Who’s Next

Emerging artists in Northeast Ohio

MAXMILLIAN PERALTA

Amanda Koehn

Age 22 • Lives Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood • Creates Cleveland’s near west side Learned BFA in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art

By Amanda Koehn

Take the style of an idealistic, posed portrait – similar to the 17th century court paintings of Diego Velázquez – and infuse it with subculture references and details, and you might be experiencing the work of Maxmillian Peralta.

For Peralta, a 2021 graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, painting is not only a way he presents his polished technical skills, but also incorporates longtime interests like streetwear and tattooing.

“I think something some people don’t realize about my paintings is they are sort of a critique and a celebration,” he says. “It’s a celebration in the form of like aesthetics and how it looks and the history it’s pulling from. But it’s a critique in its over the top-ness and its sort of ridiculousness.”

He became interested in fashion through skateboarding and its associated styles, and as a result of inheriting a bunch of suits from his grandfather. The suits were tailored for his grandfather and had their last name sewed inside.

“I think that sort of awoke in me some idea of presentation in apparel,” Peralta explains. “That’s what got me into fashion, but I think it’s an interesting metaphor I was going after in terms of self-presentation and how to display yourself.”

During an interview at the Electric Gardens apartments in Cleveland’s Tremont, where he resides and also assists with creative jobs, he shows off a kind of classic Maxmillian Peralta painting – a portrait decked out in Louis Vuitton. The subject’s head is a Louis Vuitton shoe. A sneakerhead, quite literally.

“I wanted to do something super ridiculous and out of the ordinary,” he says. “I wanted to sort of play with the idea of, “The Scribe” (2020). Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist.

what if this person cared more about their shoes on their feet than their head almost? Which is ostensibly the whole point of your portrait is to have your face painted.”

In his work, he draws a parallel between historic subjects of paintings, where they posed in garments and jewels showing off their material wealth, with people who do exactly the same today – but within different styles and subcultures.

Those interests were explored deeply during Peralta’s time at CIA. In a dual show he and his friend and classmate Ethan Bowman proposed their junior year, the pair explored fashion and self-presentation. For the show, “Ligne de Vêtements,” which means clothing line in French (VETEMENTS is also a luxury brand), Peralta painted and Bowman contributed digital illustrations.

“I was told by several people on that opening night, that was the most people they had ever seen at that gallery,” Peralta says of that evening in February 2020 in CIA’s Ann and Norman Roulet Student + Alumni Gallery.

A year later, his Bachelor of Fine Arts project took a dive into various kinds of subcultures, such as hunting, video gaming and boxing, exploring some subcultures he’s less intimately familiar with. The project, “Postmodern Drip,” also forced him to embrace showing his work virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’d say my BFA is my biggest accomplishment – it’s a whole year worth of work and working throughout the limitations of the pandemic, how I was going to present that,” he says.

Growing up in Lakewood as one of seven children, Peralta says he and his siblings were creative in both art and music. His artist father, Len Peralta, quit his advertising job to pursue art full time when Peralta’s younger sister was born. His father, who now teaches graphic design at CIA, also taught at the Beck Center for the Arts, where Peralta took classes.

Before college, Peralta won a national Scholastic Art and Writing Award for one of his paintings. He traveled to New York City with his parents to receive the award at Carnegie Hall.

“I chose art because my older brother is just a savant at the guitar, so I was like, there’s no need to compete with him with music, so I’ll do art,” Peralta says, adding that his high school, St. Edward in Lakewood, wasn’t the most art-centric and his teachers were “nervous” about him pursuing art school. “But it was also what I had more passion for.”

Similar to his father, Peralta now pursues art, mostly commissions, full time. He also does tattoos, after completing an apprenticeship with his cousin.

“I haven’t had to do (tattooing) in a while because painting has been really what’s driving me along” he says.

