When Rania Matar started to photograph Clara, independently assumed the pose of an odalisque—a recumbent female figure used in Western art as an emblem of exoticism and female sensuality. This photograph is part of Matar’s series L’Enfant-Femme (2011–16). That French expression describes the fleeting preteen and early teen stage when a girl starts to become a woman.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

In 1985 Zingale became one of the first women to join the Cleveland Fire Department. When this portrait was made in 2003, she was one of only seven uniformed women. By March 2017, the 750-person department was down to four uniformed women, all slated to retire over the next few years.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

One of a series of portraits of women who launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women, Armstrong, a mother of two, was an aspiring electrician when this portrait was made. She graduated from the organization’s pre-apprenticeship training program.

Contemporary artist Rashid Johnson draws on the traditions of painting and conceptual art to explore the lived experiences of African American men. This print belongs to a series that began as an exploration of the artist’s own anxieties but grew to express the experiences of young black men during a time marked by police violence and mass incarceration. In the artist’s words, “I . . . realiz[ed] that my anxiety was not mine exclusively.”

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

For over a decade, Tauba Auerbach has explored systems of representation and three-dimensional space in her prints. Plate Distortion III belongs to a series that she created by folding and bending a thin sheet of copper foil covered in grainy aquatint. The material was then affixed to a sturdier plate and printed, so that the effects of Auerbach’s manipulation became the image itself, referencing the history and experimental potential of printmaking materials and tools.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for large-scale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague story line, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

Puzzle pieces picturing Van Gogh’s The Starry Night are scattered across the table while a man dressed in boxer shorts relaxes on his sofa, abandoning the activity of assembling the masterpiece. Ebner’s printed diptych playfully pokes fun at contemporary society’s commercial obsession with modern art by emphasizing the ubiquity of reproductions of The Starry Night, which appear on everyday objects like jigsaw puzzles.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

A mother of two, Bondra had worked for the Cleveland Metroparks for 17 years when this photograph was made. It is one of a series of portraits of women who launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

Puzzle pieces picturing Van Gogh’s The Starry Night are scattered across the table while a man dressed in boxer shorts relaxes on his sofa, abandoning the activity of assembling the masterpiece. Ebner’s printed diptych playfully pokes fun at contemporary society’s commercial obsession with modern art by emphasizing the ubiquity of reproductions of The Starry Night, which appear on everyday objects like jigsaw puzzles.

Las Meninas draws on traditions throughout global art and culture to address issues surrounding the female body, race, beauty, and community. The work’s skirted form conjures figures from the Spanish Golden Age painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, apparel worn in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition candomblé, and Mousgoum buildings in Cameroon. The white-glazed terracotta torso, alluding to sacred and secular traditions of body painting, leads to a faceless head, incorporating both figuration and abstraction.

Chitra Ganesh mines her experiences as the daughter of Indian immigrants and the influence of Bollywood design throughout her work in various media, much of which explores feminist and queer issues. This print belongs to a series that forms a vague narrative related to desire and loss, set in a world outside of history and time. Ganesh drew from Amar Chitra Katha, comics published beginning in the 1960s to introduce Indian children to their cultural heritage. Placing the viewer in an unfamiliar context, the artist uses bodies, space, and history to invite questions about sexuality and power.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

This print by Nicole Eisenman references the German Expressionist artist Erich Heckel’s 1919 woodcut Portrait of a Man. Eisenman reversed the direction of the original image but adapted the sideways glance and clasped hands seen in the elder artist’s print. In the upper right corner, she added a small moon, and printed the two sides of the image in black and white, suggesting that the figure is outside looking in.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

The image shows All-Star Jason Giambi and outfielder Nick Swisher celebrating a season-saving win. Taken with equipment that imposes slow and deliberate picture making, Soren’s action shots accept the blemishes of accident and chance rather than seeking perfection and clarity. This admission of a lack of total control is a metaphor for the vagaries of baseball.

One of a series of portraits of women who launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women, Robinson had studied accounting and worked at a collection agency before being hired in 2003 by the Cleveland Water Division as a water pipe repair person.

An architect who was laid off as a design specialist, Persanyi joined the Ohio Department of Transportation as a bridge inspector in 1993. Ten years later she was the only woman in her unit. She received assistance in changing her career from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women, which helps women launch nontraditional careers.

Las Meninas draws on traditions throughout global art and culture to address issues surrounding the female body, race, beauty, and community. The work’s skirted form conjures figures from the Spanish Golden Age painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, apparel worn in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition candomblé, and Mousgoum buildings in Cameroon. The white-glazed terracotta torso, alluding to sacred and secular traditions of body painting, leads to a faceless head, incorporating both figuration and abstraction.

Puzzle pieces picturing Van Gogh’s The Starry Night are scattered across the table while a man dressed in boxer shorts relaxes on his sofa, abandoning the activity of assembling the masterpiece. Ebner’s printed diptych playfully pokes fun at contemporary society’s commercial obsession with modern art by emphasizing the ubiquity of reproductions of The Starry Night, which appear on everyday objects like jigsaw puzzles.

