Living in Your Imagination: SPACES' 30th Anniversary Exhibition
Curated by William Busta
April 18–July 6, 2008

Jake Beckman, New York, NY
Jake Beckman creates installations, both small and large scale, that are informed by anatomy, paleontology, and industrial engineering. Beckman’s installations are inspired by a fascination with the connections between the man-made and the natural physical world.

Born in Cleveland Heights, OH, the artist graduated with a BA from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA. Beckman’s work is included in the collections of The Progressive Corporation, Mayfield, OH and Swathmore College, Swathmore, PA.

Beckman exhibited his work during Street Repairs and as a SPACELab artist in 2006.

Amy Casey, Cleveland, OH
Amy Casey draws on her “fascination [with] the resilience of life” as a source of inspiration for her paintings. With themes including urban landscapes and “small, twisted creatures,” the artist captures states of chaos with underlying tones of the possibility of rebirth and structure.

A graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH, Casey has gained notoriety as a painter in the Midwest since her recent solo exhibitions in Cleveland and Chicago. The artist was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2007, has participated as an artist-in-residence at Zygote Press, and has received a Full Fellowship Award from The Vermont Studio Center, among other achievements in her budding career.

Casey exhibited her work in the group exhibition Selections III at SPACES in 2003.

Jirí Cernický, Prague, Czech Republic
Current SPACES World artist Jirí Cernický’s art often responds to historic socialist culture in the Czech Republic as he considers the function of the artist as both provocateur and impartial observer in a time of social change. During his residency at SPACES, the artist will create a suit made of corporate logos, positioning himself in Cleveland as a model for global consumer culture.

Cernický has a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1997). The multi-media artist’s work has been shown in 18 solo exhibitions in Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; Rotterdam, Holland; Paris, France; Zagreb, Croatia; Berlin, Germany; Los Angeles, California; and Oronsko, Poland. He has also participated in a number of international group exhibitions, was the recipient of awards including The Soros Prize (1996) and The Chalupecký Award (1998), and has work in the collections of the National Gallery Prague, The Prague City Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Miami.

This is Cernický’s first time exhibiting at SPACES.

Todd DeVriese, Lobbuck, TX
In his recent work, Todd DeVriese collages maps to demonstrate shifting territories and the conceptual signs of extra-territorial entities such as NATO and the UN.

DeVriese is the director of the School of Art at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. The artist received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1985) and Masters of Science degree (1988) from Illinois State University, Normal, IL. DeVriese earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University in 1992. The artist has had 25 solo exhibitions and has shown artwork in over 100 invitational exhibitions ranging from two-person shows to group exhibitions. The artist has also been commissioned to create work for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio in Columbus.

DeVriese’s work was exhibited in Connections: Ohio Artists Abroad at SPACES in 2002.

Claudia Esslinger, Gambier, OH
Claudia Esslinger creates video installations paired with audio elements that act as investigations of hierarchy. The artist examines the roles of the powerful versus the powerless as they are affected by societal institutions. Through the viewer’s own physical presence or contemplation, he or she is invited to interact with and play a role in Esslinger’s multi-media works.

Esslinger currently teaches printmaking, digital imaging, video and installation at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. The artist’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally at media festivals. Esslinger is the recipient of four individual fellowships and a New Forms Regional Grant, a professional development grant from the Ohio Arts Council, among other awards.

Esslinger’s work was exhibited in Physical Landscapes: Between Body and Mind at SPACES in 1999.

Kevin Everson, Charlottesville, VA
Kevin Everson explores the working class culture of Black Americans by capturing the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of daily life. Everson often incorporates footage of family and friends in his work, as well as found media including sports clips, photographs, and news reports. He then reinterprets the images to generate new meaning which allow him to examine life in the Middle-American Black home.

Everson currently teaches at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. The filmmaker has made over 20 short 16 mm, 35mm, and digital films. Everson has shown his films in such prestigious institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, among others.

Everson’s work was exhibited during Howling at the Edge of a Renaissance (1998) at SPACES.

Colette Gaiter, Newark, DE
Colette Gaiter works with computers and interactive multi-media to create photographs that capture societal and cultural events paired with personal imagery. The artist’s bold and expressive imagery evokes a sense of nostalgia and emotion.

Gaiter has a BFA in graphic design from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA and an MA from Hamline University, St. Paul, MN. Her work has been exhibited internationally at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH), and in numerous galleries, museums, and public institutions in the United States. Gaiter currently teaches at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE.

Gaiter’s work was featured in Afrofuturism in 2006 at SPACES.

Billie Grace Lynn, Coral Gables, FL
Billie Grace Lynn seeks to “inspire the senses … through signs, colors, sounds, movement […].” Lynn’s kinetic, interactive, and sometimes performative works place significant value on the process of discovery as one “experiences” each piece.

Lynn is currently assistant professor at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL. The artist has had solo exhibitions at the Hospitalfield Residential Arts Centre, Arbroath, Scotland, UK and the University of West Florida, Pensicola, FL. The artist has shown in many group exhibitions internationally since receiving her MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA in 1989.

Lynn presented the infamous Dead Mouse (2003) in the group exhibition Dissent: Political Voices, 2005 at SPACES.

Pipo Nguyen-duy, Oberlin, OH
Pipo Nguyen-duy uses “visual language” by capturing and often creating scenes that draw on cultural iconography, history, and various landscapes to challenge stereotypical representations. This nationally recognized artist is currently a professor of photography at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH.

Nguyen-duy has received many awards and grants including an En Foco Grant; a Professional Development Grant from the College Arts Association; an American Photography Institute National Graduate Fellowship, NYC; a fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission in Salem, Oregon; a B. Wade and Jane B. White Fellowship in the Humanities at Oberlin College; and two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council in Columbus, Ohio.
Nguyen-duy’s work is in public collections, and has been exhibited, in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

Nguyen-duy exhibited his work at SPACES in the exhibition Between the Borders: New Forms of Identity in 2001.

Patrick Robideau, Buffalo, NY
Patrick Robideau constructs installations and sculptures that address themes of transformation and discovery. Robideau’s use of discarded materials and found objects give life to mysterious and often eerie scenes. The artist’s careful calculations create an environment that invites viewers to fulfill an innate curiosity to spy or recall collective memories, fears, or desires.

A native of Niagara Falls, NY, Robideau earned his BFA in sculpture in 1989 from SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY. The artist’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Castellani Art Museum, Niagra University, New York; University of Buffalo Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; Burchfield-Penny Art Center, Buffalo State College, NY, among others. Robideau has been the recipient of awards including The Anderson Gallery Award, The Menno Alexander Reeb Memorial Award for Sculpture; the Memorial Art Gallery Award of Excellence; and the FMC Award of Excellence.

Robideau exhibited at SPACES during the exhibition Great Lakes: Imaging an Inland Sea in 2000.

Karen Yasinsky, Baltimore, MD
Karen Yasinsky works primarily with animation. The artist creates characters that “speak to our anxieties, frustrations and desires.” Her stop-motion animations, sometimes comic, sometimes dark, explore issues of repression, sexuality, and domesticity.

Her video installations and drawings have been shown in many venues internationally including the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; P.S.1 Contemporary Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunst Werke, Berlin; the Sculpture Center, New York; and the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH. She is the recipient of a 2002 Guggenheim Foundation grant and teaches at John Hopkins University in Film//Media Studies. Recently, she has had solo shows at Mireille Mosler, Ltd., New York and Sprueth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany.

Yasinsky’s work was featured in It’s a Wonderful Life: Psychodrama in Contemporary Painting at SPACES in 2004.