Having had work exhibited in the 2020 Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition and with his paintings regularly showcased at Sunbird Studios & Technologies, a recording studio in downtown Cleveland, commissions have been keeping him busy recently. He’s hoping to begin creating more personal work again, and seek exhibitions, once the commissions slow down.

Graduating and navigating the art world as the pandemic rages on, an “asterisk is applied to everything as you get started” professionally, he explains – but it’s something he doesn’t let get him down. As an emerging artist, Peralta says security and confi dence are some of the biggest challenges he faces. That, and the terrifying moment of staring at a blank canvas – each an opportunity that also comes with a chance to fail, he says.

“It’s remembering to keep your standards high, but your expectations low,” he says. “Because a lot of artists get opportunities dangled in front of them and out of a hundred, 10 are serious, and one of them actually happens. It’s just the way it is unfortunately … so just keep your enthusiasm and your morale up.”

Right now though, it’s working out for Peralta. In fact, the sneakerhead painting sold and is headed to its owner.

“It’s bittersweet to sell a painting,” he says. “But they say you don’t want to die with all your paintings in your basement. So, I’m happy to give it up.”

Above: “Dibbs and James” (2020). Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist. Opposite page: Maxmillian Peralta at the Electric Gardens in Tremont. Behind him are “Sneakerhead III,” left, “Self Portrait in Supreme.”

“Maxmillian’s paintings scrutinize America’s fascination with the variety of subcultures and self-selected identities his subjects embody, in turn implicating viewers’ own conception and presentation of self. The work engages in a dialogue with portraiture’s storied history while bringing its intentions into a contemporary dialogue.” Tony Ingrisano, associate professor, chair of painting department, Cleveland Institute of Art

ALEXANDRIA COUCH

Age 23 • Hometown Akron • Creates Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Learned BFAs in printmaking and painting from The University of Akron’s Myers School of Art; Expected MFA from Yale

By Amanda Koehn

At 23, Alexandria Couch already has a relatively prolifi c career – including painting a mural in Public Square downtown and beginning a Master of Fine Arts program at Yale University. But for Couch, connecting herself and her work to her community and other artists in it is one of the best parts.

For instance, she remembers running a mural class a couple summers ago for high school students with the Art Bomb Brigade, an educational mural program affi liated with her undergraduate school, the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at The University of Akron. Getting to know and work with other artists – and the next generation – has been core to her practice.

“A lot of what I learned growing up that I think kind of shaped me into the artist I am has to do with people that I came across in non-traditional educational environments,” says Couch, an Akron native. “I didn’t go to the local arts high school ... but a lot of people just kind of offered the best they had and fi lled a lot of these gaps for me, so that was really special to me.”

As a child, Couch wanted to be an artist and her parents saw potential in her. However, she says “I kind of lost my way” at the beginning of college, thinking for a bit she might study English and education. Hui-Chu Ying, an art professor at Akron, advised Couch to quit her English major and pursue art alone.

“Even so far as, she went to my mom’s studio,” Couch says, adding her mother also works in the arts. Ying told her mother, “‘Convince her to quit’. And so they did, and that’s how I ended up doing art as a full major.”

Working in painting, printmaking and mixed media, Couch’s process often begins with mental photographs “tucked

“A Day In the Life of July” (2020). Acrylic, canvas, oil pastel and spray paint on mounted paper panel, 36 x 48 inches. | Photo / Hans Reich

Above: “I Can Feel Things Yet To Happen Underneath My Skin” (2020). Gouache, acrylic, ink and collage on paper, 22 x 30 inches. | Photo / Hans Reich. Opposite Page: Alexandria Couch with her “Where We Meet In The Middle” mural, painted in Public Square in Cleveland. | Photo / Bob Perkoski

away,” building one piece from multiple such images. Her subject matter predominantly revolves around “themes of dissonance between Black people and the environments they inhabit,” she explains.

