SPACES World Artists Program




Previous SWAP Artists

Iwona Zając (Gdansk, Poland and London, England) RESIDENCY Oct 2 –Dec 8, 2007 \| Exhibition Nov 16, 2007 –Jan 4 , 2008 Iwona Zając's art practice explores issues of feminism and social concern. Formally trained in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, she began creating murals in 2000. One of her most well-known projects involved a series of stencils on the outer walls of the Shipyards in Gdansk, where the Solidarity movement started. The mural contained stories about the life and work of the shipyard workers.
Libby Black (Fort Worth, TX) RESIDENCY Jul 16–30 and Aug 13–31, 2007 \| Exhibition Sep 7 –Oct 19, 2007 Using paper, hot glue, and paint, Libby Black creates life-size versions of luxury goods produced by Rolex, Neiman Marcus, Kate Spade, and Louis Vuitton, among others. Black's drawings and paper sculptures are about surface, desire, and distraction.The artist is compelled to recreate these high-end items because of her uneasiness and ambivalence about what they mean as symbols of status, to her personally, and how they function in society.
Malgorzata Markiewicz (Krakow, Poland) RESIDENCY May 18–Jun 27, 2007\| Exhibition Jun 22–Aug 23, 2007 SPACES World Artists Program resident, Malgorzata Markiewicz (Krakow, Poland) uses textiles and everyday materials to create innovative installations demonstrating socially engaged art practices. These works examine issues ranging from cultural expectations of women to society’s accountability to homeless people. As an emerging artist in Poland, Markiewicz has had multiple exhibitions in Krakow, including an exhibition at the Goethe Institute. In 2004, she received a one-year grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture.
Manuel Acevedo (New York, NY) Residency Sep 18, 2006– Apr 22, 2007 \| Exhibition Apr 20, 2007–Jun 8, 2007 Through his multidisciplinary work, artist Manuel Acevedo ( New York, NY) uses both interior and exterior urban landscapes to create dialogues about myth, identity and cultural understandings. Acevedo’s narrative imagery encourages a closer look at our basic humanity.
Frances Whitehead with Lisa Norton (Chicago, IL ) Residency 2005-2007 \| Exhibition Apr 20, 2007–Jun 8, 2007 superorg.net , a term inspired by the new scientific category of "superorganism," an organism made of interdependent and cooperating entities, encapsulates the idea that positive and lasting ecological changes must begin by considering the entire region from the standpoint of interdependent systems. Conceived by Frances Whitehead and Lisa Norton in response to the Towpath Trail Extension Initiative, superorg.net is an experimental model for public planning processes that includes artists as key members, proposing possible futures for the larger region and the Cuyahoga River Valley, it's economic, industrial, cultural and environmental vitality.
Dan Acostioaei (Iasi, Romania) Residency Oct 2–Nov 15, 2006 \| Exhibition Nov 17, 2006–Jan 5, 2007 Using video and photography, Acostioaei investigates the transition in Romanian identity from a traditionalist society to one that has been heavily impacted by consumerism and recently reintroduced in a global setting. Sometimes haunting, and always articulate, Acostioaei’s new work in Cleveland promises to provoke.
Ravit Mishli (Tel Aviv, Israel) Residency Aug 4–Sep 14, 2006\| Exhibition Sep 7–Oct 20, 2006 Emergency evacuations, fighting and attacks are simulated in Mishli's site-specific "shelters," which serve as stages for fictional actions she performs based on life in Israel. Her work requires improvisation and quick responses that parallel the often chaotic environment of Israel.
Pavel Kopriva (Prague, Czech Republic) Residency May 30-Jul 4, 2006 \| Exhibition Jun 21–Aug 4, 2006 In Kopriva's first exhibition in the United States, Pavel created Everybody needs the podium, a site-specific installation that continues his interest in the multiple roles that people in governmental power must, or choose to, participate. His multimedia installation will compare our government's current expanding role as a world power, as it compares to Kopriva's experience in Communist society.
