LOFTY AMBITIONS
Cleveland Magazine, June 1979
Next door the Flats powerhouse
project has run out of steam, but these artists are still steadily rejuvenating
the area. The pace is modest but convicing Floor by floor, a huge warehouse
is being turned into studios for painting, sculpture, photography, printing
and exhibiting. The ultimate goal is a full fledged artistic community like
New York's Soho. According to artist and building manager R.C.Naso, the rents
are unbeatable and the landloard is a true patron of the arts. Come see what
these gregarious folks are up to at their open house. There will be refreshments,
entertainment and things to buy.
Riverbed Artists and Craftsmen
Open House1250 Riverbed Street. |
|
From the Cleveland Edition September 8, 1988 by Amy Sparks
A Place to Call Home
What do you do if your a
frustrated local artist seeing millions of "cultural" dollars being thrown
to the same few causes and celebrities, when you are displaced from your
warehouse studio because some developer decides it would make a better tourist
attraction, when there are only a handfull of places which truly nourish
local artists and want to promote their work? What do you do if you are
unconnected, nearly broke and disgusted? You open your own gallery. Which
is exactly what artist R.C.Naso has done with a group of like minded friends
in Tremont, site of the cities fastest growing artist community. No they
didn't round up an influential board of trustees, garner a grant from the
Cleveland Foundation or the Gund brothers, design a fancy logo and marketing
strategy. They just moved into an abandoned building, got their tools and
buckets out and started to make it habitable. "I dont have any commercial
aspirations" says Naso. "I just want to paint and have a place for artists
to show their work. For anyone who thinks Cleveland's art scene needs a
shot of adrenalin, this is it. Called simply the Studio/Gallery, its first
show opens September 9th with an appropriately gritty group of artists,
headlined by enfant terrible Robert Ritchie, mixed media guru Steven
B. Smith, painter Ed Raffel and photographer Laura Stuart. But dont expect
to pick up any lovely items that match the couch or are perfect for Christmas
presents. For those you have to travel to Murray Hill. The artwork like
the artists and the gallery itself, reflects its surroundings. To understand
these artists you have to understand the raw streets of Tremont. You have
to understand why Naso worked in the flats ten years ago and now wont even
venture down there. As has happened in New York 's East Village and now
in the Bronx and Harlem, the pattern of a city's redevelopment begins with
the artists moving into undesirable neighborhoods, fixing up old buildings,
living and working there. It isnt just because it is cheap, the neighborhoods
also have an aesthetic charm built into their decay and neglect. It happened
in the Flats and in the Warehouse District, now white-washed and redeveloped
for the gentry and tourists. But the burgeoning artists community in Tremont
sees it not as a stopping place, but as home. "Ten years ago I was involved
with the Riverbed Artists Association" says Naso, "which claimed more than
100 artists working and /or living in the flats. It was a rough place, back
then. There were 40 studios down there, and while there are still studios
(now called the Left Bank) all the original people were displaced." Many
artists moved to Tremont, but to keep the spectre of gentrification and
rising rents off their backs, many have decided to buy a home for the first
time. "Hopefully," says Naso "we can finally call this home." But how can
a struggling little gallery keep itself afloat without incoming cash? "Were
not looking for money," claims Naso, "We don't have any overhead. Whatever
an artist sells we take a 25% commission which pays for mailing and wine
for the openings." Artists who want a show can just come in and set up,
and do whatever they please, as long as they leave the gallery the way they
found it. Artists, mostly from the neighborhood, have already booked the
space through January. While Naso and the others are clearly excited by
this venture, there is an undercurrent of tension and anger fueling their
efforts. While some complain about the power of the Cleveland Museum of
Art, the lack of education about contemporary art issues, the conserative
taste of most Clevelanders, the questionable use of art consultants (why
don't people just buy what they like?),virtually everyone complains about
the lack of adequate arts coverage by the media, this paper included. Perhaps
part of the reason is that for the past ten years SPACES gallery has been
the only artist-run alternative space showing local and regional
work. In any other city there are reams of tiny storefront galleries, usually
run by and for artists, struggling to survive. So what will you find opening
night at the Studio/Gallery? A couple coats of fresh paint, a newly hung
sign, cheap wine, Ritchie's amazingly transformed bicycles in the window
and a sense of accomplishment and vitality. One whole wall will be given
over to a collage of all four artists work, crammed together and facing
the street. Junk-master and savior of detritus Smith will be showing some
new pieces, no doubt difficult and uncompromising. Ed Raffel's photo-realistic
paintings-for which he has won special mention in the last three CMA May
shows-won't be featured this time. He's abandoned that style for
a more abstract expressionistic one. Photographer Stuart is known for her
hard-edged urban scenes, and for this show she has been shooting in the
neighborhood, a place rife with images. And those who know Ritchie have
come to expect a certin tone in his work. But his newer pieces, mostly mixed
media and intricately painted windows and doors, show a meticulous side
od Ritchie not often seen. Expect the show to be refreshingly irreverent,
and difficult. But expect some excitement as well. |
| From the Cleveland Plain Dealer August 16, 1989 by Helen Cullinan
The Cleveland Institute of Art Exhibition
Former or present Cleveland
Institute of Art students and teachers star in a small but challenging exhibition
opening from 5 to 10 tonight at the Studio/Gallery at 2271 Professor Ave.
