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Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 Jerome AB At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 ∆ Jerome AB, At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing , 2021 (still). HD Video, Color, Sound, 9 min. Courtesy the artist ∆ Jerome AB, At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing , 2021 (still). HD Video, Color, Sound, 9 min. Courtesy the artist Jerome AB At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 ∆ Jerome AB, At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing , 2021 (still). HD Video, Color, Sound, 9 min. Courtesy the artist Jerome AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing (2021) is a mixed-media installation, movement video, and soundscape. A case study in surrender, the work consists of an artifact, once buried beneath compounded terrain, now displayed within the museum walls. Its provenance unaccounted for, the 12’ high metal structure operates like a time capsule, nestled in excavated ground. Inside the enclosure is a three-dimensional video file, attempting to relay a psychological unraveling captured in real time. Past glitches of lapsed memories, the video’s subject comes to a road diverged. In one instance, we can choose to find comfort in the cards we have been dealt, to live life on life’s terms. In another, our circumstances can feel like they are closing in on us, with the only option left to fight. What starts as one figure, splits, and fragments into a multiplicity of being. At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing explores the existence of two seemingly opposing truths that can co-exist as one reality. Set to a deteriorating meditative score, a self-help spiral featuring multi-instrumentalists Eartheater and Jasminfire, AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing explores what it means to relinquish control and to find courage in faith. Jerome AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing is organized by Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) as part of Toby’s Prize, a biennial award made possible by Toby Devan Lewis. About the Artist Jerome AB Jerome AB (b. 1991, Nairobi, Kenya) is a multidisciplinary artist and creative director based in Los Angeles, CA. Trained as an architect actualized through dance, his work is a translation of movement architecture and spatial choreography. AB’s performance pieces, films, installations, and sonic sculptures are all rooted in creating worlds that represent physical manifestations of psychological landscapes. Reoccurring motifs of exploration include queer futures, ancestral connection, healthy masculinity, and the occasional internet purge. AB has created work for and alongside artists such as Blood Orange, Bobbi Salvor Menuez, Kanye West, Caroline Polachek, Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), poet Precious Okoyomon, photographers Paul Sepuya and Michael Bailey-Gates, filmmaker Alima Lee, and Brooklyn-based dance duo FlucT. His work has been featured at institutions such as MoMA PS1, LACMA, National Sawdust, Knockdown Center, Navel, and Lever House as commissioned by Performa.

Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 Nina Chanel Abney Big Butch Synergy Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 ∆ Nina Chanel Abney, Dance 1 , 2022. Collage on panel. Paper size: 57 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches. Framed size: 59 x 40 7/8 x 1 3/8 inches. ∆ Nina Chanel Abney, Dance 1 , 2022. Collage on panel. Paper size: 57 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches. Framed size: 59 x 40 7/8 x 1 3/8 inches. Nina Chanel Abney Big Butch Synergy Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 ∆ Nina Chanel Abney, Dance 1 , 2022. Collage on panel. Paper size: 57 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches. Framed size: 59 x 40 7/8 x 1 3/8 inches. Nina Chanel Abney uses a unique language of coded icons, numbers, and figures in paintings and collages that communicate urgent messages about resistance, love, and hope. For this exhibition, she debuts a new body of work presented in two shows, one at ICA Miami, Big Butch Energy , and one at moCa Cleveland, Big Butch Synergy . The series explores and celebrates expressions of Black masculine women and those who resist hetero- or cis-normative gender roles. In moCa’s multi-space presentation, Abney will create a site-responsive monumental artwork on the museum’s ground floor and a new series of gallery-installed large-scale paintings that all teem with her bold, pictorial language and characteristically impactful expressions. Lead support for Nina Chanel Abney: Big Butch Synergy is provided by Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler. Additional support provided by The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. About the Artist NIna Chanel Abney Nina Chanel Abney Nina Chanel Abney (b. 1982, Chicago) strives to signal narratives that speak to topics on politics, heritage, race, sexuality, and celebrity. The figures in her works typically appear as heavily stylized, graphic, geometric shapes against vivid backgrounds overlaid with symbols and patterns. Known for her frenetic, large-scale paintings, Abney has recently been commissioned to transform the Lincoln Center’s new David Geffen Hall’s façade in New York, drawing from the cultural heritage of the neighborhood previously known as San Juan Hill that comprised African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Puerto Rican families, which she similarly did recently for a public mural at the new Miami World Center inspired by Overtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Miami. Her first solo exhibition debuted in 2017 at Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, and subsequently toured to Chicago Cultural Center; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the California African American Museum; and the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York. Recent exhibitions include The Gordon Parks Institute (2022), The Art Gallery of New South Wales (2021), ICA Boston (2020), The Contemporary Dayton (2019), The Norton Museum of Art (2019), and Palais de Tokyo (2018). Her work is in the collections of MoMA New York, The Rubell Family Collection, The Brooklyn Museum, Bronx Museum and the Burger Collection, Hong Kong. Exhibition Materials ▶ Gallery Guide ▶ Videos

Title Round Darius Steward’s watercolor practice centers Black life, family, memory, and social identity with a directness and intimacy that has made him a distinctive voice in contemporary figurative painting. +sign up to proxy bid More: Darius Steward Darius Steward (b. 1984, East Cleveland, OH; lives and works in Northeast Ohio) received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and his MFA from the University of Delaware. He has exhibited at moCa Cleveland, the Canton Museum of Art, the Swope Art Museum, William Busta Gallery, Tregoning & Company, and FORUM Artspace, among others.

Title Round Doug Sanderson +sign up to proxy bid More: Doug Sanderson Douglas Sanderson (b. 1942) is a painter whose career includes early exhibitions at Paula Cooper Gallery (New York, NY) and John Weber Gallery, as well as a 1985 exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art. More recent solo presentations have included William Busta Gallery (Cleveland, OH) and Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (Oberlin, OH). Sanderson’s long career in abstraction has also been recognized through honors including the Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award.

Title Round Judith K. McMillan Optic Exploration: Magnolia soulangiana (Saucer Magnolia) , 2002 Gold-toned gelatin silver print; edition 10/15 29 x 25 inches From the Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell +sign up to proxy bid More: Judith K. McMillan

Title Round Judith K. McMillan Collection Series: The Cicadas , 2002 Gold-toned gelatin silver print, edition 3/25 13 x 10 ½ inches From the Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell +sign up to proxy bid More: Judith K. McMillan

