THE BRIDGE GALLERY
PRESENTED BY FRANKLINTON ARTS DISTRICT
MAY 2022
METAMORPHOSIS: A CCAD MFA EXHIBITION
May 13 - June 1
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The Franklinton Arts District welcomes Columbus College of Art & Design’s first- and second-year MFA candidates in 'Metamorphosis: A CCAD MFA Exhibition', on view Friday, May 13–June 1 in The Bridge Gallery at 400 West Rich.
The show features work by seven Master of Fine Arts students and is named for the artworks’ common theme of metamorphosis. Whether through the spiritual journey of loved ones’ illnesses, finding the strength to leave a war-torn homeland, or the ritual of putting on and taking off makeup, each artist explores their—or viewers’—transition from one form to another. Refreshments will be available with beer provided by Land-Grant Brewing Company. Admission is free; however, donations are encouraged. |
MEET THE ARTISTS
JONATHAN LOHR (MFA, 2023)
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ABOUT JONATHAN
Jonathan Lohr was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated with his BFA in Studio Arts from Edinboro University in 2017. He began earning his MFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in 2021. ARTIST STATEMENT
I interrogate relationships of labor and leisure by creating abstracted simulacra of workplace and domestic environments using nonart materials to acknowledge my own distance from the subject. By doing this, I want my audience to appreciate the aesthetics of industrial, manual labor and reflect back onto their own labor experiences, either inserting their own narrative into these abstractions, a direct connection to the art, or by investigating their own detachment from these objects. |
JOSHUA L. MORGAN (MFA, 2022)
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ABOUT JOSHUA
Joshua L. Morgan was born in Ohio, in 1983, he holds a MFA from The Columbus College of Art & Design in 2022, a MA in Arts Administration from The University of Akron in 2015, and a BFA from Kent State University, in 2007. Joshua’s work has been featured in galleries across the country such as Gormley Gallery in Maryland, House of Shadows in Florida, and Sean Christopher Gallery in Ohio. In his spare time, Joshua renovates vintage campers under his LLC, Wonder Dog Rehab, enjoys spending time with friends and camping with his Jack Russell Terrier named Romy. ARTIST STATEMENT
My mixed media paintings dismantle and explore the construction and reconstruction of the self through life-altering events through abstracted weaving of colors that exhibit the daily process of restructuring and embodiment. As a painter I produce these works inspired by my own rediscovery of self and strive to engage the audience with a labyrinth of color theory to deploy their own life evoked experiences. Through my paintings I document life after unexpected life-events and embody the efforts endured in rebuilding trust, intuition, and faith within my self. The paintings provide the viewer with a experimental coding to reflect upon regarding their own experiences. The abstracted weaving of colors showcases the daily processing I endured when reconstructing one's ideals, beliefs, and standards. |
CARMEN OSTERMANN (MFA, 2022)
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ABOUT CARMEN
CARMEN OSTERMANN (b. Edgewood, Kentucky) is a fine artist who was raised in the United States, Canada, Japan, and the Philippines. In 2015, she received her BFA in ceramics and sculpture at the University of Cincinnati. Afterwards she taught at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, Stivers School for the Arts and A+ Children’s Academy. Ostermann is the recipient of the Wolfstein Travel Fellowship (Frankfurt, Germany), the Margaret L. Gongaware Scholarship, and the Windgate Scholarship. Her work has been featured in the Ohio Craft Museum and the Beeler Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Currently she is completing her MFA at the Columbus College of Art & Design. ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an artist who investigates the intricacy of ecosystems and the impacts of environmental destruction through delicate hand built ceramic and fiber sculptures. I simultaneously reveal the beauty of the environment and the harm being inflicted upon nature in ornate depictions of birds being consumed by ecological succession from their habitats. When constructing the sculptures I carve every feather, bill, and talon. I then engulf the birds with nodes that sprout from their surfaces enveloping them whole. They are weighed down by the trauma of environmental destruction and suspended in a state of being devoured. Through using clay, a material that stops and survives time, I ask the audience to observe acts of annihilation and question what is worth preserving. The surfaces of the birds are an alabaster colour, all chroma has been drained from them, foretelling an ode of what may come to pass. The labor intensive nature of the work is a reciprocal offering of my time to the natural world. By building meticulously delicate sculptures I create space for contemplation about our relationship with the environment. |
HEDIEH SHARIFZADEH (MFA, 2023)
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ABOUT HEDIEH & HER WORK
