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Feb 18-Jun 5, 2021 Imagine Otherwise Shikeith Imani Dennison Amber N. Ford Antwoine Washington Feb 18-Jun 5, 2021 Shikeith, Still Waters Run Deep (still), 2021, installation with video, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. “What happens when we proceed as if we know this, antiBlackness, to be the ground on which we stand, the ground from which we to attempt to speak, for instance, an “I” or a “we” who know, an “I” or a “we” who care?"—Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being Imagine Otherwise expresses the boundlessness and fierceness of Black imagination and love despite ongoing antiBlack violence as it thinks with Christina Sharpe’s groundbreaking book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being . Featuring artists Shikeith, Imani Dennison, Amber N. Ford, and Antwoine Washington, this multimedia exhibition spotlights Black pathways to self-determination and collective liberation through photographic, sculptural, mixed media, and video-based installations. This careful navigation, or “wake work,” to use Sharpe’s term, operates beyond representational politics as it interrogates spatial and temporal tensions of disenfranchisement, resistance, memory, visibility, loss, and (re)invention across Black cultures. Shikeith explores how Black queer re-making is a sacred space and practice in his two-part installation, still waters run deep / fall in your ways (2021). Using poetry, historical narratives, ambient recordings of children's rhymes, shades of blue, dance, and organic elements such as water, Shikeith maps Black men's negotiations of intimacy and routes toward freedom beyond architectural and societal constraints. Imani Dennison’s NO MAS- Irreversible Entanglements (2020), filmed on location in Johannesburg, South Africa, offers a dream-like meditation. In only eight minutes, vibrant imagery coupled with the fluid, yet energetic, free jazz and poetry of the Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC-based group Irreversible Entanglements presents an intoxicating, otherworldly Afro-futurist vision of Black people escaping all terrestrial confinements. Amber N. Ford’s detailed photographic attention to relationships of subjects and infinite patterning zooms in and out through Strands, Tracks & Naps (2021). Reminiscent of a display of coiffures in a hair salon, lush color portraits, small studies, and collage superimposed on a dense close-up of passion twists express the vast geography of Black ways of being. Antwoine Washington employs domestic furnishings and murals as visual storytelling in And Yeah, About that Seat at the Table (2021). The artist’s multimedia installation highlights how that proverbial access point to power is illusory for most Black people, while also honoring a long history of Black self-making. Organized by La Tanya S. Autry, Gund Curator in Residence, moCa Cleveland’s first on-staff Black curator creating exhibitions in its 52-year history, Imagine Otherwise is unlike any other curatorial project funded by the institution. As a manifestation of “wake work,” this city-wide initiative is sited at moCa Cleveland (Shikeith), ThirdSpace Action Lab in Glenville (Imani Dennison and Amber N. Ford), and Museum of Creative Human Art /Larchmere Arts (Antwoine Washington). Autry envisions possibilities beyond moCa Cleveland’s consistent antiBlack practices by partnering with these Black-led and centered organizations that regularly care for Black residents and others while challenged with far smaller budgets than many area white-led and centered arts institutions. Offered during another heightened time of national racial crisis, Imagine Otherwise is a limited, yet hopefully, significant prodding for an authentic, community-led institutional reckoning of moCa Cleveland and a soulful salute to the city’s Black dwellers who persist by always imagining otherwise. Exhibition locations ThirdSpace Action Lab , Glenville 1464 E 105th St #302, Cleveland, OH 44106 Museum of Creative Human Art (MOCHA) presented at Larchmere Arts 12726 Larchmere Blvd, Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) , Cleveland 11400 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106 About the Artists Shikeith Shikeith (b. 1989 in Philadelphia, PA) lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. He received a BA from The Pennsylvania State University (2010) and an MFA in Sculpture from The Yale School of Art (2018). His expansive practice investigates the experiences of black men within and around concepts of psychic space, the blues, and black queer fugitivity. He has shared his work nationally and internationally through recent exhibitions and screenings that include The Language Must Not Sweat , Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Notes Towards Becoming A Spill , Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; Shikeith: This was his body/His body finally his , MAK Gallery, London, UK; Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography , Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; A Drop of Sun Under The Earth , MOCA LA, Los Angeles, CA; Labor Relations, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Poland; and