SEASON 16
EXHIBITS IN THE GALLERY
September 2019 - August 2020
| September 27 - October 25, 2019 (SEASON 16 LAUNCH) | Preview Reception: Thursday, September 26, 7-9pm Public Opening: Friday, September 27, 6-9pm |
main gallery + drawing room + parallel space
PAINTED 2019
At some point many generations ago society reached a level where ordinary people could spend a lifetime perfecting their ability to mix and apply paint, in extraordinary ways. Manifest established this exhibit as a permanent biennial project in 2013 to inaugurate our expanded gallery. PAINTED 2019 is the fourth biennial presentation of this survey of contemporary painting. PAINTED joins Drawn as a recurring gallery exhibition designed to complement our annual INDA and INPA (drawing and painting) publications. Every two years it launches our exhibition season by presenting a competitive group exhibition focused exclusively on painting. For this exhibit 167 artists from 35 states, Canada, Greece, Singapore, and Turkey submitted 682 works. Thirty-three works by the following 26 artists from 17 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. Presenting works by: Erick Anderson Kim Anderson Shannon Cannings Gregory Carr Daniel Dallmann David Dorsey Hannah K Freeman Jason Lee Gimbel Susan Hoffer Donald Keefe Anne Lindberg Junyi Liu Perin Mahler Michael McCaffrey Armin Mühsam Mihee Nahm Martina Nehrling Isoko Onodera James Perrin Ron Prigat Erin Raedeke Robert Samartino Dana Saulnier Carol Stewart Lance Turner Dganit Zauberman
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Erin Raedeke
Jason Lee Gimbel
Dana Saulnier
Dganit Zauberman
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central gallery
AQUACHROME
The nature of the media itself represents a delicate and dictatorial transparency, fluidity, and a potential for expressive spontaneity. This not only makes it an ideal vehicle for contemporary art, but also one of training, intensity, philosophy, and play for any who practice it. Where an artist can easily dominate other painting media, forcing a will through viscous layers into a work of art like taming a wild horse, with watercolor there is dialog, compromise, and undeniable forthrightness. In this way the artist practicing watercolor works with a tiger in the room. *Along with watercolor, works in gouache, ink wash, and other similar media were accepted for consideration. For this exhibit 52 artists from 21 states, Washington D.C., and Brazil, Canada, and Poland submitted 209 works for consideration. Fifteen works by the following 9 artists from 6 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by: Mark Adkins Andrew Arkell Carrie Callihan Steven Elbert Janet Gorzegno Pauline Goldsmith Reuben Negron Julio Suarez Tanzanight
Aquachrome was last presented as part of our painting biennial in 2017. We were pleased then to announce its reinstatement as a permanent element of the biennial, and look forward to showcasing and documenting works of watercolor and related media, alongside the wider spectrum of painting, every two years. |
Mark Adkins
Reuben Negron
Steven Elbert
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north gallery
STAY AND REMAIN Joe Morzuch is an observational painter currently residing in Starkville, Mississippi. In addition to his studio work, he is an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University where he teaches courses in foundations, painting, and drawing. In 2006 he received his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He has taught at the college level for the past 15 years and actively exhibits his work nation-wide. Of his work the artist states: "As a still life painter, I am interested in the visual and communicative potential of objects that are cast off, discarded, and over-looked. Inherent to the genre is an engagement with the mundane, domestic, and every-day, as well as the notion of an arrested visual experience. These subjects, their intrinsic intimacy, and the process of working from life are rich with pictorial and conceptual possibilities... I am concerned with the subjective nature of perception, and the challenge of translating visual information into paintings that speak of their own making as both image and object... Time is the purview of still life painting, with its charge to hold fast as a reminder of the impermanence of all things, and is reflected in the title of this exhibition. Stay and Remain is a plea, referring to the act of painting, the endurance of objects, absence, love, and loss. There is something in the attempt to arrest a moment—to present an arrested moment through an accumulation of moments observed and painted—that feels necessary but also paradoxical. This work, with its forms suspended between coalescence and fragmentation, was made in an effort to reflect that paradox.” This exhibition is one of 6 selected from among 149 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 16th season.
Listen in on a podcast interview with Joe from 2014:
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| November 8 - December 6 | Preview Reception: Thursday, November 7, 7-9pm |
main gallery + drawing room
TRANSCENDENCE tran·scend tran·scend·ence
Something many artists strive for in their work throughout their careers—a going beyond ordinary. But what about work that addresses the idea of Transcendence as a subject, rather than an aspect of the ambition, dedication, and rigor of the artist themselves? How does visual art represent, either through subject, form, or content, a notion which, in some form or another, underlies much of human introspection and civilized activity since our earliest days as a species? For this exhibit 83 artists submitted 292 works from 29 states, Washington D.C., and 8 countries, including Canada, Denmark, England, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Ukraine, and the United States. Twenty works by the following 13 artists from 8 states, Canada, and Denmark were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. Presenting works by: Helmut Amann Cameran Ashraf Camilla Augustinus Kevin Dotson Richard Ferncase Hannah K. Freeman Eric Heffington Pamela Martinez Clive Moloney Laura Noel Holly Pennington Snail Scott Jennifer Wilson
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Laura Noel
Jennifer Wilson
Eric Heffington
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parallel space
LIGHT “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ― Plato
For this exhibit 63 artists submitted 213 works from 27 states and 4 countries, Canada, England, Germany, Russia, and the United States for consideration. Nine works by these 6 artists from 5 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by: Cecile Baird Jenn Gulgren Heather Hartman Joseph Holsapple Maddie Miller Erin Schaefer
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Erin Schaefer
Maddie Miller
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central gallery
UMBRA Jess Holz (b. 1985) creates artworks which give the viewer a peek into invisible worlds, as well as a chance to reflect on the influence of scientific visual culture on our collective imagination. She has just received her MFA in Art+Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; previously she has worked in several labs and imaging facilities, gaining valuable technical experience with a number of microscopic imaging techniques. The discrepancy between what can be perceived by eye and what is imaged has fostered her fascination with perceptual systems along with the optical properties of materials. Jess actively exploits this in photography and installation. Of her work the artist states: "The wilderness has long symbolized unknown beasts and dangers, but it has also been a therapeutic place, a place to meet God. As a landscape, my work encapsulates the awe and terror associated with the sublime of the Romantic tradition—however, the sublime is associated with vast, expansive spaces. My work asks the question, what of the ‘tiny sublime’? This body of work is titled Umbra, after the darkest part of a shadow, since the worlds that I am imaging are not illuminated by light. These alien landscapes are, in fact, microsculptures incorporating insect and plant fragments, imaged by scanning electron microscopy. Lit with electricity instead of light, the sculptures present as post-apocalyptic wilderness, with radiant glowing forms and seemingly unstable dark areas, all rendered in excruciating detail. The monstrous forms inhabiting these scenes appear massive and immense, but in reality the entire landscape is less than half a centimeter across.” This exhibition is one of 6 selected from among 149 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 16th season.
