Cleveland Public Art will host an opening party on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 5:30pm at Cleveland Public Art, located at 1951 West 26th Street for a joint exhibition of an architectural piece by local artist Lina Stapleton and a photography exhibit produced by Rustwire.com. Stapleton’s piece, titled raíces, showcases the beauty of a plant’s root structure within transparent hanging boxes and clear polymer deco beads. raíces, Spanish for “roots,” lets viewers interact with the artwork by observing the natural rhythmic pattern of the 40 suspended boxes, viewing root structure and plant anatomy, and connecting to the natural world.
Rustwire.com’s Big Urban Photography Project Art Show, features photographic interpretations of Rust Belt cities as seen through the eyes of their young residents. The show is the result of a multi-year collaborative media project that called on the region’s best documentary and fine arts photographers.
This project is part of Rustwire.com’s mission to explore socioeconomic issues and promising transformational strategies in this and similar regions through photography, essays, and original reporting from residents and ex-pats. Over two years, the blog solicited submissions for photography that captured the essence of these proud, troubled cities. Dozens of amateur and professional photographers submitted images of Detroit, Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Toledo, Cincinnati, Buffalo and other places.
Artists include Cleveland’s Ben Seigel, Billy Delfs, Michael Reilly, David Bergholz, Bridget Callahan and others photographers from Youngstown, Erie, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New York City.
For more information on this event, visit www.clevelandpublicart.org/events or rustwire.com.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lina Stapleton, artist and designer, is a native of Colombia, South America. She holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Detroit Mercy and currently works at MCG Architecture in Cleveland. Her works beyond architecture include photography, watercolors, pastels and pencil drawings. Lina has studied and worked in Warsaw, Poland; Detroit; Cleveland; and Colombia. Her work is strongly influenced by time spent in Europe, South America, Miami, and urban neighborhoods in Cleveland and Detroit.
Throughout her architectural studies and in her current work, she has frequently explored how different materials complement one another to impact overall design, and her work focuses on issues of sustainability, recycling, and the weaving together of hard and soft elements. This is best exemplified by Strained + Spliced, a book resulting from her student work in Detroit.
ABOUT RUSTWIRE
Rustwire.com is intended to consolidate thoughtful, constructive stories about post-industrial cities across the Rust Belt. It was developed by two former newspaper reporters with ties to five Rust Belt cities, and it is maintained with help from a half a dozen others from across the region.
Rustwire.com aims to present a balanced, realistic view of our cities, the challenges they face and the assets they maintain. To learn more, please visit http://www.rustwire.com.
ABOUT CLEVELAND PUBLIC ART
Cleveland Public Art (CPA) works to improve public spaces through art and design. CPA is Ohio’s premier organization for the identification and evaluation of public art opportunities, bringing expertise to the selection of artists and the implementation of public art projects. CPA makes art accessible to the entire community by bringing it into the neighborhoods, greenspaces, and public places that are part of everyday life in Cleveland. To learn more, visit www.clevelandpublicart.org.
Arts Quest 