About the Exhibition
Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel property. Elevate provides hotel guests with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space. To view these works, please stop by the front desk to arrange access to the vitrines on guest room floors.
On view from April – October 2018, Elevate at 21c Cincinnati presents the work of Ellina Chetverikova, Sara Pearce, Jan Wiesner and Mark Wiesner.
Ellina Chetverikova
By the River, 2017, Gouache on paper, Courtesy of the artist
Carair, 2017, Gouache on paper, Courtesy of the artist
In 2007, Ellina Chetverikova moved to the U.S. from the Ukraine to attend the Art Academy of Cincinnati. In her years since moving to the U.S., Ellina has been traversing the city making pocket-sized portraits and plein air paintings of Cincinnati’s tree-lined streets, gardens, bridges, and looming bell towers. The artist works almost every day, staying true to her rule of splitting her time between working inside and outside. She notes, “I notice that if I work in the studio for too much time I become stale, while if I go outside to work I become more active and attentive.” The artist, who works from life and from photographs, explains that her work seeks to share her experience as a foreigner living in this country. Twelve of her gouache on paper paintings are on view on the 3rd floor 21c Cincinnati as part of Elevate.
Sara Pearce
Dangerous Game, 2016, Mixed-media collage made with antique engraving from Harper’s Weekly (1875), antique map, hand-painted fashion illustration from Peterson’s Magazine; recycled magazine ad; mica flakes; ink, watercolor and acrylic paint. On acid-free foam-core board, Courtesy of the artist
The Grand Tour: Wild Things | Camera Safari, 2017, Mixed-media collage made with original antique and vintage prints, map and machine-printed marbled paper; Victorian scraps; recycled wallpaper samples, poster and travel guide; archival glue; watercolor, ink, marker, Courtesy of the artist
Using imagery and text from salvaged and gifted 19th– and 20th-century periodicals, books, and ephemera, Sara Pearce creates collaged, dreamlike scenes featuring women. A self-described lover of paper, Pearce worked for twenty years and multiple roles at the Cincinnati Enquirer before changing careers to follow her dream as an artist. Now, after years of writing stories, Pearce uses her collages to create visual stories. Her work is on view on the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th floors at 21c Cincinnati as part of Elevate.
Jan Wiesner
Her Bed Took Her Sailing Last Night With Her Ralph Lauren Nautical Striped Comforter, 2017, Ceramic, wood, Courtesy of the artist
Jan Wiesner’s sculptures explore the fairytales embedded within our culture that specifically affect women’s lives. Her sculptures confront the distortions between society’s expectations and the emotional responses to those expectations that are often hidden for fear of condemnation. The artist explains that by “probing the fragile nature of the material world,” she shares “sensitivity to both the transient physical aspects of life with the metaphoric connotations of the material.” Her work is on view on the 5th floor at 21c Cincinnati as part of Elevate.
Mark Wiesner
Eyes Look Your Last! Arms, Take Your Last Embrace!, 2018, Mixed media, Courtesy of the artist
Mark Wiesner’s wall relief sculptures reference the synergy between drawing and sculpture, nature and abstraction. The artist is a son of a bricklayer and taught art for 39 years before dedicating himself to his own artistic practice. He describes his sculptures as “marks in space”, no different from “the prompts he placed before students”. He explains, “I am a sculptor of assemblages. I bring a meticulous, technical rigor to bear on sometimes delicate and mundane materials. My calloused hands shape and form as did my father’s.” His work is displayed on the 4th floor at 21c Cincinnati as part of Elevate.
