American figure in a field of grass that calls for admiration gives a viewer no choice but to also admire the figure’s aesthetics. This piece puts them in a place of admiration. His strong yet ethereal presence adds depth to the piece as a whole. The serene landscape, in contrast to the figure’s beauty, creates a wonderfully harmonious composition that invites viewers to contemplate the majestic charm of the grass and the mysterious beauty of the figure.

You can also find Ewuresi Archer on Instagram.

May 012024
 

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen created Free Stamp, the 70,000 pound sculpture, pictured above, in 1985.

Cleveland Historical, which has detailed numerous historical sites in the city, provides a detailed history of the sculpture. They also have an app to simplify exploring the city.

Below is a section from their website about Free Stamp

…Commissioned by the Amoco Company in 1982, the Stamp was designed and fabricated in 1985. At the time, Amoco owned Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio) and the building now known as 200 Public Square, and the piece was intended to reside in front of the building. But in 1986, before installation could happen, Amoco, Sohio and the building were acquired by BP America. The new owners refused to mount the sculpture—perhaps believing that “Free Stamp” was a metaphoric aspersion. Art historian Edward J. Olszewski has also noted that, in England, Pop Art is viewed more cynically and politically than in the United States, where it is considered primarily whimsical. Oldenburg is on record as saying that “free,” references the emancipation of American slaves during and after the Civil War—a plausible explanation given the piece’s planned proximity to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.

So instead of adorning Public Square, the Free Stamp was denied its freedom: imprisoned instead in a warehouse in Illinois. There it gathered dust for five years before then-mayor George Voinovich invited Oldenburg and van Bruggen to Cleveland in hopes of selecting another site.

It eventually was decided that the Stamp should be located in Willard Park on Lakeside Avenue just west of East 9th Street; and BP agreed to gift it to the city of Cleveland with all installation and maintenance expenses covered. However, disagreements arose about how the sculpture would be positioned. The original intent was for the Stamp to stand face down on Public Square. However, Cleveland city planners felt that this approach was not right for Willard Park and the Stamp ultimately was mounted angularly, with the faux-rubber “FREE” proudly visible. According to Oldenburg, it was as if “a giant hand picked up the Free Stamp and angrily hurled it several blocks to its current location at Willard Park.” Not surprisingly, the Stamp—formally dedicated on November 15, 1991—aims directly at 200 Public Square “It’s pointed on a diagonal to the 23rd floor, which were [BP’s] corporate offices,” notes Olszewski. “It leads the viewer back to the original site.”

Mar 152024
 


The mural above is a reproduction of Masumi Hayashi’s Edgewater Park no.2, Cleveland, OH. The mural is located in Cleveland and is one of the many public art projects organized by LAND Studio.

From the information plaque next to the mural about the artist-

Masumi Hayashi (1945- 2006) was a visionary fine art photographer who taught at Cleveland State University for 25 years. During her time in Cleveland, she lived in the Gordon Square neighborhood in the first residential development project of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization. Dr. Hayashi was a beloved neighbor, friend, and local artist. She achieved global success with her signature format, the panoramic photo collage.

Hayashi was born in the Gila River War Relocation Camp in Rivers, Arizona, which was one of the U.S. government’s Internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Hayashi created her striking panoramic photo collages by assembling individually shot color photographs into a composition, like tiles in a mosaic. She shot photographs in a meticulously ordered sequence using a completely manual, non-digital film camera on a tripod. A single piece could take four to eight hours to shoot, and she might not see the results for days or weeks. When working at a site, she had to imagine the composition she desired from a location, and then create the individual photographs, while considering factors like time of day, weather, and location of the sun, through the entire shoot. Many of her large panoramic compositions involve more than one hundred individual photographic prints.

Much of Hayashi’s work explores socially difficult subjects, like the Japanese-American Internment camps, abandoned prisons, and EPA Superfund cleanup sites. She was able to create artwork that makes difficult subjects approachable. Her earlier work includes many significant sites in Cleveland, including the Cultural Gardens, RTA stops, Lake Erie and Edgewater Park (as seen in the artwork shown to the left). Later in her career, her artwork reflected a deep interest in culturally significant spiritual sites in India, Nepal, Japan, and Thailand.

Feb 222024
 

Judy’s Hand Pavilion by Tony Tasset is located outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa Cleveland) and was part of the 2018 FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.

The 7-ton, 21 foot high sculpture is an enlargement of a cast taken from the right hand of his wife, artist Judy Ledgerwood.

Feb 112024
 

“1958 Championship Game ( Colts/NY Giants )” by artist Jack Howard-Potter

“Formation of the American Football League (1959)” by artist Katherine Stanek

The sculptures above are two of The ELEVEN, a public art project created by The Pro Football Hall of Fame and Arts in Stark, located in downtown Canton, Ohio. The commissioned art works each represent one of the eleven greatest moments in professional football.

The first sculpture pictured, Colts/NY Giants Championship Game (1958) is by Jack Howard Potter. The 30-foot tall steel sculpture celebrates Baltimore Colts player Raymond Berry.

The second, Formation of the American Football League (1959) is by artist Katherine Stanek. The concrete sculpture represents the founders of the league and the use of television as part of its growth. On a nearby information plaque the artist states that she “wanted to celebrate the AFL founders by putting eight giant heads on top of 1960’s TV sets, as if they were ancient heroes in some Roman ruins”. Stanek also runs her own gallery in Philadelphia.