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north gallery
DARK “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” ― Anne Frank
For this exhibit 103 artists submitted 359 works from 30 states, Washington D.C., and 5 countries, including Canada, England, Israel, Poland and the United States for consideration. Seventeen works by these 15 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: Andrew Arkell Susan Bryant Jacob Crook Donovan Entrekin Donald Furst Alexandra Gataeva Kenneth Hall Joseph Kameen Jordan Kornreich William Linthicum Andrew Mullally Elsa Munoz Ron Prigat Lisa Rickard Duat Vu
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Jacob Crook
Kenneth Hall
Elsa Munoz
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| December 13, 2019 - January 10, 2020 | Preview Reception: Thursday, December 12, 7-9pm |
main gallery + drawing room
TIME BOMBS “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” – William Shakespeare
Where is the fuse, the key or trigger? How can we detect and diffuse such intense energy-pockets bent on total destruction? Anxiety and fear are like a virus. Perhaps the solution is to acknowledge, examine, and then contain and discard them. Maybe art can help with this by providing an encapsulation of the subject, something that safely externalizes the issue, providing release. And maybe Time is the key... Manifest invited artists from around the world to submit works for consideration which in some way address the theme of anxiety or impending disaster. For this exhibit 124 artists submitted 421 works from 30 states, Washington D.C., and 3 countries, including Canada, England, and the United States. Twenty-three works by the following 18 artists from 14 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by: James Allen Jane Barrow Heather Lee Birdsong Beth Blake Donna Garcia Kevin Haran Nick Hewlett Devan Horton Zach Mory Mary Nees Melissa Nunez Anna Pamasa Deborah Rockman Gary Schmitt Jovan Karlo Villalba Stephen Winiecki Anderson Wrangle Manuel Zamudio
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Heather Lee Birdsong
Jane Barrow
Kevin Haran
Melissa Nunez
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parallel space
BUG-INSECTUM “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” The number of insect species on our planet is believed to be between six and ten million. While spiders are not insects, our exhibit is titled in order to include them (of which there are estimated to be 35,000 different species), as well as any other similar creature one may call a 'bug'. For many people, bugs are notorious. They freak people out, even the ones that don't readily sting, bite, or infect. Some do massive damage to people, other animals, homes, and each other. But by and large they are the dominant denizens of this planet, mysterious and ubiquitous. Perhaps we are lucky they tolerate us at all. This show honors them, both in all seriousness and in light-hearted play. After all, without them we'd likely not be here at all. Manifest invited artists to submit works which in some way address the theme of Bugs, including any and all insects, spiders, and similar creatures large and small, real or imagined. For this exhibit 81 artists from 34 states and Washington, D.C. submitted 271 works for consideration. Eleven works by these 9 artists from 9 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by: Matthew Dercole Robert Long Benjamin Montague Dale Marie Muller Steve Nyktas Shelby Shadwell Madeline Rile Smith Amber Tyler-Elliott Chris Woodman
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Matthew Dercole
Amber Tyler-Elliott
Shelby Shadwell
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central gallery
ONE 10 CELEBRATING A DECADE OF PROVIDING THIS AWARD TO ARTISTS MAKING EXCEPTIONAL ART! The Cartographer Late in the day, near a great murder of crows, He quietly said, I asked what of his family? He replied, they are waiting for me, in the heart of the cave.
Damon Mohl (b.1974) is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. His work bridges drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture with digital technology to create experimental as well as narrative-based films and works of art. He received his BFA in drawing and painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and his MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. With a focus on filmmaking, his graduate thesis film was nominated for a Student Academy Award in the experimental category. He exhibits his work nationally, and internationally his films have screened in over thirty countries. He is currently serving as an assistant professor of art at Wabash College in Indiana. ABOUT THE $5000 MANIFEST PRIZE We respect the creative principle of reduction (the blind jury process) as it is employed to achieve an essential conclusive statement for each exhibit we produce. This is what has led to the high caliber of each Manifest exhibit, and to the gallery's notable following. We believe competition does inspire excellence. Therefore we determined eight years ago to launch the Manifest Prize in order to push the process to the ultimate limit—from among many to select just ONE work. Manifest's jury process for the 10th Annual Manifest Prize included multiple levels of jury review of 873 works by 192 artists from 41 states, and 12 countries including Australia, Canada, England, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, and the United States. The jury consisted of a total of 17 different volunteer jurors from across the U.S. Each level of the process resulted in fewer works passing on to the next, until a winner was reached. The size and physical nature of the works considered was not a factor in the jury scoring and selection. It should be noted that the winner and finalists, 11 works, represent the top scoring 1% of the jury pool. The winner represents the top one-tenth of 1% of the jury pool. The winning work will be presented in Manifest's Central Gallery from December 12, 2019 through January 10, 2020. It will be accompanied by excerpts from juror statements and the artist's statement. The Runners-up: The Artists of the Ten Runner-up / Finalist Works: Tamie Beldue (Black Mountain, North Carolina), Patty Carroll (Chicago, Illinois), Tatana Kellner (Kingston, New York), Damon Mohl (Crawfordsville, Indiana), Saritdikhun Somasa (Johnson City, Tennessee), Kelsey Stephenson (Edmonton, Canada), Duat Vu (Springfield, Missouri), Victor Wang (St Louis, Missouri).*
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north gallery
10th Annual TAPPED
The relationship between artists and their current or former instructors can be a powerful one. Even when this bond is left unstated, we carry our professors' voices forward in time as we mature as artists and people. We eventually realize that the instruction given by our teachers during our relatively brief careers as students continues to expand within us. We realize that the learning they inspired (or insisted upon) is a chain-reaction process that develops across our lifetime. All of us who have been students carry forward our teachers' legacy in one form or another. And those who are, or have been teachers, bear witness to the potency of studenthood. Out of respect for this artist-teacher bond, and in honor of instructors working hard to help artists tap into a higher mind relative to art and life, Manifest is proud to celebrate a decade of presenting TAPPED, an annual exhibit that presents paired works of art by current or former artist/teacher pairs. For this exhibit 77 artists submitted 260 works from 33 states for consideration. Sixteen works by these 16 artists from 12 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia, were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. The artists are listed in pairings to illustrate their teacher/student relationship (past or present). Works on view will include paintings, drawings, and photographs. The exhibition layout is planned so that each pair of artists' works will be shown side-by-side or in close proximity. Visitors will be able to enjoy the variety of types of works while also considering the nature of influence between professor and student. It is worth noting also that a number of the artists in the 'former student' category are now themselves working as professors.
