Past exhibitions

The 2021 Faculty Exhibition included 28 faculty and staff members representing all areas of the dynamic community of practicing artists at Myers.

Exhibited works included paintings, ceramics, graphic design, metals, mixed media, digital media, photographs, prints, and sculpture. Highlights included current research, works made during the pandemic, and recent residencies.

Rubber City to Rust Belt: The End of Akron's Rubber Industry 1976-1987 featured the work of Daniel Mainzer, former staff photographer at Firestone and General Tire. His photographs depict the closing of a chapter of Akron's history that lasted over 60 years.

In addition to Mainzer's work, Selections from the Myers School of Art Collection was also on display in Emily Davis Gallery. In effort to highlight Myers School of Art's collection focus, the exhibition featured work acquired from Myers School of Art alumni Alexandra Couch, and Ryan Craycraft, former Myers faculty Michael Loderstedt, and work donated from the estate of Myers alumni, John Puglia. The exhibition also featured works from recent significant photography gifts, including the works of Bill Owens, Arthur Rothstein, Dmitri Baltermants. Other pieces displayed from the collection were by Tom Hück, Omid Tavakoli, Jennifer Vanderpool, and Andy Warhol.

The Myers School of Art Graphic Design 2021 senior class presented their exhibition Unmuted in person and online at http://2021.uakrondesign.com.

Juror: Tizziana Baldenebro, Executive Director at SPACES

The Myers School of Art's 85th Annual Juried Student Exhibition featured student artwork from all academic levels, media, and disciplines and serves annually as an important representation of the current student culture and thought. This exhibition showcased skills and artworks Myers students have developed in this year.

1st Place: Kayla Weinman

2nd Place: Tim Bekelesky

3rd Place: Abigail Cipar

Honorable Mentions: Kameron Savory, Emma Spardo, Fortune Uzo-Ngerem

The Emily Davis Gallery proudly presented recent acquisitions from the Myers School of Art collection. This exhibition featured work by alumni from the school of art, gifts from artists of past exhibitions, and gifts from families.

Celebrating the centennial of The 19th Amendment and coinciding at the same time as the 2020 Presidential election, Suffrage: Inequality. Persistence. Justice. honored the women who fought and continues to fight to protect and defend women's rights to vote. Suffrage: Inequality. Persistence. Justice. presented work from two Myers School of Art alums, Amber Anderson and Shani Richards, and five regional artists, including April Bleakney, Elizabeth Emery, Corrie Slawson, Adrienne Slane, and Rebekah Wilhelm.

In solidarity with recent world and domestic issues, the Emily Davis Gallery’s exhibition, “Bearing Witness: A Response to Current Events by Regional Photographers” investigated the topics of social justice, pride, police brutality, and a world pandemic impacting lives of essential workers and those at home. Bearing Witness presented photographic artwork from four regional artists including Aja Joi Grant, Christopher Mason, Omid Tavakoli, and Myers School of Art Alumni Autumn Bland. The exhibition also marked the debut of works from the school of art collection by legendary activist and photographer, Danny Lyon.

Augment was designed to present the portfolios of the Myers School of Art Class of 2020 Graphic Designers. Initially intended to display work physically, the show evolved into something no one could have have anticipated. Although the change was abrupt, it was exactly what our Graphic Designers train for—approaching design in an innovative way. COVID-19 made them adapt the exhibition’s ideas with creative solutions to preserve their vision and show the world what designers do: solve problems. As a whole, Augment presented how their individual strengths were complemented in a team format. Together, they created a senior show like no other to present an interactive experience through an online network of portfolios.

See the Augment website, where virtual meetings were available during the exhibition dates, as well as all the individual portfolio pages for every Senior.

Juror: Annie Wischmeyer, Curator of Collections at the Akron Art Museum.

The Myers School of Art's 84th Annual Juried Student Exhibition featured student artwork from all academic levels, media, and disciplines and serves annually as an important representation of the current student culture and thought. The public is encouraged to attend this free exhibition and observe the skills and artworks these students have developed in their classes each Spring.

