CLEVELAND, OH.- The Maria Neil Art Project announces the opening of a new exhibition from Collinwood based photographer Eric Rippert. ‘Is This It’ is the first solo exhibition from Rippert in the Northeast Ohio area in more than ten years. In addition, the gallery will introduce R Howard, an impressive new photographer, in her first professional exhibition.
In the exhibition, Rippert presents a series of new photographs, produced especially for this show, created using the historic platinum printing process. Platinum prints are known for their beauty, archival stability and unique, one-of-a-kind print statement. The same can be said of Rippert’s images – they are beautiful, one-of-a-kind statements offering a notion of a passed history, a collective memory, perhaps representing life events experienced, no matter how minute or grand. Each image presents the viewer with the opportunity to form a personal narrative when looking at the blurred versus the precise within the images. Purposefully keeping the meaning of the photographic narrative cryptic allows the viewer multiple interpretations and creates representational diversity. The exhibition will also feature some of Eric’s previously shown work from his 2011 ‘Ameriscape’ series.
Rippert completed his BFA in Photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and later earned an MFA in Visual Art from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His work is included in numerous private, institutional and museum collections including Cleveland Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art and Progressive Art Collection. Most recently, LAND-studio, a public art organization in Cleveland, and the Ohio Department of Transportation, conducted a national search for art and chose Eric Rippert, as well as two other artists, to adorn neighborhood underpasses with digitally captured murals. Now completed, the artwork has been enlarged to billboard proportions and permanently displayed in the Cleveland neighborhood of Tremont.
‘Emergence’ is the first professional gallery exhibition for R Howard. Her work features many wellknown landmarks in Cleveland, but they are seen from her unique perspective. Each photo represents a new way of viewing places which one sees every day.
Both exhibitions open with a reception on Friday, January 3, 2014 from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm as part of the Waterloo Arts District’s first Friday ‘Walk All Over Waterloo’. The Eric Rippert exhibition is in the main gallery through Sunday, February 16 and R Howard runs in the Native Cleveland Annex through Friday, January 31. The gallery and the annex are located at 15813 Waterloo Road and are open Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm with other hours by appointment.
This exhibition is among a variety of free events to the public funded by the Collinwood Rising Vibrancy Grants program. Through the generous support of The Kresge Foundation, artists and local businesses have the opportunity to create transformative change in the Collinwood neighborhood. The goal of the grant is to create dozens of new community projects that brighten up the Waterloo Arts District during their $5.5 million streetscape improvement.
