Cleveland artists Melanie Newman and Terry Durst met as bartenders at the Beachland Ballroom. One night last year, right before the doors opened, they came up with a great idea for an installation and began brainstorming.

Melanie and Terry want you to know that It’s Not Your Fault.

Terry is a Brandt Gallery veteran, having shown his work here for about 10 years through the nineties. This show will be Melanie’s first time working in the space, although she is familiar with Tremont as her first show post BFA graduation from CIA was hosted by the Doubting Thomas Gallery.

I deal with raw human emotion that is often represented through figures, abstract portraits, or completely abstract images. I use flat saturated color in most of my work because this is how I see our world and society; plainly, dismally, and vividly.  Human emotions are the focus of my work, although the content is sometimes revealed to me after the pieces are completed.

I am influenced by the skateboard and outsider art that surrounded me in my adolescence growing up in Cleveland, Ohio.  Other strong influences include urban art and any sort of Abstract Expressionism.

The members of Team of Rivals hail from the following bands:  The Heathers, Dead Federation, Missile Toe, Zero Defex, CD Truth, Numbskull, Starvation Army, Oral Authority, Pestilence and the SLAP Jazz Trio.  Gina Muscatello on Vocals, Jeff Hardy on Guitar, Mike Zubal on Bass and John Henry Scully on Drums have been part of

Keir Neuringer (Ithaca, NY)

Davide Andras Imburgia/Tom Orange Duo

C. Randolph C.

And Evening of Words and Music, Friday May 4th beginning at 7:30 p.m.

“Keir Neuringer composes & improvises acoustic & electronic music, writes socio-political performance texts & essays, & creates interdisciplinary artworks, all with the aim of bringing audiences into a state of emotional & intellectual curiosity that meets the conditions for meaningful dialogue with, & transformation of, the culture at large. Over the last 25 years he has cultivated a personal & intensely physical approach to solo saxophone improvisation that honors & builds upon diverse music-making traditions. He also plays analogue electronics & farfisa organ, & sings & narrates text. He has been an active participant in the experimental music scenes in Krakow, The Hague, and Amsterdam, and currently lives in Central New York.”

http://keirneuringer.com/about.html

Instant Impressionism- Automatic Paintings the Polaroid Way

Work by Daiv Whaley

I find myself working in several mediums depending on the need for certain technologies. Polaroid photography, on the other hand, is simply a love—a joy and a love of ‘accidentally’ capturing some perfect moment of beauty in the natural world and watching it develop before my eyes. It’s like the toy prize in the bottom of the Cracker Jacks box, like the B-side single you’ve never heard from a favorite band.

Flowers are amazing creations—their colors, shapes and sizes suggest explosions out of the earth—floral fireworks. Again, their organic systems—building themselves up out of the ground from tiny seeds and synthesizing energy out of pure sunlight, water and soil—make them amazing machines and self-building architectures. Good designs from the greatest Designer!

My Polaroids are attempts to fuse a sci-fi aesthetic to natural beauty. Using angles, close-up shots, light intensity, intentional blurriness, as well as my own manipulations of the film as the pictures develop, I strive to create a modern or even futuristic feeling with each photograph – more how paintings affect me and feel to me. The title of each piece also contributes to this aesthetic, since words are very important. Interestingly, each year color becomes more and more important in this collection – more painterly, as if the Polaroids are becoming automatic paintings of sorts, which is where the title for this exhibit originates.

These selections have been compiled from a 19-year ongoing project, learning how to get instant film to express my feelings. Bright & beautiful open edition prints, I hope you enjoy this fun method for capturing light and color

Daiv Whaley, March 2012

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Daiv Whaley studied Writing, Journalism & English Literature at Kent State University. Although active in graphic arts in high school, it was not until residing in the art dorm at university that he began to catch the art bug, promoting local punk shows and then God through flyers he stapled around campus. Stints living in Chicago and the Cleveland/Akron area exposed him to artists like Dan Flavin, Marc Chagall, Barb Kruger, Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol. Working in several mediums – Polaroid and cell phone photography, propaganda, light & sound works, Eco-art and performance, Whaley has shown at Lake Erie College, the Beck Center for the Arts, ROY G. BIV (Columbus), Asterisk Gallery, Akron Public Library, Ingenuity Festival, First Night Akron, ASAP (Chicago), Art Metro, Brandt Gallery, North Water Street Gallery (Kent), Zombo Gallery (Pittsburgh), and the Second Floor Gallery (Chicago), among others. He has curated several exhibits in Cleveland galleries and performed in a self-produced cable access TV program, at the Cleveland International Performance Festival, with GROOP at Spaces Gallery, and at the Mattress Factory and Chicago’s Fringe Festival in support of Kristen Baumlier.      His favorite influences are God, nature, Rock & Roll, Sci-Fi and language. Whaley is also a culture journalist and is at work on his first comic book story.