Anna Konik (Warsaw, Poland) Residency Oct 13-Nov 30, 2005 \| Exhibition Nov 18, 2005-Jan 6, 2006 In the Middle of the Way , November 18, 2005 - January 6, 2006, follows the nomadic existence of artist Anna Konik as she travels to various cities and joins the journeys of different homeless people she meets on her way. To create the Cleveland segment of this continual work in progress, Konik first met with service agencies, such as the West Side Catholic Center and St. Malachi Center. She discussed urban issues with professors and artists, and spent time talking with people living on the streets. The final product is a city-wide experience. After witnessing the video-installation at SPACES that follows one homeless man in Cleveland, the public was invited to visit various other sites around the city where the Berlin, Warsaw, and Moscow segments of Inthe Middle of the Way were projected onto store-front windows. Konik collaborated with Dagmara Gumkowska, an arts administrator-in-residence through CEC Artslink at Play House Square, in presenting past works and contemporary alternative theater in Poland. She also gave a presentation about Poland and art to students of the Urban Community School at St. Malachi Center. One of her previous films, Transparency, was shown at the Miller-Weitzel Gallery.
Renee Gertler (San Francisco, CA) May 5 – June 28, 2005 Arterial Change , June 23 – August 5, 2005, is Gertler’s interactive sculpture that explores the ways in which we are all implicated in the destruction of our internal and external environments. Her work demonstrates how we can direct the ways in which we affect our environment with simple mindfulness. During her residency, Renee gave a presentation on her past work at Max S. Hayes technical high school, and hosted a recipe exchange for the Hungarian community. Her gallery talk on Friday, June 24, included information on her past works, but focused on her current project and experiences. Poet and critic Gregory Crosby dove into Arterial Change for his critical essay on Gertler’s work.
Roman Dziadkiewicz: Robinson Crusoe, or Stranger than Paradise Residency Mar 15-Apr 20, 2005 \| Exhibition Apr 15-Jun 10, 2005 Roman Dziadkiewicz ( Krakow, Poland) created a project involving eleven episodes analogous to the story of Robinson Crusoe, in which he utilized experimental notions of painting and activism-as-art. His explorations will result in a single edition of his book, The Vegetarian Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe, or Stranger than Paradise was included in the exhibition Dissent: Political Voices, April 15—June 10, 2005. Dziadkiewicz met with members of the Alliance of Poles of America’s Cleveland chapter and attendees of the opening of the “Hungary-Poland exhibit” at the Polish American John Paul II Cultural Center. Many of these people then came to SPACES for Dziadkiewicz’s public presentation on his past work, and his exhibition opening. He gave a presentation on his Cleveland project, and discussed art theory with a performance art class at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Finally, he took part in the SPACES panel discussion, Cause and Effect: Current perspectives on political art and activism. The brochure documenting his residency features a critical essay by David Rubin, Curator of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans.
Julian Montague ( Buffalo, NY) Residency Jan 3-Feb 13, 2005 \| Exhibition Jan 21-Mar 11, 2005 Julian Montague spent the first three weeks of his residency documenting and classifying Cleveland’s many stray shopping carts through photography. In The Stray Shopping Cart Project: Cleveland and Environs, January 21 – March 11, 2005, Montague explores the way in which science constructs meaning and imposes order through vocabulary. Having traveled by bicycle through snow and wind to find his cart specimens, Montague further explored Cleveland during the second half of his residency, via warmer means. He talked with a class at the Cleveland Institute of Art about collections as art and collecting art, and held a workshop for local middle school students in which they created classification systems for their own “unnatural” objects. New York Times art critic Benjamin Genocchio supplied the critical essay on Montague’s project.
Katarina Sevic ( Budapest, Hungary) Residency Oct 13-Nov 27, 2005\| Exhibition Nov 19, 2004-Jan 7, 2005 After arriving on the eve of the United States presidential elections, Sevic was given a quick introduction to the city and its culture. Observing the effects of urbanism in Cleveland, Sevic and a committed crew began working on the Free Shop project, a free-trade center with space for further exploration of the city’s issues. She converted this effort to become a virtual forum, using the internet as medium for the exchanges. In Fictionary, November 19-January 7, Sevic created an ironic video projection that questioned the fantasies and realities of international, multi-cultural relationships. Artist, critic, and painting faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Dan Tranberg looks at Sevic’s work in his brochure essay. Sevic was joined for two weeks by Hungarian art critic Eszter Lazar, whose residency was co-hosted by SPACES and Angle magazine.
