SEASON 19
EXHIBITS IN THE GALLERY
September 2022 - August 2023
This exhibition season is financially assisted by individual donations, large and small, from across the U.S.
You can donate here to help keep our nonprofit programming going!
Pre-order the season-documenting hardcover anthology, the Manifest Exhibition Annual (MEA s19). Download to save or print the entire season 19 calendar here. |
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November 11 - December 9, 2022 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, Nov. 10, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, Nov. 11, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation: Thursday, December 8, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION (tickets available here)
MANIFEST VR WALKTHROUGH — Social Distancing Exhibit Experience (link here to full screen view)
main gallery + drawing room
Home Again, Home Again
Kinetic Sculpture & Installation
by Lisa Walcott
Lisa Walcott is a Midwest-based artist. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2010 and has since created and exhibited her work nationally including Land of Tomorrow in Louisville, KY, Sadie Halie Projects in Minneapolis, MN and The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, MI. She has attended residencies at Ox-Bow School of Art, ACRE and Three Walls. Walcott teaches sculpture classes at Hope College in Holland, MI. Her work grapples with and makes light of the perils of daily life using kinetic sculpture, installation, drawing, and photography.
Of her work the artist states:
"This body of work engages the current situation, daily cycles, everyday objects, and tasks from home. Inspiration is often derived from domestic spaces, a space that can be hauntingly dull as well as safe and protective. I look for comparisons, rely on the uncanny, and pull from daydreams to create sculptures that are relatable, but different.
Humor and empathy meet in a piece like Tight Spots in which seven small dish towel sculptures toil away, head down working endlessly in an absurd yet relatable performance. The overtone is humorous, the undertone is the heavy monotony of tasks from home or the churning of an anxious mind. It is impossible to tell what is being accomplished, but they continue nonetheless.”
This exhibition was selected from among 182 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 19th season.
parallel space
ARCH.
Considering Made Space
It has been said that architecture may be the ultimate form of art. After all, it is both expressive, informative, and serves as a refuge from the elements. What happens when it becomes the content of other architecture—of the gallery itself?
ARCH. was a theme last presented at Manifest in 2011, over a decade ago. As a deliberate parallel to our Fourth Wall exhibition of works that challenge the 'frame', ARCH. invited artists, architects, designers, and other makers to share works that in some way explore or feature made space.
For this exhibit we set out to assemble a diverse array of works unified in its consideration of the concept of made space, but intriguing due to the ways in which different artists address the subject, and for what is revealed about how humans alter and address space as a medium of life.
For this exhibit 53 artists submitted 200 works from 21 states, Washington D.C., and 3 countries, including Romania, Sweden, and the United States. Ten works by the following 8 artists from 6 states and Washington D.C. were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Alejandro Borges
College Station, TexasSally Canzoneri
Washington D.C.Leah Gose
Wichita Falls, TexasWade Kramm
Verona, PennsylvaniaCraig McCormick
Indianapolis, IndianaAnshul Roy
Syracuse, New YorkRobert Saldarriaga
Corona, New YorkAmy Yoshitsu
Berkeley, California
Alejandro Borges
Amy Yoshitsu
central gallery
FOURTH WALL
Challenging the Frame
The job of the picture plane is to establish the boundaries of an artwork.
Its visual acreage is protected and reinforced by frames, pedestals, vitrines, walls—even the space of a gallery itself. These spaces are places of opportunity, and their boundaries mark the difference between experiencing art and living in the rest of the world.
A boundary shuts out the noise. It lets you know what the rules are.
The boundaries of an artwork are intended to vanish, ignored in favor of its content.
The truth is, though, that boundaries are not truly invisible, and they are not non-reactive. The context of a work, the framework of art, the place that it is displayed, these are all part of the experience of the art. It is their ordinariness that lets them fade into the background.
What happens, then, when the “normal” framework changes? When it is re-formed? When the fourth wall breaks as the art and artist make clear their awareness of the medium?
