Opening Reception: Melih Meric and Alyssa Lizzini

Printmaker Melih Meric’s Border Crossing Patterns

Akron Soul Train Artist-in-Resident Melih Meric presents “Stitched Editions: Exploring the New,” an exhibit bursting with pattern and paper. Meric uses a traditional approach to their imagery through sacred geometry and explorations of Islamic geometric abstraction. Challenging traditional presentations of print editions, Meric’s print work crosses the borders of the paper. It highlights an expansion of patterns like Middle Eastern tiles. It also speaks to queerness without being explicitly queer. “Stitched Editions: Exploring the New'' poses integral questions surrounding erasure and identity in Middle Eastern communities. Meric’s craft lies in creating wall-hanging objects that play between the realms of dimensionality while still being unmistakably paper. Their work acknowledges and is proud of its dimension, speaking certain truths to multiple minority groups.

“My work deals with making peace with a part of my culture that drove me to leave it. Finding

beauty in design and…