News & Events

The first impression of a mini-retrospective of works on paper by Cleveland artist George Mauersberger at Wolfs gallery in Beachwood is that he’s a master technician, or, perhaps that he’s just a master technician and little more.

But there’s more going on in his nearly hyper-realistic watercolors, pastels, charcoal and pen-and-ink drawings. Yes, they are consistently technically impressive. But importantly, they rise above mere facility to convey a magical sense of appreciation for the prosaic facts of the everyday humdrum world.

Technical mastery is, for Mauersberger, a kind of table stakes, a point of entry in his quest to confront the materiality of the world, the mystery of the existence of things, and the possibility of describing them faithfully in ways that show how the hand and eye can see more than the lens of a camera.

Through his transformative handling of humble materials, Mauersberger is able to convey the ecstatic luminosity of sunlight falling across flower petals, the billowing muscularity of cumulonimbus clouds rising in an inky dark sky, the suppleness of a well-worn black leather jacket, the gleam of mucus on a cow’s nose, and the heavy, dry roughness of concrete cinder blocks.

Find Out More »

Find Out More »

Cleveland-based artist Kristen Newell’s sculptures harness the scent of freshly burnt sage: mild but potent, transformative, warm and redemptive. The figures, animals, and vessels she sculpts all seem to carry the sound of water: rain, tears, the silence of shallow vernal pools, a rushing river, the crash and hush of an oncoming or receding tide. Adamantly whole and conspicuously vulnerable at once, this body of work seems to breathe a collective sigh of relief. The pandemic has passed, but what did it cost? 

Find Out More »

BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Winslow Homer drew inspiration from the wave-lashed coast of Maine. Claude Monet reveled in the ripples on his waterlily pond in Giverny. And Joseph O’Sickey found artistic nirvana in the dappled shade of his backyard in Twin Lakes.

Over a five-decade career, O’Sickey (1918-2013) became one of Northeast Ohio’s most beloved artists in part because he found inspiration close to home.

Find Out More »

On behalf of the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART, WOLFS is pleased to present an exhibition and sale of important works by Joseph O’Sickey. This is the first in a series of exhibitions from the monumental bequest to the Institute from the estate of the famous Ohio artist. Containing major unseen works, both large and unique, small and charming, all in the colorful and exuberant style for which O’Sickey is so well-known.

Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher throughout his career.  As a child he attended Saturday classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which retains one of his paintings in its permanent collection.

He graduated from the Cleveland School of Art (Cleveland Institute of Art) in 1940 and taught at Ohio State University (1946-47), Akron Art Institute (1949-52), Western Reserve University School of Architecture (1956-64), and Kent State University (1964-89). 

Among the most honored painters active in the region, O'Sickey won the Cleveland Arts Prize in Visual Arts in 1974, and was called "a dean of painting in Northeast Ohio" by Steven Litt, art and architecture critic of the Plain Dealer. 

I love drawing and I love painting. It is a privilege to be a painter, but I do not advocate for the ‘art career’ syndrome. Painters should not reject their crucial personal development and observation. I have always held a job as a teacher or graphic artist so that I could be free in my work, and separately concentrate on my growth and development as a painter.” - Joseph O’Sickey

Find Out More »