LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Beck Center for the Arts is once again displaying the work of Northeast Ohio artists.
“The Portrait Show” is a free visual arts exhibition on view now until Feb. 26 in the Hoffman-Stach Gallery, located on the first floor of the main building on the campus in Lakewood.
“As far as I know, this is the first time we focused solely on portraits,” said Melinda Placko, curator of “The Portrait Show” and associate director of Music and Visual Arts. “All these are contemporary artists and all the work was created in the past few years. This was a curated, invitational show.”
“Each one of these artists is highly expressive in their chosen material. We’ve brought them all together in a stunning collection of approaches and creating portraits.”
“The Portrait Show” features dozens of expressive portraits in painting, drawing and sculpture by artists Justin Brennan, Dan Corrigan, Adrian Eisenhower, Bernadette Glorioso, Kurt Hallsman, Billy Ritter, and Bob Walls.
Placko noted the seven contemporary Cleveland artists — some self-taught, others classically trained — are “fearlessly expressive” in their medium, which includes soft graphite, drippy paint, wood-fired ceramic, patterned fabrics, layered collage, glitter and Lake Erie sand.
“All these artists are expressing something that we can’t often see with our eyes, so they really are taking some creative risks in that way,” she said.
A free artists’ reception is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 23 in the Beck Center’s Daniels Lounge.
One piece that epitomizes the spirit of the exhibition is the work of Walls, which uses oil painting combined with mixed materials.
“He uses Lake Erie sand and glitter,” she said.
“One of his paintings is a guy wearing a clean white shirt with a collar. The whole head is like faceted diamond shapes.”
Considering the Beck Center is a teaching gallery, Placko is excited for the roughly 3,000 art students who come through the venue weekly to take in the exhibit.
“I hope they feel that there are so many possibilities for portraiture, so many possibilities for a state of being and that things can change on a moment’s notice,” she said.
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