Artists Archives of the Western Reserve

04/25/2025

Intimacy of Strangers
by Nicole Condon
vinyl, single-channel video
approx 52" x 52"

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

Nicole Condon-Shih is an artist and educator exploring the intersection of art, science, and technology. Her research-based practice examines the dichotomy between the microscopic versus the macroscopic in contemplating biological systems and environmental urgencies. Projects have been shown in Hong Kong at the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism & Architecture, in Beijing at the B3 Biennale of the Moving Image, commissioned by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and collected by Summa Health Systems, among others. Condon-Shih is an Associate Professor and Division Chair of Foundation at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Previously, she created and launched the International Foundation Course at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, China. Condon-Shih received her M.F.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York and B.F.A. from Cornell University. Her art practice continually informs her teaching, just as teaching is integral to her practice as an artist, researcher, and academic leader.

Intimacy of Strangers explores the profound lessons of lichen, an organism that thrives in extreme environments, including outer space. By examining its microscopic and macroscopic structures, symbiotic relationships, and remarkable adaptability, this project visualizes lichen’s intricate networks and challenges our understanding of coexistence with nature. Bridging scientific research and material experimentation, this research envisions a speculative future where lichen, celebrated for its resilience, emerges as a catalyst for interplanetary colonization, reshaping our understanding of adaptation and survival beyond Earth. Inspired by the Victorian impulse to render the natural world both ornamental and sublime, this work frames lichen’s delicate structures like lace, drawing connections between scientific observation, decorative arts, and the intricate patterns found in nature.

https://nicolecondonshih.com/

04/23/2025

The 2025 Annual Member's Exhibition is coming!
In addition to the 100+ artists archived in the museum’s permanent collection, the Artists Archives is comprised of hundreds of member artists who form the backbone of the organization. This yearly exhibition accepts one piece from each active member in any medium to be displayed in our galleries.

But you must be a member in good standing to participate!
Join today on our website, or contact us in the office to check on your current membership.

04/23/2025

Naomi’s Match
by Lydia Boddie-Rice
mixed media fabric and water-based oil collage
20 x 20 inches

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

Lydia is known for creating one-of-a-kind mixed-media collages inspired by the intersection of her imagination and images that express iconic connections with subjects that inspire and transcend. An award-winning art polymath, she has recently returned exclusively to her visual art roots, re-wiring after channeling her creativity and renaissance nature to influence an eclectic body of executive, political and educational leadership roles. Formally educated, (Brown University: BA Art, Psychology minor, RI College: MA, Agency Counseling, and RISchool of Design: K-12 teaching certification), Lydia hoped to open a therapeutic arts practice which proved to be ahead of the times. Coming full circle, her artistry is focused on expressive arts therapies, utilizing visual storytelling while re-inventing collage techniques to create iconic statement pieces that share testimonies for healing. She deftly uses technology and AI to produce compositions that integrate her illustrations and images printed on fabric and commercially-produced companion remnants. Repurposed materials and interdisciplinary mediums add layered depth, color and texture, pushing the boundaries of assemblage. Her collages, particularly her foray into kite-making and installation, transforms traditional, utilitarian uses of fabric beyond cultural and utilitarian norms. Juried and group exhibitions in California, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia galleries celebrate her artistry.

"I create one-of-a-kind mixed media collages inspired by the intersection of my imagination and images that express iconic connections with subjects that inspire and transcend. I re-invent the collage techniques and traditional, utilitarian uses of fabric to create iconic statement pieces that share testimonies for healing. Technology is key to producing compositions that integrate my illustrations and images printed on fabric and applied with commercially-produced companion remnants to various substrates. Interdisciplinary mediums such as paint and 3-D enrichment elements are applied to add layered depth, color and texture to structural presentations inviting intentional storytelling, audience reflection and visually-stimulating viewer immersion and connection. My current creative direction is focused on reinventing collage, using repurposed materials to transform cultural norms, utilitarian techniques and materials to create art that pushes the boundaries of interdisciplinary mediums, with a particular focus on kite making and installation."

https://www.boddieworkscreations.com/

04/22/2025

Delineated Woodland
by Susan Danko
acrylic on canvas
28" x 30"

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

Susan Danko is a painter based in Parma, Ohio. She received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1998, and has built a successful career as an artist and educator. Career honors include 2021 and 2013 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. She has been awarded two Ohio Percent for Art commission projects. Susan has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, The Butler Museum of American Art, The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, and the Cleveland Foundation. Her work is held in prominent art collections including the Cleveland Clinic, the Ohio Arts Council, the Cleveland Hilton Hotel and Convention Center, and the US Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Her work is represented by Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland.