in Tremont.
Among highlights of the show are glazed ceramic object and landscape sculptures
by Mary Jo Bole and painted portrait heads bt Anna Arnold. Chris Bonner, a
1989 Gund prize recipient, evokes a surrealist mood in dark muted figurative
photographs including images from her "Frost Circus" film and performances
that she designs and conducts.
Recent graduate Mitzie Good shows some of the searching self portraits that
she did for her BFA project, posed against painted backgrounds, with a hint
of Cindy Sherman in the self-confrontation. Fifth year student Billy Palin
photographs the figure in rigidly posed setups-a male in a "Toothbrush" torture
device and a female nude whose written-on body meshes witha lettered backdrop.
Colorful large painterly abstractions by Laura Jamerson and post card landscapes
in oil on paper by Catherine Redmond complete the ensemble.
|
| From the Cleveland Plain Dealer by Hellen Cullinan
Interpertations of the Nude
Drawing from the live model
is an indespensable part of an art education. Well past school it continues
to attract artists interested in developing their skills. West side artists
who have been doing that in weekly co-op sessions at the Studio /Gallery,
2271 Professor Ave. in Tremont, will show results of their project today through
Sunday.
"Interpretations of the Nude" subtitled "The Tremonsters Capture Lisa Nickerson
Live" will open with a reception from 5 to 10 tonight. The show was put together
by Tim Herron who organized a 10 week series of three hour sessions with this
finale in mind. Nickerson, who posed for the sessions, is a performer on the
"Electric Avenue" television show. Participants in the loosly knit are 20
amateur and professional artists whose daily routines include cable television,
commercial design, foundry casting, picture framing, nursing, computer programing
and other pursuits. Best known of the Studio/Gallery regulars are R.C.Naso,
Sheryl Hoffman, Steven B. Smith, Robert Ritchie and Laszlo Gyorki. The works
to be shown vary from straight forward figure and portrait studies to imaginative
interpretations in drawing materials, paint, mixed media, photography, clay
and bronze. Although the show has an avant-garde flavor, the artists see it
as reaching out to the community at large.
|
TREMONT'S ARTISTS TREAT THE STREETS AS THEIR 'CANVAS'
The Sun Herald, Thursday, September 16, 1993
by Karen Zupanc, Staff Writer
It's Friday night and, once again,
you're faced with the age old question. What should we do? Well, if it's the
second Friday of the month, you're in luck, because there is something that's
different and fun. The Tremont Art Walk, a cooperative effort of area establishments
to bring people to the neighborhood, is a must see (or do) for both patrons
of the arts and fun-seekers. Basically, many businesses in the Tremont area
display the work of local artists--in some cases, their own work--and open their
doors to all. Tremont always has been known as an artist colony because of the
individuality of the old neighborhood--also, perhaps, because of the favorable
rent rates. So, having local artists show their work is not something new to
the neighborhood. But, last December, the neighborhood got together to organize
the showings. There have been art walks in Tremont off and on for several years,
according to Jean Brandt, an attorney whose office doubles as gallery space.
In fact, a few years ago, some residents opened their apartments for the walk.
"There was all that various energy going on when, last fall, a couple of the
bars and studios did a cooperative art show," Brandt said. Then came the December
meeting, organizing the first all-neighborhood walk, with the original one held
in January. Since then, the walks have been held monthly, always the second
Friday. As it was, December also was the grand opening of Wildflower, 2337 West
11th Street. As the name suggests, Wildflower is a floral shop, but it also
is a vintage clothing store and cafe, with wall space for art and basement space
for performances. Lara Kalafatis, one of the proprietors, said the walks are
good for her and partner Sylvia Clayton because, each month, they have a deadline
to meet as their business evolves, because they know people are coming. In fact,
the cafe section just opened. With frequent art walks, people can see the progress
they are making, as well as the art, something they have no difficulty finding.
"The artists come to us," Kalafatis said. R.C. Naso, a painter and one of the
first artists to locate in Tremont, has no trouble finding work to display.
He displays his own paintings. For September's walk, though, he added a twist
in order to get out of a jam. Naso needed to raise money fast because, earlier
this summer, he accidentally backed into another car, and the damage estimate
came in last month. So Naso painted everything in his studio white--the walls,
furniture and even the fixtures. And, for $1, anyone could buy a paint-filled
balloon to throw at anything in the room--an audience participation form of
art. His fund-raiser was going well. Naso was credited by many in Tremont as
the brains behind the art walk, though, he said, "The walk just sort of evolved."
But it has evolved into a bar walk, in Naso's eyes, with many of the people
touring taverns in the area. "I open the weekend before the walk, for serious
art buyers," he said. In defense of the bar walkers, though, Naso said it brings
people to the area and that is good for the neighborhood. One person it brought
was Erich Hooper. Naso joked that Hooper was a stranger who set up a sausage
stand outside his studio. Since he gave Naso a sandwich, the latter let him
stay. Now that the art walk is beginning to hold its own each month, it has
gained a place on the agenda of many Clevelanders as a great night out. It's
also bringing Tremont to the attention of people as a great place to go.
|
|
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer April 1, 1994 by Helen Cullinan
Forgeries and Parodies of the Masters
Studio/Gallery in Tremont is
observing April Fools Day with "Forgeries and Parodies of the Masters."
Offerings range from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling in slide projection,
by David Cudney to a Mona Lisa look alike by R.C.Naso. Show organizer Robert
Ritchie does a Dada steal in his Marcel Duchamps dress dummy signed R.Mutt.
There will ba an imitation Kurt Schwitters collage by Florence Smith; Sally
Lachina's copy of a Piet Mondrian painting at the National Gallery in Washington
D.C.; and George Kocars burlesque of a knotty pine painting by mainstream
appropriator Sherrie Levine. And Douglas Utter does "Desposition II" in homage
to Belgian Master Gerard David
Some of the artists on a regional level are keeping their work secret until
the reception from 6 to 10 tonight. Show particpants include Billie Lawless,
Melissa Jay Craig, Steven B. Smith, Joan of Art, G.D.Hay Jeffrey Chiplis,
Jacci Hammer, Sheryl Hoffman, Abe Bruckman, Terry Tuffs, Ken Motz, Roena Colinot,
Tim Herron, Mike Hurley, and Richard Head.
|
ART BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE
The Cauldron, Cleveland State University
Thursday, November 17 - Sunday, November 20, 1994
by Ken Gradomski, Artist's Art Review
The most controversial (and best
attended) art show in
Greater Cleveland opens this Friday, November 18. It may
even be the most controversial show in the country since
commentary over the 1992 show went nationwide. The local
electronic media, especially one Mr. Feagler, used small, poorly
done outline drawings of a missing girl to incite a bonfire
of indignation because he thought he understood public
aesthetics. Free speech was the issue and perhaps rage
that art could be something besides pretty pictures
(Art is more than just pretty pictures...)
"Dick Who?" by R.C. Naso, is one of the more controversial pieces
at this year's People's Art Show. The painting portrays
Pee Dee columnist Dick Feagler as part of a penis. Mr.
