SPACES  |  July 01, 2024

SPACES OPENS EXHIBITIONS BY JESSICA CAMPBELL AND CHLOE MUNKENBECK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fanna Gebreyesus, Executive Director

July 1, 2024 216.621.2314 | contact@SPACEScle.org

SPACES OPENS EXHIBITIONS BY JESSICA CAMPBELL AND CHLOE MUNKENBECK

Left: Jessica Campbell, Suffering Machines. Right: Chloe Munkenbeck, Clean Lines. Photo: Amber L. Ford. Courtesy: SPACES

(Cleveland, OH)—SPACES opens two new exhibitions featuring Artists-in-Residence Jessica Campbell (Canada) and Chloe Munkenbeck (U.K.).

In the Oracle Gallery, Jessica Campbell’s Suffering Machines features a series of portraits of women from history, some drawn and some woven. Weaving is a technique new to Campbell’s practice and exhibited at SPACES for the first time. It is a labor-intensive and ancient tradition that historically has been largely practiced by women, a tradition the artist is honored to participate in. Each portrait in this exhibition is framed by a set of curtains, referencing both the domestic spaces for which these curtains were produced and the history of curtains in visual art. From the ancient Greek myth of Parrhasius’ verisimilitude to contemporary artist David Hammons’ shrouded works, curtains have been employed as framing devices and tools of obfuscation as long as textiles and images have coexisted.

In the Gund Gallery, Chloe Munkenbeck’s Clean Lines reflects on evening walks past the lobbies of modernist skyscrapers and how the cavernous displays of global private wealth become the backdrop for their own upkeep: Soap-covered windows, the familiar whirr of a floor buffer and the rhythmic motion of a vacuum going back and forth. The repetitive acts in service of repelling the surrounding detritus tarnishing this pristine architectural image. In Clean Lines, this detritus is collected and embedded into the icon of the modernist skyscraper: the shiny glass facades are infiltrated with weeds, pen caps, and pigeon feathers; Lever House floor plans are printed in dust; and lobby corners are damp while the air ducts produce an inexplicable yet mesmerizing secretion.

Checklists available upon request.

Exhibitions close July 26, 2024.

About SPACES

SPACES commissions artists worldwide—at all stages of their careers—to make new work responsive to timely issues. We use these projects as points of departure to create educational initiatives that help foster a more informed citizenry. Since 1978, SPACES has served as a resource and public forum for international artists who explore and experiment. While navigating the challenges of our current pandemic, economic crisis, and renewed calls for social justice, we have deepened our mission while expanding services for Cleveland-based artists and audiences. For more information and to sign up for the newsletter, please visit www.spacescle.org or email contact@SPACEScle.org.

SPACES

2900 Detroit Avenue

Cleveland, Ohio 44113

www.spacescle.org

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Gallery Hours are 12 PM–5 PM Wednesday–Saturday.

Major support for SPACES comes from the Beyer Family Fund, Char & Chuck Fowler Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Eaton Charitable Fund, the George Gund Foundation, Kohl Family, Meisel Family Foundation, Nord Foundation, Patricia & Charles Mintz Philanthropic Fund, Ulmer & Berne, LLP, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. We especially thank the public taxpayers for their support through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ohio Arts Council. Additional support comes from Anonymous, James Anderson & David Wittkowsky, Fred & Laura Ruth Bidwell, Jeffry & Cynthia Chiplis, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Becky Dunn, M.D., Bill Gagliano, Mr. Riccardo & Dr. Antoinette Willis, newsense projects, and Wood-Lee International Art Handler. Community support comes from CBIZ Human Capital Management, FORM, the Tamir Rice Foundation, Vedda Printing+, and individual donors like you.