Katarina Wong ( New York, NY) Residency Aug 1-Oct 17, 2004\| Exhibition Aug 31-Oct 15, 2004 One of SPACELab’s first artists, Katarina Wong continued the tradition of innovation during her residency and exhibition at SPACES. Wong’s installation, Still Center, August 31-October 15, 2004, involved a process of fingerprinting molded from dentist’s minty alganen that she then transferred to wax. Fingerprints came from supporters of the Dalai Lama, and will travel internationally in “The Missing Peace: The Dalai Lama Portrait Project”. Wong’s residency took her all over Northeast Ohio connecting with various Buddhist communities, and sharing her vision and experiences with the public. She also participated in the panel discussion, “Out of the Lab: Artists Emerge”, which offered artists’ views on how to flourish after art school. Scott Sherer, Assistant Professor of Art History at Kent State University, wrote a critical essay on Wong’s residency and work for the brochure.
Carlos Montes de Oca ( Santiago, Chile) Residency Feb 9-Mar 20, 2004\| Exhibition Mar 19-May 14, 2004 Carlos Montes de Oca took to the streets to find inspiration for his installation Urban Intervention, The Latinamerican Dream, March 19-May 14, 2004. With help from local graffiti artists and frequent visits to the local farmers market, Montes de Oca brought the underground art of Cleveland’s urban environs into the gallery space. During his residency, he taught art-as-process with at-risk youth at a local Hispanic after-school program, and worked with artists with physical and mental disabilities at Passion Works Studio in Athens, Ohio. On this, his first visit to the United States, Montes de Oca also had a chance to visit New York, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, where he paid homage to his great inspiritor, Marcel Duchamp. Tricky as his predecessor’s work, Montes de Oca’s is explained with an interview by international curator and critic Edward Shaw in the SPACES brochure.
James Cullinane ( Brooklyn, NY) Residency Nov 24, 2003-Feb 1, 2004\| Exhibition Jan 9-Feb 20, 2004 Cullinane paid two visits to Northeast Ohio, taking a break for time with family during the holidays. After scouring the sign shops and abundant industrial supply stock of Cleveland, he created four separate pieces for his multi-media installation, Stadium, on view Jan 9 – Feb 20, 2004. In addition to presenting a lecture at SPACES to a diverse audience, Cullinane discussed his life as an artist with art students at Max S. Hayes Vocational, a Cleveland Public High School. Later these students helped him with the monumental task of creating a wall piece out of tens of thousands of metal pushpins. Stadium suggests an inherent violence in America’s sports-culture, a confusion of work, play, and war. The Guggenheim Museum’s associate curator Susan Cross (NYC) discusses Cullinane’s new work in the brochure published by SPACES.
Robo Kocan ( Poprad, Slovakia) Residency Aug 8-Sep 22, 2003\| Exhibition Sep 12-Oct 24, 2003 Photographs by Robo Kocan were included in The View From Here: Recent Pictures from Central Europe and the American Midwest Sep 12 – Oct 24, 2003. Kocan came to Northeast Ohio for six weeks and made a new series of twelve hand-colored black & white photographs called Stories By Night-Light, in which he created dream-like narratives by projecting shadows on the wall of his room in Cleveland. During his residency Kocan was given a private bicycle tour of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which has a collaborative exchange with Slovakia through the Cleveland-Bratislava Sister Parks project. Kocan later presented public illustrated talks at The Slovak Institute in Cleveland and at the Cleveland-Bratislava Sister Cities meeting at John Carroll University. Kocan also participated in a Gallery Walk-Through of The View From Here , and discussed his new work with students from Cleveland State University. Art in America corresponding editor Susan Snodgrass ( Chicago) contributed the essay on Kocan’s exhibition for the SPACES brochure. After closing at SPACES, Kocan’s photographs traveled to Washington, DC, for a special exhibition at the Embassy of Slovakia.