1st Place: Nikodem Adamski

2nd Place: Kwamé Gomez

3rd Place: Anika Calcei

Honorable Mentions: Sam Bittaker, Alexandria Couch, Killian Reed, Kayla Weinman

Outlaw Ink: Hück and Hogarth consisted of everything from “hillbillies doing bad stuff” in Middle America to the urban dystopia of 18th century England as depicted through prints by American printmaker Tom Hück accompanied by one of his major influences, 18th century English printmaker William Hogarth. Hück was also been chosen as the Spring 2020 Myers Residency Artist. In addition to exhibiting his work, he spent a week in February 2020 with students producing a print edition.

Stranger Beings: Hieronymus Objects & Other Curiosities featured enigmatic artwork from the Hieronymus collection where the familiar becomes twisted, morphed, and surreal. Including artists such as Kiki Smith, Keith Haring, David Salle, and Tip Toland, Stranger Beings also featured six Ohio artists that complement the collection. The collection borrows its name from the artist Hieronymus Bosch whose work subverts convention through fantastic representations of humans and the world that simultaneously inspire terror and delight. This aesthetic is mirrored by a collection composed of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, prints, decorative arts, and other mediums that straddle the line between the vulgar and the sacred.

26 faculty and staff exhibited works that showcased recent research and new experiments.

Over the summer we are exhibited selections from the school of art collection, including many recent acquisitions. Our collection features artworks by alumni students, faculty and artists who have been on residencies here at Myers or who’ve been featured in the gallery in the past. Some of the artists featured were John Coplans, Mark Mothersbaugh, Jennifer Vanderpool, Tanja Softic, Mike Gabel and Elise Radzialowski. We also hosted a pop-up exhibition, Personal Demons, by recent sculpture graduate, Emily Brannon. Emily exhibited new works in the lower gallery before she left to begin her graduate studies at SUNY New Paltz.

Mahoning county native and current L.A. resident Jennifer Vanderpool Ph.D presented newly created works focusing on outmoded imagery of "Rust Belt" cities using this imagery as allegory to evoke questions about neighborhood decay, gentrification, segregation, generations of unemployment, and economic redevelopment. Using abstracted elements from numerous archival sources reflective of Akron, Ohio, Vanderpool uses her design aesthetic to craft narratives of imaginary realism to evoke the Rust Belt region. This exhibition includes Vanderpool's digital collage prints and poetic documentary highlighting Akron natives and community leaders to discuss the legacy of Mid-century urban planning and deindustrialization on cities such as Akron, Toledo, Youngstown or Gary.

Juror: Dragana Crnjak, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing, Youngstown State University

The Myers School of Art's, 83rd Annual Juried Student Exhibition features student artwork from all academic levels, media, and disciplines and serves as an important representation of the current student culture and thought. The public is encouraged to attend this free exhibition and observe the skills and artworks these students have developed in their classes.

Bits & Pieces presented the artwork of award-winning animator Chris Sickels, the creative force behind Red Nose Studio, as part of this year’s Myers Forum Residency. His work is a unique blend of sculpture, painting, collage, model-building, photography, and traditional illustration to tell stories. Bits and Pieces gives an in-depth view of Sickels’ process, from conception to completion.

Decennalia highlighted the artistic journeys of the many students that have received the Folk Charitable Foundation Venice Biennale International Travel and Study of Art Scholarship through the George and Karen Daverio Scholarship Foundation. This exhibition included both current students and alumni that have attended the Venice Biennale from 2007 to 2017 and represented a diverse collection of artistic mediums and expressions.

A House is not a Home was a response to the FRONT International 2018 theme of “An American City.” The 6 regional artists featured in this exhibition were Amy Casey and Kristen Cliffel from Cleveland, and Ron Copeland, Vanessa German, Ryder Henry, and Ed Panar from Pittsburgh.

