2009 SUMMER GROUP EXHIBITION

Friday, June 5 – Saturday, July 25
After the Pedestal, the 5th Annual of Smaller Sculpture from the Region

Friday, June 5
5:30 to 8 pm – Opening in the Main and Euclid Avenue Galleries and the Sculpture Courtyard
6:30 pm in the Euclid Avenue Gallery -The Juror Talks with Paola Morsiani, Curator of Contemporary Art of the Cleveland Museum of Art
7:23 pm in the Sculpture Courtyard - Full Moon over Hot Springs, a participation art piece by R Ferris. Bring your folding chair.
All Sculpture Center openings and events are free and open to the public.

With 21 artworks by 16 artists from this geographical region, juror Paola Morsiani has created a cohesive exhibition that explores the most current interests of many artists creating three-dimensional work. Included in the exhibition are works by Karen Bondarchuk (Kalamazoo, MI), Carol Boram-Hays (Columbus, OH), Samantha Doan (Oxford, OH), Elizabeth A. Emery (Cleveland, OH), Alton Falcone (Newport, KY),  R Ferris (Kirtland, OH), Nicole M. Gibbs (Columbus, OH), Elizabeth Hoy (Philadelphia, PA), Tyler Matthew Oyer (State College, PA), Mark Soppeland (Akron, OH), Scott Stibich (Cleveland, OH), Howard Tran (Williamsport, PA), Will Tucker (Columbus, OH), Norwood Viviano (Plainwell, MI), and Lauren Yeager (Cleveland, OH).

Paola Morsiani says, "Since the 1960s sculpture as a discipline and expressive language has been extremely prolific with new ideas. These have involved much interaction with architecture and the open space, including social relationships, inside and outside the gallery, as well as a continuous exploration of how sculpture can transform ready-made objects and materials. After the Pedestal introduces audiences to a selection of very interesting evolutions in these areas by artists based in our surrounding regions."

The objects in the exhibition consider politics, loss of the natural world and environmental degradation, abstraction of materiality in the digital age, location and place in the immediate and global senses, randomness and accident, and ambiguity of the purpose or function of objects. Many of the objects are manipulations and combinations of ready-made materials, such as strips of tire retreads collected along Michigan highways, pieces of cut and colored dry wall, nail filled boards, rusted rebar with bits of painted concrete, thrift shop specials, a battered table and manual typewriter, and reinforced fabric of an old dress with blush makeup. There are bold interactions with the gallery spaces and the outside architecture, an effort to create new parameters of beauty, several pieces with their own light sources, and sound.

About the juror, Paola Morsiani
Paola Morsiani is Curator of Contemporary Art at The Cleveland Museum of Art. From 1999-2007, she was Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX, and she has worked in curatorial departments in American museums since 1994 — at The Drawing Center and the Queens Museum in New York and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA. The new contemporary galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art, curated by Morsiani, open on June 20.  She has independently curated shows in Italy, for PS122 Gallery, New York, and for Art & Idea, Mexico City, among other institutions. Morsiani’s most recently curated CAM Houston exhibitions, which received international critical acclaim, were Wishing for Synchronicity: Works by Pipilotti Rist (2006), Andrea Zittel: Critical Space (2005, co-organized with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York), and Fade In: New Film and Video (2004). She has also curated several Perspectives series exhibitions.

About the annual juried exhibition, After the Pedestal
In its fifth year, this annual juried exhibition of smaller sculpture from the region is open to all artists of Ohio, its contiguous states, and Ontario, Canada, and may include three-dimensional artwork for a pedestal, the floor, wall, or ceiling, as well as performance and video art that involve objects. Each year The Sculpture Center chooses a juror of national reputation to increase the exposure of the artists of our region and to put before our audiences some of the finest three-dimensional artwork of our region. Previous jurors were Richard Hunt (On a Pedestal, 2005), Viktor Schrenkengost (On a Pedestal, 2006), Don Harvey (On A Pedestal and Off The Wall, 2007), and Gregory Amenoff (On A Pedestal and Off The Wall, 2008).

Elizabeth A. Emery, T-Silk 2, 2008, porcelain, fabric, sponge, zip-tie, and colored paper, 39 x 32 in. overall. Image courtesy of the artist.


Carol Boram-Hays, The Dance, 2007, cast concrete, found metal, and pigments, 21 x 10 x 17 in. Image courtesy of the artist.


Alton Falcone, Alba, 2009, recovered wood, steel, and ceramics, 8 ft. x 4 ft. x 5 in. Image courtesy of the artist.

Home page image: Karen Bondarchuk, Autogenesis, 2008, tire scraps and auto head lamp, 30 x 25 x 68 in. Image courtesy of the artist.

Gallery Hours: Wed - Fri: 10am - 4pm, Saturday: noon - 4pm, or by appointment
Always Free and Open to the Public. Groups and Tours by Appointment.

For more information call 216.229.6527 or go to info@sculpturecenter.org.

The Sculpture Center is a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to the advancement of the careers of emerging Ohio sculptors and the preservation of Ohio outdoor sculpture as a means to provide support for artists and to effect the enrichment, education, enjoyment, and visual enhancement of the Cleveland community and greater region.

The Sculpture Center is generously supported by individual donors to Friends of The Sculpture Center, by studioTECHNE Architects, and by funding from the Bernice and David E. Davis Art Foundation, the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. The Sculpture Center also gratefully acknowledges the citizens of Cuyahoga County for their support through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Gallery hours: Wednesday through Friday, 10 AM to 4 pm, Saturday 12 noon to 4 pm or by prior appointment (Free Parking, Handicapped accessible)