Feagler has been quite critical of the show in years past.
|
MAKING FACES: ARTIST PAINTS CELEBRITIES
The Plain Dealer, June 9, 1995 by Helen Cullinan, Plain Dealer Art Critic
R.C. Naso has been painting up
a storm for months in preparation for tonight's Tremont ArtWalk. He will have
shows of his work at four of the nine participating galleries. Most will be
from his "Famous Faces" series, of small enamel-on-board paintings, measuring
about 12 by 10 inches. "This is the most fun I've had painting in years,"
said Naso, who picked up on today's widespread celebrity craze with his wildly
colorful, personality-plus portraits with frames that he paints to match.
"The best part is that people love them." The Bohemia Club at 900 Literary
Road will show Naso's "Famous Bohemians," portraits of artists ranging from
Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso to Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt. The
Literary Cafe, 1031 Literary Road, will show the literary figures: Shakespeare,
Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens and others. Edison's Pub, 2372 Professor
Avenue, will show his portraits of Superman, John Wayne, Alfred E. Newman,
Wonder Woman and others from his "Superheroes and Villains" group. Naso's
own Studio Gallery at 2271 Professor Avenue will show mainly his large abstract
drip paintings.
|
A HOME ON THE WEB
Cleveland Freetimes May 19, 1997 by Laura Putre
It’s a cruel night for an
art walk, or any other sort of walk. Traveling a block from Edison’s to the
Treehouse in Tremont could freeze off the fingertips of a longshoreman. Inside
the Studio Gallery on Professor Street, R.C. Naso’s paintings of sunflowers,
in a decidedly Van Gogh vein, practically have icicles hanging off them. The
artwalk officially begins at 8 o’clock. At the stroke of 8, a collegiate-looking
group, dressed in Saturday night best, hurries in to Naso’s gallery, noticeable
from the street at night only by a single spotlight and an Art Walk banner
in a darkened window. The young visitors glance at Naso’s work — portraits
of famous people, mystical scenes — shyly thank him, then make a beeline for
the door. No one’s going to show up on a night like this, Naso says good-naturedly
and decides to close up shop, which involves shutting off the gallery lights.
Naso lives and works in this three-story building, which had a four-inch-thick
sheet of ice covering the basement floor when he moved in about ten winters
ago. He fixed the plumbing and heating, and five year’s worth of payments
later, became the owner of the building. Upstairs, in Naso’s living quarters,
his friend G.T. Tracy is sitting on a weatherbeaten couch, playing Nintendo.
Tracy is a math teacher at Martin Luther King High School.. Last summer, he
lent Naso his melange of computer equipment after Naso waxed enthusiastic
about setting up a website on the Internet for showing and selling his artwork.
It wasn’t that long ago, I started seeing on TV, everybody’s got their little
Web address, their URL on the bottom of the screen, Naso recalls.The newspapers,
were talking about it, CNN would always have somebody on talking about the
World Wide Web, the information highway. Naso was hoping to reach a much larger
audience than the devoted circle of friends and artists who have been dropping
by his studio since the late 1980s when, as portrait painter Tim Herron says,
there was no Tremont Art Walk. There was only Ron’s Studio Gallery.Naso had
almost nothing to spend on starting up a website. Unlike Herron, who works
at a cable company, he doesn’t have a regular paycheck; instead, he manages
to get by selling an occasional painting and working freelance jobs when they
come up. He collaborated on a sculpture hanging in the lobby of the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame and was the water engineer for a theater production of the
Grapes of Wrath last year, making sure the pumps worked so the rain fell on
cue. Naso thought the Web would quickly bring the commercial success that
had so far evaded him. At first, he tried showing his work on on-line art
galleries that charge a fee, spending $15 a month plus $5 per painting. After
two months with no responses, he abandoned that, thinking he could do better
on his own. Although the little computer experience he had was outdated, Naso
was eager to learn as he went along. But things happened at a frustrating
pace, even for a self-taught artist. Naso spent years learning painting techniques
— from life drawing to air brushing — mostly on his own, though he occasionally
took a formal art class. His classrooms were his studio and his rooftop, where
he and Herron would sometimes paint the neighborhood skyline. Naso said that
although he had a vision of the importance of technology, he didn’t realize
how long it would take to get a grip on it.Naso still spends an hour or so
every day cruising the Internet, looking at other artist’s sites, sometimes
stopping to chat with them on-line.
