Bakpak Durden

Through extensive research, introspective examination, and an antidisciplinary approach, Durden fuses narrative and visual elements of the Baroque and Afro-Surrealist movements to create deconstructed cinematic experiences or “films,” exploring human consciousness and Spiritual Existence. Durden is well known for creating large-scale murals that depict subjects in transitional states with an emphasis on connecting to the surrounding communities. Durden’s work has recently been presented in exhibitions at Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI; The Stamps Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI; Galerie Camille, Detroit, MI; Reyes/Finn, Detroit, MI; MOCAD, Detroit, MI; Playground Detroit, Detroit, MI; David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI; The Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, MI; Heron Art, San Francisco, CA; Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL; Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, among others. Bakpak Durden currently lives and works in Detroit, MI.

Lauren Pearce

Lauren Pearce (b.1988) is a black artist based in Cleveland, Ohio who pulls inspiration from her family, lived experiences and community. Creating work centered around her own liberation in neurodiversity she uses this to create mixed media work focusing on figures and textures. Her passion for expressing her identity led her to become a young student at an art School. At an early age of 24, she began her professional career as an artist. Using an array of materials in her work, she transfers her world onto her paintings and allows her imagination to bring forth the colorful language of Identity, disability, race, and womanhood, beyond a canvas.

Ewuresi Archer

Ewuresi Archer is a Painter and Printmaker based in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a Ghanaian American artist who graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2022 with a BFA in Painting and an emphasis in Printmaking.

With a highly saturated, glowing color palette and scrappy energetic marks, mixed with distorted imagery that creates for a viewer wanting something just out of reach, Archer’s work not only puts her culture on a pedestal. By creating visual tributes to Ghana’s rich traditions, Archer doesn’t only pay homage to diverse flavors and customs, she also creates art that helps her learn more about this culture that she was very removed from whilst growing up.

Archers’ work has been shown in multiple group exhibitions such as Waking Dream at River House Arts in Toledo, OH, Snickers That Turn to Livable Joy at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, OH, I Am My Best Work, at The Painting Center in New York, NY and she co curated a two person show Cut From The Same Cloth at Kaiser Gallery in Tremont, OH. Archer has also had a total of two solo shows; Alluring Souls at the Beltline Project in Detroit, MI and You Are Invited: Your Hands and Mouth Are Not as a result of a residency with Akron Soul Train in Akron, OH. She won 1st Place Prize at The First Annual Paul and Norma Tikkanen Painting Prize show in 2022, a little while after graduating. She has been featured in Canvas Rebel and New Art Examiner. Most recently, she was awarded a Satellite Fund administered by SPACES Cleveland and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts. She will be creating a recipe/art book; KWERH!!!! that is set to be completed by the end of Summer ’24.

Susan Danko

Susan Danko is a painter based in Cleveland, Ohio. She received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1998, and has built a successful career as an artist and educator. Career honors include 2021 and 2013 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. She has been awarded two Ohio Percent for Art commission projects.

Susan has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech.,The Butler Museum of American Art, The Ohio Arts Council, and the Cleveland Foundation. Her work is held in prominent art collections including the Cleveland Clinic, the Ohio Arts Council, the Cleveland Hilton Hotel and Convention Center, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Her work is represented by Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland, and James Gallery in Pittsburgh. More of her work may be viewed on her website: susandanko.com and on Instagram at susan_danko.

Allison Bogard Hall

Allison Bogard Hall is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living and working in Cleveland, Ohio. Hall earned her BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2014 and has since been expanding her work through multiple mediums such as printmaking, installation, found object sculpture, and darkroom photography. Her pieces are often autobiographical and heavily influenced by current events, found imagery, and literature. After graduating from MICA and returning to her hometown of Cleveland, she began to teach art for various non-profits and arts centers throughout the area. As a teacher, Hall found a passion for art education that led her to working as the Studio Manager for Foundation + Continuing Education at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2022. When not busy making work out of her studio at the Screw Factory in Lakewood, Ohio, Hall is working as a Studio Manager at CIA or out exploring the outdoors with her partner and five-year-old son Archie.

Exhibition Curator
Thea Spittle

Thea Spittle (she/her) is an independent curator and writer based in Akron, Ohio. She collaborates alongside artists to produce exhibitions, publications and public programs for the greater Northeast Ohio community. Spittle holds a Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Spanish from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. Her first curatorial project, the sunroom, was in a Cleveland Heights home, and showcased site-specific installations throughout the home and its yard. She served as co-curator for CAN Triennial 2022 producing exhibitions at Zygote Press, Morgan Paper Conservancy and artNEO. She currently co-directs Gallery 2602 with Deidre McPherson, a roaming exhibition and public programming platform situated within community spaces. She has written essays for Cleveland Institute of Art, CAN Journal and Gallery 2602 and moderated the panel discussion Who Curates Contemporary Art? at Cleveland Museum of Art.

About Museum of Creative Human Art
Michael C. Russell II and Antwoine Washington

The Museum of Creative Human Art employs a character-based approach to connect creative expression with education and personal development. In addition to providing a space for underserved youth to learn, connect, create, and share, they also offer exhibition opportunities for professional and emerging artists. At its core, their work focuses on cultivating conscientiousness, moral agency, core values, and social attitudes essential for individuals to make meaningful contributions to society. Learn more at www.creativehumanart.com.