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| January 24 - February 21, 2020 | Preview Reception: Thursday, January 23, 7-9pm |
For this fourth exhibit period of our 16th season Manifest created a very special set of exhibitions—the Five Themes Project. The project comprises five concurrent shows representing themes accumulated through a survey sent to the over 3,000 Manifest exhibition alumni* from our fifteen previous seasons, collated into clusters of overarching themes, and then re-vetted through a general public feedback process. The resulting five themes were the most popular or desirable for our audience to see in the gallery and were offered as calls-for-entry internationally. The resulting exhibitions are listed below in order as they were presented in the five galleries at Manifest on Woodburn Avenue in East Walnut Hills (Cincinnati, Ohio). The artwork included in each exhibit was juried by Manifest's standard process involving multiple professional volunteer jurors. |
main gallery
MUNDANE “The most interesting lessons often lie in the mundane—those aspects of everyday life that locals take for granted and tourists tend to overlook. ” – Esther Dyson
For this exhibit 105 artists submitted 421 works from 31 states and 4 countries including England, Israel, Sweden, and the United States. Twenty works by the following 16 artists from 15 states and England were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * For MUNDANE we would like to recognize the alumnus whose input generated the theme. Thanks go out to Mimi Sheiner (El Cerrito, CA), for contributing to the development of this exhibition concept. Presenting works by: Rob Anderson Malcolm Christhilf Susan Cohen Ryan Durrant Jason Ferguson Karen Hillier Joshua Huyser Marina Kassianidou Dale Knaak Liz Koerner John Lee Sean Lyman Rose Mansel-Pleydell Maddie Miller Cody Williams Stephen Wright
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Susan Cohen
Karen Hillier
Joshua Huyser
Liz Koerner
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drawing room
PERIPHERAL “Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.” Limitations inspire creativity. Edges—the periphery of awareness, skill, media use, capabilities, and concepts—form the mold that creative trailblazers attempt to define, expand, and break free of. In turn new edges are created, new limitations defined. This exhibit set out to examine how artists consider the concepts of boundaries, edges, or the 'peripheral' as it relates to their creative practice and the subject, content, or form of their work. For this exhibit 59 artists from 29 states, Washington D.C., and 5 countries including Australia, Guatemala, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and the United States submitted 218 works for consideration. Nine works by these 7 artists from 7 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * For PERIPHERAL we would like to recognize the alumni whose input generated the theme. Thanks go out to Sara Frantz (Los Osos, CA) and Kitty Schroeder (Cincinnati, OH) for each contributing to the development of this exhibition theme. Presenting works by: Marc Andreo Blake Brasher Bob Bruch Anita Cooke Maki Hajikano Josh Johnson Neal Rock
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Bob Bruch
Maki Hajikano
Anita Cooke
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parallel space
ENVIRONMENTAL “Despite all of our pretenses and fantasies, we always have been and will remain a biological species tied to this particular biological world. Millions of years of evolution are indelibly encoded in our genes. History without the wildlands is no history at all.” ― E. O. Wilson Environmental awareness has crept, like a dam springing a leak, for over a century now. It seems we wallow from the depths of denial and personal narrow radii to the heights of generational concern, selflessness, and bright clarity regarding the situation at hand. What a paradox to realize that in order to live we must destroy the only thing that could sustain us. Is humanity truly a virus, insane to the point of repeating the same mistakes over and over expecting a different result? How can art and design play a role in illuminating the bigger picture, galvanizing resolve, or illustrating the task or questions at hand? Rather than inciting shock, guilt, shame, or fear of climate change can art address emerging issues in Environmental Activism in ways that build on a common love, respect, and awe for the planet, and still make a difference? Can artists collaborate with scientific researchers and scientific data to bring compelling life and experience to ideas about the environment? What does our culture have to say about our world moving into the Anthropocene? For this exhibit 98 artists from 29 states and 6 countries including Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States submitted 360 works for consideration. Twelve works by these 9 artists from 6 states and Canada were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * For ENVIRONMENTAL we would like to recognize the alumni whose input generated the theme. Thanks go out to Lindsy Halleckson (Minneapolis, MN), Cathy Carter (Auckland, New Zealand), Mimi Sheiner (El Cerrito, CA), Carol Boram-Hays (Columbus, OH), Kim Turner Young (Bowling Green, OH), Jennifer Cronin (Chicago, IL), Margaret Whiting (Waterloo, IA), Meg Lagodzki (Bloomington, IN), and Debra Small (Sacramento, CA) for each contributing to the development of this exhibition theme.
Presenting works by: Brooks Dierdorff Drew Etienne Howard Fullmer Lynne Miller Jones Chris Myhr Matt Roberts Kathleen Thum Margaret Whiting Dganit Zauberman
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Brooks Dierdorff
Chris Myhr
Margaret Whiting
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central gallery
WEATHERED “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi includes the appreciation for the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes. Time wears all things. Literally taken weathering is an aspect of the elements, but not without time. Wind, rain, sun, fire, and ice, and even mechanical means, transform everything. Weathering then is the process by which things in our world, and the world itself, are in the process of always becoming. In appreciating such processes one becomes aware of the signs of surviving age, stress, life, the toll of an ordeal or accomplishment, and existence itself. Through weathering a compelling narrative unfolds. For this exhibit 128 artists from 34 states and 7 countries including Canada, China, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Japan, and the United States submitted 496 works for consideration. Eleven works by these 9 artists from 7 states and Italy were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * For WEATHERED we would like to recognize the alumni whose input generated the theme. Thanks go out to Clayton Cusak (Seattle, WA) and Jon-Erik Hem (Little Egg Harbor, NJ) for each contributing to the development of this exhibition theme. Presenting works by: Francesco Beretta Rima Day Jan Dickey Megan Hanley Julie Herman Karen Hunter McLaughlin Kristen Mitchell Kathleen Taylor Xuanyi Wang
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Rima Day
Megan Hanley
Kristen Mitchell
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north gallery