|
A TREMONT BLOCK PARTY
CSU 4x8 SHOW
From the Cleveland Free Times, July 9-15, 1997 by Frank Green
Community-based work is all the
rage now in the art world. Its popularity with arts presenters may result from
the availability of funding. While most government and corporate arts funding
is being drastically cut, grants for "community-based art" are increasing. This
type of funding is earmarked for activities for "disempowered" interest groops
- senior citizens, "at risk" youth, gays, women, Hispanics. Too often, the quality
of the artwork produced seems less important than the neediness of the people
making the art.
Ironically, artistic communities are ignored in this framework. In neighborhoods
across America artists have formed communities that transcend race, ethnicity,
gender, age and sexual preferance. Rather than defining themselves in such terms,
individuals in these communities identify as artists. Yet no art funding exhists
specifically to support communities such as these.
Cleveland has several communities of artists, including one based in Tremont,
and leave it to Cleveland State University Art Gallery to buck the current funding
climate in order to showcase this local artistic community. Four by Eight,
an exhibition on view through July 25, was organized by Tim Herron with help
from R.C.Naso, both Tremont artists, and features work by 28 friends, neighbors,
drinking buddies. The few who dont live there have participated in the neighborhood's
art scene for years.
Although they often exhibit together in local bars and galleries, these artists
have little in common stylistically. Regarding this diversity as a sign of their
community's strength the organizers devised a wide-open theme for the exhibit.
Artists were asked to submit a single work in any media and style, on any theme,
as long as it measured four by eight feet. The exhibition features single prototypical
works in these dimensions by some of Tremont's most consistently interesting
artists - a neon sculpture bt Jeffrey Chiplis, a cement casting by Jeeson Pak,
an assemblage by David Cudney, a conceptual installation by Bruce Edwards, and
paintings by Michael Hurley and Ben Parsons.
Unfortunately, these accomplished artists are not well-served by this exhibit.
The theme's openness results in a lack of cohesion, and the show ends up with
the same problems as many community-based exhibitions. Valuing inclusivity over
quality, and diversity over clarity od focus, the organizers have put together
a weak exhibition that resembles a smaller version of CSU's biennial, democratic,
uncurated Peoples Art Show. There's mediocre and even sophomoric work
included and the more accomplishes work fails to add up to more than the sum
of its parts.
The exhibits strongest section features thematically related paintings by Naso,
Herron, George Kocar, and Ken Nevadomi. All four contribute dense, panoramic
paintings that blend various representational styles to create visionary self-portraits
of the artists working in their studios.
Naso's Studio 96 is stylistically influenced by surrealism. The artist
sits dead center above a reflected darker double of himself, his back is turned
on a highway to heaven, in a space that's simultaneously interior and exterior
expansive and contained. The tools of his trade - paintbrush, light, six-pack,
cigarette, - spread out before him, he calmly receives his vision, while other
artisis agonize and paint and drink and run all around him. Everything is depicted
behind a series of semitransparent frames (the studio windows) so that the whole
panorama look like it's been unfolded, a hand fan opened up, a pack of cards
unfolded, a magic trick.
While Naso's painting is architectural, angle and line, Timothy Herron's sumptuously
fluid painting, Hidden Danger, an undulating current of organic forms,
is more expressionistic. It's as if Naso depicted the linear mind of the artist,
and Herron the fluid soul. Herron's rendering of his face, floating off in a
corner, is far more evocative than the other three self portraits. He depicts
himself squeezing a tube of paint, releasing a serpent that wraps itself around
a watery world of seaweed and surfers and fish. Eyes, windows of the soul, are
everywhere,the skin of transformation, flowers of vision rising out of the void.
These two pieces together with Nevadomi's Famished Muse with its slide
viewing cherubs, and Kocars Full Tilt Boogie, in the artist's trademark
cubist cartoon style, anchor the exhibit and painting becomes its strongest
suit. There are strong paintings by Hurley, Parsons, Anna Arnold, Judith Brandon,
and Shirley Aley Campbell.
