Julia Schenkelberg, “Blue Ocean”, 2020, Blue dye, resin, rusted metal from Detroit factory floors, plaster chips, vintage china, glass from Brooklyn beaches
Malone University Art Gallery’s exhibition Healing Spaces features work by Northeastern Ohio artists Julie Schenkelberg, Chen Peng, Yiyun Chen, and Emily Bartolone. Although the mediums differ, the work flows together in the room. Below are some selections and more about each artist from the gallery’s documentation.
Julie Schenkelberg, "Modern Memorial", 2020, Found screen, plaster, acrylic paint, vintage leather and fabric, jewelry box interior, glass gathered from Cleveland and Detroit auto and steel factory abandoned floors, vintage glass slide of the Parthenon Frieze
Julie Schenkelberg grew up in the post-industrial landscape of Cleveland, Ohio. Her mixed-media installations start with furniture, dishware, textiles, and marble, combined with concrete, resin, and construction materials, to transform notions of domesticity, and engage with the American Rust Belt's legacy of abandonment and decay. Using the home as a playground for formal and conceptual subversions, the work aggressively disrupts cohesion within the physical sphere. Familiar furnishings rekindle memories or premonitions of collapse, suggesting both the utter destruction of war, calamities, or urban decay, but also the uncanny juxtapositions of fragile substances such as cloth and china, with industrial materials such as rusty metal, heavy concrete, and tool-made marks such as drilled holes and chain-sawed indentations.
Chen Peng, Paintings from the "Mountains at Night" series, 2023, gouache, acrylic, and oil on canvas
Deriving from a desire to find stillness and grounding as an immigrant, Chen Peng explores the connection between landscape and the complexities of identity and belonging. She creates foreign landscapes from a combination of past experiences, memories, and imagination, delving into the disorienting sense of not knowing where home is. The moon, particularly in its fullness, becomes a symbol encapsulating emotions and metaphors associated with loneliness, reverence, and even terror. Her ceramic pieces extend this exploration of landscapes, featuring textures and marks that convey the essence of mountains, clouds, and the moon.
Photographs from from Yiyun Chen's series "Velleity", 2016-2018
The photography of Yiyun Chen is about the process of self-reflection and self-discovery as an Asian immigrant, exploring the relationship between people, environment and society, turning its personal experience and empathy into gentle conversations between humans and nature, capturing the poetic and distance of the environment around us. Through photography, we can take the essence of life seriously again and treat the people and things around us tenderly. Through his lens, they often have similar structure, people look tiny in nature scenes, creating an intimate visual experience. Most of his photographs are captured outdoors, with soft light and harmonious colors often used.
Stemming from her infatuation with the formal elements of painting, the work of Emily Bartolone pairs down simple, anthropomorphized shapes in an effort to explore paint and color theory while simultaneously creating tension and humor through color, edges, and texture. The playful, human qualities of painting are incorporated into the work through the use of amorphous shapes animated within the picture plane. Further informed by ideas of the mundane, the awkward, and the jovial that surround everyday life, the complexity of human relationships are mimicked by the shapes interacting on each painting's surface. In acknowledging that life is not always cordial, moments of tension are placed within the satisfying surfaces in the form of an abrupt mark, a disparate color, or a shift in scale. These ideas are used to take viewers outside of themselves for a short period of time, hoping to offer a break from the bombardment of distractions, notifications, and news we encounter so often on a daily basis.
This exhibition closes 4/9/24.
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Cincy's Skylar Blatt Recruits Chris Brown for "Wake Up," a Feel Good Summer Anthem
Emerging from a rough upbringing to become her city's most promising talent, Cincinnati native Skylar Blatt is ready to take over the Midwest and beyond. Today, the ILWT/Saint Ka$h/Arista signee teams up with Chris Brown to share "Wake Up," a feel good single for the summer.
Lifted by clean guitars and thumping percussion, the song is a showcase for the artist's melodic instincts, as she fits her inspirational bars into an addictive melodic cadence. Rhyming through an audible smile, Skylar expresses gratitude for her god-given talent and takes comfort in what she is building. Halfway through, Breezy joins the party, mimicking Skylar's cadence in his own inimitable tenor.
The collaboration came about organically: Chris became familiar with Skylar after he saw her perform her song "F*ck Fame" on From The Block and posted the clip on his Instagram. After Skylar reached out to thank him, the two developed a friendship and connected when Chris came through Ohio, where they promised that they would work together on a song. That song became "Wake Up," and the two joined forces in Breezy's neighborhood in Los Angeles to film the video.
"Wake Up" is only the first step in Skylar's rise from the Queen City to the top of the rap game. Raised by a single mother as one of six, Skylar turned to hip-hop to escape the troubles of her youth, developing a style derived from the best East Coast and Midwest rappers. She first gained attention with freestyles she posted on her Instagram, eventually gaining an early co-sign from Meek Mill, and a glowing profile from Lyrical Lemonade. In 2022, Skylar started collaborating with some of the finest rappers in the midwest, connecting with Babyface Ray and fellow Cincinnati rapper Midwest Milly for "Exactly," racking up over 800k YT views, and teaming with Icewear Vezzo for the sinister "God Forbid." A lifelong Bengals fan, she teamed with fellow Ohioan Doe Boy to craft "BENGALS (SUPER BOWL)," an anthem meant to cheer on Joe Burrow and company as they played in Super Bowl LVI. In October 2023, Skylar shared her mixtape Blatt SZN, home to "God Forbid" and ten other Cincy slappers. The tape won her a fan in Lola Brooke, who hopped on a remix to her song "F*ck Fame." Before "Wake Up," Skylar released her single "Laughin To Tha Bank,” a hard-hitting anthem that is already beginning to impact local radio in Cincinnati.
Now, as the inaugural signee to Saint Ka$h Records, the record label founded by Kendell "Sav" Freeman, Skylar is looking to become the next Midwest rapper to break things open. With more music on the way, the Queen City queen is ready to defy the odds and take over Summer 2024. Watch this space–the Sky is the limit.
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Felt like making a little random post to give your feeds a bright pop of colorful fun, and I hope you can take a moment to check out my art!
This is just a sampling of all the things I make for my art brand Schlady, which covers the whole spectrum of my colorful art & design work: original acrylic paintings, art prints, greeting cards, stickers, buttons, magnets, and more. As you can see, I care quite a bit about cats, landscapes, memes, and expressions of pride, and I love to make new & custom designs whenever I can.
I'm honored to be able to share my inspirations & expressions with those who enjoy living life just as colorfully as I do... thank you! I'm grateful for each & every reblog, customer, client, and stockist that keeps my art dream going strong. 🌈💜- Kelli
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Ewuresi Archer’s Indescribable Charm was created for Land Studio’s rotating space The Art Wall in Cleveland’s Public Square. Archer is a Ghanaian American artist who is based in the city and graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art.
From the artist about this work-
Indescribable Charm is a piece about capturing the indescribable feeling of tranquility through a vibrant landscape. With exaggerations in the textured grass with natural shades of green contrasted with bright oranges and distorted landscapes, this piece provides a space for people to stop, think, and reflect. Within this charming scene, a figure stands front and center with features associated with African Americans. My art is about celebrating myself and my culture; with this piece, I’m celebrating the beauty of black people. Putting an African American figure in a field of grass that calls for admiration gives a viewer no choice but to also admire the figure’s aesthetics. This piece puts them in a place of admiration. His strong yet ethereal presence adds depth to the piece as a whole. The serene landscape, in contrast to the figure’s beauty, creates a wonderfully harmonious composition that invites viewers to contemplate the majestic charm of the grass and the mysterious beauty of the figure.
You can also find Ewuresi Archer on Instagram.
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