“Especially in the wake of the shift in Black narrative from margin to center, I think there’s this confrontation with hypervisibility, versus invisibility that we’re dealing with now, on complete polar opposite ends of the spectrum,” she says.

Couch has been working with these themes for some time. However, the weight of the work became more prevalent after the Black Lives Matter movement’s rise and the societal shift that began last year toward reckoning with a long history of systemic racism.

“I think it just more had to do with exploring the psychological environment for Black fi gures because I think, at least in my experience, people have had a bit of trouble in viewing Black fi gures and people – this is going to sound weird ... as humans with feelings or that are more than surface level or that don’t exude this like constant what people perceive to be as confi dence,” she says. “I think it was more born out of this idea that people misperceive Black people often, and that’s just come out of my everyday life experience and watching family members navigate space and watching friends navigate space as well.”

Recently, Northeast Ohioans may have seen Couch’s mural, “Where We Meet In The Middle,” at downtown Cleveland’s Public Square. Completed in the spring, it was a project with LAND Studio.

This past summer, she also had joint shows with her Akron friend and colleague, Kwamé Gomez, at two Los Angeles galleries: SoLA Contemporary and New Image Art. Although she couldn’t attend the shows in the middle of a busy summer working at Summit Artspace in Akron, she says the exposure to a broader audience was “a really cool experience.”

Couch also counts getting into graduate school as a major feat accomplished. Graduating from Akron in 2020, she applied to master’s programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She didn’t fi nd out until she began her program at Yale in New Haven, Conn., this fall that it was an especially challenging year to get into graduate school as spots were slim.

Near the end of October, her fi rst Yale show, “Action Required” opened. Among works shown by the university’s fi rst-year graduate class, she submitted a piece she describes as “an angry little girl sitting on grass.”

“And I guess this is up for the viewer’s interpretation, but engaging the viewer – either inviting them or gate keeping them from her and her psychological world that she’s built around her,” Couch says.

At this point, Couch says one of the biggest challenges is navigating the market side and pace of the art world. And with a large focus on Black artists broadly, she says she doesn’t expect that trend to last in the same fashion forever. It’s a race to meet the moment, while also knowing opportunities could dry up.

“Finding out a way to kind of navigate that and build a sustainable practice into a polarized moment, and what happens thereafter, has been really diffi cult,” she says.

Balancing all the various facets of showing and selling art – the business side that doesn’t necessarily have to do with creating it – is also an adjustment, she notes.

Looking ahead, Couch says she will likely seek projects for next summer, when she plans to be back in Northeast Ohio. Now, she’s looking to hone in on her craft instead of seeking concrete projects, she says.

“The reality is you have to be a one-man band until you’re like Andy Warhol,” she says. “So I think I’m really focused to be in grad school and just focusing on work, but I’ll have some group shows possibly in 2022 with some really cool folks.”

ON VIEW

Details about “Action Required,” hosted by the Yale School of Art, are at art.yale.edu/exhibitions. “Alex was a leader and consensus builder while a student, and that ability to energize fellow artists has continued past graduation. It was a pleasure to watch her fi nd her voice and visual language and has been even more thrilling to see her begin to use that voice in collaborations with other artists and organizations, and multiple public projects. Alex has an innate empathy that shines through the fi gures she shows us in her compositions.” Arnold Tunstall, director, university galleries, Myers School of Art, The University of Akron

ORLANDO CARABALLO

Amanda Koehn

Age 25 • Lives and creates University Heights Learned BFA in drawing with printmaking emphasis from Cleveland Institute of Art

By Amanda Koehn

For Orlando Caraballo, it all begins with gathering. Gathering snippets of drawings, poems, thoughts and themes that eventually, in no rushed manner, become vivid, emotionally-driven artwork.

Caraballo’s art, most recently focused in digital prints, offers both a window into his familial, religious, grieving and emotional experiences, and an entry for viewers to connect their own experiences and self.

As any one Caraballo piece may be digitally comprised of different “puzzle pieces,” it may also offer seemingly opposing emotional elements, he says.

“A lot of my work tends to have ... this duality between something sort of anxious and sort of like frenetic with something calm or hopeful,” he says.

The resulting works aren’t planned, but rather at some point, the sketches, writings, life experiences and memories come together.

“All of that is materials,” he says. “And the moment of creating is when it makes sense.”

Growing up in the West Boulevard neighborhood of Cleveland, it was an honors English class at St. Ignatius High School that set Caraballo on his path. Although he says he was an artistic kid – “it was always a part of how I communicated even to myself” – the shift happened when a teacher pulled him aside after reading one of his papers. The teacher, Dennis Arko, told Caraballo, “You’re an artist ... I need you to see it all the way through.”

Arko recommended Caraballo look into the Cleveland “Almost May” (2021). Archival print on Hahnemüle Photo Rag paper 308 gsm, 16 x 20 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Above: “…and we both sat alone” (2021). Archival print on Hahnemüle Photo Rag paper 308 gsm, 16 x 20 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist. Opposite page: Orlando Caraballo holds “Almost August” at the Cleveland Print Room.

Institute of Art, where his daughter went. And although Caraballo once saw himself as a psychologist, he went on to graduate from CIA in 2018.

Starting with his Bachelor of Fine Arts project, Caraballo began deeply exploring his lineage in his work, focusing on his late father and grandfather, what they left behind and their Puerto Rican heritage. Starting to come into his confi dence as an artist, he changed the project’s focus – with less than a month to redo it – to better hone in on his family history. But, he’d been gathering the parts for years at that point, he says.

Starting with his BFA project, the story of “The Little Prince” often shows up in his work. Caraballo sees himself as a “little brown boy” version of the prince, or an avatar for traveling to different times and places through history, he says.

“It’s sort of a lesson of what you can learn from revisiting your youth and revisiting that childlike wonder for the world and that innocence as an adult,” he says. “I think a lot of my work is about lineage, but also bringing back that useful intelligence into that new life, like your older life.”

Asked about his successes thus far, Caraballo notes a show he was part of a few months ago at the Morgan Conservatory, “Cross Generations: Bridging the Gap of Artists,” held jointly with the Museum of Creative Human Art. There, Caraballo says a school principal bought one of his prints to hang at her school.

“They put it there so that students from that school can know there are brown artists who are making work – that can be a viable thing. … That was awesome to me,” he says.

Shows like that also offer an opportunity to connect in person with viewers of his work – something that was lost during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Caraballo isn’t looking for compliments, but rather if others can respond to his work, he explains.

“I’m constantly putting the time in – there’s always technical things to be better in, but that comes with time,” he says. “But the thing that I’m always interested in is, is it emoting? Are you connecting?”

His job as education director at the Cleveland Print Room also has helped his practice become more socially engaged. It helps him naturally meet the right people and continue to do meaningful work, he says.

Now, he’s in position to do some gathering on a different level. Although digital printing was relatively accessible during the pandemic, he’s hoping to get back into mediums that offer textural elements. He sees a new phase for his work that incorporates the layered emotional and spiritual aspects he’s known for, but adds literal layers.

He’s also become increasingly concerned with using “discernment” to evaluate potential opportunities.

“I think discernment is huge, especially for younger artists, because there are a lot of people in the arts who are looking to benefi t themselves,” he says. “As a young artist – especially as a young brown or Black artist during this time – there are a lot of people who are seeking to, like, use us as material without really respecting the craft.”

He cites shows bringing together artists of color with no specifi c vision other than making work that fi ts into a narrowly defi ned category – like brown, Black or Asian art – and doesn’t necessarily benefi t the artists. Noting these “politics of the art world,” especially during this time increasingly focused on equity and inclusion, he says defi ning art too fi nitely can end up preventing real creativity and individual-informed work.