The Myers School of Art Graphic Design program’s 2018 graduates hosted a first class evening as they made their final depARTure from The University of Akron.

The Contemporary Eye: Historic Photographic Processes Revisited, features present-day artists who use 100-year old photographic processes to create their artwork, reminding viewers that photography goes beyond digital by delving into the techniques that create physical objects. This exhibition featured seven artists from around the United States: David Emmitt Adams, Jayne Hinds Bidaut, Emily Gómez, Greg Martin, Francis Schanberger, Keliy Anderson Staley, and Stephen Takacs.

Students in the Myers Forum: Modelled Cities work with visiting artist Neil Forrest, investigating how urban spaces influence our ideas and experience through an architectural multi-media project that resonates with students' perceptions of their city's structures.

This exhibition is an annual display of student artworks from all academic levels, media, and disciplines that make up the University of Akron's Myers School of art and serves as an important representation of the current student culture and thought. This exhibition was juried by the Massillon Museum's Executive Director, Alexandrea Nicholis Coon.

Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace exhibition returned to the Emily Davis Gallery to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of its debut here in 2007. The exhibition was highly interactive and encouraged viewers to participate in each artwork on display. The Imagine Peace Maps invited each participant to use a rubber stamp to mark where he or she is from to display the diverse backgrounds that the University of Akron is home to. This exhibition included merchandise that was available for sale during the display.

The reception on January 18 included a panel discussion, followed by a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of our 'Yoko Ono Imagine Peace' exhibition. Myers alumni designers, Brittyn DeWerth, Nate and Kirk Mueller, co-curator John Noga and Bill Lyons, Assoc. Dean for Social Sciences, discussed art and peace in our auditorium, followed by a reception to celebrate the exhibition and the beginning of the spring semester.

The Myers School of Art presented two concurrent solo alumni exhibitions. Mike Gable’s special interest , and Joe Bartram’s BASSACABEZA opened in the Emily Davis Gallery, October 26, 2017 and ran through November 22, 2017. Gable earned his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in drawing and painting in 2003; his exhibition occupied the upper level of the Emily Davis Gallery. Bartram earned his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in sculpture in 2012; his exhibition occupied the lower level of the Emily Davis Gallery. Each exhibition featured artwork that reflected the artists’ current artistic practice, which builds and expands upon their foundation that began here at the Myers School of Art.

This exhibition was organized by the Emily Davis Gallery with additional support from The University of Akron Alumni Association.

Heatsink was a solo exhibition of Matt Kenyon’s multi-media work focusing on big data, global markets, and biomimicry.

Kenyon is an Associate Professor in the Digital + Media Program at the Rhode Island School of Design. He works in a variety of media, including video, new media, and sculpture, often incorporating mechanical aspects into his three-dimensional work. The artwork Kenyon makes is socially conscious, provoking thought on mass production and its impact on culture. This work examining the liminal area between life and artificial life is chronicled in his organization SWAMP: Studies of Work Atmospheres & Mass Production.

Kenyon’s residency in Akron is part of the ongoing UA Synapse series. Synapse’s goal is to find enlightening connections between the disciplines of art and science.

Altered States showcased the work of two Cleveland based artists, Christi Birchfield and Lauren Davies.

Birchfield specializes in printmaking and painting, but has expanded this practice to include organic elements such as plant material, alongside textural techniques, to create dimensionality. In her recent work, she has been creating sculptural designs while maintaining focus on the manipulation of natural materials. Davies also focuses on natural elements with a personal interest in natural history museums and how humans document the world around them. In this exhibition, Davies featured some work from her recent project that analyzed the decline of industry in rust belt cities.

The 2017 Faculty Exhibition featured artwork from 26 full and part-time faculty from the Myers School of Art. The exhibition represented works from all areas of the school: ceramics, design, metals, painting, prints, photography and sculpture. Artworks included covered a wide array of techniques and mediums ranging from traditional hand built objects to cutting-edge digital technologies. The artists and designers displayed personal research projects as well as collaborations and commissions.