Bare Arms (The Practice #2), one of a pair of drypoints by Darius Steward in the CMA’s collection, forms part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of his childhood in East Cleveland in juxtaposition to that of his own children, whom the work represents. He writes: “My portrayal of my children now borders on appropriation of many personal moments and memories. I recognize what they are experiencing and make connections between what I experienced some 30 years ago versus what I missed out on in East Cleveland. I have greater aspirations for a better life for my children and all people.” In Bare Arms (The Practice #1) Steward’s skilled draftsmanship and unusual, cropped composition conveys physical struggle in the guise of play.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

To create her life-size horses, American sculptor Deborah Butterfield casts found pieces of wood into bronze, a process that translates the wood’s porous texture into metal. The artist then builds the structure of her sculptures, using her extensive knowledge of the animals to achieve their lifelike postures. Butterfield accomplishes this effect through the placement of the necks and heads of her horses, which she does last. In Horse, the abstract animal is integrated with the surrounding landscape to evoke the artist’s expansive Montana ranch where she has lived, worked, and kept horses for over 30 years.

This textile is a contemporary version of a lamba akotifahana (a weft-patterned silk mantle). These pricey garments were a fleeting, secular nineteenth-century fashion. Weavers created them for the elites of the Imerina Kingdom (c. 1540–1897), whose royals gave them as diplomatic gifts. In the 1990s, Lamba SARL Studio revived this weaving practice. Its artists create innovative display textiles drawn from extensive studies of historical examples. Using over twelve colors, the many motifs were woven by adding extra weft (horizontal) threads. Its title translates to "stunning with many patterns."

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Chitra Ganesh mines her experiences as the daughter of Indian immigrants and the influence of Bollywood design throughout her work in various media, much of which explores feminist and queer issues. This print belongs to a series that forms a vague narrative related to desire and loss, set in a world outside of history and time. Ganesh drew from Amar Chitra Katha, comics published beginning in the 1960s to introduce Indian children to their cultural heritage. Placing the viewer in an unfamiliar context, the artist uses bodies, space, and history to invite questions about sexuality and power.

To create this print, Nicole Eisenman combined a painted portrait by the twentieth-century avant- garde artist Francis Picabia with her own self-portrait taken with the popular app Snapchat. The layered images combine unevenly, obscuring the artist’s features and highlighting the app’s various icons along the lower margin. Through this juxtaposition of history and contemporary life, Eisenman comments on the construction of identity and the evolving role of self-presentation in a digital world.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

President Ronald Reagan stares out at eye level in this sculpture; the image of the president is a reproduction of an oil painting created by Hans Haacke, one of the founders of Conceptual art. One of Harrison’s signature painted cement forms seems to be wearing the photograph as a mask. Harrison has gained renown for combining seemingly unrelated objects into slyly humorous artworks. Like Andy Warhol’s Marilyn x 100, also in the collection, Harrison employs an image of the recognizable president to reveal the difference between Reagan the man himself and our deeply embedded ideas of what he represents.

Amy Sherald is known for her distinctive style of portraiture that presents Black figures with grisaille (or gray) skin tones, inviting consideration of skin as a signifier. This print, the second made by the artist, reinterprets a painting of the same title. Both depict dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, founded in 1958 to combine modern dance and African American culture. The subject appears with a casual pose and assertive gaze that align with the artist’s goal, in her words, to “paint black people just being people.”

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

Chitra Ganesh mines her experiences as the daughter of Indian immigrants and the influence of Bollywood design throughout her work in various media, much of which explores feminist and queer issues. This print belongs to a series that forms a vague narrative related to desire and loss, set in a world outside of history and time. Ganesh drew from Amar Chitra Katha, comics published beginning in the 1960s to introduce Indian children to their cultural heritage. Placing the viewer in an unfamiliar context, the artist uses bodies, space, and history to invite questions about sexuality and power.

Chitra Ganesh mines her experiences as the daughter of Indian immigrants and the influence of Bollywood design throughout her work in various media, much of which explores feminist and queer issues. This print belongs to a series that forms a vague narrative related to desire and loss, set in a world outside of history and time. Ganesh drew from Amar Chitra Katha, comics published beginning in the 1960s to introduce Indian children to their cultural heritage. Placing the viewer in an unfamiliar context, the artist uses bodies, space, and history to invite questions about sexuality and power.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

After moving from San Francisco to Minneapolis, Paula McCartney began exploring the snowy landscape and decided to make it the subject of her art. McCartney discovered that she did not always need to be out in the cold to produce pictures of winter. This photograph and others in her book On Thin Ice, in a Blizzard were constructed entirely in the darkroom.

To create this print, Nicole Eisenman combined a painted portrait by the twentieth-century avant- garde artist Francis Picabia with her own self-portrait taken with the popular app Snapchat. The layered images combine unevenly, obscuring the artist’s features and highlighting the app’s various icons along the lower margin. Through this juxtaposition of history and contemporary life, Eisenman comments on the construction of identity and the evolving role of self-presentation in a digital world.

The only female plumber on the staff of Case Western Reserve University in 2003, Brunell had more than a decade of experience as a plumber. In 1991, she graduated from a preapprenticeship program at the Cleveland Organization Hard Hatted Women, which helps women launch themselves into nontraditional careers.

Shirin Neshat uses photography and video to expose the role of gender in the creation of power structures and social values. During Friday prayers, a vital communal practice in Islam, men and women are required to sit separately, divided by a cloth wall. One woman turns her head to challenge that separation.

To create this print, