Recently I traveled with printmaking and art history students to Cleveland. We packed a lot into one day. We visited Zygote Press, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and Transformer Station Contemporary Art Space. This was actually my first time in Cleveland, and although the weather was lousy, we all had a great time!
Let’s go!
First stop was the legendary printshop Zygote press…Zygote reminds me of AIR so much, and we were very fortunate appreciative of them squeezing us into their schedule.
Nice open shop, our tour starts with Studio Manager Rebekah Wilhelm…Super nice people working at Zygote!
Like any good printshop, there was lots of great signage…
Support your local unions…
ALWAYS a fan of a trophy in the shop…
This was just one of the main printshops in the building…Zygote has personal studios, intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, and some digital capabilities…they do so much programming with professional artists and community members, this press is an inspiration for sure! A really impressive space for many reasons!
After Zygote it was on to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The building itself is beautiful with the main lobby being a combination of new and old architecture…
Contemporary galleries…
We were lucky to see this really great German Expressionist exhibition too. Perfect timing!
German Expressionist prints, always a crowd pleaser!
This was the REAL treat of the trip. Dr. Janet Snyder reserved time for us to look at some prints from the collection in the CMOA’s print study room.
This is Jacopo de’ Barbari’s woodcut, the Map of Venice. It is AMAZING! It measures 52.2″ × 109.2″, and it is beautiful and very detailed. Obviously, it took a few people to wheel this print in. That alone was worth seeing.
So much detail…
We also were able to see Elizabeth Catlett‘s most well known print “Sharecropper”
AND if that wasn’t enough, we looked at “Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses” by Rembrandt! This print was unframed, just right there a few feet in front of us! This was amazing!
Next stop was the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland…awesome building!
Gigantic mural by Claudia Comte, amazing!
And a very cool exhibition of fake and satirical board games by Simon Denny…
Last stop was the Transformer Station, where I saw work by Dana Schutz.
Joseph Lupo 
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