FOURTH WALL called for artwork that challenges its borders, its framework, its format, the physical and conceptual space it inhabits—for works that question and create deliberate relationships with their contexts.
For this exhibit 44 artists submitted 126 works from 24 states and 4 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United States. Ten works by the following 9 artists from 7 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Eric Charlton
Jackson, MississippiErin Dvorak Clark
Aurora, ColoradoCaroline Hatfield
Starkville, MississippiDel Rey Loven
Akron, OhioDave Petengill
Dover, New HampshireJay Shepard
Olympia, WashingtonHanna Sosin
Cincinnati, OhioNathan Stromberg
Saint Paul, MinnesotaLee Williams
Shaftsbury, Vermont
Dave Petengill
Nathan Stromberg
Caroline Hatfield
north gallery
BALANCE
Exploring Composition
Considered one of the seven principles of visual organization, Balance is a fundamental concept in art.
In theory, balance is achieved when the parts of the whole are arranged so that they either hold still, or flow without losing control—through either static or dynamic balance. Typically balance is a formal, visual factor—part of the physics of a work of art. (Such physical parallels as center of gravity, centrifugal and centripetal force, and kinetic and potential energy can easily be applied to visual art regarding balance, not to mention movement, another related principle.) But in reality, both visual and conceptual forces are aspects of balance. We know how the visual looks and feels, almost intuitively, but what does conceptual balance look like?
In practice, balance is a hard thing to achieve, especially if you pursue greater compositional dynamism, challenging your formats and rhythms. Training your sense of balance requires study, trials, and practice—and a lot of falling. You take it for granted when you have it. But when you don't, you notice.
There are so many ways to fall.
There are also many arrangements that hold together, that support a work’s unity, that resonate and stay alight—arrangements that contribute to the overall content of the work, and the experience it offers.
BALANCE called for works about compositional experiments, proofs, challenges the artists overcame or were overwhelmed by, of precarious equilibrium, impossible stability, and the role such concepts play in making compelling meaning through the visual.
For this exhibit 74 artists submitted 229 works from 25 states and 2 countries, including Germany and the United States. Thirteen works by the following 12 artists from 10 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Carol Boram-Hays
Columbus, OhioBob Bruch
Oberlin, OhioCole Carothers
Milford, OhioScott Eakin
Atlanta, GeorgiaIvan Fortushniak
Indiana, PennsylvaniaMilan Jilka
Springdale, ArkansasMatthew Kluber
Cedar Rapids, IowaGary Lapow
Berkeley, CaliforniaMarcus Michels
Hattiesburg, MississippiRon Richmond
Mount Pleasant, UtahJohn Troy
Glendale, MissouriDenis Wogan
Lowell, Massachusetts
Carol Boram-Hays
Ron Richmond
Matthew Kluber
December 16 - January 13, 2023 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, Dec. 15, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, Dec. 16, 6-9pm
January 27 - February 24, 2023 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, January 26, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, January 27, 6-9pm
March 10 - April 7, 2023 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, March 9, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, March 10, 6-9pm
April 21 - May 19, 2023 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, April 20, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, April 21, 6-9pm
June 2 - June 30, 2023 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, June 1, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, June 2, 6-9pm
July 14 - August 11, 2023 Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, July 13, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, July 14, 6-9pm
August 18 - September 15, 2023
SEASON 19 FINALÉ!Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit: Thursday, August 17, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, August 18, 6-9pm
PREVIOUS SEASON 19 EXHIBITS:
Season 19 Launch!
September 30 - October 28, 2022Ticketed Preview (get tickets here) - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, Sept. 29, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, Sept. 30, 6-9pm
MANIFEST VR WALKTHROUGH — Social Distancing Exhibit Experience (link here to full screen view)
main gallery
THE OVERSTORY
Photographic Works About Forests, Trees, their Wood, and the Memory they Contain
A FotoFocus Biennial Participating Venue Exhibit
Trees are the breath of the world. The memory of our soul. They encapsulate carbon, breathe out oxygen. They give us wood, fruit, nuts, soil, and shade. In their long lineage they embed time, a patient record of the world we step in and out of barely noticed.
