ATNSC

08/26/2026

𝗘𝗫𝗛𝗜𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗧
Ernestine Taliaferro
𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙙 (𝙎𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚), circa 1960’s
Oil paint on canvas board

_ABOUT THE WORK This painting is indicative of Taliaferro’s studio practice, the subject of Black life; to see one’s self + lived experience in a work. The use of still life speaks to the spatial memory of the African descendant in the Americas—incorporating a depiction of a West African mask within the African-American modern aesthetic.

This work was located in the home of a Black family in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood and turns its head on who collects art; who art is for.

It communicates who sustains and invests in Black women local artists in Cleveland’s past; here and now.

This exhibition marks Akhsó Gallery’s fifth year of existence—sited in a residential neighborhood, community based and artist-led.

Taliaferro’s work primarily seen in homes, now in a gallery, could be seen as a form of “afrofuturism.”By bearing witness to her work in day to day life, its impact could have been the seed that birthed future Black art spaces or catalyzed the individual practice of a Black artist in our city.

The exhibition as memory and as repair.

_ABOUT THE ARTIST 𝗘𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼 was a Cleveland based artist working across, painting, drawing and design. She lived in the Glenville neighborhood until her death in 2005.

Join us in honoring Ernestine Taliaferro’s practice, through the group exhibition 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 which runs through September 2026.

Schedule your visit: calendly.com/akhsogallery

For Inquiries: [email protected]

08/25/2026

Alison Croney Moses 𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙩, 2024
Wood and acrylic paint

_ABOUT THE ARTIST + THEIR PRACTICE 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 creates wooden objects that reach out to our senses—the smell of cedar, the color of honey or the deep blue sea, the round form that signifies safety and warmth, the gentle curve that beckons to be touched.

Born and raised in North Carolina (USA), by Guyanese parents, making clothing, food, furniture, and art is embedded in Alison’s memories of home life as a child.

Alison’s work explores themes of family, relationship, pregnancy, childbirth, safety, and care. Her work investigates the ‘private’ and ‘personal’ of life experiences that often encourages isolation and deterioration and in turn her work sparks dialogue, building a community of people with similar experiences and creating spaces of processing through care and repair.

Her works are in the collections at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Rose Art Museum at Brandies, and the Fuller Craft Museum.

She is a recipient of the 2023 Boston Artadia Award, the 2022 USA Fellowship in Craft, a finalist of the 2024 LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize, the recipient of the 2024 Black Mountain College International Artist Prize, and the 2025 Foster Prize at the ICA Boston.

Alison serves at a Trustee at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. She holds an MA in Sustainable Business & Communities from Goddard College, and a BFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design.
_from alisoncroneymoses.com

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 runs through September 2026.

Schedule your visit: calendly.com/akhsogallery

08/24/2026

Ernestine Taliaferro
𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙡𝙨 (𝙙𝙞𝙥𝙩𝙮𝙘𝙝), circa 1960’s-70’s
Oil paint on wood

_ABOUT THE WORK These objects are indicative of Taliaferro’s partnership with the interior design firm Ecker and Shane, augmenting French furniture with Orientalist designs—mostly Chinese and Japanese motifs for the firm’s clientele.

These works were made for the white gaze; an intersection of leisure and objectification—perhaps even entertainment as Taliaferro’s name was always visible.

The subject matter and style of Taliaferro’s work changed in her studio practice. The commercial work, a sustenance.

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 runs through September 2026.

Schedule your visit: calendly.com/akhsogallery

08/21/2026

Ara Azad 𝙄 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 2026
Oil, acrylic, postage on canvas
16x20

**ABOUT THE WORK This work was commissioned to mark the fifth anniversary at Akhsó Gallery at ATNSC. Part of the ongoing series (begun over thirty years ago) “The Mailed Paintings,” marking the moment of arrival(s).

“What does it mean to be seen? To see yourself? To see someone else? In this provocative work from internationally acclaimed artist, Ara Azad, he challenges us to consider these questions that explore themes of identity and connection, both to oneself and to others. As we are living in an age of unparalleled technological connection, what does this mean for genuine human connection? And more, importantly, connection to oneself?”

𝙇.𝙈. 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙤𝙣

**ABOUT THE ARTIST 𝗔𝗿𝗮 𝗔𝘇𝗮𝗱 (b. Beirut 1962 - ) is an American/Lebanese born to Armenian parents from Aintab and
Iskenderun. Azad is a graduate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (BFAD5)(EPIIC 95) Tufts University College of Special Studies, the Institute for Global Leadership, Medford, MA.

Expanding on the characteristics of a painting, a sculpture, a drawing, an artist’s book, a performance, an ephemeral sound sculpture, and an installation be that in situ or at no fixed abode, he collapses them at a distinctly empathetical margin: Urgency is his
medium.

from τέχνη to τέχνη.
from art to art.