Black Intimacy: An Evening With Shikeith , MoMA, New York, NY. Recent awards include the Painters & Sculptors Grant from The Joan Mitchell Foundation (2019), Art Matters Foundation Grant (2020), Leslie Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2020-2021). Imani Dennison Imani Dennison is a Multi-Hyphenate Creative, born in Louisville, Kentucky. Imani graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC where she studied Political Science and Photography. Upon completing her degree at Howard, she went on to earn a certificate in Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. Imani has been working as a Cinematographer based in Brooklyn New York where she has lensed short films, documentaries, branded campaigns and music videos. Imani's work explores themes of surrealism, Blackness, and Fantasy. Imani also works as a Photographer and has created bodies of portraiture and documentary work exploring global Blackness. Amber N. Ford Amber N. Ford is an artist based in Cleveland, OH. She received her BFA in Photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art (2016). Interested in race, and identity, she is best known for her work in portraiture, which she considers a “collaborative engagement between photographer and sitter.” Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Kent State University, Transformer Station, SPACES Gallery, The Morgan Conservatory, The Cleveland Print Room, Zygote Press, Waterloo Arts and in outdoor public space on the Capitol Theatre Building located at the corner of Detroit and West 65th. Recent awards include Gordon Square Arts District Artist-In-Residence (2019) and the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award (2017). Antoine Washington Antoine Washington, originally from Pontiac, MI, lives and works in Cleveland, OH. With his wife Carlise Washington, he has two children, Grayson and Luca. He earned his BA in Studio Art from Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA. His studies of black history and art at Southern inspired Washington to continue the legacy of Harlem Renaissance artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and Jacob Lawrence. Following a stroke he suffered in 2018, Washington found healing in his art. He has exhibited widely at the Cleveland Print Room, Worthington Yards, The Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Rooms to Let and Artist Archives of the Western Reserve. His public art commission with Land Studios includes his 154 years mural located in Cleveland Public Square. In 2020, Washington co-founded Museum of Creative Human Art, a non-profit organization centered on teaching art.

Summer/Fall Opening Night Celebration Jun 28, 2024 FREE for all The season includes three new exhibitions: Message from our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection; new work from Toby's Prize artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya in Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh ; and an examination into housing design with A Place Meant, co-organized by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry A talk with artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya starts at 7:30PM. Experience the exhibitions, sips from the bar, and local tasty bites. The Opening Night Celebration is presented by Jackson Lewis and James & Winifred Stone. Paid valet available. If you have questions or if there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact access@mocacleveland.org . 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. About FREE for all The season includes three new exhibitions: Message from our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection; new work from Toby's Prize artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya in Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh ; and an examination into housing design with A Place Meant, co-organized by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry A talk with artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya starts at 7:30PM. Experience the exhibitions, sips from the bar, and local tasty bites. The Opening Night Celebration is presented by Jackson Lewis and James & Winifred Stone. Paid valet available. If you have questions or if there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact access@mocacleveland.org . 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. FREE for all The season includes three new exhibitions: Message from our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection; new work from Toby's Prize artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya in Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh ; and an examination into housing design with A Place Meant, co-organized by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry A talk with artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya starts at 7:30PM. Experience the exhibitions, sips from the bar, and local tasty bites. The Opening Night Celebration is presented by Jackson Lewis and James & Winifred Stone. Paid valet available. If you have questions or if there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact access@mocacleveland.org . 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required.

Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 Clotilde Jiménez Shapeshift Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 Clotilde Jiménez, Pose No. 12 , 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago, Paris, Mexico City). Clotilde Jiménez’s art is driven by an exploration of materiality and transformation. His work highlights the societal limitations imposed on the body through race, gender, and sexuality, challenging and reshaping these constructs with subtlety and a playful sense of humor. Drawing from both ancient and contemporary sources, Jiménez incorporates everyday materials such as wallpaper, clothing, magazine clippings, and Mexican craft paper, connecting his diverse inspirations across time and culture. At the heart of Jiménez’s practice is a relentless state of evolution and transformation. Moving through mediums like ceramics, sculpture, collage, and painting, he layers materials to create works that speak to multiple narratives simultaneously. Each material introduced into his practice marks a shift—an expansion of understanding, a personal reckoning. The superimposition of textures and elements mirrors his own life, where every addition is not just a formal choice but a reflection of change within himself. As he navigates identity, history, and self-discovery, his materials evolve in parallel, embodying the fluidity of becoming. Working primarily with collage, Jiménez forges connections between disparate elements. He weaves together fragments, creating cohesive figures that embody interconnectedness and collective strength. Clotilde Jiménez: Shapeshift will be the most extensive presentation of Jiménez’s work to date, showcasing newly commissioned pieces alongside previously unseen drawings and process materials. Spanning his entire career, the exhibition will include early works from his time as a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art, providing a clear trajectory of his artistic evolution and the continuous transformation of his practice. Major support provided by the Kulas Foundation. Additional support provided by Gary Metzner & Scott Johnson. Select Images Clotilde Jiménez, Boxer (Aluminum) , 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim; Clotilde Jiménez, Hamaca (Arrobamiento) , 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim; Clotilde Jiménez, Victor’s Secret , 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim. About the Artist Artist Portrait of Clotilde Jiménez, 2023. Photo by Mariam Wo Ching. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim. Born in 1990 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Clotilde Jiménez now lives and works in Mexico City. He earned his MFA from The Slade School of Fine Art and his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center & moCa Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center & moCa Institutional & Artist Residency Jan 2023-May 2024 Installation of the exhibition ¡Juntos! (Together) in the Residency Gallery. Starting in January 2023, moCa will align its learning from the AIR Artist-in-Residency and Institutional Residency into a hybrid opportunity. Continuing a strong collaborative relationship developed with Julia de Burgos Cultural Art Center (JDBCAC) during moCa’s presentation of the exhibition Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. (July–December 2021), moCa and JDBCAC will partner on a year-long institutional and artist residency throughout 2023. JDBCAC will occupy and engage spaces on moCa’s first and third floors in relation to its mission and work, and co-design programming with moCa including an adapted AIR program to advance the work of Latino/a/x artists and artists of color and provide new professional development opportunities. JDBCAC and moCa will create two cohorts of early career artists who will work alongside mentor artists and arts leaders, and moCa will host exhibitions of these artists’ work throughout the duration of the residency. Generous support from Margaret Cohen & Kevin Rahilly, The Cleveland Foundation, and the Callahan Foundation About Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center Julia De Burgos Cultural Arts Center was founded in 1989 by Daisy Rivera and the combined efforts of the Cultural Educational Institute for Boricua Advancement (CEIBA) and the Hispanic Parents Union. These organizations united to realize a long time dream of establishing a family oriented center to serve the Latino youth and their families through programs and activities designed to foster cultural pride and art appreciation. Related Exhibitions ▶ Bruno Casiano: Pieces of Me ▶ ¡Juntos! (Together) ▶ BlackBrain Group: SCRD GRDN

Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 Sam Falls We Are Dust and Shadow Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 Sam Falls, Untitled (San Bernardino National Forest, CA.) , 2017-2019. Pigment on canvas, 128 x 272 in. (325.1 x 690.9 cm). Courtesy Sam Falls and 303 Gallery, New York Sam Falls’s show at moCa, the artist’s first major solo museum exhibition, offers expansive insight into his unique practice of collaborating with nature to create monumental paintings and sculptures. Falls’s poetic, ghostly works examine the sublimity and inherent melancholy of nature’s cycles and finite life. Interested in photographic exposure and representation, Falls experiments with the effects of sunlight, rain, and temperature, harnessing weather patterns and environmental conditions to create paintings, sculptures, and photographs in and with nature. In addition to new sculptures and paintings made by Falls in various national parks across the country, moCa has partnered with the Cleveland Botanical Garden & Holden Arboretum to support Falls’s creation of a new ceramic work, using materials from Northeast Ohio. Lead support for Sam Falls: We Are Dust and Shadow is provided by Dealer Tire. Generous support provided by 303 Gallery and Galerie Eva Presenhuber. Additional support provided by the Anselm Talalay Photography Fund. About the Artist Sam Falls. Photo: Erin Falls Sam Falls Sam Falls (b. 1984, San Diego, CA) works intimately with the core precepts of photography–namely time, representation, and exposure–to create works that both bridge the gap between various artistic mediums and the divide between the artist, object, and viewer. Working symbiotically with nature and the elements, Falls’s artworks are engrained with a sense of place indexical to the unique environment of their creation while imbued with a universal sense of mortality. With a reverence toward art history, Falls empathetically blurs the lines between artistic genres and practices, from modern dance and minimalist painting to conceptual photography and land art, boiling it down to the fundamentals of nature and the transience of life that art best addresses. Falls is represented by 303 Gallery (New York), Galerie Eva Presenhuber (Zurich and Vienna), Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco), and Galleria Franco Noero (Turin).

Temple of Passions presents SLAMM SEASON: Women's Edition Mar 24, 2024 GET TICKETS NOW $10 Join Temple of Passions at moCa Cleveland to experience a night of spoken word during this Poetry Slam & Open Mic. Artists will celebrate women and tie in themes associated with the exhibition, including love, overcoming, and connectedness. Temple of Passions is a performing arts platform that prioritizes visibilities for BIPOC, Queer folk and allies. Temple of Passions has been engaging with the community through performances, events and more. Stay connected to Temple of Passions mission and work this season by adding to the resilience box and creative response at moCa Cleveland Thus-Sun. If you have questions or if there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact access@mocacleveland.org . 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. About GET TICKETS NOW $10 Join Temple of Passions at moCa Cleveland to experience a night of spoken word during this Poetry Slam & Open Mic. Artists will celebrate women and tie in themes associated with the exhibition, including love, overcoming, and connectedness. Temple of Passions is a performing arts platform that prioritizes visibilities for BIPOC, Queer folk and allies. Temple of Passions has been engaging with the community through performances, events and more. Stay connected to Temple of Passions mission and work this season by adding to the resilience box and creative response at moCa Cleveland Thus-Sun. If you have questions or if there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact access@mocacleveland.org . 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. GET TICKETS NOW $10 Join Temple of Passions at moCa Cleveland to experience a night of spoken word during this Poetry Slam & Open Mic. Artists will celebrate women and tie in themes associated with the exhibition, including love, overcoming, and connectedness. Temple of Passions is a performing arts platform that prioritizes visibilities for BIPOC, Queer folk and allies. Temple of Passions has been engaging with the community through performances, events and more. Stay connected to Temple of Passions mission and work this season by adding to the resilience box and creative response at moCa Cleveland Thus-Sun. If you have questions or if there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact access@mocacleveland.org . 1-2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required.

