EXHIBITIONS
Explore the creation of immersive, queer ecosystems in Hank Bamberger's video installation, feckoned point
On view April 16 - May 10, 2025
Opening Celebration Friday, April 18, 2025 from 5:00 - 7:30PM
Artist-in-Residence Hank Bamberger's feckoned point, explores the creation of immersive, queer ecosystems that challenge societal norms, celebrate excess, and transform mundane objects into bold, dystopian landscapes. Drawing on materials like plastics, ropes, and everyday objects, Bamberger constructs ornate installations that pulse with tension, beauty, and rebellion—likened to the elaborate nesting spaces of a male bird of paradise.
Bamberger’s performance videos are projected in the otherworldly space, featuring a fractured nonlinear narrative that underscores the marginalization, dislocation, and objectification of non-normative bodies. Ten-inch stiletto heels play an integral role as they become radical tools that transform the body into a vessel that navigates gender, power, and identity through fragmented, fractured movement. Through these performances, Bamberger challenges viewers to embrace vulnerability, failure, and excess as generative forces, celebrating otherness and instability.
About the Artist Hank Bamberger:
Hank Bamberger is an American artist, activist, and choreographer celebrated for his innovative contributions to conceptual art and experimental dance. With a BFA in Modern Dance from Marymount Manhattan College and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, he performed globally with the Paul Taylor II Dance Company before founding Bamberger Dance Projects. His work emphasizes improvisation, alternative embodiments, and performance art, earning recognition at events like the Making Moves Festival. Currently pursuing a PhD at Coventry University and serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at The University of Akron, Bamberger's research explores queer aesthetics, intimacy, and activism in movement.
Note to visitors:
This exhibition contains mature content intended for adult audiences. The material presented is meant for educational and artistic purposes, and it may include explicit themes, nudity, or graphic imagery. The exhibition aims to provoke thoughtful discussion and should be approached with respect for diverse perspectives and cultural sensitivities.
Image credit: Maria Raluca
Experience the softer edge of reality through Alex Heard's This Machine Makes Art
On view April 16 - May 10, 2025
Opening Celebration Friday, April 18, 2025 from 5:00 - 7:30PM
Alex Heard is on a quest to soften the harsh edges of our reality—to create a place where fear becomes more loveable. Populated by plush characters and everyday objects, this realm of softness comes into existence through wearable objects, performance, and installation. Heard’s costumesque fashion pieces create the opportunity for humor, irony, and sincerity to exist together through the medium of make-believe.
This Machine Makes Art comes to life through performance and audience interaction, presenting a sensitive world where creature comes to life. A mascot for emotional outpouring and collective empathy, the creature connects to participants through relatable themes of failure, misunderstanding, and shame. The creature reveals pain in a sympathetic manner, opening a porthole to a plush world that is familiar yet strange, both fun and melancholy. Inflatable elements, handsewn props, soft sculptures, and audience collaboration make the experience an adventure filled with wonder and delight.
“You will make new friends! You will see the square peg fit through a round hole! You will become the soft sculpture you were always meant to be!” – Alex Heard
About the Artist Alex Heard:
Alex Heard is a soft sculptor and performance artist from Akron, Ohio. Their colorful wearable sculptures engage with a variety of topics such as emotional turmoil, consumption, and queer identity. Alex received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2020 and now supports sculpture classes as a studio technician. They exhibit and perform throughout Northeast Ohio.
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