The Canton Museum of Art (CMA), one of Northeast Ohio’s premier American art museums, opens its strong, Cleveland-influenced Winter exhibition season on Wednesday, November 21 in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Three original, CMA-produced exhibitions include: Continuum: Art of the Cleveland School and Beyond, The Matrix Series: Glass Art of Brent Kee Young, and Eclectic Threads: Marty Young. These featured exhibitions will be presented along with In the Parisian Salon — an exhibition of more than 200 works on paper and canvas from the Museum’s permanent collection, which will open December 7. NOTE: CMA is closed Thanksgiving Day. Regular Museum hours are: Tues – Thurs, 10am – 8pm; Fri – Sat, 10am – 5pm; Sun 1 – 5pm; closed Mondays.
An Opening Reception celebrating the new exhibitions will be held on Friday (First Friday), December 7 from 6:00 – 8:00pm. Guests will enjoy FREE admission, FREE parking, hors d’oeuvres, live holiday music, and a cash bar, plus the opportunity to interact with several artists featured in the exhibitions. That same night will include a special unveiling and dedication of the original doors to the Cornelius Aultman-Harter Mansion at 6:30PM. The doors are returning to their original location on the grounds of the Cultural Center for the Arts, where the Aultman-Harter Mansion stood from 1870 – 1965. The reception is free and open to the public, no registration is required.
“We are pleased to showcase the vibrant past and brilliant future of American artists from the ‘Cleveland School’ heritage of Northeast Ohio,” said CMA Executive Director Max Barton. “The accomplishments of those working in watercolor and clay from 1960 forward, such as Viktor Schreckengost, David Batz, and Moses Pearl, are featured alongside artists working and energizing the art world today such as Judith Brandon and Kristen Cliffel. Cleveland artist Brent Kee Young’s glass creations are mesmerizing, and the fiber art of Marty Young shows off influences from numerous cultures.”
These new exhibitions are on view from November 21, 2018 through March 3, 2019. Visit cantonart.org or follow CMA on Facebook to learn more about programs and special events related to the new exhibitions. Exhibitions and programs are presented through generous support in part from Arts In Stark, Visit Canton, The Hoover Foundation, J.M. Smucker Company, Stark Community Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, and KeyBank Foundation. FREE THURSDAYS, offering free admission to CMA, is sponsored by PNC Foundation.
Featured Main Gallery Exhibitions
Continuum: Art of the Cleveland School and Beyond
Explore the renowned past and rich future of the “Cleveland School” of artists. In the 1920s, Cleveland’s position as the center for American watercolor painting and its strong connection with commercial and fine art ceramics defined the artists of Northeast Ohio who have achieved an enviable, international reputation. Then and now, artists steeped in the Cleveland School movement are masters of their media. This exhibition is the continuation of a 2013 exhibition shown at the CMA, titled “The Cleveland School: Watercolor and Clay (1900 to 1960)”. Discover and explore Cleveland School work from 1960 through today, in this original, new exhibition presented in collaboration with ARTneo — the Museum of Northeast Ohio Art. Part of the exhibition will travel to ARTneo in Cleveland and be on exhibit from March 15 through May 17, 2019.
The Matrix Series: Glass Art of Brent Kee Young
Brent Kee Young, glass artist and Cleveland Institute of Art professor emeritus, has been recognized by scores of museums, galleries, colleges, and universities in the United States and Asia, which have displayed and acquired his work and invited him to speak, demonstrate and teach. In 2006, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery acquired its second piece by Professor Young for its permanent collection. “Amphora….Save” is from Young’s Matrix Series, a construction of intricate and technically complex works he created by flame working borosilicate glass rods into layers of glass webs. In 2012 his work was published in 50 Years of Studio Glass, a selection of 50 top glass artists working world-wide.
The Matrix Series exhibited at CMA is his latest venture with glass. All of the pieces from this series are flame worked borosilicate rods. They are fashioned to form an organic, interconnected structure of any shape. Young’s background in engineering comes through as he challenges himself to build, develop, and invent a new way of thinking, and then constructing, his objects.
His pieces are object based, using familiar everyday objects – these include chairs, vessels, bags, ladders, etc., which pique his interest. In the Matrix Series, Young has chosen five objects that represent objects from Asian and Huari cultures (a pre-Columbian Huari (Wari) culture that predated modern Peru by some 1500 years).
Eclectic Threads: Marty Young
Martha Young’s work in fiber and other materials draws on a wide range of techniques, fibers and textiles from all over the world. Martha’s interest in fiber began at an early age when she learned to sew doll clothes and her own clothing. After graduating from San Jose State University in California with a focus in painting and art education, she found quilt-making and fiber to be her ideal media.
These early interests have carried throughout her work and led her in different directions in her career as a fiber artist. Martha grew up in a military family and had the opportunity to live in Japan and Hawaii during her childhood. She subsequently traveled to China and Tibet. These
experiences exposed Martha to the beauty and quality of vintage and contemporary Asian textiles and led to her interest and appreciation of their colors, patterns, and design aesthetics.
The work presented in this show encompasses many different techniques and formats, but fiber is ever evident in all of Martha’s work.
In the Parisian Salon: A Unique Display of Works from the CMA Collection
We are re-imagining and revisiting an amazing exhibition of some of the most popular works in the Museum’s Collection. In the Parisian Salon takes us back to the style of the annual Salon art exhibitions in Paris, most prominent between 1748 and 1890.
Here, hung in the floor-to-ceiling fashion of the great Salons, you can discover and explore works by some of the most prominent American artists — more than 200 pieces including works by Thomas Hart Benton, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, Clyde Singer, William Sommer, Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, and many more. This is just a small part of the more than 1,500 pieces in the CMA Collection.
This exhibition is being mounted in conjunction with a new art storage system being installed in part of our collection vault. This project, underway right now, will better ensure the safety and security of the works you see here and others. As of this publication, the project is supported in our community by: The Timken Foundation, Stark Community Foundation, The Hoover Foundation, The Deuble Foundation, and the William and Minnette Goldsmith Foundation. We
thank them for their generosity and their commitment to preserve and protect the beautiful works of art in CMA Collection for all to enjoy.
About Canton Museum of Art
The Canton Museum of Art is one of Ohio’s premier museums for an exceptional visual arts experience, recognized for powerful original exhibitions and national touring exhibitions focused on American art. The Museum’s innovative education outreach programs, classes, and workshops serve thousands of students of all ages. CMA’s acclaimed collection focuses on American works on paper, primarily watercolors, and contemporary ceramics. Founded in 1935, the Canton Museum of Art makes the discovery and exploration of art accessible to all, with more than 42,000 visitors each year. Visit cantonart.org, follow the Museum on Facebook, or call 330.453.7666 for more information.
