Press Releases

For more information, please contact:
Mark Inglis, Cleveland Institute of Art
216.421.7403, minglis@cia.edu

CLEVELAND – March 8, 2013 – The conceptual works of internationally known contemporary artists Beat Zoderer, Jenny Perlin, Steve Roden, and Bill Smith will be on display in the Reinberger Galleries at the Cleveland Institute of Art starting March 29. The opening night reception is Friday, March 29 from 6-8 pm. The roundtable discussion takes place on Friday, March 29, from 5-6pm, with artists Zoderer and Smith; CIA Professor Christian Wulffen; Reto Thüring, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Cleveland Museum of Art; and Reinberger Galleries Director Bruce Checefsky.

“This series of exhibitions will challenge how you look at everyday objects, appreciate the imperfect moments in life, marvel at the simplicity of silence, and define cohesiveness,” said Bruce Checefsky, Reinberger Galleries director.

Presenting his first solo exhibition in the United States, Swiss born Zoderer is known by art enthusiasts around the world for creating methodical structures based on mathematical systems from everyday materials. For this exhibition Zoderer will create a site-specific ‘Flying Carpet’ sculpture using 2.00mm sheet aluminum plates com­missioned by the college expressly for the 2,000 square-foot gallery that will hang from the ceiling. Improvisatory and idiosyncratic, Zoderer will be on hand for a two-week residency at CIA from March 18-30, 2013 to build his installation, meet with CIA students and lead the roundtable discussion on March 29.

Brooklyn-based artist Perlin is known for her films, videos, drawings and installations, and creates for this exhibition a tribute to artistic blunders and manual missteps that draw on history, cultural studies, literature and linguistics. Her films have been shown as single-channel works and multi-channel installations at numerous venues including the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, and the Berlin and Rotterdam film festivals.

Roden, a visual and sound artist from Los Angeles is best known for the lowercase style of music, where quiet sounds are amplified amid long stretches of silence. “Roden’s work evolves out of the unlikely pairing of the conceptual and the tactile; think squeaky snow. If you listen carefully you might hear John Cage recite Walter Benjamin,” says Checefsky. Roden has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally including Mercosur Biennial (Porto Alegre, Brazil), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art EMST (Athens, Greece).

Smith investigates natural systems of order and how they are translated into sculptural form with his new work titled ‘Original Sin.’ Smith notes that “Observing the lines that create the diversity we see around us, makes obvious the similarities things have. Those central similarities reflect the underlying rules that generate the cohe­siveness and diversity of the universe.” His work has been exhibited at The Chicago Cultural Center; The Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis; and the 5th Biennale de Montreal.

About CIA

The Cleveland Institute of Art is a premier college of art and design, and has been a national leader in arts education for 131 years. It currently offers 16 majors in studio art and design and includes a robust continuing education program, the Reinberger Galleries, Cinematheque and various other types of public programming. For more information visit cia.edu.

Cleveland Institute of Art is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.