CHAOS “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.” ― Mary Shelly The first and perhaps most common understanding of the word 'chaos' is that it is randomness, disorder, interference, or displacement. A more theoretical illustration is Chaos Theory, represented by the often over-simplified 'butterfly effect'—the concept whereby a butterfly flapping its wings in one place on Earth can cause a hurricane in some far distant location (underlying order in otherwise apparent disorder, revealed through cause and effect.) Whether simple, or elegantly complex, the idea of chaos lends itself to reflection on personal life, patterns and effects of civilization now and over time, and on existence within the broader Universe. And of course it applies itself nicely to pure visual art expression, discovery, and creation as well. For this exhibit 72 artists from 29 states, Washington D.C., and 3 countries including China, Germany, and the United States submitted 259 works for consideration. Ten works by these 10 artists from 8 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * For CHAOS we would like to recognize the alumni whose input generated the theme. Thanks go out to Amelia Vercauteren (Baltimore, MD), Elizabeth Runyon (Oxford, OH), Vanessa Rosalia Larsen (Aalgaard, Norway), and Sally Bousquet (Boston, MA) for each contributing to the development of this exhibition theme. Presenting works by: Dionisio Cortes Susan Czechowski Chris Flynn Ryan Howerton Sarah Jantzi Kristina Key Clive King Rob Kolomyski Bruce Riley Margery Thomas-Mueller
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Kristina Key
Bruce Riley
Susan Czechowski
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| March 6 - April 3 | Preview Reception: Thursday, March 5, 7-9pm |
MANIFEST VR WALKTHROUGH — Social Distancing Exhibit Experience [ COVID-19 PANDEMIC BEGINS ] |
main gallery + drawing room
OHIO, KENTUCKY, & INDIANA In 16 seasons Manifest's projects have included works by artists in 50 states and 43 countries. Beginning in its tenth season, we launched an ongoing series of exhibits focusing on works by artists in our three-state region. Five years ago we added projects that also focused on other definable regions outside our own. These Regional Showcases were offered to complement the very wide geographical makeup of most Manifest exhibits with a closer look at art being made here in our own backyard, as well as provide a platform from which we can examine the trends, qualities, and idiosyncrasies of contemporary art within specific geographical areas and compare them to our own. This exhibit had no specific requirement for type, media, or style of work to be submitted. This was an open call. Submissions ranged widely from traditional to very conceptual, abstract, and experimental work. Jury selections were made based on the overall quality of the works submitted. Manifest's blind jury process reviewed 544 works by 129 artists from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Twenty-two works by the following 17 artists from our three-state region (4 from Indiana, 6 from Ohio, and 7 from Kentucky) were selected for exhibition and will also be featured in the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEA) at the close of the season. Presenting works by: Philis Alvic Andreas Baumgartner Edward Bernstein Todd Fife Frederick Fochtman Laura James Jan Martin Colleen Merrill Michael Nichols Steve Paddack Ron Prigat Robert Pulley Kitty Schroeder Carolyn Spears Felicia Szorad Travis Townsend Isabel Zeng
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Frederick Fochtman
Isabel Zeng
Colleen Merrill
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parallel space + central gallery
Storytellers and Other Works Perin Mahler is an educator and fine artist. He earned a Bachelors degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Hartford and an MFA in Painting from Queens College, CUNY in New York City. Over a more than twenty-year career in education, he has taught at several colleges and universities including The University of Cincinnati, The Art Academy of Cincinnati, Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. More recently he has Chaired the MFA program in painting and drawing at Laguna College of Art and Design, where his title is Chair Emeritus. There, he designed the curriculum around issues in figurative art including seminars in narrative painting as well as Art History and Pedagogy. He is currently teaching Figure Painting at California State University, Long Beach. His work is represented in several museum collections as well as prominent private collections. He has had numerous group and one-person exhibitions around the country. In 2009, he was honored to be a finalist in the Outwin Boochever portrait competition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. His current body of work, titled Autobiographies, is a series of large single and multi-figure paintings dealing with personal subjects including narratives from domestic and professional experiences. Of his work the artist states: "My work consists primarily of large scale narrative figure paintings which feature still life elements that amplify the themes of each image. The content in my work is personal, and the paintings are allegories of subject matter that relate to my life experience. They tend to be either multiple figure compositions, which explore the dynamics between individuals, or single figure pieces that are more introspective and iconic. I am inspired by crisis, and most of the paintings in this exhibit address the emotional impact that difficult events or personal interactions have had on me. The specificity of this content is veiled, however, and I hope to communicate a general emotional climate, imbued with equal doses of pathos and humor, that resonates with each viewer in an individual way instead of being a particular, documentary narrative. ” This exhibition is one of 6 selected from among 149 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 16th season.* * Special note: Our original season schedule included a fourth exhibit, a solo show of tapestries by Jiachen Liu from Hang Zhou, China. Regrettably this show has been deferred until a future date because of the coronavirus lockdown of Wuhan (where Jiachen was visiting family when the city was closed.)
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north gallery
TOPOGRAPHIES
“You can't use an old map to explore a new world.”
Manifest invited artists to submit works for consideration which in some way address the theme of layers, mapping, paths, and related concepts. Artists were encouraged to take a broadly creative view of the theme. This exhibition is the result. For this exhibit 141 artists submitted 477 works from 37 states, Washington D.C., and 7 countries including Canada, England, Germany, Israel, Spain, the United States, and Wales. Eight works by these 8 artists from 8 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. Presenting works by: Firat Erdim Jason Ferguson and Lance Winn Caroline Hatfield Bryce Lafferty Shannon Rankin Samantha Robinson Amy Schissel Bill Sieber
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Bill Sieber
Jason Ferguson and Lance Winn
Firat Erdim
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| April 17 - May 15 | Receptions preempted due to Social Distancing requirements. |
* The listings below represent our original exhibition plans (pre-COVID-19), space and layout designs, and artist lists for this exhibition period at Manifest. Due to social distancing requirements affecting artists and availability of works, on-site installations may vary from original plans. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features (Instagram and Facebook), included in our Manifest Exhibition Annual publication for season 16, and linked from this page before the exhibition's end. The scale model layout elevations provided below are the byproducts of our exhibition design process, typically for internal use only. We have chosen to offer them here to share our creative process and curatorial vision with the public and selected artists since many if not most people will not be able to experience these exhibits in person. The above Manifest VR walkthrough represents the revised actual installation, including an 'absentee artwork' room sharing the ghosts of works not able to be sent to the gallery. All 61 works by 41 artists from 18 states and 3 countries are included. (Most works are available for purchase. Contact our staff with serious inquiries.)