My artwork is about the contemporary environment and my personal
experiences related to our changing local landscape. My observations of
nature, and related research are an integral part of my artistic practice and
serve as the foundation for the artwork that I make. Over years of
observing local natural sites, I have noted a gradual evolution. As a
witness to the environmental changes that are occurring, I am compelled
to make artwork in response to the new realities of our contemporary
natural environment. -A place where invasive species, extreme weather,
and environmental degradation are becoming the new normal. With my
artwork, I examine the power and fragility of nature while caught in this
state of environmental flux. In creating this work, I hope to raise
awareness, and inspire a greater respect for the environment that we
all share.

https://susandanko.com/

04/19/2025

A Dowry of Undesirable Animals
by Jeffrey Vincent
mixed media
20.5" x 30"

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

Jeffrey Vincent is a multidisciplinary artist hailing from Buffalo NY who is best known for his drawing and painting. Both his painting and drawing challenge ideas of the graphic vs. the painterly and dwell in the realm of figurative abstraction. Vincent has shown both regionally and nationally in venues such as Hallwalls, NY; The Albright Knox(AKAG), NY, Ghost Print Gallery, VA, and (E) merge in DC. Vincent attended and received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and obtained an MFA at the Hoffberger School of Painting at MICA in Baltimore, Maryland.

"The paintings I have submitted are from a previously unexhibited larger body of work entitled Ursa Major. The significance of this titling is solely from my obsession with the constellation Big Dipper. This reason for this obsession is unclear to me.

I work on wall mounted canvas while standing atop a floor mounted canvas. As I work, mark making begins with pigment related accidents, footsteps imprint and media falls. This cycle creates an abstract ground for the next piece. The image and content of the painting come about through this process of programmatic chaos. This process invites me to explore my subconscious and ‘find’ the painting rather than create it through an existing idea or plan.
I use paint, powdered pigment, pastel, thread, and all manner of media.
I apply media with brush, stencil, felt pad, fingers, image transfer, stitch, spray and spill.
My imagery is both found and made. Rather than being planned and executed, my paintings grow. Though figurative, are not intentionally narrative.
My paintings; Often lack gravity, feel encoded, look 'used', are highly composed, are exterior, and often combine multiple visual languages."

04/19/2025

foraslongaswewant 8 (the sea, gutter)
by R kauff
hand-drawn ink, screen-printed gouache and acrylic on two panels
36" x 48"

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

R Kauff (they/she) is a visual artist and educator whose intricately-formed images draw on engagement with language, q***r embodiment, and landscape. Their studio based practice comes out of training in drawing, printmaking, sculpture and poetry. Kauff received an MFA in Printmaking and Sculpture from University of Iowa and has held residencies and fellowships at The Luminary, Jentel Foundation, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Platteforum, and Tallgrass National Preserve. They were the co-facilitator of the ASSEMBLY Deep Adaptation for Artists at NAVEL LA in 2019. Born in the Midwest, they have lived in Iowa, Michigan, New York, Los Angeles, and are currently based in Cleveland, OH, where they are a Lecturer in Drawing and Reproducible Media at Oberlin College.

