Critical Conversations: Art in Practice is a Cleveland Institute of Art studio/seminar class in which students engage in semester-long research of a single contemporary artist.

During the Fall 2022 semester, students majoring in Ceramics, Drawing, Painting and Sculpture + Expanded Media selected their research subjects from The Progressive Art Collection.

In close collaboration with Progressive’s Art Department, students spent the term investigating, evaluating and reflecting on their selected artist’s work on site at three of Progressive’s Northeast Ohio campuses.

The course culminates with a capstone exhibition, also Critical Conversations: Art in Practice, that showcases both the students’ work and the work of their artist/companion, which is generously on loan courtesy of the Progressive Corporation.

Critical Conversations: Art in Practice will open from 6 to 8pm Friday, December 9 at CIA in the Ann and Norman Roulet Student + Alumni Gallery, the Donna and Stewart Kohl Corridor, and the Mary Ann and Jack Katzenmeyer Student Lounge. It will remain on view through January 23, 2023.

The following CIA students and paired contemporary artists will be in Critical Conversations: Art in Practice:

Bentley / Brock Enright
Janoi Daley / Alex Jackson
Isabella Dombrowski / Barton Benes
Elena Flores / Letha Wilson
Frank Hadzima / Kathleen Gilje
Ronnie Jackson / Jen Ray
Tristen Kovacs / Gregory Crewdson
Ryan Kreitzer / Cal Lane
Tamsyn Kuehnert / Vik Muniz
Nic Meinhardt / Elizabeth McIntosh
John Peterson / Roxy Paine
Paige Stine / Alia Ali
Alex Vlasov / Dan Tranberg
Caro Volny / Lilian Tyrrell
Cierra Weissmiller / Willie Cole

Image: Left: “Practical (A)Effects” by Alex Jackson, from The Progressive Art Collection. Right: “Tek Mi Wid Yuh” by CIA Painting student Janoi Daley.