A GUIDE TO SCIENCE – closing reception Saturday March 3, 7 – 9 p.m.

The artists: Jeff and Craig will perform for you.

Performances include:

Singer/Songwriter Craig Martin

Acoustic Set – Jeff Curtis and Tom Orange

Iron Oxide

and a special guest Craig Chojnicki doing the things only Craig can!

Light and Vision by Jeff Curtis

Incorporating words, phrases, and lettering as an intrinsic part of the visuals in my drawings, I am influenced by the history of graphic design as a means of visual communication, and further using visual representations of language as a means of enhancing, augmenting, and sometimes subverting verbal expression.  My reinterpretations of classic book covers and elements from the books themselves give me a chance to explore the processes of graphic design, and to draw out my own subjective reactions and extrapolations of these works of popular culture.

Opening Night performance by Iron Oxide.

St Malachi by Ora Coltman

The Cleveland School has garnered attention over the years for the turn of the century painters it produced and influenced throughout the midwest/Great Lakes region of the United States.    The WPA Projects employed some of these artists, work by Ora Coltman is still on display at the main branch of the City of Cleveland Library.

The Cleveland School eventually became the Cleveland Institute of Art.

This exhibit contains work by three Cleveland School painters, as well as of several paintings subsequent to the Cleveland School period.

Hombre painting by Bruno Casiano

As a child growing up in the Island of Puerto Rico, I encountered the wild rural life of a small town called Juana Diaz. Since, this has been the motivating factor of my artwork, composed of sub-conscience interpretations of mountains, mangos, ceiba trees, caves and the awareness of being on an island. This is the key part of the process of my work, which dips into these memories seen through the eyes of a young kid, where depth of a brilliant sky becomes entangled with leaves, branches, water, colors, forms and high contrast.

This euphoria of the creative process finds the measuring place in the tangible material. Two parallels, man and material interact concurrent to such objective, called art. The complexity of its continuous resurrection repeats itself in many stages throughout the entire existence in which materials are being manipulated. By these undetermined or determined allusions, composed by the surreal and real, singular and plural thoughts which constantly recall stages of  my human experience.

This subjectivity and visual pursuit for the “truth” is which gives birth to the process and creation, and continues to break esthetic interpretations, which results into my final art work.

As a child growing up in the Island of Puerto Rico, I encountered the wild rural life of a small town called Juana Diaz. Since, this has been the motivating factor of my artwork, composed of sub-conscience interpretations of mountains, mangos, ceiba trees, caves and the awareness of being on an island. This is the key part of the process of my work, which dips into these memories seen through the eyes of a young kid, where depth of a brilliant sky becomes entangled with leaves, branches, water, colors, forms and high contrast.

This euphoria of the creative process finds the measuring place in the tangible material. Two parallels, man and material interact concurrent to such objective, called art. The complexity of its continuous resurrection repeats itself in many stages throughout the entire existence in which materials are being manipulated. By these undetermined or determined allusions, composed by the surreal and real, singular and plural thoughts which constantly recall stages of  my human experience.

This subjectivity and visual pursuit for the “truth” is which gives birth to the process and creation, and continues to break esthetic interpretations, which results into my final art work.

As a child growing up in the Island of Puerto Rico, I encountered the wild rural life of a small town called Juana Diaz. Since, this has been the motivating factor of my artwork, composed of sub-conscience interpretations of mountains, mangos, ceiba trees, caves and the awareness of being on an island. This is the key part of the process of my work, which dips into these memories seen through the eyes of a young kid, where depth of a brilliant sky becomes entangled with leaves, branches, water, colors, forms and high contrast.

This euphoria of the creative process finds the measuring place in the tangible material. Two parallels, man and material interact concurrent to such objective, called art. The complexity of its continuous resurrection repeats itself in many stages throughout the entire existence in which materials are being manipulated. By these undetermined or determined allusions, composed by the surreal and real, singular and plural thoughts which constantly recall stages of  my human experience.

