Waterloo Arts – A Fall Not To Be Missed
Waterloo Arts is gearing up for an amazing year. Opening on September 5, 2014, 6 pm to 10 pm will be the exhibition “De Materia”, curated by local artist and Cleveland Institute of Art Painting faculty, Lane Cooper (yes that’s me). As an exhibition “De Materia” is meant to reference Alberti’s historic work on painting De Pictura and like Alberti’s seminal work, it sets forth a treatise on art, advocating for work that offers something “more than” the thin and instant, readily consumable experiences that dominate much of current culture. Its focus is on the real material of art, an unnamable something that marries together the external and internal experience of the viewer. The works ground the viewer in a more expansive experience that requires that one linger. Included in the show will be works by: Bruce Checefsky, Gianna Commito, Sarah Kabot, Paul O’keeffe, Katy Richards, Charles Tucker, Barry Underwood and Nikki Woods.
As an added bonus, visitors to De Materia’s opening can stop by the open studios housed upstairs from the gallery. On September 5th, the Waterloo Arts studios will open their doors giving the public a peek into the creative work environments of some of the area’s most exciting artists. It’s a rare treat to get a look behind the creative curtain, so to speak, and it’s often an opportunity to chat with these artists about the work they’re making. Some of the artists working in the studios this Fall include: Timothy Callaghan, Chris Dixon, James Holloway, Christopher Martin and Katy Richards.
Also working in the studios this fall will be South African photographer and filmmaker, Dale Yudelman. His residency marks Waterloo Arts first foray into the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion program. Yudelman was born in Johannesburg, where he discovered his love of photography at a young age. He then went on to become the staff photographer for The Star Newspaper. Later, when he moved to London and then onto Los Angeles, he made his living as a freelance photographer. He returned to South Africa in 1996 after the nation became democratic and it was then that he began collaborating with artist Arlene Amaler-Raviv. Since that time Yudelman has continually distinguished himself as an artist merging his background as a photojournalist with an intense interest in the human condition. His works, such as the I am…, a series of photos and a film by the same name, poetically juxtapose words and images, poignantly evoke the human struggle and hope of survival within a world where few are privileged. Yudelman will be based at Waterloo Arts through the fall of 2014. While he’s here he’ll be producing work and interacting with members of the community culminating with an exhibition of his work opening at the gallery, November 7th. It’s definitely a not-to-be-missed opportunity to see the work of this remarkable artist.
Between De Materia and Yudelman, the Waterloo Arts Gallery will show “Oleander, Paintings of Martha Ferrazza”, opening on October 3rd. Ferrazza, one of the founding artist of Waterloo Arts, painted her first mural at age 19 and continued to work as a decorative painter and a designer until moving to Oberlin in 2008. She earned a portfolio scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art, and spent one year there before moving to Cincinnati to study drawing and painting at the University of Cincinnati. She completed her degree at Cleveland State University in 1993, where she studied with the painter Ken Nevadomi and printmaker Marvin Jones.
Featured in the paintings of “Oleander” are flowers that Martha constructed prior to painting them. The works are inspired by a variety of narratives, either from her own life or from books she has read. The constructed flowers in this series can be wild and beatific or stringent, even deadly. But they are never as they appear in nature. Ferrazza says, “Painting is the place for me that writing is for the fiction writer; I am the architect of each flower, of each image. As a series these paintings are like a book of miniatures writ large; an illuminated manuscript of what fascinates me, what I find distinctive, and what I love.”
De Materia curated by Lane Cooper
September 5th – September 26th
Oleander, Paintings by Martha Ferrazza
October 3rd – October 25th
Work of Creative Fusion Artist Dale Yudelman
Novemeber 7th – November 21st