Margaret Cogswell ( New York, NY) Residency Jan 6-May 11, 2003\| Exhibition May 9-Jun 20, 2003 Cogswell divided her residency into three, two-week segments to extend her visit to include multiple seasons. She first researched the Cuyahoga River and its connections to diverse Cleveland communities, talked about water and drew with children from Head Start and the Urban Community School, and invited them to visit her studio in May. Cogswell was given a rare private tour of steel-making facilities and interviewed former steel workers, riverboat captains, and members of an environmental group in Akron during her second trip. Audio and video documentation were part of Cogswell's multimedia installation Cuyahoga Fugues, presented as part of Elements: Matter, Body, Mind and Spirit, May 9-June 20, 2003. She also presented an illustrated talk on her residency. Art in America critic Eleanor Heartney (NYC) has written the essay on Cogswell's installation for the SPACES brochure.
Vladimir Merta ( Prague, Czech Republic) Residency Jan 25-Mar 10, 2003\| Exhibition Feb 28-Apr 11, 2003 Merta created an installation entitled Watching Spirit, based on his experiences in Cleveland and the role of mass media in our current political climate. He gave a lecture about his work in the context of the recent political changes in the Czech Republic to members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, held Open Studio Days, and presented slides of his students’ work from the Technical University of Brno to art students from Kent State University. Art Historian and critic David Moos, former curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Birmington Museum of Art (AL), and now curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, discusses Merta's installation in the SPACES brochure about his residency.
Carlos Navarrete ( Santiago, Chile) Residency Aug 11-Sep 20, 2002\| Exhibition Sep 13-Oct 25, 2002 Navarrete created work that explored the links between identity and geography. He documented his time in Cleveland through photography, collected objects and diagrams, and combined them to create the large-scale installation Documents of Ephemeral Actions and Other Works. He met with many local artists and presented a gallery talk about his work. He spent two days working with Latino high school art students from El Barrio’s program for “at risk” adolescents. At a public community forum he discussed his experiences with international residencies and how exposure to other cultures contributes to the artmaking process. Critic and former editor of The New Art Examiner Kathryn Hixson ( Chicago, IL) wrote the SPACES brochure essay on Navarrete's work.




Previous SWAP Artists

Iwona Zając (Gdansk, Poland and London, England) RESIDENCY Oct 2 –Dec 8, 2007 \| Exhibition Nov 16, 2007 –Jan 4 , 2008 Iwona Zając's art practice explores issues of feminism and social concern. Formally trained in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, she began creating murals in 2000. One of her most well-known projects involved a series of stencils on the outer walls of the Shipyards in Gdansk, where the Solidarity movement started. The mural contained stories about the life and work of the shipyard workers.
Libby Black (Fort Worth, TX) RESIDENCY Jul 16–30 and Aug 13–31, 2007 \| Exhibition Sep 7 –Oct 19, 2007 Using paper, hot glue, and paint, Libby Black creates life-size versions of luxury goods produced by Rolex, Neiman Marcus, Kate Spade, and Louis Vuitton, among others. Black's drawings and paper sculptures are about surface, desire, and distraction.The artist is compelled to recreate these high-end items because of her uneasiness and ambivalence about what they mean as symbols of status, to her personally, and how they function in society.
Malgorzata Markiewicz (Krakow, Poland) RESIDENCY May 18–Jun 27, 2007\| Exhibition Jun 22–Aug 23, 2007 SPACES World Artists Program resident, Malgorzata Markiewicz (Krakow, Poland) uses textiles and everyday materials to create innovative installations demonstrating socially engaged art practices. These works examine issues ranging from cultural expectations of women to society’s accountability to homeless people. As an emerging artist in Poland, Markiewicz has had multiple exhibitions in Krakow, including an exhibition at the Goethe Institute. In 2004, she received a one-year grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture.
Manuel Acevedo (New York, NY) Residency Sep 18, 2006– Apr 22, 2007 \| Exhibition Apr 20, 2007–Jun 8, 2007 Through his multidisciplinary work, artist Manuel Acevedo ( New York, NY) uses both interior and exterior urban landscapes to create dialogues about myth, identity and cultural understandings. Acevedo’s narrative imagery encourages a closer look at our basic humanity.