Jul 7, 2023-Jan 7, 2024 Don't mind if I do Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Pelenakeke Brown Sky Cubacub Emilie L. Gossiaux Felicia Griffin Joselia Rebekah Hughes Jeff Kasper and Finnegan Shannon Jul 7, 2023-Jan 7, 2024 Don't mind if I do , installation at moCa Cleveland, 2023. Photo: Jacob Koestler Organized in collaboration with Finnegan Shannon Finnegan Shannon is a creator of loopholes. Their work is mischievous, methodically chipping away at traditional museum practices. By framing institutional change as artwork, the pace of possibility quickens. With Shannon at the helm, Don’t mind if I do is an experiment in more deeply collaborative exhibition-making, demonstrating how even temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access for visitors, artists, and staff. Grounded in a longtime fantasy of the artist’s–an idea of an exhibition setup that would lavishly meet their access needs–this project developed around a conveyor belt. Embraced for its efficiency and mechanized transport of goods (even sushi), this equipment is reappropriated here as a vehicle for cultivating a more relaxed museum-going experience. The conveyor belt brings artwork to audience members, who are invited to sit on comfortable furniture and engage with a parade of objects through any combination of touch, sight, and sound. Sharing the work of seven artists who have influenced Shannon’s practice, Don’t mind if I do blurs boundaries between public and private. It puts representations of everyday life that are usually tucked away at home on display. Plastic pill bottles scattered across nightstands share space with a tissue box cover that reminds us of moments of sickness and sadness. Sculptural snapshots of an intimate interspecies bond sit beside gender-affirming packers that feel most at home tucked inside our clothes. They signify illness, reveal systems of support, and are used in play. Don’t mind if I do destabilizes rigid ableist and exclusionary museum “best practices” like sparse seating, untouchable objects, dense wall labels, and guards who protect rather than invite engagement. It is a project built upon a framework of flexibility. By welcoming glitches, inviting informality and messiness, and unsettling the hierarchy of objects, Don’t mind if I do prioritizes people over artwork and makes more room for us to show up as our full selves. A NOTE FROM FINNEGAN SHANNON: This project is the realization of my access fantasy !! I’m disabled and I need to sit and I love to sit. I’ve been dreaming about an exhibition where instead of having to move from artwork to artwork, I could sit somewhere comfortable and have the artwork come to me. So voilà! A conveyor belt of artworks surrounded by a variety of seating options. When planning this project, a big question was: what artwork should the conveyor carry? The artists, writers, and thinkers featured nourish my life and practice, and I can’t resist a chance to share their work. Each of the objects presented asks for varied ways of interacting and opens up possibilities for how and what an artwork can convey. Don’t mind if I do, Finnegan Shannon The Lewis Gallery is accessible via elevator. Accessible gendered bathrooms are on the ground level and single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms are located on the third floor. All the artwork in this show can be touched. Seating and audio description are both available as a part of the show. The conveyor belt motor makes a soft but high-pitched ringing sound; we have disposable earplugs available. The space will have three air purifiers. Please wear a mask when visiting this exhibition in solidarity with the artists and your fellow visitors. Generous support provided by the Ford Foundation. Additional support provided by David C. Lamb. Installation Images Don't mind if I do . Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2023. Photos: Jacob Koestler About the Artists Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo (they/them/Lukaza) is an artist, activist, educator, storyteller, cultural worker, and person of multitudes. Through a practice based in the printed multiple, community-based work, painting, performance and installation building, they invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of B.I.Q.T.P.O.C. (Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, People of color) stories. Branfman-Verissimo has had solo shows at SEPTEMBER Gallery, Deli Gallery, Roll Up Projects, Printed Matter Inc., and STNDRD Projects. Their work has been included in exhibitions and performances at Konsthall C, EFA Project Space, Leslie Lohman Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and L’Internationale Online, amongst others. They have been awarded residencies and fellowships at The University of New Mexico, Black Space Residency, Kala Art Center, Women’s Studio Workshop, and ACRE Residency. Branfman-Verissimo’s artist books and printed editions have been published by Endless Editions, Childish Books, Press Press and Printed Matter Inc. and are in permanent collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, California College of the Arts Printmaking Archive, University of California Santa Cruz Library, New York University Special Collections, and San Francisco Museum of Art Library. Pelenakeke Brown. Photo credit, Papa clothing x Emily Parr. Pelenakeke Brown Pelenakeke Brown (she/her) is a queer, crip, indigenous artist and writer. Brown's practice explores the intersections between disability theory and Sāmoan concepts. Her work investigates sites of knowledge(s), and she uses technology, writing, poetry, and performance to explore these ideas. Brown has worked with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gibney Dance Center, The New York Library for the Performing Arts, Gibney Dance Center, The Goethe Institute, and other institutions globally. Selected residencies include Eyebeam, The Laundromat Project, and Dance/NYC. She has performed and exhibited her work in the US, UK and Germany. Her non-fiction creative work has been published in The Hawai‘i Review, Apogee Journal, and the Movement Research Performance Journal. Her work has been featured in Art in America and she was recognized in 2020 with a Creative New Zealand Pacific Toa award. Sky Cubacub. Photo by @colectivomultipolar. Sky Cubacub Sky Cubacub (they/them/xey/xem/xyr) is a non-binary xenogender and disabled Filipinx neuroqueer from Chicago, IL. As a multidisciplinary artist, Cubacub is interested in fulfilling the needs for disabled queer life, with an emphasis on joy. They are the creator of Rebirth Garments, a line of wearables for trans, queer and disabled people of all sizes and ages, and Radical Fit, a queer fashion series of programming in partnership with the Chicago Public Library. Cubacub is the editor of the Radical Visibility Zine , which celebrates disabled queer life, and are the Access Brat and editor of Just Femme and Dandy’s section about ethics and inclusion called “Cancel & Gretel.” They have had over 50 fashion performances and have lectured at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Utah, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Northwestern University. Rebirth Garments has been featured in Teen Vogue, Nylon, Playboy, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Vice, Wussy Mag , and the New York Times . Cubacub was named 2018 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune and is a 2019/2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist and a Disability Futures Fellow. Emilie L. Gossiaux Emilie L. Gossiaux Emilie L. Gossiaux (she/her) received a BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art and an MFA from Yale School of Art. Since losing her vision due to a traffic accident in 2010, Gossiaux’s altered experiences have influenced her practice's trajectory—drawing inspiration from dreams, memories, and non-visual sensory perceptions. Her drawings and ceramics pertain to bodily autonomy, exploring themes such as love, intimacy, and the interdependent relationships between humans and non-human species. Much of her work is inspired by the interspecies bond she has with her Guide Dog, London, and celebrates disability pride. Simultaneously, she disrupts the Anthropocene understanding of agency and the hierarchic ordering between humans and animals. Solo shows include Significant Otherness and Memory of a Body, both at Mother Gallery, and After Image at False Flag Gallery. Gossiaux has also participated in group shows at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, the Aldrich Museum, Gallery 400, MoMA PS1, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, and SculptureCenter. Awards include a John F. Kennedy Center VSA Prize, the Wynn Newhouse Award, the Colene Brown Art Prize, and The Queens Museum Jerome Foundation Fellowship. Her work has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, The New Yorker, and Art in America. Felicia Griffin. Photo credit: Andria Lo. Felicia Griffin Felicia Griffin (she/her) is a prolific multimedia artist based in Richmond, California. She has been exhibiting work with Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development (NIAD) Art Center since 1985. The following is an edited excerpt from a conversation between Felicia Griffin and former NIAD art facilitator Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. The complete interview can be found in Issue 6 of New Life Quarterly, published by E.M. Wolfman Books. What would you like us to know about you? Who is Felecia Griffin? Um, well, I like to…have fun and I love my friends and I want to do some more pompoms and I like doing my art. What are you working on right now? A pompom. I made two pillows and put pompoms on the pillows. Why do you like to make art that involves circles? That’s a repeated shape in your pompoms, prints, and paintings — where does that circle shape come from? The circle is inside of me, a square too. I see it in the world too. You engage with a lot of people while you work—how does that relate to your art making? Yep, I like doing it and um, I like to help out. It makes me feel happy! I started doing this: giving