Angles was the 2017 Senior Graphic Design Exhibition which took place in the Emily Davis Gallery at The Myers School of Art, located at The University of Akron. 29 designers displayed their work and showcased their senior portfolios.

Collider 8: voxel [akron] was the newest edition of the Collider series to examine the impact, implications and inspiration of the phenomenon generally categorized under the umbrella term New Media within the design practice and fine arts. In its 8th year, Collider’s co-creators Markus Vogl and Tony Samangy of The University of Akron’s design faculty presented exciting works utilizing voxels, a computational 3D volume—think 3D pixel!

The works in the exhibition featured several incredible techniques. The ‘Tiny Cinema’ pieces showcased video shorts on 96x64 pixel video screens, encapsulated by 3D printed sculptures. Zoetropes entered this show, weaving themselves between historical and contemporary practices. The devices no longer were limited to the typical 2D images but were 3D printed objects, spinning to create a moving image. The exhibition included the work of 19 regional and national artists. Among the grouping were acclaimed artists such as Mark Amerika, Rachel Clarke, Kasumi, and Jason Ferguson. See the full list of artists below.

Full list of Collider 8 artists: Ryan Buyssens, University of Central Florida; Rachel Clarke, California State University, Sacramento; Jason Ferguson, Eastern Michigan University; Brian Peters, Kent State University; Shawn Towne, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; //benitez_vogl, Kent State University & The University of Akron

Tiny Cinema: Kasumi, Patrick Lichty, Chiara Passa, Katina Bitsicas, Pedro Vidal, Inflatable Reality, Johannah Herr, Tony Samangy, Khari Saffo, Mark Amerika, Gideon Gerit, Chad Uehlein

This exhibition was organized by the Emily Davis Gallery and sponsored by the Gallery Committee and Myers Residency Committee of the Myers School of Art, with additional support from Synapse.

Philip Beesley is a Toronto-based visual artist, architect and Professor in Architecture at the University of Waterloo and Professor of Digital Design and Architecture & Urbanism at the European Graduate School. His work is focused within the rapidly expanding technology and culture of responsive and interactive systems.

Strataform was the product of Beesley collaborating with students in the Myers Forum class at the Myers School of Art to create an immersive architectural installation using his interactive systems. By integrating kinetic functions with lightweight structures, together Beesley and Myers students created a responsive environment indicative of hybrid forms of nature. Under his supervision, students in the “maker lab” at the Myers School of Art used plexiglass, mylar, and test tubes for laser cutting and thermoforming as well as LED lights, computer processors, and projectors that interplayed with a web-like veil. Within Strataform, responsive lights reacted to movements below them and reflected off small vials of water within the river of stretched acrylic patterns.

This exhibition was organized by the Emily Davis Gallery and sponsored by the Gallery Committee and Myers Residency Committee of the Myers School of Art, with additional support from Synapse.

A collection of amazing recent work by forty-three Myers School of Art students! Students submitted artworks that were then selected by our esteemed juror, Lauren Davies, Gallery Director of 2731 Prospect Gallery in Cleveland.

Myers School of Art celebrated 13 of its Emeritus faculty with an exhibition of their recent artwork. These artists represent a combined 337 years of service to the University of Akron. Together they nurtured a legion of talented and award-winning students. The list of awards for these artists and their respective students is unfathomable. Many of these faculty were instrumental in expanding their respective departments within the school of art.

The focus of this exhibition aimed to showcase works made after retirement. Most artworks were from the previous few years and some made as recently as Fall 2016. Several have continued on a path of work that may be familiar to long-time followers of their work, for others, they’ve begun new bodies of work outside the medium for which they were known. Works on view spanned everything from ethereal landscapes and politically charged works to found objects, collage and abstract installation pieces. For all of these artists the through line is the act of making art, in many cases long before and long after their teaching careers.

