Julie Schenkelberg: Currant
On view October 21 – March 16, 2023
Cleveland, Ohio – 28 September, 2022 – Large-scale installation artist Julie Schenkelberg will be taking over the corner building of 12210 Euclid Avenue as both the first artist to show in The Sculpture Center’s newly acquired space and its first Artist-in-Residence.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Schenkelberg has developed a nomadic practice following site-specific projects and residencies worldwide to make her work. Upon her return to Cleveland in 2022, Schenkelberg met with Executive Director of The Sculpture Center (TSC), Grace Chin, looking for a studio to use during her upcoming term as adjunct faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Chin was happy to reopen the fabrication studio at the center of The Sculpture Center campus for Schenkelberg to produce a Spotlight show, a new program designed for mid-career artists. Says Chin, “We’re excited to support artists by giving them space to create. An artist like Julie making work on the premises embodies the culture we build around living, working sculptors.” David E. Davis (1920-2002), founder of TSC, fabricated his own large-scale works in the studio. Since Davis’ passing, the studio has only once been temporarily occupied by David Deming, a sculptor and the former president and CEO of The Cleveland Institute of Art from 1998 to 2010.
Schenkelberg’s exhibition will christen the new home of TSC, 12210 Euclid Avenue, which will soon replace its two existing galleries. Once used as a showroom for the Gandola Brothers Monument and Architectural Company who designed and produced monuments for the neighboring Lakeview Cemetery in the early 20th century, the 2200 square foot space afforded Schenkelberg the opportunity to envision a large-scale installation piece. “I thought a lot about the transactions and emotions that passed through the building. On returning to Cleveland, I had a curiosity about what came before me here. I found the deep history of the space mirrored my own practice in the way that it connected generations.”
Titled Currant, Schenkelberg’s show and installation is a play on the word “current” defined as “belonging to the present time.” Schenkelberg weaves imagery of her own history through an archeological collection of castings of plants, religious symbols, abandoned buildings, family dishware and various tombstones in Lakeview Cemetery. Currant also refers to the violet colored berry which can provide assistance in fearful situations, especially when facing the self in being truly alone. The color, a unifying element found in her installation, is also as a healing pigment in spiritual circles.
Julie Schenkelberg’s Spotlight show, Currant, will open on October 21 in tandem with Baltimore-based artist, Sara Dittrich, a recipient of The Sculpture Center’s signature Revealed early career exhibition program which awards regional artists in the first ten years of their career a solo show. Dittrich’s show In slowness there is fullness will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in Ohio.
This presentation of work by a mid-career artist through a Spotlight show alongside that of a Revealed early-career artist marks the latest move by The Sculpture Center to expand its support to sculptors along their journey. Julie Schenkelberg first exhibited at The Sculpture Center in 2014 as a Revealed (formerly known as W2S) artist herself. Eight years later she is back to teach at the Cleveland Institute of Art and foster growth in young artists. As a female sculptor working in a medium dominated by the male perspective, Schenkelberg is deeply committed to mentoring young artists who have also been overlooked to cultivate their own unique voice.
Julie Schenkelberg received a BA in Art History at the College of Wooster, OH and a MFA at the School of Visual Arts, NY. Before pursuing a career as an installation artist, she spent eighteen years working at high level theater and production houses as a scenic painter. Her sculptures have been displayed in exhibitions at the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art (Pittsburgh, PA), the Museum of Art and Design (New York City, NY), EXPO CHICAGO (Chicago, IL), SiTE:LAB UNTITLED during Art Basel (Miami Beach, FL), the University of Akron Meyers School of Art (Akron, OH), and abroad in Italy, Spain and Norway. She is the recipient of many grants including four National Endowment for the Arts Grants and a Harpo Foundation grant. Schenkelberg is represented by Asya Geisberg Gallery (New York City, NY).
There will be an opening reception for both artists on Friday, October 21 from 5:30 – 8 pm. Currant and In slowness there is fullness will be on view through December 16, 2022.
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The Sculpture Center exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public through the generosity of its funders. Ongoing support is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), The Bernice and David E Davis Art Foundation, Callahan Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Dealer Tire, Dominion Energy, and The George Gund Foundation. The Sculpture Center is one of the only cultural institutions providing the critical resources to sculptors along their journey.
Image: Julie Schenkelberg, "Currant," 2022, Installation view at The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH.