BruceEdwards + LailaVoss
CONVERGENCE/DIVERGENCE
June 28 - August 17, 2014
Laila Voss: Cleveland Relic #3 -
Steel, wax, Veteran’s Memorial Bridge rivets, gold leaf, 2006
About the Art:
The work in this exhibition completes a series of small sculptures that are reliquaries for mundane objects. Several of these focus on Cleveland’s industrial history, others are inspired by my residency in Prague, Czech Republic and a box of Prague cobblestones that Ken Emerick mailed to me. These sculptures relate to my other installations that deal with the urban environment and projects that explore mundane materials through art, memory, accumulation and juxtaposition.
Much thanks to Steven Yusko and John Ranally.
-Laila Voss
The work in this exhibition completes a series of small sculptures that are reliquaries for mundane objects. Several of these focus on Cleveland’s industrial history, others are inspired by my residency in Prague, Czech Republic and a box of Prague cobblestones that Ken Emerick mailed to me. These sculptures relate to my other installations that deal with the urban environment and projects that explore mundane materials through art, memory, accumulation and juxtaposition.
Much thanks to Steven Yusko and John Ranally.
-Laila Voss
About the Artist:
Laila Voss is an artist and educator who has devoted a career to the cultural vitality of the Northeastern Ohio region. She serves on non-profit boards, has engaged in community art projects, taught both children and adults, managed art departments, and converted an Ohio City school building into artists' studio-living lofts. Laila’s artwork has been featured in important cultural institutions and is held in major collections including the Progressive Collection, University of Volgograd (Russia), the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the William Busta Gallery. She has worked with various neighborhood groups and Community Development Corporations to create parks and gardens. Recently, Laila curated a series of outdoor sculpture exhibits. Ms. Voss has received numerous awards: the City of Cleveland Volunteer of the Year Award; the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award; the opportunity to represent Ohio at the FCCA Prague in the Czech Republic. Laila maintains a vigorous studio practice in the Tremont neighborhood. She received her BFA from Ohio University and her MFA from Kent State University.
Laila Voss is an artist and educator who has devoted a career to the cultural vitality of the Northeastern Ohio region. She serves on non-profit boards, has engaged in community art projects, taught both children and adults, managed art departments, and converted an Ohio City school building into artists' studio-living lofts. Laila’s artwork has been featured in important cultural institutions and is held in major collections including the Progressive Collection, University of Volgograd (Russia), the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the William Busta Gallery. She has worked with various neighborhood groups and Community Development Corporations to create parks and gardens. Recently, Laila curated a series of outdoor sculpture exhibits. Ms. Voss has received numerous awards: the City of Cleveland Volunteer of the Year Award; the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award; the opportunity to represent Ohio at the FCCA Prague in the Czech Republic. Laila maintains a vigorous studio practice in the Tremont neighborhood. She received her BFA from Ohio University and her MFA from Kent State University.
Bruce Edwards: Run - Serigraph, 10 x 10 inches, 2014, edition of 4
About the Art:
I have been watching TV for as long as I can remember, I have seen thousands of hours of films. These films from different eras, all sorts of genres, any manner of plot, image after image, mostly in fragments, a short piece of one film, and then a different film on a different channel, broken up into a chain of unrelated plots and overlapping cinematography, having to be pieced back together into an order by memory, like a puzzle.
Some if the images from the films have made deep impressions on me and will trigger a network of ideas and connections. Others are forgotten easily. I have collected facts and stories about actors and actresses as I have watched them age even if they were already past when I was born. I am drawn to old movies, the black and white features, the westerns and the crime drama, the nowhere man just trying to survive, the hard drinking, smoking, good old days of Hollywood cinema. These are the origin of the images I have been collecting for a long time. They are the images that became the language of film narrative. Much of my empathic understanding of history and sense of place and culture comes from these fragmentary images. I have learned about love, loss, honor, betrayal, and innumerable other facets of human nature.
All of these fragmented, colliding images and plots construct a haphazard framework that has become a part of my reality, like static or the hum of car tires on the road, a constant background.
-Bruce Edwards
I have been watching TV for as long as I can remember, I have seen thousands of hours of films. These films from different eras, all sorts of genres, any manner of plot, image after image, mostly in fragments, a short piece of one film, and then a different film on a different channel, broken up into a chain of unrelated plots and overlapping cinematography, having to be pieced back together into an order by memory, like a puzzle.
Some if the images from the films have made deep impressions on me and will trigger a network of ideas and connections. Others are forgotten easily. I have collected facts and stories about actors and actresses as I have watched them age even if they were already past when I was born. I am drawn to old movies, the black and white features, the westerns and the crime drama, the nowhere man just trying to survive, the hard drinking, smoking, good old days of Hollywood cinema. These are the origin of the images I have been collecting for a long time. They are the images that became the language of film narrative. Much of my empathic understanding of history and sense of place and culture comes from these fragmentary images. I have learned about love, loss, honor, betrayal, and innumerable other facets of human nature.
All of these fragmented, colliding images and plots construct a haphazard framework that has become a part of my reality, like static or the hum of car tires on the road, a constant background.
-Bruce Edwards
About the Artist:
Bruce Edwards received a BFA from Kent State University in 1991. He has shown extensively in Cleveland, most notably at SPACES, Zygote Press, The Center for Contemporary Art (now MOCA Cleveland), and Brandt Gallery. Edwards has been featured in the Performance art festival, and is held in several collections including the Progressive Collection. Edwards maintains a studio practice with his wife, Laila Voss, in the Waterloo Arts District of Cleveland, Ohio. His space includes photography, sculpture, and printmaking. Edwards has been a faculty member of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cuyahoga Community College, and the University of Akron. Currently a full-time artist and creative, he previously was the residency coordinator for SPACES.
Bruce Edwards received a BFA from Kent State University in 1991. He has shown extensively in Cleveland, most notably at SPACES, Zygote Press, The Center for Contemporary Art (now MOCA Cleveland), and Brandt Gallery. Edwards has been featured in the Performance art festival, and is held in several collections including the Progressive Collection. Edwards maintains a studio practice with his wife, Laila Voss, in the Waterloo Arts District of Cleveland, Ohio. His space includes photography, sculpture, and printmaking. Edwards has been a faculty member of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cuyahoga Community College, and the University of Akron. Currently a full-time artist and creative, he previously was the residency coordinator for SPACES.