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main gallery*
WOOD “Wood is universally beautiful to man. It is the most humanly intimate of all materials.” ― Frank Lloyd Wright Wood has been used by people for thousands of years for fuel, as construction material, for making tools, weapons, furniture, and paper. But as a product of the Earth it has existed far longer than humanity, for roughly 400 million years. Like land-based coral, its layers accumulate year by year by virtue of a living and breathing process. These layers often become, either through intention or circumstance, an aesthetic aspect of wood's afterlife as man-made objects. When visible this evidence of years spent living, breathing, and drinking adds compelling meaning to things made with wood. The craftsmanship of artists and other makers elevates this latent content from something hidden to a celebratory proclamation about living. Manifest invited artists to submit works to our jury which in some way address or reflect the theme of WOOD. Artists were encouraged to take a broadly creative view in interpreting the theme as it applies to their work. Works could be made of wood, made using wood in ways that are discernible in the finished work, or made about the subject of wood. Manifest's blind jury process reviewed 470 works by 136 artists from 31 states and 4 countries including India, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States. Thirteen works by the following 13 artists from 9 states were selected for exhibition and will also be featured in the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEA) at the close of the season. Presenting works by: Vincent Edwards Kate Hawes Katie Hudnall Nick Hutchings David Lozano Jerry Monteith Mason Pott Chris Ramsey Pamela Simard Jesse Warne Mark Wittig Dana Younger Ryan Zimmerman
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Katie Hudnall
Jerry Monteith
Mark Wittig
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drawing room + parallel space*
DRAWN Manifest was founded in-part to stand for the importance of drawing as a process, skill, and discipline, and as a continuing viable product of the creative fine art and design fields. Since its inception our nonprofit organization has continued to incorporate drawing-based programming, including education (Drawing Center), publications (INDA), and gallery exhibits into the broader spectrum of its projects. The artists who formed Manifest in 2004 knew that despite their diverging career paths (architecture, art history, painting, industrial design, photography) they were brought together by their connection to drawing and their mutually intense but multi-faceted pursuit of this fundamental discipline. Six years ago, in honor of the original spirit of the founding ideals of Manifest, the gallery launched DRAWN as an annual exhibition. DRAWN seeks to survey and present the broad scope of drawing being made today. This gallery exhibit is completely separate from but nevertheless complements, and sometimes shares work in common with, the now triennial INDA publication project. DRAWN called for artists to submit works of drawing in any media relevant to the practice (including non-traditional approaches), any style, and any genre (fine art, illustration, design, conceptual, realism, etc.). For this exhibit 151 artists from 35 states, Washington D.C., and 8 countries, including Australia, Canada, Colombia, England, Iran, Italy, Portugal, and the United States submitted 555 works for consideration. Twenty-two works by the following 18 artists from 13 states and the country of Italy were selected by a panel of volunteer jurors for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * Due to social distancing requirements affecting artists and availability of works, installations may vary. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features, and linked from this page. Presenting works by: Amy Bennion Kelly Borsheim Michael Diaz Meris Drew Catherine Forster Tracy Frein Hiroshi Hayakawa Nataliya Hines Nick Hobbs Heidi Hogden Charles Kanwischer Andrew Martin Elena Peteva Sarah Petruziello Robert Spahr Duat Vu Brandon Wang Dennis Wojtkiewicz
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Catherine Forster
Charles Kanwischer
Robert Spahr
Brandon Wang
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central gallery*
REDUCTION "Less is more." ― Ludwig Mies van der Roe All art is by one means or another 'designed'. Contrary to the common assumption that art is a process of adding material up, assembling, growing a thing from raw materials, to design something effectively generally involves the under-appreciated skill of reduction—the cutting away of extraneous, unnecessary elements and material, the elimination of all that is not in the work's best interest, even if this is simply a process of decision-making—in order to reach a single, conclusive whole. When this is done well it is considered to be an example of Unity, where all the parts add up to a well-functioning unit, something greater than just their sum, without anything unnecessary getting in the way or distracting from the content of the work. Manifest invited artists to submit works to our jury which in some way address or reflect the theme of REDUCTION. Artists are encouraged to take a broadly creative view in interpreting the theme as it applies to their work. This exhibition theme was very much open to interpretation—a starting point for artists to consider how their work may represent in some way the notion of 'reduction'. Submitted works may have reflected reduction as a part of the process of its making (carving or cutting away), or addressed the theme by the evident honing of the formal or conceptual aspects of the art work. Manifest's blind jury process reviewed 237 works by 65 artists from 24 states and 3 countries, including Canada, Switzerland, and the United States. Thirteen works by the following 9 artists from 5 states and Canada were selected for exhibition and will also be featured in the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEA) at the close of the season. Presenting works by: Stefan Chinov Brian Christensen Michael DeLuca Linda King Ferguson Ruth Koelewyn Kent Krugh Hannah Mathis Yvette Kaiser Smith Gilles Tarabiscuité
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Linda King Ferguson
Yvette Kaiser Smith
Brian Christensen
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north gallery*
It Looks Like This Felicia Forte attended the Art Students League of New York in 2006, moving next to San Francisco, California where she launched her career as a private instructor of painting and as a fine artist. She has worked full time as an artist since 2010, exhibiting in many shows nationally and internationally including The BP Portrait Award in 2015 and 2018 for which she was awarded second prize. She has been featured in podcasts and publications including The Huffington Post and Dazed Magazine. Felicia is a highly sought after teacher having taught at museums, schools and privately all over the globe. In 2017 she was invited as resident and grant recipient to the "Redbull House of Art" project. Her works have been included in numerous Manifest exhibitions and INPA publication volumes over the years. She currently maintains a studio in Detroit, Michigan where she works and offers instruction to private students both in person and online. Of her work the artist states: "Loss. Memory. Preservation. My body of work is a visual journal chronicling loss, change, and education. I paint subjects that hook me on an intuitive level, searching for a moment when the least amount of detail meets the truth of my subject. I intuitively decide what enough information is. In the essentialist space of my work there is room for others to experience their own reality.” This exhibition is one of 6 selected from among 149 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 16th season.
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| May 29 - June 26 |
Limited Admission Opening Preview: Friday, May 29,
6-9pm |
* The listings below represent our original exhibition plans (pre-COVID-19), space and layout designs, and artist lists for this exhibition period at Manifest. Due to pandemic impacts affecting artists and availability of works, on-site installations may vary from original plans. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features (Instagram and Facebook), included in our Manifest Exhibition Annual publication for season 16, and linked from this page before the exhibition's end. The scale model layout elevations provided below are the byproducts of our exhibition design process, typically for internal use only. We have chosen to offer them here to share our creative process and curatorial vision with the public and selected artists since many people will not be able to experience these exhibits in person. The above Manifest VR walkthrough represents the revised actual installation, including an 'absentee artwork' room sharing the ghosts of works not able to be sent to the gallery. All 66 works by 27 artists from 15 states and 3 countries are included. (Most works are available for purchase. Contact our staff with serious inquiries.)
