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Title Round Michael Eastman Blue Column, c. 2010 Archival chromogenic print 24 x 18 inches Estimated Value Range: $3,500 - $5,000 Starting Bid: $1,750 Bidding increments: $250 Michael Eastman's photograph titled Blue Column is a chromogenic color photograph created in 1993. This piece, also known as Column, Budapest , measures 60 × 48 inches and is part of a limited edition of 7 prints. Eastman is renowned for his large-scale photographs that capture architectural interiors and facades with painterly precision. His work often explores themes of time, decay, and the beauty found in aging structures. Blue Column exemplifies these themes, showcasing his ability to find serenity and narrative within architectural forms More: Michael Eastman Michael Eastman has established himself as one of the world's leading contemporary photographic artists. The self-taught photographer has spent five decades documenting interiors and facades in cities as diverse as Havana, Paris, Rome, and New Orleans, producing large-scale photographs unified by their visual precision, monumentality, and painterly use of color. Eastman is most recognized for his explorations of architectural form and the textures of decay, which create mysterious narratives about time and place. Eastman's photographs have appeared in Time , Life , Art in America, Art News, Art Forum, Communication Arts and American Photographer , and they reside in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and other prestigious institutions. His books include Havana (2011, Prestel), Vanishing America (2008, Rizzoli) and Horses (2003, Knopf).

Press Release DOWNLOAD PDF DOWNLOAD EXHIBITION IMAGES Tuesday, January 16, 2024 New exhibitions at moCa Cleveland by Manabu Ikeda, Andrea Bowers, and BlackBrain uplift nature and sacred human experience Opening Night Celebration: Friday, Feb 2, 2024 Contact: Tom Poole tpoole@mocacleveland.org 216.658.6938 Cleveland, Ohio—The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) announces three new exhibitions that explore the power of nature and human nature. From asserting our obligation to protect the Great Lakes to envisioning rebirth that comes after climate devastation to symbolizing our existential journeys, these exhibitions elevate our shared experiences to encourage connection and change. Kohl Executive Director Megan Reich notes, “This season beckons and probes in equal measure. It is teeming with awe-inspiring artworks that invite us into their richness with ease. In all three shows, drawing plays a primary role, a technique that we all understand but in the hands of these artists, becomes a transcendent practice.” Opening Friday, Feb 2 and running through May 26, 2024, the exhibitions include the United States debut of Manabu Ikeda’s acclaimed Flowers from the Wreckage retrospective and new commissions, installations, and artworks by Northeast Ohio-raised artist Andrea Bowers and Cleveland-connected collaborative BlackBrain Group. Aligned with moCa’s approach and values, collaboration is key this season, from BlackBrain Group’s immersive installation done with our institutional residency partner Julia de Burgos Cultural Art Center (JDBCAC) to collaborations with Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) and Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in support of Andrea Bowers’s new monumental neon in downtown Cleveland. Manabu Ikeda, Foretoken , 2008. Pen and acrylic ink on paper, mounted on board. 74.8 x 133.8 in (190 × 340 cm). Collection of Sustainable Investor Co., Ltd. (Kagura Salon). Photo: Yasuhide Kuge Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage Feb 2-May 26, 2024 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), each about the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the most devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power disaster in the country’s recorded history. In each work, Ikeda painstakingly builds worlds that are both profoundly familiar and also beyond comprehension, inspiring and awe-inspiring in equal measure. Open Studio Artist Residency Select times throughout season. Visit moCacleveland.org for full schedule. Manabu Ikeda will be onsite for an in-gallery studio residency at moCa at various times throughout the exhibition season. Visitors can experience Ikeda’s creative process for themselves as he continues work on a new monumental drawing based on water inside moCa’s Mueller Family Gallery. Engagement Guides and CIA students will be available to discuss and answer questions about the artist’s practice during these sessions. 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. Lead support from Dealer Tire. Lead support for Manabu Ikeda’s artist residency from The Flagstar Foundation. About Manabu Ikeda Born in Saga, Japan, Manabu Ikeda currently lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin. Ikeda is renowned for his highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings and complex imagery. Ikeda has exhibited his work internationally, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Russia, and the United States. It took Ikeda over three years to draw Rebirth , which is widely recognized as his masterpiece referencing the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and a collision between nature and humankind. Organized by the Audain Art Museum, Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage is Ikeda’s first solo exhibition in North America. Andrea Bowers, Rights of Nature I , 2022. Neon. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography Andrea Bowers: Exist, Flourish, Evolve Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Huron, Ohio-raised, LA-based artist Andrea Bowers bears witness in her work, drawing attention to and inspiring action on urgent issues of our time. Her drawings, sculptures, installations, and films document collective action and amplify the labor and lived experiences of activists dedicated to change. Developed through an ongoing partnership with CELDF and activist Tish O’Dell, Exist, Flourish, Evolve is a new, multi-site, multimedia campaign that builds awareness and action around the dangers facing Lake Erie and the Great Lakes ecosystem. This project is anchored by a new, monumental neon public artwork installed on the Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) building and facing Lake Erie that declares the right of Lake Erie to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve—words drawn from CELDF’s Lake Erie Bill of Rights. Created with commission support from VIA Art Fund, the bright, buoyant light sculpture obliges us to examine our role in damaging, repairing, protecting, partnering with, and ensuring the health of the Great Lakes that we depend on for survival. At moCa Cleveland, Bowers’s exhibition presents additional artworks about environmental justice. New works include a neon chandelier, an LED text and light installation that is a corollary to the downtown neon sculpture, a drawing of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, and a documentary film investigating the impact of factory farming on Lake Erie’s ecosystem. Truth, Reckoning, & Right Relationship with the Great Lakes Conference: Apr. 22-23 Working with CELDF, this two day summit–which follows a one day “truth and reckoning” symposium at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October 2023–focuses on creating “right relationships” with Lake Erie and will include a keynote address and artist talk, breakout sessions, and special presentations by high school students from MC2STEM High School and John Hay School of Science and Medicine. Commission sponsorship provided by VIA Art Fund. Generous support from Thompson Hine LLP, Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler, Chuck & Char Fowler, and Nicholas & Erin Reif. Community Partners: Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and Great Lakes Science Center About Andrea Bowers Ohio-raised Andrea Bowers is a Los Angeles-based artist who has been recording and amplifying the work of activists present and past for more than two decades. Her multi-media practice includes drawing, video, sculpture, and installation work that foregrounds the experience of the people who dedicate their time and energy to the struggle for gender, racial, environmental, labor, and immigration justice and those who are directly affected by systemic inequality. Over time, her different bodies of work have become a document of the changing language, prerogatives, and dynamics of social justice movements. In 2021, a major mid-career survey of Bowers’s work curated by Michael Darling and Connie Butler opened at the MCA Chicago and traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2022. Other recent solo exhibitions include Grief and Hope , Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany and Light and Gravity , Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany. In September 2022, Bowers opened a solo exhibition including both new and existing work at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Milano as part of an exhibition program organized by the Fondazione Furla. Bowers is represented by Vielmetter Los Angeles, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Kaufmann Repetto, and Jessica Silverman Gallery. BlackBrain, Diamond Heart , 2024. Mural in progress. Courtesy the artist. BlackBrain: SCRD GRDN Feb 2 -May 26, 2024 SCRD GRDN is a new project by BlackBrain and guest artists from JDBCAC’s Unidos por el Arte program. Representing a metamorphosis from lone artist into collective creative force and guided by the mantra “go fast, go alone; go far, go together,” BlackBrain Group transforms solitary endeavors into dynamic collaborations grounded in a shared passion for storytelling through art. SCRD GRDN is an immersive painting installation about the resolute human spirit and its existential journey through oppression, justice, prosperity, and divine understanding. Fusing artistic styles and techniques, the series meditates on the interplay and influence between the inner self and the external forces that shape our existence. Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center Instiution & Artist Residency: This project is part of moCa’s institutional and early career artist residency with JDBCAC from January 2023-May 2024. JDBCAC occupies and engages spaces on moCa’s first and third floors in relation to its mission and work, and co-designs programming with moCa to advance the work of Latino/a/x artists and artists of color and provide new professional development opportunities. In 2023, BlackBrain founder Ariel Vergez served as a mentor artist to the seven artists involved in the moCa/JDBCAC early career artist residency, who presented their work in a group show called ¡Juntos! (Together) last year. Lead support for this residency provided by Margaret Cohen & Kevin Rahilly with additional major support from The Cleveland Foundation. About BlackBrain Ariel Vergez, aka BlackBrain, is a seasoned artist with a rich heritage and a passion for storytelling through art. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Florida, BlackBrain is the child of two immigrants who came to the United States in search of opportunity and met each other while working in the service industry. Growing up in a household where art was a daily presence, BlackBrain pursued his passion for art at the collegiate level, studying Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art. With a background in product and graphic design, BlackBrain has worked with world-class brands and has a keen understanding of the importance of storytelling in design. He has fused that experience towards his first love art. This experience is evident in BlackBrain’s art series, which feature unique narratives, a cross-wiring of pop culture icons, and a vuja dé feeling of nostalgia. FREE ADMISSION & HOURS Daily Admission at moCa Cleveland is always free to all. Thursdays-Sundays, 11AM-5PM; Holiday hours available at mocacleveland.org ABOUT moCa CLEVELAND For more than 50 years, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) has played a vital role in the city’s cultural landscape. moCa is a conduit and catalyst for creativity and inspiration, offering exhibitions and programs that provide public value and make meaning of the art and ideas of our time. Since its founding in 1968, moCa has presented the works of more than three thousand artists, often through artists’ first solo shows. Soon after its founding, moCa was the first in the region to exhibit the works of many vanguard artists such as Laurie Anderson, Christo, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Adrian Piper, and Andy Warhol. Recent artist commissions and solo exhibitions include work by Tauba Auerbach, Simon Denny, Aleksandra Domanović, Michelle Grabner, Byron Kim, Ragnar Kjartansson, Tony Lewis, Kirk Mangus, Catherine Opie, Adam Pendleton, Sondra Perry, Joyce J. Scott, Do Ho Suh, Liu Wei, Renée Green, and Nina Chanel Abney, among many others. 2024 INSTITUTIONAL SPONSORS All current moCa Cleveland exhibitions are funded by Leadership Circle gifts from Doreen & Dick Cahoon, Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler, Margaret Cohen & Kevin Rahilly, Grosvie & Charlie Cooley, Becky Dunn, Harriet Goldberg, Agnes Gund, Jan Lewis, and Toby Devan Lewis* moCa Cleveland receives lead institutional support in part by The Cleveland Foundation, the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, the George Gund Foundation, the Nord Family Foundation, the Leonard Krieger Fund of the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, PNC, and the continuing support of the museum’s Board of Directors, patrons, and members. * deceased TOP IMAGE: Manabu Ikeda, Rebirth, 2013-16. Pen, acrylic ink and transparent watercolour on paper, mounted on board, 118.11 x 157.48 in (300 x 400 cm), collection of Saga Prefectural Art Museum. Digital Archive: TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD. ©️IKEDA Manabu, Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo / Singapore ### Previous Next

Title Round Jessica Mein Trama Seis , 2014 Paper 18 1/2 x 26 inches Estimated Value Range: $2,500 - $3,500 Starting Bid: $1,000 Bidding increments: $100 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

Getting to Know: Finnegan Shannon Getting to Know: Finnegan Shannon Artist residency Dec 2022-Dec 2023 Left: Finnegan Shannon Finnegan Shannon is a Brooklyn-based artist who makes work about access and disability cultures. Their practice prioritizes expanding accessibility within and outside of cultural institutions. 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 that explore the need and desire to sit and rest. During this residency, Shannon and moCa Curator Lauren Leving will co-curate a group exhibition that will intervene creatively in moCa’s Lewis Gallery, opening summer 2023. Creating virtual and in-person programming, Shannon also will connect their work with a variety of audiences by designing new Creative Toolboxes, moCa’s ongoing delivery-based program where art-making materials and creative prompts are made available through community-based partners to residents in the neighborhoods around the museum. The Getting to Know Residency is generously sponsored by Margaret Cohen and Kevin Rahilly, with additional support from Char and Chuck Fowler. About the Getting To Know Residency In January 2021, moCa launched a new residency called Getting to Know, designed to support a non-local contemporary artist working in social practice in a long-form project with moCa and our community that allows for repeat engagement, extended exploration, and the development of new work. Getting to Know artists have included Chicago-based fiber artist Aram Han Sifuentes (2021-22) and Brooklyn-based Finnegan Shannon. Related Exhibition ▶ Don't mind if I do

moCa Saturday: 3D Mobile Making w/ MC2STEM Oct 5, 2024 FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC. About FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC. FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC.