The following artists were included: Andrew Borowiec, George Danhires, Don Harvey, Robert Huff, Dennis Kleidon, James Lenavitt , Dennis Meyer, Penny Rakoff, Mark Soppeland, Ron Taylor, Vlada Vukadinovic, Donna Webb, and Tom Webb.

The Emily Davis Gallery at the Myers School of Art presented two concurrent solo exhibitions that shared a common inspiration, Domestic Spaces. Whispering Room was a mixed-media exhibition featuring Korean artist Sungyeon Park and was on view from November 3^rd – November 23^rd, 2016. This was Park’s first solo exhibition in Ohio.

Park explores a range of media from drawing, knitting, and ceramics to sound and video. By mixing traditional and new media her installations create environments that give hints of familiar interiors and the daily rituals happening in those spaces. Her spaces are described by lines and partial shapes that lack an obvious subject. The artist states that her works “function as a kind of social language, allowing us to re-examine the value of supposedly “trivial” objects, experiences, and ideas by questioning our assumptions.”

In this exhibition, Park used her interpretation of home and hometown to create an extended imaginary space in the Emily Davis Gallery based on her observation of domestic lives. The gallery space employed carefully designed structures of an interior and a part of a city with minimalistic scenery. Her drawing of the space was done by video projections, line drawings, ceramic sculpture, sounds and other objects.

Her projects have been previously supported by the GyeongGi Cultural Foundation, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, and the Arts Council Korea. She has been an artist-in-residence and fellow worldwide, including The Art Omi International Residency, New York, The International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York, and The MacDowell Colony, Taipei Artist Village of Taipei Culture Foundation, Taiwan, The National Art Studio of The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, and Kulturamtes der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Germany.

Park received her MFA in painting and printmaking from the Ewha Womans University in Korea, and MA in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, then achieved her doctoral degree in Fine Art at the Ewha Womans University.

Park has been teaching at Universities since 2011, her courses have a covered broad range of media including drawing, printmaking, digital media, and time-based art. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Dynamic Media department of Konkuk University, Korea.

The exhibition was organized by the Emily Davis Gallery and sponsored by the Gallery Committee and the Residency Committee of the Myers School of Art, with additional support from the Konkuk University.

Ohioan Melissa Haviland presented her work in an exhibition titled For Best, on view from November 3^rd – 23^rd, 2016. Haviland is a printmaker/installation/performance artist who has exhibited her work and participated in artist’s residencies internationally. She is currently an associate professor of art at Ohio University’s School of Art + Design.

Haviland exhibited recent works in diverse media ranging from traditional prints to cast sculptural paper made from vintage linens. For Haviland, the domestic space of the meal, both physical and social, is a place of personal and economic relationships. She stated “I view the table as a platform for interaction from conversation to negotiation. I set the table strategically to examine desire, etiquette, and the power of objects in our lives as totems and commodities.” The works of For Best invited the viewer to consider one’s individual place in the daily ritual that unfolds at each of our tables.

This exhibition was organized by the Emily Davis Gallery and sponsored by the Gallery Committee of the Myers School of Art, with additional support from Ohio University School of Art + Design.

Presented at the Emily Davis Gallery, In Esse was an exhibition showcasing a breadth of local and national fiber artists whose work engaged viewers through fiberʼs visceral, sensorial, familiar, and interactive nature. The work shown in In Esse was brightly colored, multi-scaled, highly textured, and derived from many fiber processes including weaving, binding, knitting, and quilting. These objects highlighted the myriad of avenues through which fiber can be utilized such as craft, sculpture, installation art, and community-engaged art.

The Emily Davis Gallery featured Within Reach from Aug. 29, 2016 to September 23, 2016. This exhibition showcased two artists who engage in the intersections of narrative, material, and perception. Kardon and Worth are informed by a contemporary context of self-reflection, technology, and cinema. Within these visual narratives, the ability to connect to the subject proves elusive. The associations within the work suggest dual meanings and misunderstandings. While forming connections the material and structure of the images are as important to the content as what is depicted.