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main gallery*
RITES OF PASSAGE
Initiated in 2005, The Rites of Passage exhibits were developed to support student excellence by offering a public venue for the display of advanced creative research, to promote young artists as they transition into their professional careers, and to bring the positive creative energies national institutions together in one place. With this sixteenth annual installment of the Rites series, Manifest offers a $500 best of show prize to reward excellence at this early career level. The Rites call for submissions was open to students graduating or expecting to graduate in 2019, 2020, or 2021 (undergraduate juniors, seniors, and those who graduated last year). For this exhibit 70 artists representing 59 academic institutions in 28 states across the U.S. submitted 258 works for consideration. Sixteen works by the following 10 artists representing 10 different academic institutions are featured in the 16th annual Rites of Passage exhibit.* Artists are listed with their academic status as of the dates of their entry into this competition. * Due to pandemic-related impacts and requirements affecting artists and availability of works, installations may vary. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features, and linked from this page. Why is this important? The nine previous exhibit catalogs for Rites, and now the Manifest Exhibition Annuals, have over time become a compelling document framing a view into the state of art in academia, and quite possibly the launching place for future notable artists of the world. Featuring works by: Cara Crowley Aspen Golann Ethan Goldberg Brooke Hunter Alexander Lee Carly Riegger Erin Schaefer Marissa Smith Biff Vigil Kiana Ziegler
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Carly Riegger
Cara Crowley
Aspen Golann
Brooke Hunter
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drawing room*
MAGNITUDE SEVEN An exhibit of works from across the U.S. and Canada, each no larger than about 7" in size. Back in 2005 we launched the Magnitude Seven project with the idea that small works would be easier and more practical for artists to send to Manifest in Cincinnati from anywhere in the world. This proved true, and right off it was this exhibit that lead to Manifest earning the tag line 'the neighborhood gallery for the world.' Inevitably MAG 7 is a wild and varied mix of works, including an extreme range of media, styles, and artist intents. The exhibit always gains unity from the common scale, so even disparate works seem to engage in playful and tolerant conversation across the gallery or side by side. We have found that having a couple galleries full of hand-sized works is a joyful experience of small things well made, a menagerie of creativity, and a poignant reminder that bigger is not always better. We are happy to offer this sixteenth annual exhibit of works no larger than seven inches in any dimension. For this year's project 112 artists from 36 states, Washington D.C., and 6 countries submitted 420 works for consideration by Manifest's intensely competitive jury process. Twenty-five works by the following 14 artists from 10 states, Canada and Italy, were selected for presentation in the gallery and the season-documenting Manifest Exhibition Annual. * Due to pandemic-related impacts and requirements affecting artists and availability of works, installations may vary. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features, and linked from this page. Presenting works by: Sutton Allen Pirjo Berg Frederick Fochtman Pauline Goldsmith Steve Paddack Justin Penov Billy Renkl Alberto Repetti Lisa Rickard Whitney River Sharon Stafford Jonathan Tang Mark Van Buskirk Gina Westergard
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Whitney River
Alberto Repetti
Gina Westergard
Frederick Fochtman
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central gallery + north gallery
MAR 2019/20 The year-long Manifest Artist Residency was launched in 2012 with the goal to provide artists with a combination of free studio space, supportive resources such as teaching opportunities and free access to life drawing and other programs at the Manifest Drawing Center, the compelling creative culture that permeates all Manifest programs, and routine engagement with the visiting public during each of our nine exhibit periods each season. To cement their year of development each artist receives another benefit of the program–a MAR Showcase solo exhibition. These two solo exhibits feature works made by our two 2019/20 Artists in Residence, Nathaniel Gaefcke and Ron Prigat. This marks the culmination of their residency at Manifest which officially concludes in June, and serves as a celebration of their achievements, learning, and adoption into the broad Manifest 'family'.
Harmony and Divergence "Creating art is a very personal endeavor put on display for everyone to see. More than just image making, art is a form of personal cultivation. Whatever problems are happening in my life, they tend to manifest in the studio as well. When I am struggling as an artist, and I ultimately break through that barrier, it rarely has anything to do with skill or technique. There is always some mental barricade keeping me from moving forward. This year at Manifest has given me the opportunity to spend hours in the studio, away from the academic environment, and away from the myriad of voices telling me what I should or should not be doing with my work. I have taken this very valuable time to focus on my weaknesses, and galvanize myself further as an artist. This show tells the story of my year at Manifest, and I feel it encapsulates my personal and artistic struggle to become a better artist and human being. "
Nathaniel Lloyd Gaefcke (Nate) was born in 1982 in Springfield Illinois. Out of high school, against his parents wishes, Nate changed his major from Accounting to Fine Art, and thus he began his journey as an artist. As Nate was interested in the Old Masters, he naturally wanted to work representationally. However, this kind of training was/is largely unavailable in the college and University systems, and as a result, Nate attended multiple Universities in an attempt to obtain this kind of training. He received a BFA degree from Southern Illionois University in 2010, then entered the Graduate School of Figurative Art, also called The New York Academy of Art, on a merit scholarship. There he studied classical figurative drawing and printmaking techniques, and in 2012, he graduated with honors with his first Master of Fine Art degree. In 2014, Nate entered into his second MFA program at Fontbonne University in Saint Louis, Missouri, graduating in 2016. He has shown work both nationally and internationally, and has work in national publications.
Searching for Light "I used to think that it is somewhat trite to say that some people can’t help but have an expressive material creative outlet, but I’ve come to realize that this is the case for me. My first reason to make art is that it is a part of who I am, a way for me to be. Making art is making meaning in physical form. As someone drawn to materials who is also very curious, art is a process of infinite creative inquiry and learning, where being a perpetual student is a pleasure and a virtue. Artists don’t need to arrive anywhere, they are there for the ride. My studio work is a private inquiry that happens in the moment, in response to a motif that usually exists in front of me in a series of fleeting moments. There’s inherent risk in this time-based practice, where light governs the creative process, as do the moments where a person sits in front of you, or a still life is on the table. Everything is finite, vulnerable. The chance of failure is a constant. That is another reason that in order to feel free, I need a level of disengagement from the loudness, the verbosity and conviction of the world outside."
Ron Prigat is a US based Israeli figurative painter and printmaker whose work ranges in medium, from intimate portraits in oils to dream-like monotypes. Ron is influenced by artists such as Giorgio Morandi, Gwen John and Diego Velazquez. His work amalgamates a contemporary frame of mind with a classical sensibility, harmonizing representation and abstraction. He is an alumnus of the Jerusalem Studio School Masterclass program, he participated five summers at theJSS in Civita landscape painting program in Italy, and holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire. He arrived at Manifest from Vermont, where he spent a year working at the Vermont Studio Center.
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Nathaniel Gaefcke
Nathaniel Gaefcke
Ron Prigat
Ron Prigat
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| July 10 - August 7 |
Limited Admission Opening Preview: Friday, July 10,
6-9pm |
* The listings below represent our original exhibition plans (pre-COVID-19), space and layout designs, and artist lists for this exhibition period at Manifest. Due to pandemic impacts affecting artists and availability of works, on-site installations may vary from original plans. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features (Instagram and Facebook), included in our Manifest Exhibition Annual publication for season 16, and linked from this page before the exhibition's end. The scale model layout elevations provided below are the byproducts of our exhibition design process, typically for internal use only. We have chosen to offer them here to share our creative process and curatorial vision with the public and selected artists since many people will not be able to experience these exhibits in person. The above Manifest VR walkthrough represents the revised actual installation, including an 'absentee artwork' room sharing the ghosts of works not able to be sent to the gallery. All 62 works by 43 artists from 22 states,Washington D.C., and 3 countries are included. (Most works are available for purchase. Contact our staff with serious inquiries.)
