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July 2023

 

Connectivity

Joleanna Bare, Jonah Jacobs, Avani Patel, and Jeff Repko

 

Opening Reception
Friday, July 7
7 – 10 p.m.

Show Statement

Statement: This exhibition brings into focus interconnections within everyday life through color, movement, and bold patterns. Relationships in nature, society and form itself are explored as each series of work bring a unique response to concept of connections through each artist’s distinctive lens and practice.

About the Artists

Jonah Jacobs:
A local treasure within Cleveland’s art scene, Jonah Jacobs, explores themes of beauty, complexity, and eco-consciousness to create works that are simultaneously thought-provoking and visually stunning. Born in Denmark, and a graduate of Antioch College, he is also an Army veteran who served in S. Korea and in the 82nd Airborne Division, gaining invaluable experience and insight into different perspectives and ways of thinking.

Jacobs’ large-scale pieces combine thousands of individual geometric shapes to create mesmerizing forms that reference fractal patterns, bio colonies, and other complex systems. Jacobs merges creativity with science in an innovative way, to create artworks that explore ideas about order, chaos, growth, decay, and life cycles – the pervasive yet elusive forces that shape our world. Jacobs also treats every exhibition as an opportunity to teach and inspire others how to create artwork that is more environmentally friendly by utilizing unexpected materials for his large-scale art installations, such as cardboard, egg cartons, yarn, quinoa, oatmeal, dryer sheets, and other textiles to name a few.

Avani Patel:
I was born in Mumbai, India, and when I was 11 my family moved to Pennsylvania. I graduated from Tyler School of Art with an MFA and have a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. My cultural upbringing significantly influenced how I came to define my identity as an artist. I fell in love with garment designs, vibrant colors, the sound of music, and the spectacle of both theatre and film when I was a little child living in India. They were all supplely related to one another, effectively representing daily life’s rhythm. My work’s inspiration comes primarily from many cultures. I get inspiration for my artwork from the diverse expressions of various culture in theater, music, and performances, nature, everyday surroundings.

New York, Providence, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago, Dubai, Panama, Portugal, and Mexico are just a few places where my paintings have been displayed. The American Embassy in Panama invited me to hold workshops there in 2005 where we made collaborative art pieces using art materials we may find in our daily lives. In 2005, Laura Bush and Collin Powell also extended an invitation to me to participate in the White House reception honoring artists in American embassies.

In 2008 and 2009, I contributed to the public project America’s Chinatown Voices at Columbus Park in New York City, which was put on by the Asian American Art Center. In Chinatown in New York City, some 100 panels depicting the lives of Asian Americans in the city were on view to the public. Two of my paintings were honorably displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 2002 to 2008. I’ve participated in residencies with Triangle Workshop, Chashama Visual Arts, and Snug Harbor Cultural Center. Currently, I spent the last 20 years living in Brooklyn, New York.

About the Artists

Jeff Repko:
As a Pittsburgh native, Jeff Repko work’s draws on the history of labor and industry that the city is often defined by. Through color and form Repko investigate  relationships and built communities. His abstract mechanism queer the cold impressions of industry bringing a peculiarity to the work. The ambiguous functions and enigmatic purpose of the work explore his feelings of dissociation and search for a sense of place. 

He received his BFA from The Pennsylvania State University and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has also been an artist in resident at The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Carving Studio and Sculpture Center and The Pennsylvania college of Technology. His work both through public and private exhibition in a number of locations including Chicago, Atlanta, Madison, Pittsburgh, Nassau, Italy. Repko is currently based in Atlanta Georgia where he lives and works at the University of North Georgia.

Joleanna Bare:
Joleanna is a freelance artist and illustrator based in the Columbus, OH area. Her art has been shown, displayed, and sold by Wild Goose Creative, 83 Gallery, 400 Square, and Daylight Collective.

She has murals throughout central and southeastern Ohio including a public art mural for 934 gallery downtown Columbus, a large-scale public art mural in partnership with the Franklinton Art District mural for the Gladden Community Food Pantry, and a commercial mural in the Hocking Hills downtown Logan, OH. She has volunteered painting murals for the Brock Foundation and S.O.S Animal Clinic.

Joleanna spent her childhood exploring nature, dance, and music, splitting time between studios and exploring Ohio forest and countryside. Those radically different influences, as well as her mixed Appalachian and Cuban heritage, are still evident in her work as she stretches and rebels against being confined into traditional artistic styles. Joleanna’s work is recognizable and sought after due to its highly illustrative nature. Every mural, portrait, and illustration painted contains stories, plots, and even sometimes hidden subplots within its commentary.

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