Title Round J. Bennett Fitts Arroyo Seco Driving Range , 2004 Chromogenic print 30 x 42 inches Estimated Value Range: $3,000 - $5,000 Starting Bid: $1,500 Bidding increments: $250 J. Benntt Fitts’s photograph suggests the experience that many of us have on the putting green - so many attempts that never quite make it to the hole. Set at night, the humorous image implies that the golfer has literally been trying all day , still standing on the green, waiting for one to sink. Fitts explores the intersection of the artificial and natural in his photographs, presenting familiar, everyday environments in new and unexpected ways. His Arroyo Seco Driving Range series transforms a common landscape—the golf course—into a strange, surreal environment. Devoid of human presence, these images show only the evidence of human effort. The interplay of light and shadow accentuates the surreal quality of the golf course, where exaggerated nighttime shadows contrast with brightly colored greens and flags. This tension between the controlled nature of the course and the night’s unpredictable shadows creates a sense of quiet waiting that pervades the work. More: J. Bennett Fitts Artist Statement “In photography, my interest has always been in landscapes; not the heroic imagery most people associate with the term landscape, but the beautifully subtle and banal work of the photographers associated with the new topographics movement. The sense of quiet and isolation that pervades Baltz’s series on Irvine warehouses is something I always strive to capture in my own imagery. The photographers in the New Topographics exhibition focused on the ‘social landscape,’ exploring the way in which man impacts the natural environment. They created imagery that avoided the common themes of beauty and emotion. However, at a certain point, I feel I break from the strict doctrine of some of these photographers. Unlike them, I have chosen non-industrial subject matter and, intentionally, I set out to achieve a sense of aesthetic beauty in my images. I want someone with no interest in golf to walk into the gallery and feel a sense of contentment from viewing my work. This series is not made for golfers; it is an attempt to recontextualize the golf landscape and open it to a broader audience. My ideal viewer is someone with no preconceived notions of the game who can engage with the imagery on a purely visual level. My personal connection to golf comes from living in Colorado Springs. I resided in a townhouse next to a golf course designed by Pete Dye. Though my view was mostly limited to a 40-foot dry grass hill, I could see the surreal colors of the course just beyond. I would often wander over the hill in the evening to observe the strange hues of this man-made environment. I recall the course’s lake being dyed from green to blue to meet the golfer's ideal of what a lake should look like, or the futile attempts to dye the brown winter grass green. These artificial interventions in the natural landscape sparked my interest in the golf course as a site for my own project, especially at night. The nighttime golf course, lit with sodium vapor lights, creates a hyperreal environment so artificial and theatrical that it's almost impossible to discern whether it's day or night. This artificiality, and the vibrant tones of the course, is what makes this project so fascinating to me.” Biography J. Bennett Fitts is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design, located in Pasadena, California, where he now lives and works. His photographic series Arroyo Seco Driving Range exemplifies his keen interest in landscapes, emphasizing the tension between the artificial and the natural. Fitts’s work takes familiar scenes and transforms them into haunting, surreal interpretations, inviting viewers to experience ordinary spaces in extraordinary ways.

Title Round Jessica Mein obra trinta e um , 2013 Collage 41 x 34 inches Estimated Value Range: $3,000 - $4,500 Starting Bid: $1,500 Bidding increments: $250 Jessica Mein (b. 1975, São Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian artist whose work spans across drawing, animation, and physical investigations of discarded billboards, often from her hometown of São Paulo, and hand-printed hemp bags from Dubai. Her art challenges traditional boundaries between image, surface, and structure, frequently questioning the very materials that support her creations. More: Jessica Mein Artistic Practice Mein’s work is deeply rooted in labor and construction, which is reflected in her use of the Portuguese word obra (meaning both "work of art" and "construction site") to describe her practice. She often repurposes images from obsolete billboards, especially in the context of São Paulo’s ban on outdoor advertisements, where the works subvert censorship by recycling these materials for new purposes. Mein’s process includes unthreading, puncturing, and unraveling canvas and fabric, reminiscent of the work of Lucio Fontana, to reveal the raw, structural elements behind the image. This deconstruction reveals the object's physicality, turning the artwork into both a finished product and a site of ongoing creation. Mein also engages with the notion of tramas —a Portuguese word signifying both tapestry and entanglement —which relates to her intricate manipulation of materials. In her series Obra Quarenta e Quatro , the artist explores systems of production through obsolete billboard fragments transferred to hemp, a slow and labor-intensive process. Through her unthreading, cutting, and imprinting processes, Mein creates abstract compositions that juxtapose the image and its material base, emphasizing the relationship between surface and structure. Notable Works and Exhibitions Mein has exhibited widely in solo and group shows across the world, with notable exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio (New York), Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City), The Julia Stoschek Foundation (Düsseldorf), and the Drawing Center (New York). Her solo exhibitions include Obras at Simon Preston Gallery (New York) and Tramas at Galeria Leme (São Paulo), where she presented new wall-based works and large-scale spatial structures that further explore the boundaries between image and support. About the Artist Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Mein’s work investigates the intersection of physicality, urban spaces, and the rapidly disappearing materials of the past. Drawing inspiration from the outdated billboard structures of São Paulo and the hand-printed hemp bags found in Dubai, Mein focuses on the obsolescence of visual culture and the labor-intensive production of images. Her artistic investigations emphasize the tension between the rapidly changing world of digital imagery and the slow, deliberate handcraft of her own work. Currently residing in Dubai, Mein is a resident artist in the A.i.R. program run by Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, and Tashkeel. Selected Collections The Museum of Modern Art, New York Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo

Title Round Teun Hocks Untitled (Man Playing with Train) , 1996 Color silkscreen 30 x 40 inches Estimated Value Range: $1,800 - $2,400 Starting Bid: $900 Bidding increments: $100 Teun Hocks (b. 1947, Leiden – d. 2022, Rotterdam) was internationally celebrated for his tragicomic photo-paintings—works that combined photography, performance, and painting into richly staged tableaux. A pioneer of staged photography, Hocks became known for portraying himself as the resigned, endearing anti-hero in meticulously crafted theatrical scenes. His dreamlike, slightly absurd environments often placed an ordinary man—himself—amid surreal tasks or ambiguous predicaments. These worlds, rendered in black-and-white photography and hand-colored with oil paint (or digitally in later works), toe the line between humor and melancholy, clarity and mystery. Hocks’ works emerged from carefully developed drawings that explored visually interesting, surreal, or droll situations. These sketches served as blueprints for the elaborate sets he built in his studio. Once constructed, Hocks photographed himself within the scene using analogue black-and-white photography, then hand-painted the resulting prints in delicate layers of oil. In later years, he began digitally coloring his photos to create editioned works while preserving the painterly aesthetic of his practice. More: Teun Hocks Artist Statement & Approach Hocks never saw himself as a traditional storyteller. “Because the basis of my work is a staged scene, the image suggests that it involves an event that actually happened in reality,” he explained. But rather than offer a clear narrative, Hocks aimed to create open-ended situations, seldom titling his works to encourage individual interpretation. Each image feels like a moment suspended in time—something is about to go wrong, or perhaps has just gone awry. The result is work that is at once deeply human, oddly comic, and subtly unsettling. Critic Ken Johnson, writing in The New York Times , captured the poetic tension in Hocks’ work: “Teun Hocks’ works are truly profound, like the one of an artist who, unaware of the sun burning on the horizon behind him, focuses on the candle light in his hand—a metaphor, perhaps, about the human limits of spiritual perception.” About the Artist Hocks studied at the St. Joost Academy in Breda from 1966 to 1970, and was active early on in performance and collaborative art projects. While many artists in the Netherlands during the 1970s leaned into conceptualism, Hocks pursued a more accessible, visual storytelling approach. His early photo-performances eventually led to the hybrid photo-paintings that defined his mature work. Over his career, Hocks exhibited internationally and became an icon of Dutch staged photography. His work appeared in solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States, and he earned cult status for his unique ability to bridge photography and painting with narrative poignancy. Legacy & Final Years In the spring of 2021, Hocks held his final exhibition, Drawings , at TORCH Gallery. It featured works made during his period of isolation at home in central France—testament to his lifelong commitment to drawing, a practice that often remained in the background of his more well-known photographic works. Hocks also contributed as an educator, teaching drawing at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Design Academy Eindhoven. Teun Hocks leaves behind a legacy of work that defies easy categorization—simultaneously staged and spontaneous, humorous and haunting. His images invite us to pause, reflect, and imagine the stories unfolding within.

Title Round Derek Hess William Busta Gallery exhibition , 1995 Serigraph, ed. 144/250 Framed: 27 x 18 inches Estimated Value Range: $400 - $800 Starting Bid: $200 Bidding increments: $50 More: Derek Hess Born in Cleveland in 1964, Hess’ ascendance in the arts should probably come as little surprise. His father, Roy Hess, was a noteworthy designer, and chairman of the lauded industrial design department at the Cleveland Institute of Art. From a young age, Hess was correctly trained in classical art and design. Hess studied at that school, and at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, but he never landed in his father’s department, trying out illustration and graphic design before settling on a major in printmaking. It was that discipline, combined with his love of music, that led Hess to poster art fame. He had begun booking post-hardcore and underground rock concerts at the Euclid Tavern, a divey blues bar across the street from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and he drew his own fliers to promote his shows.