gifts. I am always looking out for who needs help. Do you consider [other artists] your family? YEEEAAAAS! I care for people — yes! A work by Joselia Rebekah Hughes Joselia Rebekah Hughes Joselia Rebekah Hughes (she/her) is a Mad and disabled Afro-Caribbean writer, artist, and educator based in the Bronx. She is a poetry editor at Apogee Journal. Hughes’s work hops in the lineage of Black disabled aesthetics and linguistics of access. She uses wordplay, oral traditions, and the archetype of The Fool as measures to question and provoke societal perceptions and values regarding chronic illness, Madness, neurodivergence, and disability. Her practicing mediums include video and photography, dance, literature, small sculpture, fiber work, drawing, zine-making, and drawing/painting. She's shared work at the Institute of Contemporary Art: VCU, Participant Inc., Lincoln Center, MoMA, Leslie Lohman Museum, Bard, Swarthmore, Whitney Museum of American Art, and elsewhere. Hughes’s poetry has been nominated for Best of Net and has been published in Apogee Journal, Massachusetts Review, The Poetry Project, Split This Rock, Blackflash Magazine, Leste Magazine, Jewish Currents, and Ocean State Review. Jeff Kasper Jeff Kasper Jeff Kasper (he/him) is an artist, writer, and educator. He works with the tools and techniques of design, contemplative practices, and community engagement, to create public art, publications, open editions, workshops, and participatory learning projects. His artworks center dialogical, reflective, and instructional texts that often prompt meditation, relationship building, and serious play. Based on his own lived experiences and observations, much of his recent projects explore topics of support, safety, and proximity. Through his disability arts organizing, he opens up spaces for (re)imagining accessible and trauma-aware futures. His recent exhibitions have been presented internationally, including with New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Meta Open Arts, and Queens Museum, and his past public programs have been facilitated with BRIC, CUE Art Foundation, and moCa Cleveland. Kasper is Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Department of Art. Finnegan Shannon Finnegan Shannon Finnegan Shannon (they/them) is a project-based artist. They experiment with forms of access that intervene in ableist structures with humor, earnestness, rage, and delight. Some of their recent work includes Anti-Stairs Club Lounge, an ongoing project that gathers people together who share an aversion to stairs; Alt-Text as Poetry, a collaboration with Bojana Coklyat that explores the expressive potential of image description; and Do You Want Us Here or Not, a series of benches and cushions designed for exhibition spaces. They have done projects with Banff Centre, Queens Museum, the High Line, MMK Frankfurt, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and Nook Gallery. Their work has been supported by a 2018 Wynn Newhouse Award, a 2019 residency at Eyebeam, 2020 grant from Art Matters Foundation, and a 2022 grant from The Canada Council for the Arts. Their work has been written about in Art in America, BOMB Magazine, The Believer, and the New York Times. They live and work in Brooklyn, NY.

Title Round Gianna Commito Hupp , 2020 Casein and marble dust ground on panel 18 x 24 inches Estimated Value Range: $10,000 - $13,000 Starting Bid: $6,000 In Hupp , Gianna Commito layers casein and marble dust to create an alluring, luminous surface where abstract forms seem to shift and evolve, blurring our perspective on shape, depth, and color. This work exemplifies Commito's mastery of texture and materiality. A painting professor at Kent State, Commito has exhibited at museums such as moCa, The Akron Art Museum, and The Drawing Center. She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Cleveland Arts Prize, and the Wayne P. Lawson Prize at the Columbus Art Museum, among other awards. Commito's next solo exhibition is at Rachel Uffner Gallery (NY) in 2025. Courtesy Abattoir Gallery and the artist More: Gianna Commito Gianna Commito earned a BFA from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY and an MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. She resides in Kent where she is Professor of Painting at Kent State University. Commito has exhibited widely throughout the United States and has been included in gallery and institutional shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Her work can be found in public collections including the Akron Art Museum, Progressive Insurance, and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Recently, her work entered the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, selected for the Wayne P. Lawson Prize for Ohio Artists. She was featured in the inaugural edition of FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in Cleveland. She received the Cleveland Arts Prize for the Emerging Artist in 2015. Works in this private view are from Commito's first solo exhibition with Abattoir, Slip Lanes , on view until October 14th, 2023.

