Art by: Alexa Wehrman
Ransoms of the Body - Curated works by:
Nicole Carroll, Frank Hadzima, Zoë Taylor, and Alexa Wehrman
A pop-up gallery show February 4th through 6th, 2022
As artists we each seek to explore the visceral feeling of inhabiting a body, drawing on quick snapshots of life taken from media or from personal experience as our sources. The four artists represented here employ distinct approaches toward this subject matter. Yet, through these individual approaches, we arrive at the same overarching conclusion – work which exudes the feelings of bodies unraveling.
- From the artists, collectively
Maria Neil Art Project is excited to offer a unique pop-up art show at our gallery space in Collinwood. Together with the Cleveland Institute of Art we've invited four students to collectively showcase their ideas about the body and how it is perceived. Pop in and experience new artistic talent, and look forward to some honest conversations about body positivity.
Nicole Carroll, Frank Hadzima, Zoë Taylor, and Alexa Wehrman
A pop-up gallery show February 4th through 6th, 2022
As artists we each seek to explore the visceral feeling of inhabiting a body, drawing on quick snapshots of life taken from media or from personal experience as our sources. The four artists represented here employ distinct approaches toward this subject matter. Yet, through these individual approaches, we arrive at the same overarching conclusion – work which exudes the feelings of bodies unraveling.
- From the artists, collectively
Maria Neil Art Project is excited to offer a unique pop-up art show at our gallery space in Collinwood. Together with the Cleveland Institute of Art we've invited four students to collectively showcase their ideas about the body and how it is perceived. Pop in and experience new artistic talent, and look forward to some honest conversations about body positivity.
The Artists :
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 Art by: Nicole Carroll
Nicole Carroll is currently a junior at the Cleveland Institute of Art, studying painting and printmaking. She primarily works in oil and acrylic paints, and also enjoys various print methods such as acid etch, drypoint, lithography, and screen printing. Many of her works include portraiture and other scenes that have distorted views within them.
About the work in RANSOMS OF THE BODY: I am interested in distorting portraiture and daily life through different lenses. The examples of such, would be photographing through glass cups and through water. I also have been exploring other ways to distort one's view by pixelating images. In my work, I play with the idea of feeling out of touch with reality by portraying how it may look and feel to the person experiencing it. By distorting the face and the surroundings in various ways, I hope to confuse the viewer and allow room for them to question what the person may be feeling and why they are seeing this. The colors in these works are more saturated than real life, pointing towards a dream-like feel. Website: https://nicolecarrollart.wixsite.com/myportfolio Instagram: @art_nicole |
 Art by: Frank Hadzima
Frank Hadzima is a Junior in painting at The Cleveland Institute of Art. Born on April 11, 2001 in Cleveland Ohio; he primarily works in oil paint and gouache, focusing on the human figure in an atmospheric setting. Frank is a recipient of the 2019-2022 CIA Gund Family Scholarship, 2019 National Technical Honor Society Outstanding Character and Achievement Award, and 2019 Ohio Governor's Art Exhibition Top 300 in State. About the work in RANSOMS OF THE BODY: I am very interested in integrating dry humor as well as visceral shock and uneasiness in my work. Much of my work is photographically referential without being photorealistic. My source material comes from shocking but well-known images on the internet as well as my own photos. This helps to remove my subjects from reality and allows them to be more accessible to the common viewer. A keen eye for color exaggeration and technical skill in paint application makes for work that is pleasing to the eye regardless of subject matter. Website: https://fmhadzima.myportfolio.com/ Instagram: @franken_fruit |
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 Art by: Zoë Taylor
Zoë Taylor is a junior in The Cleveland Institute of Art’s BFA program. Born July 27 2001 in Slidell Louisiana and raised in Oxford Mississippi; now living, studying and working in Cleveland Ohio. Zoë has shown in the Denver Art Society, the Arvada Center for Arts & Humanities and was the recipient of first place in painting in her secondary education’s district competition.
About the work in RANSOMS OF THE BODY: Growing up, I recall a childhood filled with Mary Janes & ponytails, and an adolescence full of stick-n-poke tattoos & used condoms. My paintings reflect a sensual untangling of boundaries and desires. Using the most fetishized body part after the sex organs, the feet - each piece is lovingly nursed through a series of many laborious, thin glazes. Rendered in shades of blue-greys and salmon pinks, and remaining deliciously fleshy. The posed limbs are adorned with cuts, welts, and sparkles. Beautiful and bloodied forms serve as a tribute to the simultaneous existence of pain and pleasure. Website: https://zoetaylor.myportfolio.com/ Instagram: @gummyhole |
Art by: Alexa Wehrman
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Alexa Wehrman is a figurative artist native to Cincinnati Ohio and is currently living in Cleveland. She has had her work featured in the “2nd Annual Juried Fresno Printmakers Guild Print Exhibition” in Fresno (CA) and in the “Have Your Say Exhibition” with the Grosse Pointe Artists Association Gallery in Grosse Pointe Farms (MI). Along with this she has also featured her pieces in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and locally in Cleveland. She is a mural artist for Flexware Innovations and The Contemporary Art Center of Cincinnati’s “UnMuseum” and was recently published in Juiced! Magazine’s “Intimacy” V1N3. She was a Senior Apprentice with ArtWorks Cincinnati in 2019 and over the summer of 2021 she was the intern at both Kaiser Gallery and Ingenuity Cleveland. She was the designer and lead artist for the “Lake Erie Monster” at the 2021 Ingenuity Fest “On the Lake”.
About the work in RANSOMS OF THE BODY: Recently my pieces have been revolving around pornography and the modern and art historical nude. With this work I'm proclaiming that a lot of art historical nudes can be directly compared to modern pornography. How they, at the time, were just as sexual as modern graphic photos we see online, and we should see them as such. Website: Instagram: @alexa_wehrman |