He says he’s taking opportunities with a “slow and steady approach.” The gathering process is not to be hurried or conform. It’s about true connection and identity.

“There’s an expectation of a box that you should fi t into, and so when you make something that doesn’t fi t that, they don’t know what to do,” he says. “That’s the challenge. How does one stay true to their vision without falling into the trap of ‘This is what people want of someone like me. That’s how I can make money fast or have some notoriety or attention.’ ... I think that can be soul crushing.”

“Two adjectives emerge for me when I think about Orlando as an artist and a human being: connection and curiosity. In Orlando’s macropractice as the Cleveland Print Room education director, he works to weave the socially engaged art model fi rst written about in Paulo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ in 1968, into an everyday practice drawn from his ‘backpack’ of personal life experience. Through this work, he strives to improve community conditions by his innovative use of relatedness with others in group settings, and by engaging individuals in an ongoing dialogue that challenges our place in the natural order. It is through Orlando’s practice that the personal and the political mesh.” Shari Wilkins, co-executive director, Cleveland Print Room

KATIE BUTLER

Age 26 • Lives and creates Akron Learned MFA in painting from Kent State University; BFA in painting from The University of Akron

By Amanda Koehn

Step into Katie Butler’s Akron studio and you hear NPR playing, see a palette covered with paints and feel drawn into the large still life paintings on the walls that hint at something more dangerous.

The artwork, mostly of fi sh gutted and partially eaten on dinner tables, are part of a series addressing current sociopolitical issues.

She points to one painting, “A Seat at the Table,” which remarks on the phrase she noticed being thrown around when President Joe Biden was nominating cabinet members earlier this year.

“I kept hearing on the radio, ‘you get a seat at the table,’” Butler says. “And that’s great, but the table is still fl awed. So, I wanted to just make a painting about the phrase. ... And so, what if the tablescape is really kind of disorganized and impractical, and maybe a little bit dangerous?”

And what if the table itself is disoriented – historically a vessel of a patriarchal and unequal system trying to weave in very slow changes?

Put simply, Butler makes what she calls “still life political paintings.” Noting they typically begin with wanting to depict a phrase she’s heard in the news, they are crafted into contemporary allegories.

“I look a lot at Dutch still life paintings and pool from that compositionally and subject wise,” Butler says. “I am trying to kind of lift that and subvert it technically to talk about contemporary issues. So (works in the studio) are allegories that reference current events in American politics and commentary on power dynamics.”

She notes another painting called “Three Martini Lunch,” commenting on wealth inequality, abuse of power and specifi cally the tax break for corporate meals (and drinks) former President Donald Trump successfully urged lawmakers to include in one of the COVID-19 relief packages. Another references a New Yorker article called “The After Party,” which is about the GOP post-Trump. The painting shows two half-eaten fi sh – heads intact – a knife, the article and lemon slices on a gingham tablecloth. The tablecloth is nostalgic and perhaps innocent, but everything else is ominous.

“The After Party” (2021). Oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Above: “Three Martini Lunch” (2021). Oil and acrylic on canvas, 62 x 42 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist. Opposite page: Katie Butler in her Akron studio, with “A Seat at the Table” to her left. | Canvas photo / Amanda Koehn

“I thought about this dinner party and when the dinner party is over, you’re left with this big mess you have to clean up,” she says. “And it feels like we have a big mess to clean up right now.”

Her shift toward addressing politics (her second top interest) in her paintings (her very top interest) came just last year during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid the chaotic 2020 election cycle. She was in graduate school at Kent State University at the time.

Butler grew up in Canton and graduated from The University of Akron with a bachelor’s degree in painting a couple years before deciding to pursue graduate school. Though she’d been interested in still life painting as early as high school, during undergrad she moved more toward abstract work, “which I think seems to be something that most people go through at some point,” she says.

Prior to attending Akron, she had never seen art as a career she could have, and which she got more serious about during her master’s program at Kent. A fi rst-generation college student, she says her family was always supportive of whatever she wanted to pursue in college, and it was there she started to fi nd mentors that opened the door to creative work.

