The exhibition is on view January 20 – March 31, 2012, with an opening reception this Friday, January 20th from 7 – 9pm. This will be MOCA’s final opening at their Carnegie location. See you there!

Like us on Facebook to see our Art of the Week, and stay hip to our goings on.

NOVEMBER 18 – JANUARY 6, 2011

The Bonfoey Gallery is pleased to present an inaugural exhibition of paintings by artist Frank Oriti.  Return is an exhibition of acrylic and oil paintings on canvas that will be on view in our street level gallery from November 18 through January 6, 2011. We would like to invite you to join us for an opening reception with the artist, Friday, November 18, from 5 – 8 pm at the gallery.

Frank Oriti was born in 1983 and raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.  In 2006 he earned a BFA in Two-Dimensional Studies from Bowling Green State University.  Afterward he returned to his hometown of Parma, Ohio, and took a job in one of Cleveland’s steel mills, painting in his spare time. In 2008 Oriti decided to go back to school and graduated from Ohio University with a MFA in Painting in 2011.

Affected by his own return to the suburban geography of his childhood, Frank Oriti depicts the rugged power and solemn demeanor of the young, male, blue-collar work force in America.  With a uniform of jeans, a plain white T or hoodie, tattooed, and demanding to be seen; Oriti’s protagonists stare directly out at the viewer.  Rather than feeling confrontation from these bold figures, their expressive, meticulously rendered faces elicit a somber response.  Rows of cookie cutter houses, representative of the suburban standard for quality of life, and the perpetual expectation of “keeping up with the Joneses”, are obscured by a snowy whitewashed storm; perhaps a visual metaphor of the character’s anxiety, frustration, and ultimate depression at the economic state of the nation.  Oriti examines his generation as they return home from the military or college and their response to society’s expectations of them as they enter a crippled workforce.  Oriti writes that the questions resonating within his characters are definitively: “What has my life become?” and “What will everyone think of me now?”

For more information about FRANK ORITI – Return, or upcoming exhibitions, please contact The Bonfoey Gallery, 216.621.0178, or visit the company website at www.bonfoey.com.

There will be a closing reception and book signing at the gallery to celebrate Jennie Jones’ successful exhibition “Cleveland Inside Outside: A Thirty Year Journey”, Thursday, November 10th, from 5 to 7pm.  Jennie’s popular book, of same name, will be available for sale and signing by her that evening.  Please join us for wine and light hors d’oeuvres.

.

The Bonfoey Gallery is pleased to present the work of celebrated Cleveland photographer, Jennie Jones. Cleveland Inside Outside: A Thirty Year Journey, a book release and exhibition of new photographic works, will be on view in our street level gallery from October 14 through November 11, 2011. Please join us for an opening reception with the artist, Friday, October 14, from 5 – 8 pm at the gallery.  Jennie will also be at the gallery for an artist talk, Thursday, October 20th at 6pm.

This exhibition of Cleveland photographs is occurring in tandem with the release of Jennie’s newest book of same name.  Cleveland Inside Outside: A Thirty Year Journey is a tribute to the great city of Cleveland; from the skyline renovation in the 1980s and 90s to the rebirth of the Theater District, and the development of the Warehouse District and Gordon Square.  Jones’ keen eye and dramatic photographic style bring to light the beauty and complexity of an urban erected environment, and in parts, abandoned, as a result of thirty years of economic and political fluctuation.

Denver born Jennie Jones attended Milwaukee’s Layton School of Art, the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, and graduated with a BA in art history from Northwestern University.  She joined the education staff of the Milwaukee Art Center where she remained for 11 years. In 1978 Jones relocated to Cleveland.  She established her studio in 1983 specializing in architectural and urban photography.  Her commercial work documented most of the major building projects during the Cleveland Renaissance of the 80s and 90s. Jones work has been featured in many publications including the 1996 Cleveland Bicentennial book Images From the Heart, and the 2005 A Paradise in the City: The Cleveland Botanical Garden, as well as a handful of her own published books that celebrate Cleveland.  The Cleveland Institute of Art awarded her the Burchfield Award for her outstanding contributions to teaching, photography, and leadership as a trustee, and The City of Cleveland honored her in 1993 with a Mayoral Proclamation.  Cleveland State University bestowed her with an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Art in 2006, and in December of 2008 her Rowfant portfolio was acquisitioned into the permanent photographic collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

For more information about the JENNIE JONES – Cleveland Inside Outside: A Thirty Year Journey, or upcoming exhibitions, please contact The Bonfoey Gallery, 216.621.0178, or visit the company website at www.bonfoey.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Bonfoey Gallery, 1710 Euclid Avenue, is pleased to present the work of nationally acclaimed Cleveland painter, Michelle Muldrow. Consumer Landscapes, an exhibition consisting of casein on panel and oil on canvas, will be on view in our street level gallery from September 9 through October 7, 2011. Please join us for an opening reception with the artist, Friday, September 9, from 5 – 7 pm at the gallery.

Michelle Muldrow is a landscape painter investigating the experience of the repulsion and seduction of the American consumer environment.  Her paintings of nameless big box store interiors are intended to elicit both fear and awe as Muldrow represents them as cathedrals of desire.  The seductive power and chaos of goods are lusciously rendered in piqued color while formally anchored in contextual reality. Muldrow states, “I respond to this landscape by obviating the contrast between the mundane and the dramatic – the absurd experience of both comfort and the profane.”

Born in the late sixties, Michelle was raised on Air Force bases throughout the US.  Muldrow notes, “This nomadic experience laid the foundation for a fascination with the American landscape and a vernacular of what defines the American Experience.” During high school she attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and later earned a BFA in painting from the University of Minnesota.  Following a ten-year sojourn as a musician, Muldrow returned to painting in 2000 and began exhibiting nationally.  In 2004 she enjoyed a residency with the Cooper Union Summer Residency Program in New York City.  Muldrow relocated to her current home in Cleveland Heights from San Francisco in 2006.  In 2009 Michelle Muldrow was named a fellow for the Creative Workforce Grant in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.  Her work is featured in the 2010 Midwest edition of New American Paintings and she is proud to be included in corporate collections such as The Cleveland Clinic, California Cryobank, and IndyMac Bank.  Michelle Muldrow is represented by Jen Beckman Gallery, New York, New York; Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, California; and The Bonfoey Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio.

For more information about the MICHELLE MULDROW – Consumer Landscapes, or upcoming exhibitions, please contact The Bonfoey Gallery, 216.621.0178, or visit the company website at www.bonfoey.com.

Congratulations to new Bonfoey Gallery artist Thomas Paquette for his feature in the June Issue of American Art Collector! Order it here.

Congratulations to Bonfoey artist Dana Oldfather for being published in Beautiful Decay‘s Book 6 ”Future Perfect”.  Beautiful/Decay brings together over 100 artists from around the US creating new imagery revolving around the books “future perfect” theme.  Only 1,500 copies were made, all of which are ad-free and hand numbered.

See Marcia’s interview in the May 2011 Issue of American Art Collector Magazine!