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main gallery + drawing room*
14th Annual
As do our annual Rites of Passage and TAPPED exhibits, Master Pieces reflects our organization's commitment to surveying, documenting, and presenting the state of arts in academia on an ongoing basis. We believe this is important to artists, the public, students, and teachers. For this 14th competition for the project 74 artists representing 48 different academic graduate programs in 28 states submitted 261 works for consideration by Manifest's rigorous jury process. Nineteen works** by the following 16 artists from 12 states representing 12 different academic programs were selected for presentation in the gallery and MEA publication for season 16. ** Due to pandemic-related impacts and requirements affecting artists and availability of works, installations may vary. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features, and linked from this page. Featuring works by:* Katie Adams Margot Becker Nicolette Bonagura Jonathan Christensen Caballero Caitlin Cheek Jeanne Ciravolo Krista Fay Caroline Gerberick Jonathan Virginia Green Maria Haag Kel Mur Heather Stivison Jody Travis Thompson Jessica Mia Vito Mikey Yates
* artists are listed with their academic status as of the date of application to this exhibition.
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Katie Adams
Krista Fay
Mikey Yates
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parallel space*
MINI/MICRO “Small things are not small things for the small!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan It is a matter of perspective, of a certain proportional ratio between the observer and observed. Small things examined bring understanding. This requires a willingness, a wisdom, to inquire—to step outside of one's ordinary paradigm into another world. It has been through our observation of things both grand and minuscule that humanity has found its enlightenment, its hope, and its humility. How are small things captured, conveyed, or considered by artists? How is the experience of the very small translated through creativity? How are the epiphanies shared, the Universe expanded? Contrasting with Manifest's just-closed annual Magnitude Seven small works exhibit, MINI/MICRO called out to artists for answers to these questions, and for works of any size which address the subject of small things. For this exhibit 69 artists from 26 states and 5 countries including Canada, France, Thailand, the United States, and Uruguay submitted 263 works for consideration. Twenty works by the following 8 artists from 7 states and Thailand were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication. * Due to pandemic-related impacts and requirements affecting artists and availability of works, installations may vary. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features, and linked from this page. Presenting works by: Nathan Ely Kate Forer Hassakorn Hirunsirichoke Bethany Pipkin Sarah Posey Ross Quesnell Kate Shannon Tore Terrasi
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Nathan Ely
Hassakorn Hirunsirichoke
Ross Quesnell
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central gallery*
TWINKLE Twinkle is a small word. A twinkle is light and small, brilliant and fleeting. Twinkles are distractions, attractive attention-traps that sit on the surface where they may seem like shallow decorations—until you remember that the faint twinkle of a star is in reality a massive hydrogen-fueled interstellar explosion seen palely at a distance of billions of miles. A twinkle sits jewel-like on the white-hot rim of an eclipse, a flickering piece of potent color. The iridescent shimmer swirling on top of spilled gasoline tricks and confuses us, being both pretty and foul. A Twinkle can enchant us like a swarm of lightning-bugs in dark woods, or can overwhelm us in a flurry of sequins, a waterfall of glitter, or a radiant glow of neon and color. It flickers at the end of a fishhook in a muddy lake, attracting uncareful prey swimming into a fisher's range. The prospect of a shiny, kitten-and-rainbow spiral-bound notebook can even make going back to school at the end of summer a tolerable fate. A twinkle is pretty. A twinkle is fun. A twinkle is dangerous. For this show Manifest called to artists to submit works about sparkle, enchantment, facade, flashiness, and about the seductive power of bright lights and color. Manifest's blind jury process reviewed 178 works by 44 artists from 23 states, Washington D.C., and 4 countries including Canada, France, Germany, and the United States. Ten works by the following 8 artists from 6 states, Washington D.C., and Germany were selected for exhibition and will also be featured in the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEA) at the close of the season. Presenting works by: Erik Akerman Tyler Brumfield Gala Cude-Pacheco Ciara Froning Michael Lorsung Alix Anne Shaw Carla Timoc John Warren
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Carla Timoc
Erik Akerman
Michael Lorsung
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north gallery*
MONSTERS “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche “What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.” ― Werner Herzog Like the gods of ancient religions, monsters embody cultural standards, distilled into extremes. Across ages they traipse the landscape, paralleling humanity's progress, morphing, submerging, and reappearing, revealed from within a disguise oft-made by man. Whether real or imagined, metaphorical or literal, monsters have shaped civilization, steered us to where we are now, and exist in our as yet to be determined future. How do monsters appear in the art of today? What role does art play in forming, taming, or even releasing monsters into the world? What can artists tell us about the monsters that came before, are here now, and are yet to come? Manifest's blind jury process reviewed 318 works by 80 artists from 26 states and 2 countries including Germany and the United States. Thirteen works by the following 11 artists from 10 states were selected for exhibition and will also be featured in the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEA) at the close of the season. Presenting works by: Andrew Au Jordan Black Lauren Levato Coyne Jeffrey Heyne Stuart Janssen Sherry Kerlin Seth Marosok KD Matheson Grant Stoops Jessica Teckemeyer Barbara Weidell
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Grant Stoops
Andrew Au
Barbara Weidell
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| August 14 - September 11 (SEASON 16 FINALÉ) |
Limited Admission Opening Preview: Friday, August 14,
6-9pm |
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Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, September 10,
6-7:30pm |
* The listings below represent our original exhibition plans (pre-COVID-19), space and layout designs, and artist lists for this exhibition period at Manifest. Due to pandemic impacts affecting artists and availability of works, on-site installations may vary from original plans. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features (Instagram and Facebook), included in our Manifest Exhibition Annual publication for season 16, and linked from this page before the exhibition's end. The scale model layout elevations provided below are the byproducts of our exhibition design process, typically for internal use only. We have chosen to offer them here to share our creative process and curatorial vision with the public and selected artists since many people will not be able to experience these exhibits in person. The above Manifest VR walkthrough (coming soon) represents the revised actual installation, including an 'absentee artwork' room sharing the ghosts of works not able to be sent to the gallery. All 58 works by 44 artists from 20 states and 3 countries are included. (Most works are available for purchase. Contact our staff with serious inquiries.)