“My formation stems from the urgency of staying alive versus living. It (urgency) is my
single ‘medium.’ One more work for the instant, one more for the trail, one more for the witness series, one more for my testimony, 1 more for that which should never happen again.” —Ara Azad

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 runs through September 2026.

Schedule your visit calendly.com/akhsogallery

08/20/2026

Ernestine Taliaferro (American, b.1913) 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀, 1979
Textile paint on garment

This Vogue pattern constructed by Glenville resident Laura K. Murray for her wedding and embellished by Taliaferro to honor the daughter of her best friend, Vivian C. Murphy, also a collector of Ernestine’s paintings and furniture.

Join us this evening at 6:30pm for a curatorial conversation + exhibition viewing and/or schedule your visit today: calendly.com/akhsogallery

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 is currently on view thru September 2026.

📷: Slide 2 Courtesy of Laura K. Murray

08/20/2026

_ABOUT THE EXHIBITION In 1975 artist Esther Maddox curated an exhibition of six Cleveland based artists at Kent State University. Maddox believed that Black women artists are often exploited in the field and considered the group exhibition as a mechanism of support; an intervention to support the sustainability of their practices. Ernestine Taliaferro was one of the six.

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 a group exhibition to mark the fifth year anniversary at Akhsó Gallery at ATNSC: Center for Art, Practice and Inquiry invited four contemporary artists to be in conversation with Ernestine Taliaferro, a Black woman modernist from the Glenville neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio.

Taliaferro was a practitioner of the Bahai faith, a religion birthed in 19th century Iran that believes in and promotes the oneness of humanity, racial + gender equity and questions societal greed and militarism. She was introduced through the book 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙢 written by the grandson of the religion’s founder. The book was based on a series of public lectures during a tour through the United States in 1912 (Taliaferro was born in 1913).

A self taught artist, Taliaferro experimented with her first portrait painting based on the author’s photograph in the book.

What does it mean for four living artists to offer their works to prioritize the life and work of a non-living Black woman artist overlooked by her community?

What might it mean for our collective humanity that living contemporary artists from the East coast of North America to the Mediterranean shores of Western Asia believe in siting their work in an artist run space in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio?

We are grateful to artists Ara Azad, Alison Croney Moses, Aya Rodriguez-Izumi and Abbey Williams in marking time and possibility through this exhibition.

Join us tomorrow as artist + curator M. Carmen Lane explores these ideas and more at ATNSC + view the exhibition.

The experience begins at 6:30pm.

08/19/2026

_BEARING WITNESS Last week ATNSC director, artist + curator ᴍ. ᴄᴀʀᴍᴇɴ ʟᴀɴᴇ traveled to Miami as guest, attending 𝙁𝙡𝙞𝙥 𝙄𝙩 & 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙄𝙩: 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨, a convening as continuance of a global exhibition that began at the Bienal de Cuenca in Ecuador.

The gathering, hosted by Pérez Art Museum Miami brought together “a constellation of artists, curators, scholars, spiritual leaders, and cultural changemakers whose work is transforming contemporary conversations around art, culture, ecology, and collective liberation.”

Co-curated by Amy Rosenblum Martín + Ebuhlanti Republik + held by the vision of the late Yesenia Selier in her honor.

During the final plenary, the question posed to all who gathered: “From our positions in the art world, what can we do for the best and highest good of people and the planet?”

This resonates with our work here in Cleveland and took note of the impact of our region as several of the participating cultural workers, Rashida Bumbray, Adinike Sharpley and co-curator Amy Rosenblum Martin have ties to Oberlin College

The intersections of ancestry, legacy and spirituality are in the ground of our project—the teachings in the land. Our original instructions.

The theme of oneness is also a part of our current exhibition rooted in the Bahai faith of the late Ernestine Taliaferro, 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 currently on view at Akhsó Gallery gallery at ATNSC.

This is the work. Here and now.

_Many thanks for this invitation Amy.

08/15/2026

_EXCHANGE Artist + ATNSC director M. Carmen Lane in a studio visit at Locust Projects taking in the socially engaged + spiritually rooted practice of artist Loni Johnson during the Flip It & Reverse It: We Are One with All There Is gathering at Pérez Art Museum Miami

Pérez Art Museum Miamiing us 💕

Ebuhlanti Republik one of Ebuhlanti Republik the gathering joined us, as well as filmmaker Sisa Bueno where we learneSisa Buenor new film 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙑𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙙𝙖, 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙆𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙛 now available to view on POV on PBS at PBS online +POV on PBSCongratulations Sisa!

We look forward to bringing this film to CLE + hosting you here!

Images: Loni Johnson, 𝙃𝙞𝙨 𝘼𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬 𝙉𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙠 + Sisa Bueno from “For Venida, For Kalief” on POV

08/15/2026

_DATA.

New research from the March of Dimes says more than half of U.S. counties have no labor and delivery hospitals. One Black midwife tries to make a difference for moms in Alabama.