Title Round Qian Li Threshold #3, 2024 Ink on rice paper 29 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches Estimated Value Range: $2,500 - $3,500 Starting Bid: $1,250 Bidding increments: $250 This work was presented in Qian Li’s recent solo exhibition at Erie Art Museum, Summoning the Wind . Using dyed rice paper, the artist creates a hypnotic layering of forms that harken to essential components of nature: womb, sun, and galaxy. Li is an internationally recognized multimedia artist whose work explores the delicate balance between opposing forces—stasis and change, the private and the public, memory and lived experience. Drawing from her upbringing in a coastal village in Qingdao, China, and her life raising a biracial family in the United States, Li creates paintings, prints, videos, and installations that blend cultural perspectives and emotional depth. Her creative vision is often rooted in dream imagery, where memory and metaphor intertwine. More: Qian Li Artist Statement “My work is a visual visualization of my abstract, and sometimes hauntingly real dreams. While dreams oftentimes tend to be random, repetitive, and purposeless, they can also reflect thoughts in a colorful, more primitive and pictorial form. I see dreams as a more truthful and vivid representation—a metaphor in a reality and the study of the human psyche. My childhood years in the hospital, my traditional Chinese family environment, and that turbulent period of China all contribute to my dreams. My dreams become a desperate world, full of mental and physical pain, anxiety and restlessness, running and hiding. They are largely driven by the desire to love and to be loved, the desire for peace, and the balance of life and death.” Biography Born in Qingdao, China, Qian Li received her BFA from the Central Academy of Art and Design (now the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University) in Beijing, and earned her MFA from UMass Dartmouth in Massachusetts. She is currently a full professor at Cleveland State University. Li works across multiple media, including painting, digital print, video, interactive installation, and mixed media. She has exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia, with exhibitions in Germany, China, Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, and beyond. Her work has been featured in numerous art publications and included in permanent collections in both the U.S. and China. Collections and Awards Li’s work is included in several permanent collections in the United States and China. She is a two-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award and grant from the Ohio Arts Council (2008 and 2015), recognizing her artistic achievement and contributions to contemporary art. Bio: Born in Qingdao, China. Received BFA from the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University in Beijing. MFA at UMass Dartmouth in Massachusetts. Qian is an associate professor at Cleveland State University.

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda Mar 31, 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 Maria Lassnig Fraternity , 2008 Offset lithograph on paper 21.5 x 28.125 inches Edition of 100 Estimated Value Range: $2,000 - $4,000 Starting Bid: $1,000 Bidding increments: $100 More: Maria Lassnig Fraternity is a later work by Maria Lassnig in which she depicted her recurring theme of “body awareness.” In the center of the piece, two figures lay intertwined. The arms and legs of the figures wrap around one another, creating a singular form. Lassnig created this print in conjunction with her exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in 2008, her first US exhibition. Maria Lassnig was born in 1919 in Carinthia, Austria, and she died in 2014 in Vienna, Austria. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1944). She has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, including at Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany (1985); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1994); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (1995); Kunsthaus, Zürich, Switzerland (2003); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH (2008); Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2009); MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2014); Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark (2016); Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (2016); The Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria (2019); and Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2022). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Der Art-Club in Österreich , Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria (1981); Féminin. Masculin , Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (1995); From Klimt to Rainer , Museum of Modern Art Salzburg Rupertinum, Salzburg, Austria (2002); The Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2013); Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman – The Shape of Shape , The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2019); Wonderland , Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria (2021); and The Drawing Centre , Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2022).

Title Round Manabu & Madison! Estimated Value Range: $2,000-$3,000 Starting Bid: $1,000 Bidding increments: $100 Last winter, Manabu Ikeda fever swept moCa, with record crowds drawn to his astonishingly intricate, awe-inspiring drawings. Over 60 days, Manabu created a monumental new work live in the gallery during his first U.S. solo exhibition. Now, you and three guests have the extraordinary opportunity to visit Manabu at his Madison, WI studio—an experience few collectors ever access. Spend time viewing works in progress, discussing his meticulous practice, and receiving a one-of-a-kind drawing created by the artist during your visit. Your art adventure continues with private, behind-the-scenes tours of the Chazen Museum of Art and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. * More: Manabu & Madison! *Airfare, ground transit, and incidentals not included; visit to be scheduled at a mutually agreeable time.