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main gallery
UNFINISHED / ACCIDENTS A splatter of paint, an accidental tear, spilled solvent, an inadvertent cut one inch too far on the miter saw—any number of random occurrences can ruin a work in progress... or, make it brilliant. Sometimes, despite the artist's initial reaction, a resistance to the guiding hand of the muse, it takes a fit of cussing, a day in retreat, or a week's respite before one returns to the studio find the accident transformed into a brilliant unintentional stroke of genius—unchanged yet utterly different. Often such serendipitous moments translate into full-blown discoveries and new directions in work, guiding artists into exciting uncharted waters. When this happens, either because the artist cultivated that flexibility early on, or adjusted to it on the fly, it is as if someone, or some thingelse caused the work—as if genii of chance abide in various corners of the studio awaiting their moment to help. Likewise, the decision of when a work is 'finished' is a common conundrum in the midst of the creative process. All too often an artist's momentum and blind drive forward with an original plan carries them far past the point when a work is at its best, resulting in overworking the substance or overstating the content, leaving no cracks through which the viewer may access and appreciate the living nature of the work at hand. In UNFINISHED / ACCIDENTS Manifest set out to assemble an exhibit showcasing works of all kinds which represent the artists' astute recognition of the quality of a work at once unfinished yet utterly alive with quality, as well as artists' acceptance and incorporation of brilliant accidents into 'finished' works.
Presenting works by: Sutton Allen Andy Bullard Craig Davidson Shou Jie Eng Charles Evans Kim Flora Melissa Gwyn Sam King Robert Koss Mara Manning Kelly McKaig Deborah Orloff Sharon Reeber Sam Toland
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Sharon Reeber
Robert Koss
Kim Flora
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drawing room* + parallel space*
12th Annual NUDE
NUDE is one such project. The human body is a popular subject for many reasons, the most obvious being that it is us. Throughout history (and pre-history) the representation of the human form has been charged with tremendous energy. Whether it be a religious edict that one should not depict the human form—a taboo, or the glorious opposite—a revelation of mastery over form in the crafting of sensuous and life-like physical human beauty, the art of the body has nevertheless moved us through time. Through all the permutations art has experienced across history, work of the body persists. We use the human nude to master skill, understand ourselves, and push social and psychological buttons for the sake of expression (sensual, delicate, political, aggressive, and so on). We intend for Manifest's ongoing annual NUDE project, now in its 12th year, to explore how our collective body is used today in art to achieve these goals and more. This year we were happy to renew our invitation to artists to submit works in any media, of any style or genre (abstract, conceptual, realistic, etc.), and of any size and media, for consideration in Manifest's twelfth annual NUDE, an international competitive exhibit exploring the uncovered human form in current art.
Presenting works by: Jason Lee Gimbel Mike Harrison Michael Hubbard Theresa Lucey Ellen Starr Lyon Daniel Maidman Irene Delka McCray Ally Morgan Shaun M. Niles Steen Pedersen Gabriel Poucher Lisa Rickard Patricia Schappler Christopher Smith Saritdikhun Somasa Rachelle Steele Jessica Summers Timothy Tracz Grant Trimble Jesse Vasquez Fulvia Zambon
* Due to pandemic-related impacts affecting artists and availability of works, installations may vary. Some works will not be on view in the gallery. All jury-selected works will be featured online in social media features, and linked from this page.
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Mike Harrison
Rachelle Steele
Christopher Smith
Daniel Maidman
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central gallery
ERGO For millennia objects and images have been made, shaped, and formed in relation to the human body. One nearly-unique attribute of human identity is the creation and use of tools—things not us but designed by us to magnify us. The human body operates in particular ways, thanks to evolution and environmental forces, and therefore the byproducts of human industriousness conform, naturally, to the ubiquitous lens of body-being shared by humans. 'Good design' in the larger sense of the term is that which does this better. But, beyond 'industrial' functionality, art often positions itself as a prompt of physicality, deliberately posed as a reflection of, or a catalyst for experience from the bodily point of view. What does this mean? Through shape, size, interactive aspects (real or implied), or even narrative content, art may bring forward an awareness of the viewer's, or the artist's, own physicality as a particular focus of the work's content. With ERGO Manifest set out to present a selection of works revealing how artists approach this today, deliberately offering this exhibit as a simultaneous counterpoint to our annual NUDE exhibition, which approaches the human body as subject in a very different way. Manifest's blind jury process reviewed 158 works by 43 artists from 19 states and 3 countries including Canada, Israel, and the United States. Eight works by the following 8 artists from 6 states and Israel were selected for exhibition and will also be featured in the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEA) at the close of the season. Presenting works by: Siara Berry Grace Flott Laurel Fulton Katia Lifshin Terry Mason Bobbi Meier Steven Meier Molly Schoenhoff
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Lauren Fulton
Terry Mason
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north gallery
A WARM PLACE Buket Savci was born in Istanbul, Turkey. Previously a landscape architect she started studying painting in Istanbul. Having a thirst for more freedom and a new start she immigrated to NYC in 2006. She received her BFA on painting from Pratt Institute in 2010 and MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2012. She has been awarded Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Painting Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center in 2019 and a three-month artist residency at Pilotenkueche International Art Program in Leipzig, Germany in 2018. She has won the Peoples Choice Award of Jonathan LeVine Projects 2nd Delusional Art Competition, and Grand Prize for Dave Bown Projects competition. Her work has been exhibited widely internationally and nationally at venues such as Flowers Gallery, RJD Gallery, the Untitled Space, Field Projects, Kustera Projects, Art Hamptons, Governors Island Art Fair in NYC, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, WI, Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, LA, Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo, Palermo, Italy, Kamakura Art Center, Tokyo, Japan and Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair in Istanbul, Turkey. She had her first solo show at Olcay Art in Istanbul in 2014, and two person exhibition at Kunstverein Ludwigsburg in Germany in 2018. Publications of Buket Savci’s work include; The Figure: Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture published by Skira Rizzoli, Istanbul Codex: Contemporary Artists From Turkey by Imago Mundi, Who Is Afraid of Feminism exhibition catalog juried by Catherine Morris, Create Magazine, Poets and Artists Magazine, and the 7th International Painting Annual by Manifest Press. Buket Savci lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Of her work the artist states: "My recent paintings orchestrate multiple figures entangled with each other surrounded by inflatables and toys, painted in vivid colors with details of textiles, clothing and patterns. Away from any kind of negativity figures enjoy the moment; freedom and love despite all the threats surrounding them outside of their confined environment. But they are still aware of the short lifespan of that perfect harmony that will pop like a balloon soon. I use inflatables as a metaphor for our short lived contentment, the ephemerality of pure joy and happiness. They also represent the false sense of security, and question our constant drive for satisfaction and pleasure. Observing the loneliness and need for attention, accompanied with consumerism frenzy globally, my art evolved from being about my own personal crisis, to capturing the universal emotional state, especially during the current global and domestic social and environmental problems. ” This exhibition is one of 6 selected from among 149 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 16th season.
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——— END OF SEASON 16 ——— THANK YOU!
Manifest is supported by sustainability funding 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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