Hedieh Sharifzadeh was born in Tehran, Iran in 1986. Her work explores a cultural metamorphosis and experiences - expand on this. This time the revolution and the transition are closer to social ideology and cultural change than a political regime, movement of the society to secularism. As she is the post-revolutionary generation, this transformation has formed part of her identity and made tangible to her the process of metamorphosing. The use of architectonic forms, minimalist aesthetic, the juxtaposition of light, and the disparate direction of each object refers to paradoxical identity culture and political radical. It seems they are falling apart and physically broken; each piece has its direction and aim, representing the degraded quality of interaction and disconnection across multiple domains. This also refers to cultural complexity. The coordination of the material with the concept reinforces the naturally heavy, muscular, and firm body of each structure. The various orientations and approaches designate social movement and cultural change, in a similar manner to how contemporary Iranian culture is constantly reformed and transformed. |
HALEY SIPSOCK (MFA, 2022)
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ABOUT HALEY
Haley Sipsock is a multi-media fine artist whose work has been featured at Beeler Gallery, Open Space Art Gallery, and Las Laguna Art Gallery. She has a deep love for alternative photography, showing her unique talent in using mirror cyanotypes. Sipsock explores the use of vivacious florals and many other non-traditional mediums within her art practice. Inspired by personal experiences, she encounters the idea of what the point of healing may look like for her. She recently completed her MFA in Visual Arts at Columbus College of Art and Design. ARTIST STATEMENT
Sipsock is a multimedia artist whose work inquiries about a future of healing when stuck in the precariousness of health while exploring the relationship between the body and disease. In making work relating to disease such as benign tumors and mortality, the artist's obsession facilitates the process of recovery. Inanimate and animate sculptural pieces, like a plaster mass and wilting flowers, become a form of self-portraiture while working through the emotional trauma and dehumanization illness may cause to an individual. As they walk past a collection of cyanotype mirrors, the audience encounters representations of disease infecting the body. Depicting symptoms individuals may relate to while ill attempts to combine inclusion and hope to empower a collective rather than impose and ostracize. |
MIA SMITH (MFA, 2022)
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ABOUT MIA
Mia Isobel Smith is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Columbus, OH. She received her BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and is currently completing her MFA at Columbus College of Art & Design. Smith’s work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at Werner Gallery and Tremont Library and included in group exhibitions at The Ross Arts Museum, Beeler Gallery, and The New York Arts Program. ARTIST STATEMENT
My work preserves the intimate moments in which I both scrutinize and care for my body. Given my daily private experiences mainly occur in the bathroom, I investigate the function of the space for both emotional refuge and physical preparation. Here, I contemplate my appearance. I maintain, manicure, and alter it in pursuit of a renewed sense of self, calling into question my gendered perception of cleanliness, beauty, and identity. Through clay, fiber, and personal artifacts, I create self-portraits that convey the impact of routine behaviors on self-perception. In creating thousands of stitches and grids of ceramic tile, my private experiences are recorded in both delicate and durable ways. What was a seemingly mundane encounter with the self is now transformed into a significant instance of intense contemplation and connection. |
JOEY WALLACE (MFA, 2023)
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ABOUT JOEY
Originally from Akron OH, I graduated in spring of 2021 from the Ohio State University with a BFA in studio art. Then started attending the MFA program CCAD in the Fall of 2021. ARTIST STATEMENT
When a loved one is battling through cancer the easiest path is to not deal with the emotions that come up; covering up parts of the dark spiral that follows you around. When two loved ones are battling at the same time, containment of these intrusive thoughts is much harder. Weaving frantically to mask your feelings so you can stay strong, support them ,and take back control of what the cancer took by cutting your own hair so you don't have to watch it fall out. |
ABOUT THE GALLERY
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The Bridge Gallery Presented By Franklinton Arts District is an art gallery and event space, in collaboration with 400 W. Rich., dedicated to uniting neighborhoods through art, community, and education. Monthly exhibitions will open on Franklinton Fridays, our District-wide art crawl on the second Friday of every month. The Bridge Gallery Presented By Franklinton Arts District is the first physical space managed by the Franklinton Arts District and serves as our office and community meeting space.
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