Welcome!
This summer exhibition season is a mix of lively, thoughtful, and experimental artwork throughout the shows on view. Some of the work is introspective and reflective while pushing the boundaries of media and process.
The solo exhibitions are united by the theme of exploring our inner worlds in contrast to society around us, and they explore the concept in distinctive ways. Each artist employes familiar motifs through repetition and patterns to examine various cultural norms. Kasumi in the Betty & Howard Taylor Main Gallery draws on 60s-era film and Japanese popular culture; Steven Mastroianni in the Forum Gallery uses numbers, everyday objects, and simple shapes; while Melih Meric in the Horizon Gallery is inspired by Middle Eastern imagery from traditional crafts.
The Overdose Awareness Exhibition in the Welcome Gallery and Hallways highlights stories of those who have experienced addiction; have lost a loved one to overdose; or are advocates. The works show a thoughtful range of complex issues and emotions surrounding the topic of opioid addiction.
In the Intersections Gallery, the Women’s Art League Member Exhibition provides a respite from the heavier topics in other galleries. The show boasts a lovely array of media and subjects, with an emphasis on familial scenes and landscapes. Several of the works explore mixed media in interesting ways.
Each exhibition cycle we reach for new heights with the breadth and depth of how we support local exhibiting artists in our region. This season is especially exemplary of how we are committed to bringing artists’ vision to life. Thank you to our partners for making this possible: PEGs Foundation, for its ongoing exhibition support, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, whose Tech Expansion Fund Grant allowed us to upgrade our exhibition technology.
Natalie Grieshammer Patrick
Director of Artist Resources
Summer Exhibitions Open at Summit Artspace on July 12
Featured solo exhibitions include internationally renowned artist Kasumi and local artists Steven Mastroianni and Melih Meric
Five exhibitions open at Summit Artspace on Friday, July 12 from 5-8 p.m. Summer Exhibitions will be on view Fridays 12 p.m.-7 p.m. and Saturdays 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. through September 14.
Summit Artspace’s Summer Exhibitions Opening Night will showcase a diverse group of local artists in five galleries throughout all three floors of the historic Akron building. The event provides an opportunity to meet exhibiting artists, hear their stories, and engage with the community.
“The solo exhibitions are united by the theme of exploring our inner worlds in contrast to society around us, and they explore the concept in distinctive ways,” notes Summit Artspace’s Director of Artist Resources, Natalie Grieshammer Patrick. “Each artist employes familiar motifs through repetition and patterns to examine various cultural norms. Kasumi draws on 60s-era film and Japanese popular culture; Steven Mastroianni the uses numbers, everyday objects, and simple shapes; while Melih Meric uses Middle Eastern imagery from traditional crafts. These subjects are transformed by the artists’ unique visions, offering diverse and compelling interpretations.”
Betty and Howard Taylor Main Gallery
Persistence of Vision | Kasumi
In partnership with Collective Arts Network
This retrospective of artworks from the late 1990s to present highlights the ongoing dedication to experimentation of internationally renowned artist Kasumi. While best known for her digital videos and films, Kasumi’s staggering range of methods and media— including collage, printmaking, painting, installation, and more — are also on display for this show. Repeated subjects, gestures, and expressions connect the works across a wide variety of media.
Welcome Gallery
Overdose Awareness Exhibition
In partnership with Summit County Public Health
In honor of Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, artists in Summit and contiguous counties created artworks exploring their personal experience with overdose and addiction, honoring a loved one who has died, and serving as an ally for those who have struggled. The day represents the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of those left behind.
Intersections Gallery
Women’s Art League Member Exhibition
Women’s Art League of Akron is an artist group that unites women artists interested in the advancement of the arts and service to the community. For over 90 years, the prize-winning league has remained a force to be reckoned with on the local art scene through its creative use of every medium and outside-the-box thinking.
Forum Gallery
Diagrams for Inner Space | Steven Mastroianni
Evocative of watery depths, imaginary heavens, and mysterious maps, the largescale photograms and drawings on view in this exhibition create an immersive world examining the intersection of symbols, surrealism, and abstraction. Like dreams, these images seem familiar but weird; letters that don’t exist, mechanical forms floating in space, math problems that don’t add up, and patterns that follow their own logic.
Horizon Gallery
Stitched Editions: Walking Through the Sacred Garden | Melih Meric
Through a unique method of presenting editioned prints, this exhibition challenges traditions of the print world as it crosses the borders of “paper.” Highlighting generative patternmaking and referencing Middle Eastern tiles and textiles, the prints pose questions of excessiveness and repetition to reclaim erasure and identity in Middle Eastern communities. The exhibition draws parallels between hierarchies in art and contemporary systems of oppression through traditional methods of crafts.
BOX Gallery
Resident organization Artists of Rubber City presents three upcoming solo exhibitions in The BOX Gallery, located on the third floor of Summit Artspace. Tamara Jaeger will explore paper mosaics and discarded transformations featuring wildlife in A Pheonix First Must Burn, on view July 5-27. Come Closer, on view August 2-24, will feature abstract acrylic paint and mixed media works by Care Hanson. From August 30-September 14, Blake Newhem Valenzuela will exhibit collage, paper, and mixed media works in Dain Bramage.