Date Title One sentence desciption + more Add a Title Add a Title Title + more Add a Title Add a Title Title + more Sat. November 22, 2025 moCa Connect: Art of the Game 9PM-1:30AM at moCa Cleveland $25/advance $30/at the door GET TICKETS Join us at moCa Cleveland for an inspiring evening of conversation that bridges the worlds of art and athletics. This installment of moCa Connect explores "The Art of the Game," highlighting the creativity, discipline, and cultural impact that sports bring to our communities. We're back with another edition of moCa Connect, and we have an all-star conversation for the evening. Cavaliers' legend Campy Russell will be in conversation with a playmaker from the country's newest WNBA franchise, sharing stories about the duality of art and sports—moderated by Tiffani Tucker of Channel 19 News. Explore the road to their careers and the ways that culture and athletes impact each other. After the conversation, we’ll open up the dance floor for a celebration filled with music, drinks, and connection. The night will also feature a tip-off of musical energy with performances by St1XX, along with music from Cleveland Browns DJ Ryan Wolf and one of Cleveland’s rising female DJs, DJ Locbabe. Whether you’re a sports fan, art enthusiast, or someone curious about the intersection of both worlds, this event will leave you with a deeper appreciation of how the game itself is an art form. HOST COMMITTEE: Ally of W Sports Bar Charita Boseman Raphael Collins Kierra Cotton Booby Gibson Alishia Gullatt Austin Love Iman Warren SPONSORED BY

Jun 28-Dec 29, 2024 Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh Jun 28-Dec 29, 2024 Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, As I willed myself out of entropy, 2022 2024 Toby's Prize Exhibition Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya presents a new body of work in his first solo museum exhibition, Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh, opening June 2024. This show expands upon the artist’s 2022 exhibition at Sargent’s Daughters entitled James Webb and the Thestral Born Without a Vertebrae , which shares the story of a vampire forced to reconstitute its body from space debris following the destruction of the last spaceship leaving an apocalypse-ravaged Earth. A work of speculative fiction, Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh collapses linear time, fueling our anxiety of the unfamiliar while demanding reflection on how histories of abuse allow for a future seepage of toxicity. Using expanded polystyrene as a building block (after all, what material other than plastic can survive the end of the world?), Montoya transforms moCa’s Lewis Gallery into the interior of this last spaceship, complete with a celestial soundtrack that draws us into the darkness of the unknown. Mythical, shape-shifting creatures known as Nahuales that hatched aboard the vessel during an eon of astral travel hang from the spacecraft’s ceiling. Hovering in antigravity yet tethered to the ship’s architecture, their eternal home serves as both captor and protector. These Nahuales are a part of the artist’ cast of characters, cohabitating with their vampiric guardian and the spacecraft’s mainframe, which itself is a sentient being, the beating heart that fuels the vessel throttling through space. Made from detritus of capitalist consumption, vestiges of the sentient, and materials that teeter on the edge of abjection, Montoya’s alchemical creatures feed off each other. They are stand-ins for the human body, used to explore how violence erases and eradicates communities of color. In this future apocalypse, processes of decay, regeneration, and shapeshifting for protection and survival graft new meaning upon our understandings of an “ecosystem.” In addition to the exhibition, Montoya is designing a suite of activities for audience engagement and creating his first publication (available in Fall 2024). He is the third recipient of Toby’s Prize, a biannual award sponsored by philanthropist Toby Devan Lewis (1934-2022) and created to advance the work of emerging artists through exhibitions and publications. This exhibition is presented through Toby’s Prize, a biennial award made possible by Toby Devan Lewis. Installation Images Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Skinchangers: Begotten of my Flesh. Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2024. Photos: Tom Little About the Artist Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya (b.1989 in Parral, Mexico) is based in Mexico City. Montoya received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. Montoya creates sculptures that are fantastic beings centered around anthologies and social issues concerning border culture, abjection, adaptation, and mestizaje. Montoya’s practice is aided by Speculative Fiction, Nahualismo, Sci-Fi, and the labor of his family. His work hybridizes and creates parallels between land, the human, and the animal as a way to investigate the process in which violence eradicates, erases, and erodes communities of color. Upcoming exhibitions include Flow States – LA TRIENAL 2024 at El Museo de Barrio (New York, NY) and a solo exhibition of new work at ICA San Diego (San Diego, CA). Recent exhibitions include an untitled group exhibition at Artists Space (New York, NY), Perhaps the Truth at Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX), La Casa Erosionada at Anahuacalli Museum (Coyacan, MX), James Webb and The Thestral Born Without a Vertebrate at Sargent’s Daughters (New York, NY), and were-:Nenetech Forms at MOCA Tucson (Tucson, AZ).

Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Andrea Bowers Exist, Flourish, Evolve Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Andrea Bowers, Rights of Nature I, 2022, neon. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography LA-based artist Andrea Bowers bears witness in her work, drawing attention to and inspiring movement around the most urgent issues of our time. Her drawings, sculptures, installations, and films chronicle and preserve history as it occurs, documenting collective action and amplifying the labor and lived experiences of activists dedicated to socio-political change. Developed through an ongoing partnership with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and activist Tish O’Dell, Exist, Flourish, Evolve is a new, multi-site, multimedia campaign that builds awareness and action around the dangers facing Lake Erie and all of the Great Lakes ecosystems. It features a monumental neon sculpture installed on a waterfront balcony of the Great Lakes Science Center; a documentary investigating the impact of factory farming on Lake Erie’s ecosystem; and a presentation in moCa’s Lewis Gallery that includes a newly-created drawing of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, first-of-its-kind legislation protecting an entire US ecosystem that is part of the global Rights of Nature Movement. Bowers was raised in the small town of Huron, Ohio and spent her childhood on the shores of Lake Erie, connecting to the lake itself like a member of her family to be cared for, cherished, and protected. Yet, Lake Erie and its watershed are abused and endangered by corporate practices such as contaminant dumping, toxic runoff from industrial farming, and the introduction of non-native invasive species. Exist, Flourish, Evolve demands justice for the Great Lakes, urging us to prioritize the preservation of our natural ecology over industrialization and capitalism. Within moCa’s gallery, a timeline connects Bowers’s new and recent artworks with historical facts and archival materials using two catastrophic climate events as bookends to Bowers’s life thus far: the 1969 fire on the Lake Erie-connected Cuyahoga River (a result of oil slicks covering the water) and the massive 2014 algae bloom that blanketed Lake Erie and invaded Toledo’s water systems, preventing residents from using tap water. From the Maumee to the Cuyahoga, the works in Exist, Flourish, Evolve come together to share the histories of our water, demonstrate the interconnectedness of ourselves and our natural world, and remind us, as Dr. Vandana Shiva states, “nature is not out there; we are a part of it.” Commission sponsorship provided by Generous support from Chuck & Char Fowler, Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler, and Nicholas & Erin Reif Community Partners: Installation Images Andrea Bowers, Exist, Flourish, Evolve. Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2024, and Great Lakes Science Center exterior, 2024. Photos: Jacob Koestler About the Artist Andrea Bowers. Courtesy Fondazione Furla Andrea Bowers (b. 1964, Ohio) is a Los Angeles-based artist who has been recording and amplifying the work of activists present and past for more than two decades. Her multi-media practice includes drawing, video, sculpture, and installation work that foregrounds the experience of the people who dedicate their time and energy to the struggle for gender, racial, environmental, labor, and immigration justice and those who are directly affected by systemic inequality. Over time, her different bodies of work have become a document of the changing language, prerogatives, and dynamics of social justice movements. In 2021 a major mid-career survey of Bowers’s work curated by Michael Darling and Connie Butler opened at the MCA Chicago and traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2022. Other recent solo exhibitions include Grief and Hope , Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany and Light and Gravity , Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany. In September 2022, Bowers opened a solo exhibition including both new and existing work at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Milano as part of an exhibition program organized by the Fondazione Furla. Bowers is represented by Vielmetter Los Angeles, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Kaufmann Repetto, and Jessica Silverman Gallery.