Likely the original home of our primordial ancestors, trees bore our kin like gentle matriarchs, ultimately enabling humans to achieve everything our species has done, including the destruction of the forests themselves.
In a sense, it is in the forest where the battle for the fate of all of life takes place. Therefore it is in wood where one will find the record of the world awaiting.
The Overstory called for works of photography and other light-based processes and media, including traditional, digital, and experimental photography, photo-etching/litho/silkscreen, photo collage, light-based/illuminated works, and more—all centered in some way on this overarching theme.
Support for this FotoFocus Biennial 2022 exhibition was provided by FotoFocus.
For this exhibit 130 artists submitted 567 works from 31 states and 2 countries, Canada and the United States. Eighteen works by the following 12 artists from 11 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Steven Brown
San Francisco, CaliforniaJohn Francis
Boise, IdahoPorter Gifford
Cambridge, MassachusettsSarah Grew
Eugene, OregonPato Hebert
Los Angeles, CaliforniaSusan Moldenhauer
Laramie, WyomingRobyn Moore
Wellington, KentuckyDorothy O'Connor
Atlanta, GeorgiaLaurie Beck Peterson
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaRachel Portesi
Saxtons River, VermontAreca Roe
Mankato, MinnesotaTom Trusty
Dublin, Ohio
Laurie Beck Peterson
Areca Roe
Susan Moldenhauer
drawing room
A MEMORY OF ICE
Alternative Print Media & Photo Work
by Kelsey Stephenson
Kelsey Stephenson is an Edmonton (amiskwacîwâskahikan) based artist working with ideas of place-based memory and identity, and the changes imposed on landscape through human agency over time. Her recent projects encompass installation and multimedia practices, often utilizing printmaking as a jumping off point for her work. She has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions across Canada and in the USA, with recent group exhibitions including The 5th Bangkok Triennial International Print and Drawing Competition, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Thailand; the 37th Bradley International, at Bradley University (Illinois, USA); and the 2018 Okanagan Print Triennial, in Kelowna, BC.
Kelsey holds a Masters in Fine Art from the University of Tennessee, as well as a Bachelors of Design from the University of Alberta. She has taught courses in printmaking at the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly known as Alberta College of Art + Design), and she currently teaches at the University of Alberta as an associate lecturer.
Of her work the artist states:
"My current work is rooted in photographic and lens-based print practice, examining historical aspects and context of film in archived imagery, and exploring contemporary alternative photographic processes in response.
The repeat photography works on paper examine specific locations from the archive that are well known, and had history of long-time tourism promotion from the inception of Banff National Park to today, to express just how much glaciers have changed over the last 100 years... The more recent images I have taken in response play on that aspect of settling, tourism, and land use, but also question how much preservation of wilderness is possible when provincial policies allow oil and gas emissions, or coal exploration in the eastern slopes of the Rockies...
Taken as a whole, the fragility of the multiple systems brought within the gallery becomes readily apparent. The silk panels waver and change as you walk by. The translation from real landscape, to photograph, to drawing, to negatives, and ultimately screen-printed imagery loses information at each step. The images remind viewers that our glaciers and water systems are not infinite and that each action is interconnected.”
This exhibition was selected from among 182 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 19th season.
parallel space
DESIRE LINES
Photographs & Mixed Media Assemblage
by Eli Craven
Eli Craven is an artist based in Lafayette, Indiana where he is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Purdue University. Craven's research resides in the critical investigation of the image and its relationship to ideologies of sexuality, desire, and death. His work is exhibited nationally and internationally. Most recently at KlompChing Gallery in Brooklyn, New York and in the South Bend Museum of Art's 31st Biennial. His work has also been widely published. Select publications and clients include Philosophie Magazine, The Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Gestalten Publishing Berlin, Penguin Randomhouse Barcelona, and The Paris National Opera.
