Art Gallery

Fawick Art Gallery, Kleist Center for Art & Drama
95 E. Bagley Rd., Berea, Ohio 44017

The Fawick Art Gallery holds six exhibitions each year, three in the fall and three in the spring. These exhibits include the annual ceramics invitational, the juried student exhibition and the exhibition of artwork produced by senior art studio and art education majors. Other exhibitions spotlight the work of Ohio artists. All exhibitions are free and open to the public.

Visit fawickgallery.com for additional information on upcoming and past exhibitions.

Gallery hours are 2 p.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday, or by appointment at (440) 826-2152.

The Gallery is closed during breaks, holidays and the summer months.

Fall 2021 Exhibitions

"Eighty-six Reasons (for asylum admission)"
Works by Kimberly Chapman
August 30 - September 24

Opening Reception:
Friday, September 10, 5-8 p.m.

Ohio artist Kimberly Chapman examines why women were sent to asylums and the botched diagnoses and treatments they received. "Early asylums were brutal places, especially for women," said Chapman. The fairer sex was the prime focus of male physicians, especially during the Victorian era. Almost any form of behavior — excited chattering with other women, novel reading, lack of enthusiasm for domestic chores or grief — was pegged as hysteria. "It was a convenient way for husbands and fathers to keep opinionated, unruly or inconvenient women and girls in line."

The story unfolds with sculptures of straightjacketed women. Some wear molten gold face masks obscuring thought, speech and vision; others are doing inventive things with birds left in their care; while a trio dissolves into their bedsheets. Championship cup trophies recognize infamous doctors who, through misdiagnosis or inapt procedures, caused patients considerable pain and death.

The tale continues with oversize porcelain teeth wrapped in gauze and a cabinet filled with 86 toothbrushes — each made unique by the user's brushing patterns. A wall installation of outstretched hands with souvenir coins symbolizes how for a shilling, the public could gawk at the unfortunate souls in London's St. Bethlem Royal Hospital, which attracted 96,000 annual visitors.

Tintype images of women about to be admitted to or already experiencing asylum life figure prominently. While it is the artist posing as patients, she is disguised in authentic 1800s clothing with various props and hairstyles. All images point to reasons why women were sent to asylums.

Chapman, a 2017 Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, said the exhibition title is from the document "86 Reasons for Admission" published by West Virginia's Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, 1864-1889. Imaginary female trouble, immoral life, laziness, menstrual deranged, novel reading, fits, religious enthusiasm, bad company, egotism, female disease, time of life, grief, tobacco and masturbation are listed as common reasons.

Known for tackling difficult issues like silencing women, domestic abuse, the refugee crises and American school shootings, Chapman's delicate, ethereal white porcelain sculptures are seen through the female lens.

Learn more about Chapman's work at kimberlychapmansculptor.com or on Instagram @kimberlychapmansculptor. 

"This Land is Your Land"
Works by Kevin Muente
October 11-29

Opening Reception:
Friday, October 22, 5-8 p.m.

The stories I tell speak to the soul. We may not know who these characters are,
but we still connect to their problems and desires. We empathize with them. Their world helps us to examine our world. Expressions, gestures and narratives frozen on the canvas heighten the suspense and are never fully resolved.

 The landscape and its eternal presence surround the figures and offer a freshness lacking from much narrative art. Like a film director, I scope out environments that will heighten the drama of the characters involved, giving my paintings an almost cinematic quality. On occasion, animals play a vital role in man's attachment to nature and act in a supporting role to complicate the narrative.

 My obsession with particular elements of the landscape, such as leaves, branches, ripples and stones, helps communicate the magical unbelievability of a place both figuratively and metaphorically. By paying attention to the noises, smells, and changes in light and temperature, my paintings reaffirm a sense of place for the viewer.

 I work from life, from photographs and from invention to hopefully awaken the viewer's soul. I paint with oils and channel the drama of artists from the past who have heroicized the figure, such as Jean-Francois Millet, Caspar David Friedrich and Winslow Homer. Figures within a pivotal situation secure a sense of the grand mythic qualities that nature rarely reveals but are relevant to us all. In this way, landscape becomes a vehicle for expressing the human condition, sometimes as much as the figures themselves.

Learn more about Muente's work at kevinmuente.foliohd.com.

"Don't Panic! Brace for Impact"
Works by R!ch Cihlar, Bob Peck and Friends
November 12 - December 3

Opening Reception:
Friday, November 12, 5-8 p.m.

BW alumnus and employee R!ch Cihlar '02 and friend Bob Peck will present their exhibition, "Don't Panic! Brace for Impact." The Don't Panic! Duo is back at it again, and this time they are bringing friends, including several contemporary street artists, to fulfill this one-stop immersive art environment. Works anticipated in this exhibition will echo the show title of objects or ideas of bracing for impact in many forms of media, including spray paint, metal works and cast resin designer toys. A reimagined cigarette vending machine (created by Cihlar) will also be on hand to dispense art and raise money for scholarships.

Learn more about Cihlar's work at richcihlar.com and Peck's work on Instagram @bob_peck_art. They are also @dont_panic_duo on Instagram.