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda Apr 7, 2024 Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. About Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season.

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda May 24, 2024 Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. About Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season.

Title Round A Loving Portrait, by Sarah Curry Estimated Value Range: $1,500 - $2,000 Starting Bid: $700 Bidding increments: $100 One of the first auction items Char and Chuck Fowler won at a moCa auction in the 1990s was a commissioned portrait—a deeply personal painting of their three daughters that still hangs proudly in their bedroom today. Now, you have the rare opportunity to create a lasting treasure of your own. Beloved Cleveland-based artist and art educator Sarah Curry will collaborate with you to craft an expressive, dynamic portrait of the two subjects of your choosing. Known for capturing both likeness and spirit, Curry’s work reflects the essence of her sitters. This package includes an artist consultation and one, approximately 18x24 inch painting of two subjects, to be completed by May 1, 2026. More: A Loving Portrait, by Sarah Curry Sarah Curry is a painter, illustrator and printmaker who has taught at Charles F. Brush High School in Lyndhurst for 21 years. She received her BFA in Illustration from Kansas City Art Institute, and her love of teaching children and adults at The Cleveland Museum of Art inspired her to attain her master’s degree in Art Education from Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Institute of Art. She uses art to make connections between local schools, businesses, members of various communities and artists of all ages.

Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Manabu Ikeda Flowers from the Wreckage Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Manabu Ikeda, Rebirth , 2013-16 pen, acrylic ink and transparent watercolour on paper, mounted on board, 118.11 x 157.48 in, collection of Saga Prefectural Art Museum. Digital Archive: TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD. ©️IKEDA Manabu, Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo / Singapore Organized and circulated by the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC, Canada, with the generous support from the Audain Foundation. This exhibition is curated by Kiriko Watanabe, Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, Audain Art Museum. About the Exhibition The first North American retrospective of its kind, Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage presents over 50 works from the past 25 years. Seeking inspiration from his surroundings, Ikeda (born 1973, Saga, Japan; lives and works in Madison, WI) brings attention and inspiration to viewers while sending warnings about the painful reality of environmental disasters. Central to his practice are metaphors of grief and the undeniable aspects of life, including the fundamental forces of Mother Nature. Ikeda’s drawings also reveal human resilience and the ability to rise above devastating situations when it appears impossible. Organized by the Audain Art Musuem (Whistler, Canada) and curated by Kiriko Watanabe, Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, the show includes several of Ikeda’s renowned monumental works including Foretoken (2008), Meltdown (2013), and Rebirth (2013-16). In each of his works, Ikeda painstakingly constructs worlds that are both profoundly familiar and yet beyond comprehension, inspiring and awe-inspiring in equal measure. The artist created Meltdown and Rebirth as a response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the most devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power disaster in the country’s recorded history. moCa Cleveland's presentation of this exhibtion marks its United States debut. Presenting sponsor Lead support from Lead support for Manabu Ikeda's Artist Residency and related programming Installation Images Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage . Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2024. Photos: Jacob Koestler Artist Residency Manabu Ikeda Manabu Ikeda will be in residence at moCa multiple times during the exhibition, working on a new, monumental drawing in a temporary studio within moCa's Mueller Family Gallery. For a full list of dates, visit moCa's Events page. About the Audain Art Museum Established in 2016, the Audain Art Museum (AAM) is a leading arts organization founded upon the major philanthropic gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa. Located in Whistler, British Columbia and designed by the internationally-renowned firm Patkau Architects, the AAM boasts a comprehensive Permanent Collection of the province's most celebrated artists. Exemplifying the richness of cultural difference in Canada, the collection takes visitors on a transformative visual journey form the late 18th century to present. Highlights include hereditary Haida Chief James Hart's The Dance Screen (The Scream Too), an exceptional collection of historical and contemporary Indigenous masks, the largest permanent display of paintings by Emily Carr, and key examples of the Vancouver photo conceptualism movement. In addition, the Museum hosts dynamic exhibitions from around the world.