Frances Whitehead with Lisa Norton (Chicago, IL ) Residency 2005-2007 \| Exhibition Apr 20, 2007–Jun 8, 2007 superorg.net , a term inspired by the new scientific category of "superorganism," an organism made of interdependent and cooperating entities, encapsulates the idea that positive and lasting ecological changes must begin by considering the entire region from the standpoint of interdependent systems. Conceived by Frances Whitehead and Lisa Norton in response to the Towpath Trail Extension Initiative, superorg.net is an experimental model for public planning processes that includes artists as key members, proposing possible futures for the larger region and the Cuyahoga River Valley, it's economic, industrial, cultural and environmental vitality.
Dan Acostioaei (Iasi, Romania) Residency Oct 2–Nov 15, 2006 \| Exhibition Nov 17, 2006–Jan 5, 2007 Using video and photography, Acostioaei investigates the transition in Romanian identity from a traditionalist society to one that has been heavily impacted by consumerism and recently reintroduced in a global setting. Sometimes haunting, and always articulate, Acostioaei’s new work in Cleveland promises to provoke.
Ravit Mishli (Tel Aviv, Israel) Residency Aug 4–Sep 14, 2006\| Exhibition Sep 7–Oct 20, 2006 Emergency evacuations, fighting and attacks are simulated in Mishli's site-specific "shelters," which serve as stages for fictional actions she performs based on life in Israel. Her work requires improvisation and quick responses that parallel the often chaotic environment of Israel.
Pavel Kopriva (Prague, Czech Republic) Residency May 30-Jul 4, 2006 \| Exhibition Jun 21–Aug 4, 2006 In Kopriva's first exhibition in the United States, Pavel created Everybody needs the podium, a site-specific installation that continues his interest in the multiple roles that people in governmental power must, or choose to, participate. His multimedia installation will compare our government's current expanding role as a world power, as it compares to Kopriva's experience in Communist society.
Anna Konik (Warsaw, Poland) Residency Oct 13-Nov 30, 2005 \| Exhibition Nov 18, 2005-Jan 6, 2006 In the Middle of the Way , November 18, 2005 - January 6, 2006, follows the nomadic existence of artist Anna Konik as she travels to various cities and joins the journeys of different homeless people she meets on her way. To create the Cleveland segment of this continual work in progress, Konik first met with service agencies, such as the West Side Catholic Center and St. Malachi Center. She discussed urban issues with professors and artists, and spent time talking with people living on the streets. The final product is a city-wide experience. After witnessing the video-installation at SPACES that follows one homeless man in Cleveland, the public was invited to visit various other sites around the city where the Berlin, Warsaw, and Moscow segments of Inthe Middle of the Way were projected onto store-front windows. Konik collaborated with Dagmara Gumkowska, an arts administrator-in-residence through CEC Artslink at Play House Square, in presenting past works and contemporary alternative theater in Poland. She also gave a presentation about Poland and art to students of the Urban Community School at St. Malachi Center. One of her previous films, Transparency, was shown at the Miller-Weitzel Gallery.
Renee Gertler (San Francisco, CA) May 5 – June 28, 2005 Arterial Change , June 23 – August 5, 2005, is Gertler’s interactive sculpture that explores the ways in which we are all implicated in the destruction of our internal and external environments. Her work demonstrates how we can direct the ways in which we affect our environment with simple mindfulness. During her residency, Renee gave a presentation on her past work at Max S. Hayes technical high school, and hosted a recipe exchange for the Hungarian community. Her gallery talk on Friday, June 24, included information on her past works, but focused on her current project and experiences. Poet and critic Gregory Crosby dove into Arterial Change for his critical essay on Gertler’s work.