"Foraslongasyouwant" is a series of drawings on panel that builds on underlayers of text and image. The text, “For as long as you want,” is a Sappho fragment arrayed scriptio continua, (without word spacing), as it would have been in ancient Greek. The images come from book spreads in the Time-Life Nature Library, a 1960s encyclopedia of ecological concepts written for a popular audience. Together they form a kind of present moment sense, one that is hyper aware of the future’s edge and its propensity for cutting.

https://rkauff.xyz/

04/17/2025

6973 Miles of Force in 1 cm
by Young Kang
cotton thread, needles, paper, board, magnets
variable size

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

"My art has always focused on the duality fundamental to human existence: of different realities or worlds both in space and time and the tension between them; and of the co-existence of antithetical ideas, how death implies life, how the material realm implies the unsubstantial or nonphysical, and how absence implies presence. To explore this, I create both physical and metaphorical spaces ranging from large installations to small intimate books. I see the audience as key to my work, as completing it. When the work is an installation, not only can an audience immerse itself in the experience of the space, but also can become a part of what others experience, thus contributing to the work’s interactive aspect.

The initial idea of this project emerged from very personal emotions about lost or weakened connections to my homeland and longing for my that home. The number 6973 refers to the physical distance between my current residence and my home country, Korea. The distance “1cm” symbolizes “the invisible force,” as well as “the invisible boundary in between,” depicted in the gallery space by the use of hidden magnets. The magnet pulls the needle up in the air and holds it in a fixed position but does not drop it or fully connect."

https://www.sunyoungkang.com/

04/16/2025

Minor Inconvenience
by Timothy Callaghan
gouache on paper
30" x 50"

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.

Timothy Callaghan is an artist living in Cleveland Ohio. He is the recipient of a 2015 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. His paintings are in numerous private and public collections throughout the state. He received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from Kent State University in 2005. Callaghan has abandoned some of the more stereotypical elements of Midwest Regionalism such as realism and a somber color palette and replaced them with gestural vibrant brush strokes evocative of Matisse cut-outs and saturated Southern California colors. Thus we, the viewers, are asked to see our surroundings with the eye of a traveler and sense value, rediscovery and wonder. Callaghan paints places he knows—everyday places with an attention to detail and beauty that lifts them from the ordinary and endows them with a sense of dignity.

https://timothycallaghan.com/

04/15/2025

World Network Models Vol. 2
by Mizin Shin
screenprint on clear acrylic sheets
37" x 66" x 60"

On display at AAWR as part of "Common Currents" through June 21.
Mizin Shin graduated from Hong-ik University with a B.F.A in Printmaking and received her M.F.A from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Shin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Rochester as well as a co-founder of Mirabo Press in Buffalo, NY.

Mizin Shin’s work addresses interdependency throughout societal systems. It looks at the interconnectedness experienced as both an individual and also as one of many elements in constructed systems.

The World Network Models series visualizes maps of transportation connections to expose the interdependent travel systems as networks of migratory movement.

https://www.mizinshin.com/

04/14/2025

We'd like to say a huge Thank You to everyone who came to the opening reception of Common Currents this past Friday! And an extra special Thank You to the staff of Penney Art Center and the exhibiting artists from Western New York who made the trip for the opening - we'll see you on your home turf soon!
If you weren't able to make it to the opening, not to worry! The exhibition will be on display at AAWR, Wednesdays - Fridays from 10 am - 4 pm, and Saturdays noon - 4 pm, through June 21.
We'll see you soon!

04/11/2025

T-minus 4 hours and counting..

Common Currents opens tonight at 5:30!
See you in a few hours!

04/09/2025

Thank you Collective Arts Network Journal for this excellent article!

Buffalo artist Gary Wolfe met Cleveland artist John Sargent in 2012, when Sargent briefly lived in the Queen City. Both were involved with the Buffalo Society of Artists—an organization founded in 1891 to help advance the cause of artists in that part of the world. They got to know each other over...

04/08/2025

It's been all hands on deck the last week or so as we got Common Currents installed, but we're just about ready for opening night! Working with artists Nicole Condon and Sun Young Kim to install their works was a treat!
Extra special thanks to Don Harvey Artist Susan Elaine Murray and John A. Sargent III for their skilled assistance!

04/01/2025

The Call to Entry for NewNow 2025 is open on our website! Entries will be accepted through June 15!
https://www.artistsarchives.org/event/newnow-2025-call-for-entry/

03/25/2025

Save the Date!
Common Currents Opening Reception