This subjectivity and visual pursuit for the “truth” is which gives birth to the process and creation, and continues to break esthetic interpretations, which results into my final art work.

Bruno

The Tremont History Project will be kicking off its fall schedule at Brandt Gallery.   The history project consists of people with a little more history in Tremont than ArtWalk and Tremont West.   This is an on-going project, photos and events are always being added to the timeline, as they work to vet out the rich 150 year history of this always diverse, and until quite recently, blue collar working class neighborhood.

The history project will be featured at Pilgrim Congregational Church for the  November ArtWalk.

Saturday October 8 the monthly Russell Vidrick open mic poetry will feature the contributors to his BRANDT21 poetry anthology published in conjunction with the BRANDT21 anniversary show.

Poetry begins at 3 p.m.

Barbecue begins at 5 p.m. we supply fire and some light beverages, you bring food for the grill and to share!

This year marks the 21st anniversary of Brandt Gallery, one of the first and longest running art galleries in the Tremont neighborhood. In recognition of Jean Brandt’s ongoing dedication and promotion of area artists and the Tremont Artwalk, Dana Depew and Steven Mastroianni have organized a retrospective of artists who have shown at Brandt gallery.

Brandt Gallery (1028 Kenilworth) Saturday September 17,   Noon – 6 p.m.

Mastroianni Arts (2688 West 14th Street) Saturday September 17  Noon – 3 p.m.

Participating artists:

Robert Banks
Emily Blaser
Judith Brandon
Justin Brennan
Beth Bryan
Preston Buchtel
Milenko Budimir
Vincent Como
Pete Dell
Denver Dell
Dana Depew
Stephe DK
Pamela Dodds
Lauren Dombrowiak
Terry Durst
Bruce Edwards
Mona Gazala
Collette Gschwind
Jacci Hammer
Tim Herron
Sally Hudak
Christopher Kapsar
Matk Keffer
Kenn Louis
Mikel Mahoney
Charlotte Mann
Jerry Mann
Steven Mastroianni
Celeste McCarty
Shawn Mishak
Michelle Marie Murphy
David Novak
Phoebe Marie Nelson
Tom Orange
Anastasia Pantsios
Ben Parsons
Cynthia Penter
Scott Pickering
Nancy Prudic
John Ranally
Jayce Renner
Victoria Semarjian
Edward Shalala
David Skutnik
Kathy Smith
Steven B Smith
Steve Stanaszek
David Szekeres
Dan Tranberg
Terri P Tufts
Russell Vidrick
Laila Voss
Daiv Whaley
Jessica Wheelock
Maria Winiarski
Beth Yurich
Larry Zuzik

Exhibit runs through the month at both galleries.

Chamomile Blossoms

ArtWalk Friday August 12, 6 – 10 pm,  ARTIST RECEPTION Saturday August 13, 6 -10 pm

IN AND OUT OF SHADOW

New work by Terri P Tufts

I am very grateful to Jean Brandt for asking me to show at her gallery.  Many thanks to Preston Buchtel for his support and technical advice, and for helping me to hang all of this.  Preston is also responsible for the backward ticking clock on ENTROPY one-five-six.  Thanks also to Deidre Lauer who is helping me to entertain at the Literary after the artist reception.

I have been working as an Artist, Decorative Painter, Interior Decorator, Scenic Artist/Designer along with many other odd and varied project that have come my way since graduating from The Cleveland Institute of Art in 1988.  I currently own a business called Art Crimes Inc.  with a thankful nod to the Artist STEVEN SMITH for the obvious inspiration for the name.  Although I didn’t remember until it was recently pointed out to me so thanks Steven!

I currently operate my business and studio out of a pole barn in my back yard in Eaton Township where I live.

I have always been pictorially motivated.  Each of these pieces began with a distinct idea in mind.  Some begin with a poem or phrase.  Others begin with a concept but no images or words.  Some are just emotions or feelings that I would like to express.  It gets difficult at times to create a visual image out of nebulous feeling.  I have a story to tell but have decided to release myself from my pictorial tendencies a bit.  I was able to do this with poetry, phrases and words within the work.  I felt the freedom and moved more towards my expressionistic, symbolist imagery, in conjunction with my pictorial tendencies.  All of the pieces are about personal experience, losses, feelings and interests.