Roman Dziadkiewicz: Robinson Crusoe, or Stranger than Paradise Residency Mar 15-Apr 20, 2005 \| Exhibition Apr 15-Jun 10, 2005 Roman Dziadkiewicz ( Krakow, Poland) created a project involving eleven episodes analogous to the story of Robinson Crusoe, in which he utilized experimental notions of painting and activism-as-art. His explorations will result in a single edition of his book, The Vegetarian Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe, or Stranger than Paradise was included in the exhibition Dissent: Political Voices, April 15—June 10, 2005. Dziadkiewicz met with members of the Alliance of Poles of America’s Cleveland chapter and attendees of the opening of the “Hungary-Poland exhibit” at the Polish American John Paul II Cultural Center. Many of these people then came to SPACES for Dziadkiewicz’s public presentation on his past work, and his exhibition opening. He gave a presentation on his Cleveland project, and discussed art theory with a performance art class at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Finally, he took part in the SPACES panel discussion, Cause and Effect: Current perspectives on political art and activism. The brochure documenting his residency features a critical essay by David Rubin, Curator of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans.
Julian Montague ( Buffalo, NY) Residency Jan 3-Feb 13, 2005 \| Exhibition Jan 21-Mar 11, 2005 Julian Montague spent the first three weeks of his residency documenting and classifying Cleveland’s many stray shopping carts through photography. In The Stray Shopping Cart Project: Cleveland and Environs, January 21 – March 11, 2005, Montague explores the way in which science constructs meaning and imposes order through vocabulary. Having traveled by bicycle through snow and wind to find his cart specimens, Montague further explored Cleveland during the second half of his residency, via warmer means. He talked with a class at the Cleveland Institute of Art about collections as art and collecting art, and held a workshop for local middle school students in which they created classification systems for their own “unnatural” objects. New York Times art critic Benjamin Genocchio supplied the critical essay on Montague’s project.
Katarina Sevic ( Budapest, Hungary) Residency Oct 13-Nov 27, 2005\| Exhibition Nov 19, 2004-Jan 7, 2005 After arriving on the eve of the United States presidential elections, Sevic was given a quick introduction to the city and its culture. Observing the effects of urbanism in Cleveland, Sevic and a committed crew began working on the Free Shop project, a free-trade center with space for further exploration of the city’s issues. She converted this effort to become a virtual forum, using the internet as medium for the exchanges. In Fictionary, November 19-January 7, Sevic created an ironic video projection that questioned the fantasies and realities of international, multi-cultural relationships. Artist, critic, and painting faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Dan Tranberg looks at Sevic’s work in his brochure essay. Sevic was joined for two weeks by Hungarian art critic Eszter Lazar, whose residency was co-hosted by SPACES and Angle magazine.
Katarina Wong ( New York, NY) Residency Aug 1-Oct 17, 2004\| Exhibition Aug 31-Oct 15, 2004 One of SPACELab’s first artists, Katarina Wong continued the tradition of innovation during her residency and exhibition at SPACES. Wong’s installation, Still Center, August 31-October 15, 2004, involved a process of fingerprinting molded from dentist’s minty alganen that she then transferred to wax. Fingerprints came from supporters of the Dalai Lama, and will travel internationally in “The Missing Peace: The Dalai Lama Portrait Project”. Wong’s residency took her all over Northeast Ohio connecting with various Buddhist communities, and sharing her vision and experiences with the public. She also participated in the panel discussion, “Out of the Lab: Artists Emerge”, which offered artists’ views on how to flourish after art school. Scott Sherer, Assistant Professor of Art History at Kent State University, wrote a critical essay on Wong’s residency and work for the brochure.
Carlos Montes de Oca ( Santiago, Chile) Residency Feb 9-Mar 20, 2004\| Exhibition Mar 19-May 14, 2004 Carlos Montes de Oca took to the streets to find inspiration for his installation Urban Intervention, The Latinamerican Dream, March 19-May 14, 2004. With help from local graffiti artists and frequent visits to the local farmers market, Montes de Oca brought the underground art of Cleveland’s urban environs into the gallery space. During his residency, he taught art-as-process with at-risk youth at a local Hispanic after-school program, and worked with artists with physical and mental disabilities at Passion Works Studio in Athens, Ohio. On this, his first visit to the United States, Montes de Oca also had a chance to visit New York, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, where he paid homage to his great inspiritor, Marcel Duchamp. Tricky as his predecessor’s work, Montes de Oca’s is explained with an interview by international curator and critic Edward Shaw in the SPACES brochure.