Of his work the artist states:
"I work conceptually with photographic images by re-evaluating the physical and psychological potential of the picture through sculptural interventions. The works exist somewhere between the image and object, attempting to connect the representation to some form of reality. I am interested in the ubiquitous and mundane imagery of family portraiture, self-help books, and instructional guides, which, upon close inspection, allude to a range of human fears and emotions. The research begins with the acts of looking and collecting then progresses to a critical investigation of the image and its relationship to ideologies of sexuality, desire, and death.”
This exhibition was selected from among 182 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 19th season.
central gallery
REASSEMBLED
Photographic Transfers by Robin Assner-Alvey
Robin Assner-Alvey (b.1978, Massachusetts) is an artist working with photography, video, and installation. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut (2000) and her Master of Fine Arts from the Ohio State University (2002). Her work examines corporality and asks viewers to consider the experience of living in their own skin. She experiments with various photographic processes to push the boundaries of what a photograph can be as well as to question what it means to be a woman.
Robin's work has been exhibited in various solo and group shows throughout the United States. She is currently Professor of Art in the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Art at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, where she has taught all levels of photography and video since 2003.
Of her work the artist states:
"As a forty-four year-old plus size woman and artist living through a pandemic while trying to raise two young children, I feel an irresistible need to photograph myself. I use my own body in a frank and honest manner to reflect on maternal ambivalence and the toll that motherhood can have on a person. At the end of long days, when I am both physically and mentally exhausted and have nothing else to give, I stand in front of the camera to document what is left of myself. There are many scars that come with being a mother, both emotional and physical. I explore this through the disjointed way that the photographs of the body are assembled. In the final images, my body appears dismembered, not in proper proportion, and has an underwater feel as if the person in the image is drowning and hanging on by a thread...”
This exhibition was selected from among 182 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 19th season.
north gallery
NO RETURN
Non-Archival, One-Way, & Temporary Works
How long is your artwork supposed to last? Is it allowed to be temporary? Disposable?Generally, art-making is synonymous with object-making, with the type of artwork describing the thing, rather than what it is about. You are a painter making paintings, a sculptor making sculptures, a photographer making photographs, etc. When you make a thing, you are taught to craft it not just for the sake of excellence, but for the sake of surviving the test of time.
There is a world within the world of art, though, that is unconcerned with long-term existence. Food is meant to be eaten quickly, and live music and dance are allowed to evaporate after the gesture of their making is completed.
Can physical objects embrace that temporary nature? What would you make if you didn’t have to consider the color-fastness of your paint, or the acid content of your ink or paper? If elements you bring together do not have to stay together, forever and ever?What is contained within the brief life of an artwork?
Can’t it be enough to be something wonderful now, even if it may not be in 100 years? Can we let it die and decompose? Do you even need to include return shipping? (It would be nice to not have to think about the future.)
NO RETURN is a show for temporary, one-way, and non-archival artwork—works that are not really 'collectible', that aren’t meant to last, maybe not even long enough to return to its maker at the end of the exhibition... or be handed down to a future generation.
For this exhibit 23 artists submitted 98 works from 15 states and 3 countries, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Fourteen works by the following 10 artists from 8 states and Canada were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Briana Babani
Atlanta, GeorgiaEthan Brossard
Northampton, MassachusettsHolly Fay
Regina, CanadaGabriel Feld
Providence, Rhode IslandTodd Frankenfield
Easton, PennsylvaniaBeth Grabowski
Chapel Hill, North CarolinaJessica Greenfield
Deep Gap, North CarolinaJameson Mulac
Morgantown, West VirginiaNichole Riley
Pipe Creek, TexasMargi Weir
Detroit, Michigan
Gabriel Feld
Jessica Greenfield (detail)
Briana Babani
——— END OF SEASON 19 ——— THANK YOU!
Season Funder: Manifest's 19th season is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the ArtsWave Community Campaign, by a sustainability grant from the Ohio Arts Council, and through the generous direct contributions of individual supporters and private foundations who care deeply about Manifest's mission for the visual arts.
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