Welcome!
Entering a new year affords us the opportunity to pause and reflect on where we find ourselves, personally and collectively, to observe our position. Summit Artspace’s winter exhibitions explore how we create physical and emotional space in our life, whether a dynamic, long-term shift or just a brief stop in our journey.
FRESH: Soft Offerings advocates for empathy as a form of resistance. In a harsh world, artworks in a variety of mediums and subjects take up emotional space— tangible examples of soft emotions— challenging us to embrace vulnerability and compassion towards creating joy and enacting community care. Mark Jaroszewski’s solo exhibition Paperland explores a world of imaginary places and people. For the artist, familiar yet strange drawings have become an integral therapeutic outlet. Abstract gestural forms inspired by live dancers in Robert Wright’s Over, Under, Sideways, Down explore how our movements exist in space.
Four multi-generational artists come together in Milestones & Roadside Attractions, which embraces beauty and humor along the journey of being a ceramic artist. The show exemplifies the creation of space and defying gravity through sculptural works. In Mutual Aid, Eric Tuck-Macalla is an advocate for those in need of space, as his sculptural forms draw upon the shelters of unhoused people. His work is created from everyday materials to emphasize housing inequities, which are often overlooked.
As you experience the exhibitions on view this season, I encourage you to ask yourself what you are holding space for in your own life.
Natalie Grieshammer Patrick
Director of Artist Resources
Winter Exhibitions Open at Summit Artspace on January 10
Akron, OHIO (December 11, 2024) — Five exhibitions open at Summit Artspace (140 East Market Street, Akron, Ohio 44308) on Friday, January 10, 2025, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Winter exhibitions will be open during public hours on Fridays from Noon to 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through Friday, March 14, 2025.
Summit Artspace’s Winter 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 FRESH exhibition awards will be announced at 6:00 p.m. in the Betty and Howard Taylor Main Gallery. University of Akron dance students Renee Clippinger and Victoria Zasidkovych will perform for twenty minutes in the Intersections Gallery with Robert Wright’s artwork starting at 7:00 p.m.
Betty and Howard Taylor Main Gallery
FRESH: Soft Offerings | Juried Exhibition
Artists explore the concept of “radical softness” as a form of resistance in this iteration of the annual juried exhibition. Envisioned by curators Abby Cipar and Julie Polsinelli, the exhibition reflects vulnerability, compassion, open minds, and love in an act of defiance against oppressive systems. The diverse range of tactile and conceptual forms of care on view invite audiences into a shared space of emotional resonance.
“I am immensely grateful to curate FRESH 2025,” notes Cipar. “This exhibition is a much-needed opportunity for young, emerging artists to have eyes on their work. Summit Artspace was one of the first spaces to give me a chance as an artist, and I hope others might have a similarly positive experience with this exhibition. I am excited to work alongside Julie Polsinelli as we continue tending to and nurturing the culture of care that undoubtedly defines our artistic communities in Northeast Ohio.”
Welcome Gallery
Paperland | Mark Jarosewski
The black-and-white mixed media drawings in Paperland are reminiscent of children’s book illustrations: Sometimes dark and frightening and at other times light-hearted and whimsical. Mark Jaroszewski’s drawings help the artist navigate mental illness by providing a channel to communicate his sometimes-unusual spectrum of thoughts and feelings. The work takes inspiration from film, television programs, video games, and street graffiti, and simultaneously gives life to his own imaginary world.
Intersections Gallery
Over, Under, Sideways, Down | Robert Wright
Through collage, painting, and composition in two dimensions, Robert Wright creates an abstracted world of human energy and andromorphic meaning. The results are asemic calligraphy driven by figurative gesture of beauty, grace, strength, balance, and rhythm. With dance as the primary source for the work, human movement has become a reflection of unique identity to the artist.
Forum Gallery
Milestones & Roadside Attractions | Group Exhibition
This exhibition showcases four cross-generational ceramic artists PJ Hargraves, Drew Ippoliti, Morgan Jones, and Kayla Weinman who serve as catalysts for each other’s stories and expressions. Together, they explore the potential of the medium and their distinct points of view. Each artist looks at the aesthetic beauty and humor of ceramics, while each work represents a feat of gravity and an opportunity to laugh at the absurdity of building in mud.
Horizon Gallery
Mutual Aid | Eric Tuck-Macalla
Sculpture in this exhibition exists along the margins of life and reflects the places we don’t want to look: Unused land, vacant lots, abandoned industrial sites. The work serves as a potent reminder about the delicacy of being on the edge of ruin, a reality that many face. While working with mundane materials, Eric Tuck-Macalla is thinking of a poem about the feeling of scarcity; a construction that is creating shelter and building community.
Wall to Wall
Our Community Matters | Social Justice Student Art Exhibition
Local students, teachers, and school leaders come together with the organization Art for Resistance Through Change (ART-C) in this third annual intergenerational art exhibition to promote meaningful change.
BOX Gallery
Resident organization Artists of Rubber City presents two solo exhibitions this season in The BOX Gallery, located on the third floor of the Summit Artspace. From January 10 – February 8, Diane Anderson will explore a range of mixed-media jewelry and wall art. Watercolor paintings by Bobbie Tiedt Donohew will be on display February 14 – March 15.