James Cullinane ( Brooklyn, NY) Residency Nov 24, 2003-Feb 1, 2004\| Exhibition Jan 9-Feb 20, 2004 Cullinane paid two visits to Northeast Ohio, taking a break for time with family during the holidays. After scouring the sign shops and abundant industrial supply stock of Cleveland, he created four separate pieces for his multi-media installation, Stadium, on view Jan 9 – Feb 20, 2004. In addition to presenting a lecture at SPACES to a diverse audience, Cullinane discussed his life as an artist with art students at Max S. Hayes Vocational, a Cleveland Public High School. Later these students helped him with the monumental task of creating a wall piece out of tens of thousands of metal pushpins. Stadium suggests an inherent violence in America’s sports-culture, a confusion of work, play, and war. The Guggenheim Museum’s associate curator Susan Cross (NYC) discusses Cullinane’s new work in the brochure published by SPACES.
Robo Kocan ( Poprad, Slovakia) Residency Aug 8-Sep 22, 2003\| Exhibition Sep 12-Oct 24, 2003 Photographs by Robo Kocan were included in The View From Here: Recent Pictures from Central Europe and the American Midwest Sep 12 – Oct 24, 2003. Kocan came to Northeast Ohio for six weeks and made a new series of twelve hand-colored black & white photographs called Stories By Night-Light, in which he created dream-like narratives by projecting shadows on the wall of his room in Cleveland. During his residency Kocan was given a private bicycle tour of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which has a collaborative exchange with Slovakia through the Cleveland-Bratislava Sister Parks project. Kocan later presented public illustrated talks at The Slovak Institute in Cleveland and at the Cleveland-Bratislava Sister Cities meeting at John Carroll University. Kocan also participated in a Gallery Walk-Through of The View From Here , and discussed his new work with students from Cleveland State University. Art in America corresponding editor Susan Snodgrass ( Chicago) contributed the essay on Kocan’s exhibition for the SPACES brochure. After closing at SPACES, Kocan’s photographs traveled to Washington, DC, for a special exhibition at the Embassy of Slovakia.
Margaret Cogswell ( New York, NY) Residency Jan 6-May 11, 2003\| Exhibition May 9-Jun 20, 2003 Cogswell divided her residency into three, two-week segments to extend her visit to include multiple seasons. She first researched the Cuyahoga River and its connections to diverse Cleveland communities, talked about water and drew with children from Head Start and the Urban Community School, and invited them to visit her studio in May. Cogswell was given a rare private tour of steel-making facilities and interviewed former steel workers, riverboat captains, and members of an environmental group in Akron during her second trip. Audio and video documentation were part of Cogswell's multimedia installation Cuyahoga Fugues, presented as part of Elements: Matter, Body, Mind and Spirit, May 9-June 20, 2003. She also presented an illustrated talk on her residency. Art in America critic Eleanor Heartney (NYC) has written the essay on Cogswell's installation for the SPACES brochure.
Vladimir Merta ( Prague, Czech Republic) Residency Jan 25-Mar 10, 2003\| Exhibition Feb 28-Apr 11, 2003 Merta created an installation entitled Watching Spirit, based on his experiences in Cleveland and the role of mass media in our current political climate. He gave a lecture about his work in the context of the recent political changes in the Czech Republic to members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, held Open Studio Days, and presented slides of his students’ work from the Technical University of Brno to art students from Kent State University. Art Historian and critic David Moos, former curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Birmington Museum of Art (AL), and now curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, discusses Merta's installation in the SPACES brochure about his residency.
Carlos Navarrete ( Santiago, Chile) Residency Aug 11-Sep 20, 2002\| Exhibition Sep 13-Oct 25, 2002 Navarrete created work that explored the links between identity and geography. He documented his time in Cleveland through photography, collected objects and diagrams, and combined them to create the large-scale installation Documents of Ephemeral Actions and Other Works. He met with many local artists and presented a gallery talk about his work. He spent two days working with Latino high school art students from El Barrio’s program for “at risk” adolescents. At a public community forum he discussed his experiences with international residencies and how exposure to other cultures contributes to the artmaking process. Critic and former editor of The New Art Examiner Kathryn Hixson ( Chicago, IL) wrote the SPACES brochure essay on Navarrete's work.