01/03/2025
Come explore FIRST FRIDAY at The Chase Gallery! Our first show of the new year kicks off with STAR POWER: The Art of Drew Cliness.
Drew is an artist, builder, welder, fine craftsman, gatherer of knowledge and techniques. He grew up in the Midwest, learning art from the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown Ohio. It was there that he met a well-known artist named Dennis Oppenheim, who brought him to New York.
He worked from 1995 - 2002 for Dennis Oppenheim, during which time he drafted Dennis' drawings, built sculptures and installed artwork for exhibitions all over the world. He later worked for Martha Stewart Inc. in NYC in the woodshop building sets.
During that time, Drew was actively showing work in New York, most notably the Joe Helman Gallery. He had work shown in Portugal and Italy, at Gallery Geste in Paris, Alon Segev gallery in Tel Aviv and he and was honored to have work in the first Art Basel Miami. His work is in private collections both nationally and internationally.
After moving to Seattle around 2006 he worked at the Frye Museum and Winston Wachter Gallery as an art installer. He stopped showing his work, though never stopped making it.
In more recent years, he deliberately began focusing on star imagery in his artwork to hone his creative vision and experiment with a vast array of materials and techniques. Drew fully realizes the truth that the star shape and concept offer infinite possibilities and the manifestation of this is evident in his pieces. The results are, and continue to be, a large and varied body of work that spans mediums and forms, from graphite and colored pencil drawings to 3-dimensional mixed media wall pieces and sculptural works in a range of sizes and materials.
His works exemplify graphic design and industrial influences, while sustainably reimagining discarded and offcut pieces of functional objects into surprising artistic mediums. Crumpled Monopoly money becomes filler for empty glass vessels, sliced pool noodles suddenly become strong structural elements, and an 8-pointed star vibrates with the trapped energy of unlit matchsticks. Wood, concrete, steel and wire mesh in a choreography of assemblage and design, taking on a new elegant lightness in Drew's starry visions. More recent works of steel, concrete and wood point to celestial shapes and motifs.
One senses Drew is playing with all things elemental and seeing just how far he can push each material and medium, while paying homage to the mysterious forces of nature that shape our world.
Stop by January 3, 2025 to meet the artist and to experience Star Power!
