Extended Summer Hours
Join us THURSDAYS from 11am-7pm
July: 10, 17, 31
August: 7, 14, 21
Admission is always free, and all are welcome.
Enjoy evenings at the gallery, and come spend your summer with us!
​Wednesday, Friday, Saturday hours remain 11am-4pm
EXHIBITIONS
Amber Bishop’s Memory Garden in A Portal Somewhere Good: Who’s All Over There?
On view July 30- August 23, 2025
Burton D. Morgan Foundation Gallery
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Opening Celebration: Friday, August 1, 2025 from 5:00 - 7:30PM
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Amber Bishop constructs a memory garden in A Portal Somewhere Good: Who’s All Over There?, an earthy immersive and multi-sensory installation. A gate to the past and present, the memory garden is a meditative resting place to consider one’s relationship to nature and commune with generations gone before. Incorporating elements of
Black spiritual archiving, Bishop creates portraits of subjects that include representations of their ancestors—who may not have tangible photos of themselves—by using plants or other found objects to symbolize them. Audio elements, such as oral histories or ambient nature sounds, accompany video art to create a soothing environment.
An archivist of the mythic stories known as Black American life, or, the Black Fantastical, Amber Bishop’s A Portal Somewhere Good: Who’s All Over There? is deeply rooted in the concept of archival repair and stabilization. Bishop seeks to capture memories scarcely shared and to transfer them into new formats so that they can exist in public memory. Visitors will have the opportunity to contribute their stories to the collective memory to be preserved and added to Black ecology archives.
“Across the nation and in everyday life, Black people tap into the inherent magic that is deeply seated in our culture, and we alchemize systemic oppression into thriving communities, loving
families, and joyful moments. In my archival artistry, I am preserving and translating the everyday magic of the Black fantasy, starting with my own life, family, and neighborhood. I tell the stories of who we have been and capture the stories of who we are now so that we can tell new stories of who we can become. I am ultimately striving to reconstruct the narrative of the Black experience so that the magic of Black creation is the main window through which the world sees into Black life.”
–Amber Bishop
About the Artist Amber Bishop:
Amber is a memory worker, artist, and filmmaker based in Ohio, dedicated to uplifting and protecting Black stories. Her work translates her Black experience, revisits the past, and reimagines the future, focusing on alternative sites of memory and the Black fantastical life. Inspired by the collective Black imagination, she seeks to envision possibilities beyond the present. A 2021 Filmmakers First Fund recipient, Amber is working on her first feature documentary film. She recently completed her
MFA in Documentary Studies and Production. Currently, she runs a youth garden program in her neighborhood and is expanding her art practice into video installations and sculpture.
Akron Soul Train’s Emerging Artist Series Presents Tragic Miracle by Katlin Shae
On view July 30 - August 23, 2025
CapSOUL Gallery
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Opening Celebration: Friday, August 1, 2025 from 5:00 - 7:30PM
Akron Soul Train’s emerging artist series welcomes Katlin Shae and her exhibit, Tragic Miracle. Incorporating photos and drawings, Shae creates elaborate and colorful weavings using diverse materials to explore human connection and loss. Inspired by the special bond with her late grandmother, Katlin Shae’s studio practice became her space to cope with her grandmother’s death and contemplate themes including memory, grief, time, and mortality.
Tragic Miracle considers the question: when someone passes, why is the evidence of their living— including the material items they possessed—such an important part of human existence? Trinkets, family heirlooms, paper records, and old photographs become sacred objects or talismans. These physical reminders are portals to the past, and perhaps something lost can be found again through them.
“The stories we can tell with textiles are intimate, and the processes of making them are physical and bodily, weaving is time visualized. Materiality and process are vital to my studio practice. Through physical labor, pattern, transformation of materials, and color, I examine time and life using craft disciplines.”
– Katlin Shae
About the Artist Katlin Shae:
Katlin Shae is an artist who creates in the systems, structures, complexities, and possibilities that exist in the grid format of looms. She incorporates drawing, and creative daily work with mark making and material investigation. Shae received her BFA in Fiber and Textile Arts from Kent State University, and MFA in Sculpture and Material Studies from The University of Georgia. Katlin Shae’s works are featured in several publications including Research Magazine, Surface Design Journal, and Complex Weavers Journal. She has exhibited across the nation in venues such as The Ohio Craft Museum, Praxis Fiber Workshop, The Georgia Museum of Art, and The Biggs Museum of American Art. She was awarded residencies including Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Maine, Athens Institute For Contemporary Art in Georgia, and Belger Arts in
Missouri. After seven years in Atlanta, she returned to NE Ohio where she taught courses like Introduction to Weaving, Felt Making, Dimensional and Off Loom Textiles, and Introduction to Sculpture at Kent State University from 2019 to 2023. Katlin Shae resides in Akron and is currently focused on establishing her startup studio arts business, Akron Fiber Works.
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