I hope Cleveland State University will continue to support area artists by allowing
them to organize exhibitions of their peers.
|
The Cleveland Free Times
October 21, 1998
A Good 48 Hours
BY FRANK GREEN
Painesville isn't usually such
a hotbed of artistic activity. Lake Erie College has something like 12 students
majoring in art, but there's a well-equipped fine arts center with a large
gallery. In an effort to expose people from the surrounding community to contemporary
art, former gallery director Pat Sears set up an eight-hour event during which
the public was invited to observe and question visiting artists as they made
art. The demonstration proved so popular that it became an annual event. When
Nancy Prudic took over as gallery director she lengthened it to 16 hours in
order to give artists the time to complete more ambitious pieces. Laila Voss
was one of the artists who participated in the project last year. For her,
the event wasn't just an opportunity to communicate with the public, but also
a chance to work side by side with other artists. When she became co-director
of the gallery with Prudic this year, they decided to expand the event to
48 hours. Not only would the artists reach out toward the larger community,
they would also form a more intimate community of their own. With a small
grant from the Ohio Arts Council, they invited an eclectic group of eighteen
artists from northeast Ohio to participate. In addition to painters, sculptors
and ceramicists, there were artists who work in audio, film, installation,
dance and performance. The only things they had in common were a dedication
to their craft, an experimental spirit and a desire to communicate. I arrived
at the gallery toward the end of the second day. Though there was an incredible
amount of activity going on, the ambience was more peaceful than agitated,
with the artists basking in an atmosphere of camaraderie and support. David
Cudney had gotten the water running from a fountain in the middle of an assemblage
of birdcages and was busy wrapping wire mesh around the entire construction.
Kim Eggleston had completed the wooden armature of her closet-sized walk-through
installation, and had filled the walls with insulation. Some artists continued
work they'd already been involved with before the event. R.C. Naso painted
a couple dozen more canvases in an on-going series of nearly identical paintings
duplicating Van Gogh's blue self-portrait. John Ranally built two more of
his whimsical welded sculptures assembling bicycle parts into Rube Goldberg-like
contraptions, a contribution enjoyed by children who visited the gallery during
the event. Others were more adventurous, using the opportunity to try new
things. Sculptor Jee Sun Pak worked with plastic drop cloths, bending and
tying them into ruffled puffs that she hung from the ceiling. Ceramicist Theresa
Yondo worked with gourds, gutting and otherwise manipulating them to create
abstract forms she will later reproduce in clay. Sound artist Kristen Ban
Tepper composed a piece on a computer. Many created works informed by the
activities of the artists around them. Mark Yasanchek made ceramic pieces
on which he engraved stories told to him by other participants. Dan Tranberg
painted directly onto a wall, employing shapes and gestures inspired by what
he saw happening in the gallery. Robert Banks asked both artists and visitors
to draw onto film stock that he planned to construct into an abstract animation.
Thaddeus Root contributed a kind of visual tape recording of the whole event,
writing descriptions of what was happening at any given moment onto strips
of masking tape attached to the walls. Some of the work was intensely personal.
Amy Bracken Sparks stitched a new wholeness out of pieces from her life. Combining
baggies filled with dried leaves, seeds, flowers and other specimens from
her garden, a place that functions as a refuge from the demands of city life,
together with pieces of crockery broken during domestic arguments, she tried
to create a more permanent peace. Jerry Mann documented the contents of the
most private drawer in his dresser, the one where he stashes the mementos
of his past, with movie film. Sally Hudak endured the most physically exhausting
process by making a small house out of a thousand pounds of clay she mixed
with her feet in a wading pool. Dancer Young Park was a kind of thread tying
everyone together, moving through the space and the surrounding environment
in slow increments. At one point, she took Butoh to its logical extreme by
remaining completely still as Tim Herron painted her portrait. I was attracted
to the concept of this project from the beginning, but I anticipated that
the emphasis on process would result in finished products that wouldn't be
very strong. I was wrong. Most of the work looks great installed in the gallery,
where they will remain on view until the end of the month.
Tremot ends here but the best is yet to come.
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Taos Magazine
June.2004
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The SantaFe Monthly
October.2007
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Rio Grande Sun
9-18-08
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TremontBook
2016
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