MassMusings

Nick Lee's exhibition "Eternal Flames" is on display through August 30, 2026.

Nick Lee received his bachelor of fine arts degree in studio art from Kent State University. He is pursuing a master of fine arts degree at the University of Iowa. Lee’s work is inspired by the diversity of human experience. As a Japanese American, he strives to better represent minorities like himself in American portraiture and Western art. Another motivation for his work is self-discovery. Lee is the 2023 recipient of the Distinguished Citizen for Art Education for the Northeast Ohio region by the Ohio Art Education Association and the 2024 Arts Alive Emerging Artist award by Summit Artspace. 

Ariella Har-Even is a jeweler and metalsmith currently living in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in jewelry and metals from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Holocaust and genocide studies at Gratz College. Ariella has been the recipient of many awards, including a One for the Future Award from NYC Jewelry Week, and has exhibited in many venues. Her artwork has been published in Metalsmith magazine. Ariella is the co-founder of Fuse: Museum to Studio Connections, a creative initiative focused on building stronger connections between artists and art historians in the Cleveland area, and Commence Jewelry, an educational initiative that supports emerging artists in the metalsmithing field.

Ariella’s exhibition Across the Ashen River explores connections between adornment, the body, and rituals of burial and mourning—rituals that were violently disrupted during the Holocaust—which set in motion a chain of generational grief and open wounds. By engaging with jewelry through the lens of burial—or through its absence—Across the Ashen River investigates objects as facilitators of memory and mourning, as intimate gestures of resilience and reburial.

Ariella's exhibition, "Across the Ashen River" can be viewed in Studio M through June 21, 2026. 

Isabelle Crawford is a visual artist and muralist from Akron, Ohio. She recently obtained her bachelor of arts degree in studio art from the University of Akron. Isabelle has a passion for community engagement and fostering positive social change through the arts. She has participated in many public mural projects including the Parsons Avenue Mural Hop, Akron’s Art Bomb Brigade, and collaborative mural projects in the Canton Arts District.

Isabelle is currently working full-time as a Registered Behavior Technician. Isabelle wishes to honor her commitment to working in healthcare and incorporating art into her practice. She is eager to share how visual art can be a form of therapy. She believes that the arts play a vital role in healing our psyches.

Isabelle’s exhibition “Pure Potentiality” can be viewed in Studio M through April 26, 2026

Susan Snipes is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cleveland, Ohio, whose media installations respond to the anxieties and disconnection of the digital age. Working with video, sound, digital devices, and often incorporating interactive elements, she creates spaces that invite reflection and dialogue.

Susan holds a masters of fine arts degree in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a bachelor of art degree in Art History from Case Western Reserve University. She has exhibited nationally and regionally, with highlights including exhibitions in Texas, California, and CAN Triennial in Cleveland, Ohio. An active advocate for her community, Susan founded NEO Art Opportunities to connect Northeast Ohio artists with exhibitions and other resources. She also established UNDERSTORY, a contemporary art space in Cleveland dedicated to showcasing emerging conceptual and media artists.

Cleveland-based artist Katy Richards focuses on the materiality of paint and representation, exploring themes of life, death, and desire.

Katy earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a master of fine arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous group shows, and she has had three solo exhibitions at HEDGE Gallery in Cleveland. She also attended the Vermont Studio Center Residency.  

Richards is a recipient of the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council and the Waterloo Arts Trustee Prize in Painting from Waterloo Arts Gallery. She received second place in the realism category of the Paul and Norma Tikkanen Painting Prize from Ashtabula Arts Center.

In the interview, Richards mentions a few artists who have inspired her, including Jenna Gribbon, Ambera Wellman, and Corrie Lynn Tetz. Listen to the complete interview to hear more, and to learn all about Katy's painting process! 

Eric Anthony Berdis is an artist and educator from Erie, Pennsylvania. Their Studio M exhibition, Bugs That Crawl, Flowers That Bloom includes hundreds of quilted bugs created by community members, embellished and assembled by the artist on and around large quilted panels. Some of the bugs were created by participants in a Do the Mu workshop in 2024. Do the Mu is a free intergenerational drop-in art session held at MassMu on the first Saturday of each month. 

Berdis is a member of Grounded Printshop, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, and the lost artist-run space Little Berlin, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has shown artwork at numerous galleries and museums, and has held residencies at Waterloo Arts, Bunker Projects, and the Inner-City Neighborhood Art House. 

With a BFA from Slippery Rock University, a post-baccalaureate degree from Tyler School of Art’s Fibers and Material Studies Program, an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MEd in Early Childhood Education from PennWest Edinboro University, Eric is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Art Education at Penn State University.

Greg Martin is a Cleveland-based artist who incorporates a wide variety of mediums in the creation of 2D and 3D works. He explores the unique polarities found in the natural world, industrial history, and the digital age with a focus on the seen and the unseen. 

A Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, Martin has exhibited in duo and group exhibitions, and in solo exhibitions at Fabrica de Arte Cubano in Havana, Cuba, as well as SHED Projects and the Cleveland Foundation, both in Cleveland, Ohio. Greg is a three-time recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, most recently in January of 2025, as well as numerous other awards and grants. His artwork is housed in a wide variety of public and private collections

His exhibition is a reflection on the impermanence of life, a reminder of the transitory nature of mortality and its role in society. This artwork is a meditation on the fleeting nature of not just our mortal selves, but of literally everything that makes up life.

Greg’s exhibition "Memento Mori" will be on display in Studio M August 16, through September 28, 2025.

Maxmillian Peralta is a painter from Cleveland, Ohio. In his most recent artwork, he alludes to an atmosphere of tension, insecurity, and fear experienced personally, but also collectively by his generation. The artwork takes the form of highly exacting acrylic renderings of spaces, both tense domestic spaces and impossible exterior spaces.

Peralta received his bachelor of fine art in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2021. In 2022, Massillon Museum selected him as a Collective Artist Network Triennial award exhibition winner. Peralta’s honors include a National American Visions Medal and the Anne Gund President’s Traveling Scholarship. Peralta was also commissioned by LeBron James to paint the cover of the inaugural issue of his magazine, The Program, in 2022. Peralta currently resides and works in Cleveland.

His Studio M exhibition Flat Affect is on display through August 3, 2025

Tom Bartel spoke with MassMu staff recently. His exhibit "Figure as Memento: New Ceramic and Mixed Media Artwork" is on display through June 8, 2025.

Tom Bartel has exhibited his ceramics internationally in more than 375 solo, group, juried, and invitational shows. He maintains a studio in Athens, Ohio, where he is a professor and the ceramics chair at Ohio University. Bartel’s artworks are constructed to refer to both the body and charged, stylized, surrogates for the body such as dolls, toys, and figurines.

Learn more about Tom Bartel's exhibit on our website:

https://www.massillonmuseum.org/home/exhibits/detailpage/figure-as-memento-new-ceramic-and-mixed-media-artwork-by-tom-bartel

MassMu staff sat down with Emily Olszewski before her exhibition was installed to talk about her studio practice.  Her Studio M exhibit "Playdates," is on view through April 13, 2025.

Olszewski is a figurative painter based in Akron, Ohio. She earned her bachelor of fine art in painting from The University of Akron in 2019 and her master of fine art from Kent State University in 2024. Her artwork draws from pop culture and themes of feminine communication and community. She has had solo exhibitions in the Akron and Cleveland areas, and recently she participated in the SPRING/Break Art Show in New York City.