From April 3 to May 5, Tiffin University’s Diane Kidd Gallery will feature “Building Character,” a mixed media artwork exhibition from Justin Michael Will and Will Wilson, both artists from the Cleveland area. The show’s reception will be Friday, April 14 from 5 to 7 p.m., with an artist talk starting at 5:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
Justin Michael Will is a visual artist living in University Heights, Ohio. He often uses illustration as a language. Justin says, “Though I’ve studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design, Kent State University and Cuyahoga County Community College, I’ve learned the most about myself and the work I wish to create through daily practice and sharing with my peers.”
For almost 15 years, he managed a retail art supply store where he “enjoyed not only the knowledge of physical application of new and exciting mediums, but insight gained from a creative staff and an amazingly talented and shining city called Cleveland.”
Will Wilson is a Cleveland-based, California-bred artist who specializes in bold, colorful characters, bizarre interpretations of the normal and a boundless imagination. He graduated from California State University of Long Beach in 1997. After a career in finance and becoming a father, he decided to change his life and move from Los Angeles to Cleveland in 2007. Wilson became an art teacher and began focusing more on his art. He has had success this year, being in two small works shows as a vendor, being in several group shows and being selected to participate in the “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” show at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles.
Will states, “I love nature, games and people – all three of which make their way into my art and looks to expand both the depth of my work, process as well as my reach into different markets and in front of different audiences.”
For more information, email Joseph Van Kerkhove at vankerkhovejm@tiffin.edu.