now showing

SURREAL BY NATURE

Jan 5 - Feb 12, 2022

Surreal by Nature is an exhibition combining the new work of artists-in-residence Jonah Jacobs and Maria Uhase.  Jacobs and Uhase arrived at vastly different interpretations of nature as each worked in their fall residencies.

​

Jonah Jacobs is a self-taught Cleveland artist.  Jacobs uses unconventional materials including oatmeal, plaster, sand, yarn, gravel and dryer sheets.  The media is layered on cardboard, formed and burned into organic shapes.  These are then dipped and sprayed with dyes.  His abstract surreal pieces are influenced by the gnarls and microscopic structures found in nature.  The physicality and how form and function are intertwined in nature is the foundation from which his sculptures are designed.

Maria Uhase develops a surreal relationship between animals and plants within her paintings. She forms unexpected visual pairings such as depicting ideas which are simultaneously macabre and peaceful,

or light-hearted and serious.  Uhase spent her residency experimenting with the collaboration between human creativity and artificial intelligence by using a neural network program to aid in generating new concepts.  The combination of her hyper realistic paintings with AI generated ideas serves as an ironic layer in her work.  Uhase is a recent graduate of the University of Akron and is based in Wadsworth, OH.

Surreal by Nature is on view at Akron Soul Train’s Burton D. Morgan Exhibition Space located at 191 S. Main Street in Akron.  The Akron Soul Train gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday, 11-4:00pm.  There is plenty of parking right out front, on side streets or in the parking garages.  Please email Christine Ries with any questions at christine@akronsoultrain.org.  

SIGN STEALING
Experimental Film Screening
University of Akron, Myers School of Art

Auditorium
Friday, January 28, 2022 at 6PM

By Megan Young

Megan Young spent the duration of her Akron Soul Train residency embedded within the Northeast Ohio shelter system. She made part of a collaborative design team developing temporary housing
solutions with an emphasis on human dignity and collective safety amid the COVID-19 health crisis. That experience formed the basis for a series of workshops

exploring public space, personal privacy, and our relationship to tools of mass surveillance. The upcoming experimental film screening compares communal, care-based methods of surveillance to contemporary, technology-based systems. This work asks if we can re-tool emerging technologies to better serve our most vulnerable populations. It combines performance elements, clips from community workshops, creative writing, and algorithmic iconography. Contemplative opportunities provide space to consider personal boundaries and expectations around these timely topics.

This event provides an introduction to the SIGN STEALING project, directed by Megan Young and informed by collaborative contributors. /SS/ considers drone surveillance and predictive policing through public performance and digital archives. In combining kinesthetic exploration and political activism, it reflects visions for a free and limitless future.

Click here to watch a preview