“More toward the end of undergrad, that’s when I started to realize, ‘oh, I can maybe get a job that’s painting-adjacent,’ and then I can keep making paintings on the side,’” she says, adding she later became a graduate teaching assistant at Kent, which opened her eyes to a joint teaching and art-making career. “And then in grad school, I realized, ‘well maybe I can make paintings most of my time.’”

At Kent, she was encouraged to explore her continued interest in still life, but was hesitant.

“I thought, who makes still life paintings anymore?” she says, laughing. “But ... it can be a good vessel to talk about things that I care about, so I came to embrace it again.”

In September, several of her works were shown in her fi rst out-of-state exhibit, Spring/Break Art Show in New York City. Her friend and fellow Kent MFA graduate Catherine Lentini had suggested to Butler that her work would fi t well in the medievalthemed show, seeking works that lifted traditional aspects of mediums and turned them contemporary, Butler says. She and Lentini, who curated Butler’s works for the show, applied via a blind application.

The last few months have been busy for Butler locally too. She had work shown in the “Fish Fly Fur” show at YARDS Projects in Cleveland, which was on view through Nov. 20 and featured work depicting animals in various forms. This month, another exhibition, “New Narratives,” opened at Abattoir gallery in Cleveland, featuring her work and that of several other young artists. It highlights painters with representational styles, each addressing different social issues.

Butler also works as an adjunct instructor at Kent in painting and drawing. And right now, she’s making a lot of work, which she says she hopes continues to evolve.

“I just feel like every painting I make now, I just want it to be better than the last,” she says. “How can I keep this going?”

ON VIEW

“New Narratives,” featuring work by Katie Butler, Herman Aguirre, Max Markwald, Erykah Townsend, Omar Velázquez and Antwoine Washington, is on view through Dec. 30 at Abattoir, 3619 Walton Ave., Cleveland. “Knowing Katie for the past few years has been very rewarding, fi rst as her professor in Kent State University’s painting MFA program and now working alongside her in her role as an adjunct instructor. Her ambitious work ethic in the studio is unparalleled and she approaches

Photo / her practice with an equal dose Anda Manteufel of research and intuition. Katie’s paintings are well versed in art history and contemporary approaches to painting. Her recent work deconstructs the still life taking on scenes that both formally and symbolically investigate subjects of unease, instability and sociopolitical turmoil in the everyday household. Life seems more and more surreal these days and Katie’s paintings refreshingly represent that precariousness. Her artistic vision and natural ability as a teacher are major contributions to Northeast Ohio’s thriving art community.” Shawn Powell, assistant professor in painting, Kent State University

ARIELLA HAR-EVEN

Age 30 • Lives Shaker Heights • Creates Seville, Ohio Learned BFA in jewelry and metals from Cleveland Institute of Art

By Amanda Koehn

In Ariella Har-Even’s world, jewelery is an interactive bridge connecting one’s body and spirit to the physical world.

As wearable art, it can connect historical beautifi cation and modern life, showing patterns that both refl ect on and add to one’s human experience, emotions and thoughts, she explains.

“That idea of using history or using anthropology, things like that, to investigate what it is that really is at the core of who we are,” she says, “it’s something that I do a lot. I really focus on ... this idea that the power of jewelry kind of lies within its inability to be disconnected from the body itself.”

A native of Jerusalem, Har-Even’s path to becoming a jewelry and metals artist was wholly unexpected. As an alternate service to Israel’s mandatory military service for young adults, she worked with children with severe disabilities. She thought she would stick with that fi eld, calling it “one of the most amazing and incredible jobs I’ve ever had.”

Her work being physically and emotionally demanding, she sought something creative to do for herself in her free time. Someone suggested trying jewelry making.