And as “they” say

PAINT WHAT YOU KNOW

That I have done

I love to experiment with different material and I often call my studio or wherever I happen to set up my work space, “my laboratory”.  The pieces in this show have a very definite structure and hanging system. I am quite enamored of structural systems. “Form follows Function” is apt on many occasions.  The rust belt, decay, along with the beautiful and varied landscape, harsh and wonderful weather of the Cleveland area has shaped vision in a way I could never have predicted as a child living in Southern California.

I am used to working quite large and am often design large spaces and have had to modify the work somewhat.  In fact, the show almost became “In the Dryer” as everything is a little smaller than usual ie: shrunk in the dryer, and probably should have remained so.  But here we are.  I have some rather serious tendencies in my art and often dwell on darkness.  I have tried to be more playful with ENTROPY one-five-sic and let my humor come through even though it deals with a serious and emotional topic and is very complex on many personal levels.  I become much attached to my art and have a hard time letting go. It makes selling a very difficult proposition.  I am trying to remake myself with ENTROPY.  Its sole purpose and concept is to disperse into the world and increase its entropy.

In spite or because of all this, I am a rather happy and optimistic person.  Perhaps delving in the dark helps me to cope with life’s tragedies and disappointment small or large. I have always believed that hard honest work with purpose and integrity matters.  Meaningful relationships cure a lot of ails.  Boredom is a disease and moving forward is the cure,  Or just moving sometimes.

Opening Reception ArtWalk Friday July 8, 6 – 10 p.m.

Work by San Francisco resident (Cleveland ex-pat) poet and artist Celeste McCarty.

Poetry Reading barbecue Saturday July 9 at 6 p.m. fetauring Celeste McCarty, Wendy Shaffer and Carmen Tracey.

A visual exploration into social media+texting+cell phones and its effects on relationships.

This is Preston’s second solo exhibition at Brandt Gallery, his first show of paintings and collages was presented in February of 2000.

His artist statement for this show is presented below:

An exhibition of digitally assembled photographic collages.

I began exploring digital photo manipulation in an effort to see what it had to offer me and my work, and how I might use it as a medium for expression. I also wanted to find a way of working with it as intuitively and with the same immediacy that my paintings and physical collages offered.

What I find most interesting about this medium, is the ability it offers to layer multiple images and fragments, and control their degree and manner of integration with one another, thus offering many possibilities for the visual creation, destruction, and manipulation of space, time, form, meaning, narrative, and perception. Through which new totalities can be constructed.

Several years and over 10,000 collages later, this exhibition includes some of the results.

David Sulik is a traditionally trained artist who became interested in the computer and its possibilities as an art tool while establishing himself in Cleveland after graduating from The Cleveland Institute of Art in 1984 with a degree in Drawing; double minor in Painting and Silversmithing. During 2005 – 2007 he returned to school to obtain a Master degree in Digital Arts. He now creates with the computer, less restrained by the limitations of the physical world.

The representations here, inspired by current ideas about quantum physics, molecular biology, brain wave patterns, Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming and environment cognition, are developed as 2D and 3D computer models. Some are utilized in live time computer simulation animations. To achieve that, an interactive 3D program produces frame-by frame images of pre-calculated mathematical forms discoverable by the viewer during live time using a hand held radio control method.

Artist selected FramePrints of virtual viewpoints, in the same manner that traditional artists select a view when painting a landscape, are also produced as part of an apophenia process to provoke thought and discussion.

“Winners and Losers” a solo exhibition of new works by
Michelle Marie Murphy

“USA Lottery Winner, Chris Shaw”

Chris Shaw, a convenience store clerk of Missouri, won $258.5 million playing “Powerball” in April of 2010.

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Michelle Marie Murphy creates multi-disciplinary visual art using the success and the tribulations of our roles in society as narrative. The source material chosen for these works are from real life social experiences, “America’s Funniest Home Videos”, and the Internet. Memorialized people at formative stages in their life (as seen in the series “Winners USA”) are equal players in Murphy’s oeuvre as those works where the subjects’ situation provides a critically poignant result (as seen in the series “America: a Comedy”). Hints of humor and tragedy can be found in the work providing further provocation.