Title Round Clotilde Jiménez Self-Portrait in a Beret , 2024 Mixed media collage on paper Framed: 31 x 42 inches Estimated Value Range: $27,000 - $32,000 Starting Bid: $20,000 Playfully merging cut paper, photography, and bold mark-making, Clotilde Jiménez’s Self-Portrait in a Beret reconstructs the artist’s likeness through an inventive dialogue of material and form. A graduate of CIA and the Slade School of Fine Art (London), Jiménez has exhibited at global museums such as Museo Jumex and the Phillips Collection and his work is included in the Ford Foundation and Beth Rudin De Woody collections, among others. The Paris Olympics commissioned Jiménez to create posters for 2024 Games. This June, moCa Cleveland will debut his first major U.S. survey exhibition. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery (Chicago, Paris, Mexico City) More: Clotilde Jiménez 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. Clotilde blends line and collage driven by a focus on materiality as shown through his reuse of everyday materials such as wallpaper, clothing, magazine clippings and Mexican craftpaper. Clotilde Jiménez: Shapeshift, opening on June 27, 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.

Title Round Judy Barie Origins i & ii Diptych; oil on birch panel overall: 20 x 40 inches Estimated Value Range: $2,000 - $3,000 Starting bid: $1,000 Bidding increments: $100 As an artist, Judy Barie’s rich abstractions are highlights in the Fowler’s collection. As the Susan and John Turben Director of CVA Galleries at the Chautauqua Institution, Barie has served them as a trusted guide, introducing them to many artists and artworks over the years. Barie is a contemporary abstract artist known for her layered works of color, gestural marks, and rich patterns on birch panels. Influenced by Brice Marden and Elizabeth Murray, she has spent over 30 years developing a distinct visual language that appears in both individual paintings and series. Barie lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA, and spends her summers in Chautauqua, NY, where she curates contemporary exhibitions at the CVA Galleries at the Chautauqua Institution. Her paintings are created by mixing and pouring latex and oil paints, embracing both intentional mark-making and spontaneous effects. While the surface is still wet, she incorporates intricate patterns and gestural elements using techniques such as scraping, brushing, rolling, printing, and sanding. The interplay between freeform brushwork and precise detailing creates a dynamic visual tension. Color serves as the unifying thread across her work, reflecting her deep engagement with the material and process. More: Judy Barie Artist Statement “My paintings are a balance of unforeseen elements and deliberate gestures. I begin by pouring latex and oil paints in layers on birch panels, letting chance play a role in the textures and forms that emerge. While the paint is still wet, I apply color, pattern, and mark-making techniques—scraping, brushing, rolling, printing, and sanding. I am drawn to the tension between spontaneity and precision: loose brushstrokes collide with tightly rendered patterns, creating a visual contrast meant to engage and intrigue. Color is my primary motif, linking one image to the next. For me, painting is an intimate, tactile practice—a gestural marriage of materials and a celebration of paint itself.” Biography Barie earned her BFA from West Virginia University and completed a year-long printmaking residency at Atelier 17 (now Atelier Contrepoint) in Paris, France. She has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows across the U.S., including Kathryn Markel Fine Arts (NYC), Cumberland Gallery (Nashville), and G2 Gallery (Scottsdale). She is represented by Artists Circle Gallery (Bethesda, MD), Bonfoey Gallery (Cleveland, OH), and Zynka Gallery (Pittsburgh, PA). In addition to her studio practice, Barie consults for Contemporary Craft and Oxford Development in Pittsburgh. Each summer in Chautauqua, NY, she curates and manages exhibitions, supporting artists and engaging with collectors through her leadership at the CVA Galleries. Collections Barie’s work is held in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections, including: Charlotte Printmakers Society (NC) Hallmark Corporation (Atlanta, GA) Children’s Museum (Pittsburgh, PA) General Motors Headquarters (Chicago, IL) LaGrange Museum (GA)