“And honestly, as cheesy as it sounds, the fi rst time in the studio, the fi rst time holding a torch and sawing metal, I was really hooked for life,” she says. “So it kind of changed my entire life.”

Her father and his family are from Cleveland, and at the time she had relatives here, which made choosing to study at the Cleveland Institute of Art a relatively easy decision –

Top: Ariella Har-Even wears “Listen” kinetic shoulder piece (2019). Patinated bronze and copper, sterling silver, leather cord. Above: “Altar/Alter” funerary mask (2017). Enamel on copper, gold leaf, sterling silver, fi ne silver, pearls and fake eyelashes. | Photos / Sydney Givens.

Above and right: “Let Me Count the Ways” brooches (2019). Enamel on copper, fi ne silver, copper and nickel silver. | Photos / Sydney Givens.

especially after she saw work by alumni, she says.

As opposed to fi ne jewelry, Har-Even focuses on art jewelry, or “things that are not designed necessarily for an everyday wearing experience, but rather using jewelry to communicate a larger concept,” she says.

One ideology Har-Even works within is the Jungian psychology concept of archetypes, or symbols or patterns that originate from our collective unconscious. Fascinated by a course on the subject she took at CIA, she connects her work to the theory of human thought and behavior.

“When I’m working archetypally kind of means that ... I aim to highlight the connective tissue between historical adornment and our contemporary 21st century life, kind of using jewelry to fi nd those patterns and focus on the human emotion, the human experience, human thought process,” she says.

Working out of a studio in Seville, Ohio, she stayed local after graduating from CIA with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2019. In addition to her personal artistic practice, she works in the library at the Cleveland Museum of Art and co-founded an educational initiative called Commence Jewelry, which supports and highlights work of recent graduates in the jewelry and metalsmithing fi eld.

One challenge thus far in her career has been trusting herself and skill set, she says. And graduating less than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, adaptation has been key. At the same time, she’s says she’s fortunate to have had opportunities to connect with others in the fi eld.

In November 2019, she attended her fi rst New York City Jewelry Week, referring to it as “one of the most transformative events” in terms of meeting new people in the art jewelry fi eld beyond her alma mater.

“That’s kind of another reason why I felt so strongly about starting and running Commence – to help other people in a similar place in their own practices feel connected,” she says.

Fittingly, at this year’s NYC Jewelry Week – which takes place through Nov. 21 – she is being recognized as an honoree for its 2021 One for the Future platform, recognizing emerging talent in the fi eld.

Commence Jewelry is also the offi cial educational partner of NYC Jewelry Week and will host an exhibition featuring work of recent graduates at the event.

In addition to the NYC Jewelry Week honor, she was also awarded a graduating scholarship for travel from CIA, for which seniors from all different majors compete. And last year she was part of an international enameling exhibition through the Enamel Guild North East, in which she won a fi rst place juror award.

“I was just overwhelmed to be included in the exhibition with other professional artists, and so then to actually be chosen for the top juror award meant a lot,” she says.

Building more and more confi dence in her skills and connections, she’s starting to explore ideas that are more deeply personal. An area she’s become interested in involves the archetype of death. Focusing on funerary rituals and adornment, she’s researching their connection to memory, legacy and specifi cally victims of the Holocaust.

“I’m the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors,” she says, adding that after surviving the Holocaust, her grandparents, Frank and Edith Ross, settled in Cleveland. “... It’s a slightly new direction for me just because this work is much more personal.”

ON VIEW

Commence Jewelry will host an exhibition at New York Jewelry Week through Nov. 21. More information is at nycjewelryweek.com. “Adornment has been a constant in human development and Ariella shows how jewelry as an archetype connects not only people to one another but to spiritual and psychological concepts. Her consummate research continues to provide seeds for the innovation of her ideas. Ariella is an individual who is advancing the importance of wearable art within our culture by focusing on the human experience.” Kathy Buszkiewicz, professor of jewelry and metals, Cleveland Institute of Art