Sculpture Center's Upcoming Exhibition Features 30 Regional Works

Opening with a free public reception at the Sculpture Center this Thursday, June 11 from 5:30 to 8 p.m., After the Pedestal: The 8th Exhibition of Small Sculpture from the Region features 30 works by 17 sculptors (and one collaboration).

“This year’s After the Pedestal recommences The Sculpture Center’s very popular summer exhibition that is open to all artists, including students, of Ohio and our greater region,” says the Sculpture Center’s Executive Director Ann Albano. “This juried exhibition has morphed in name from On the Pedestal to On the Pedestal and Off the Wall to After the Pedestal, reflecting the evolving nature of the contemporary sculpture exhibited.”

The exhibition showcases an eclectic range of materials; including metals, wood, glass, leather, paper, ceramics and altered ready-mades.

“The overall impression in each gallery is of various complex metals with punctuations of glass, ceramic, reed, paper, felt, and wood,” explains Albano. “The color palette is largely restricted to natural hues of browns, off whites, grays, bronze, and shiny steel, with bursts of color here and there. Sculptures are high on the wall, low on the wall, at eye level on a long shelf, on a pedestal, on the floor. The small size of the works allows for an intensity of working processes by the artists and concentration of viewing by the visitors that can sometimes be undervalued when larger works are exhibited.”

This year’s juror is Johnny Coleman, Professor of Art and African American Studies at Oberlin College. He will give a Juror Talk in the Euclid Avenue Gallery at 6:15 p.m. and the Main Gallery at 7 p.m.

“In reflecting upon the work selected, an open weave of recurrent themes began to emerge: the exploration of place/dwelling and memory, alongside of interior/intuitive spaces of the mind,” says Coleman. “I continue to look to, and learn from these artists and their work. I am excited to be immersed within an artistic region as rich as this.”

“Johnny is a sound and installation artist who describes himself as, above all, a story teller,” describes Albano. “His narratives of the African American struggles, triumphs, and often unsung heroes of the past are told through his careful choice of materials and objects that resonate with history, such as wood from barns that were built during the time of slavery and bricks from the well of an Underground Railroad house. Johnny is deeply interested in the resonance of natural materials and well used domestic items, their formal qualities when combined, and the implied histories of the resulting art objects. He has brought this finely tuned aesthetic sensitivity towards materials and the hand work in the construction of sculptures to bear in his selection of the works of art for this year’s exhibition.”

She adds, “Past jurors have been Second Generation Ab Ex sculptor Richard Hunt of Chicago (2005), Cleveland’s own designer and artist Viktor Schrekengost (2006), Cleveland sculptor and urban activist Don Harvey (2007), painter and Chair of the Visual Arts Division, Columbia University, New York, Gregory Amenoff (2008), the Cleveland Museum of Art's then Curator of Contemporary Art Paola Morsiani (2009), then Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Gallery Astria Suparak (2010), and then Judd Foundation (New York and Texas) Executive Director Barbara Hunt McClanahan (2011).”

After the Pedestal remains on view through the end of July. The Sculpture Center and the opening reception are free and open to the public. Additional viewing hours are Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment.

(Sculpture Center)1834 E. 123rd St., 216-229-6527, sculpturecenter.org