PRISM | Petra Soesemann, Dan Tranberg, Judy Wolfe, 2017

​Jan. – Feb. 2017

PRISM represents the artist use of color, transparency and geometric shape. Each artist uses a different medium or process to explore this theme. Whether, weaving, sewing or painting, the optic and exponential result in each artists work show the many possibilities of light, color and material.
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Petra Soesemann is a Professor and Chair of the Foundation Department at Cleveland Institute of Art. In 2009 she was granted a year-long sabbatical leave to focus on her creative practice at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program. Selected awards include Artist-in-Residence at the Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain; Fulbright Fellowship to study Incan architecture in Peru; exhibition Grant to Sao Paulo, Brazil; travel grants to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to research Mayan art and architecture; and travel grants to Turkey to study Islamic art and architecture as well as contemporary art. She has also taken CIA students to Mexico, Germany and Italy on team-taught foreign study trips. Soesemann’s recent work explores the conventional relationships between seeing and representing; her fabric constructions often manipulate light and color to bring perception into conflict with uncertainty, engaging the basic mechanisms of “mind seeking meaning” as a process of consciousness.

​Dan Tranberg is the author of “Acrylic Fusion,” a 2012 book on painting techniques and was a full-time instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Tranberg has published more than 750 articles on art and has exhibited his paintings in more that 40 exhibitions. His writing has appeared in national and international publications, including Art in America, NY Arts, artUS, BOMB, Glass Magazine, and Art on Paper. He was awarded an Ohio Excellence in Journalism award in 2004 and received Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships in 2002 and 2007.

Judy Wolfe is a lifetime artist and weaver residing in Chesterland, Ohio. Once a student in fiber arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Judy has taught countless students in weaving at her home studio over the years. Specializing in hand dyed tapestry weaving, Judy has has a prolific studio practice. Her carefully crafted rugs show a playful exploration of color, shape and pattern.