Michelle received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2004. Her work has been published internationally, and she has exhibited in Geneva Switzerland, San Francisco, Chicago, and throughout the Midwest. Michelle works as a professional photographer at NASA (Glenn Research Center), and as an instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

The artwork presented here is a collaboration between Chris Kaspar and Justin Brennan. What you see is a series of portraits, each set a separate interpretation of the same person. While the black and white photos are printed in the darkroom, they are then manipulated in two different ways. Justin Brennan uses acrylic paint, marker and pen to transform the photograph into a stylistic painting. Chris Kaspar uses inks, dyes, pens and bleach to transform the photograph into a stylized photograph.

Justin Brennan and Chris Kaspar are Cleveland based artists living and working in the city. Both have received training from Kent State University, Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College.

Known as the most physically and mentally provocative take on time ever attempted- “The Year of Skutnik” is finally upon us… come and experience the climax of time, an exploration of masculinity and the most epic of epochs. Take a brief moment to embody a culture, year and an artist.

It happens to be on National Pierogi Day ( which only makes sense) so there will be an assortment of pierogis, Miller High Life and scantily clad dudes to pleasure all of your many senses.

With special guest DJ C. Randolph C. presiding at the opening ceremonies.

The Skutnik 2011 Calendar will be on sale – may be the last calendar you will ever need.

Hand pulled serigraph prints of movie stars, these images are photographed from a TV screen then converted to screens for printing. That process creates prints that appear both grainy under close exam but as a rich and fully realized photograph at a distance.

Edwards has been photographing current TV images, most notably during the 2008 presidential campaign, however this show’s installation paints a scene of classic blonds and men with guns that have graced movie screens throughout film history.

This is Edwards fifth show at Brandt Gallery. His work questions the process of art making and the line between the act of making art and the actual object created.

P e t e “pedro” D e l l

Seeker – Student – Photographer – Musician – Poet – Father – Grandfather – Husband

Join me in a creative process that begins in my mind’s eye, enters through a lens, is captured by a chemical film, realized on paper, and interpreted by you. I hope to trigger a flow of emotions, questions, and ideas that contemplate mankind’s contribution to, and disruption of, the natural world.

I strive to present works that tap into that space between one’s imagination and the “real” world. A photograph that is a factual representation of an object doesn’t impart the same excitement to me, as art that is open to interpretation.

My favorite works often result from serendipitous errors that happen in the process of creation, or result from accidents of the mechanical processes. We live in a world of mistakes and errors, which serve to foster our imagination.

Also featured at the opening Tremont ArtWalk Friday August 13 drumming performance Pete Dell and Scott Pickering.

Minimal Painting an exhibition by Edward Shalala opens at Brandt Gallery Tremont ArtWalk Friday June 11, 2010 runs through July 12.

Shalala is continuing work that he began more than 30 years ago. While finishing his MFA he became compelled by the work of Lucio Fontana, specifically the work Fontana did with raw cut canvas and raw cut linen canvas paintings. This work is of special interest to Shalala. Fontana called his cut paintings ‘spatial concepts’. The raw cut canvas pushed the viewer to see the material, the canvas, as a painting in and of itself.

Considering Fontana’s work, while in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, with the use of minimal paint, then no paint; Shalala began using pieces of raw canvas, poking holes, using glue and then collage to create paintings without use of paint. Taking the process further Shalala began to use canvas thread as the medium in and of itself. He created outdoor paintings by using the canvas thread to define the space in an outdoor setting, for example a field or garden to spatially define the painting.

The paintings are temporary, the color of the palette defined by space and light rather than pigment applied with brush. The paintings are super reductive painting recorded with documentary photography. The canvas unraveled is now a line rather than a plane. In this way Shalala returns the abstract painting back to the nature.

On Friday, May 14, three Cleveland artists invite you to cozy on up to art, circle round it, stare into it like a backyard bonfire, take its pulse… Come on over and converse awhile in the very place where art, life and magic make their collective home.

7:00 pm- Author and noise musician Tom Orange performs “The Well-Tuned Autoharp,” an original composition inspired by the music of La Monte Young.

8:00 pm- Writer and custodian Kate Sopko riffs on feminist performance artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles and her long career looking into the meaning of maintenance work. Come by and take a minute looking at the deceivingly simple question, ‘Who Does Your Art/Work?’

9:00 pm- Musician and DJ Jose Luna reprises an inter-media piece originally titled “Digital Detournement for Josef Albers” with an original, live ethno-electro-acoustic score.