The Akron Art Museum To Open Two New Exhibitions

Written by Edward MacDougan Monday, 24 October 2011 00:20

Akron, Ohio.- The Akron Art Museum is proud to present two new exhibitions opening on October 29th. "Supernatural: Landscapes by Bruce Checefsky and Barry Underwood" will be on view until March 4th 2012, while "Michelle Droll: Landslide - Between a Rock and a Place" will remain on view until February 19th 2012. Both exhibitions present very distinctive and skewed view of landscapes and complement the museum’s presentation of "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism," an exhibition of more than 50 impressionist paintings which also opens on October 29th. Checefsky and Underwood both utilize the effects of atmospheric light in addition to outside light sources to create ephemeral moments in the landscape that give viewers the sense of discovering hidden worlds.

The exhibition’s focal point is "Gusher", a swirling, towering wave through which aquatic plants, animals and debris escape from an oil spill to be carried away by a flock of birds.  A wall drawing, which Droll conceives as a “paint spill”, will be composed of tiny fragments of paint scraps and will provide an alternative view of this world. “I like the idea of presenting a monumental object along with its ‘map’ on the wall as a way of viewing the same idea in different ways. It will allow me to layer skins of paint in a similar but much more delicate way on the wall,” Droll states.

Bruce Checefsky received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art and studied at the International Center of Photography in New York City. In 2009, Checefsky was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. He is also the recipient of a Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities Fellowship. In 2007, he received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Award, among numerous other honors. In 2005, Checefsky was artist-in-residence at the Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw. His works are in included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Brooklyn Museum, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts; and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others.




Barry Underwood holds a Bachelor of Arts in photography and theater from Indiana University Northwest and a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbook Academy of Art. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, including gallery exhibitions in Oakland, California; Calgary, Alberta; Walnut Creek, California and Watermill, New York. Underwood was artist-in-residence at the Banff Center for the Arts in Banff, Alberta, Canada, I-Park in East Haddam, Connecticut, Headlands Center for the Arts and the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, Utah. In addition, Underwood’s work has been reviewed in numerous publications including Color Magazine, the London Times and Spectrum Magazine and featured in Real Simple Magazine. Underwood received an Individual Excellence Award grant from the Ohio Arts Council in 2008 and was awarded the 2011 Cleveland Arts Prize for Visual Arts Mid-career. He is currently an assistant professor and head of photography at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He has an upcoming exhibition at the Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio. Originally from upstate New York, Michelle Droll received her Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Management from Utica College of Syracuse University before moving to Ohio. Sparked by her passion for art, Droll earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2002 and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting from Kent State University in 2004 before taking a job as an engineering technician at Dominion East Ohio in 2006. Her passion for art and conservationist attitude led her to make artwork that is environmentally friendly. While most artists stock supplies from art and craft supply stores, Droll collects palette scrapings, fragments of [hers and others’] former projects and other recyclable goods to manipulate and create her artwork.

The Akron Art Museum has continued to enrich the lives of those in Northeast Ohio and beyond through modern art. Its nationally recognized collection was documented through the publication of collection catalogues. Spanning three centuries, like the museum's collection, together they symbolize the museum's dual role as preserver of the past and herald of the future. Art made from 1850 to 1950 graces the C. Blake McDowell, Jr. Galleries. On view are outstanding examples of turn-of-the-twentieth century realism and American impressionism including paintings by Childe Hassam, Frederick Frieseke, William Merritt Chase and Ohio's own Frank Duveneck. Many of these works came from the collection of the museum's co-founder Edwin C. Shaw. One gallery explores modernism and regionalism in northeast Ohio from the 1910s to 1950, and another is devoted to William Sommer, this region's most important historical artist. The Akron Art Museum is the only place in the nation where Sommer's work is on permanent view. Art created since 1950 is featured in the Sandra L. and Dennis B. Haslinger Family Foundation Galleries. The eclecticism of style in late 20th century art is revealed through examples of postmodern painting and sculpture, photorealism, Pop art and works that continue surrealist and expressionist approaches. Galleries are organized thematically, an example being artists' varied representations of the human body. On view are 'Linda' by Chuck Close, a monumental early painting; the witty silkscreen painting 'Elvis' by Andy Warhol; and Ohio carver and preacher Elijah Pierce's animated relief sculpture 'The Wise and Foolish Virgins and Four Other Scenes'. Other spaces explore both the subtlety and power of abstraction. Masterpieces by Donald Judd, Jackie Winsor and Sol LeWitt present an elegant vision of space ordered through geometry. Frank Stella's enormous Diepholz (which is both painting and sculpture) and African artist El Anatsui's shimmering wall hanging made from hundreds of liquor bottle caps, address abstraction through a more emotional or instinctual world view. A separate room in the Haslinger Family Galleries is devoted to the first work of installation art to enter the museum's collection - Atrabiliairios (Defiant), by Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo. The piece's elegantly ordered rectangular niches belie its visceral content and materials related to the politics of Colombia. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.akronartmuseum.org

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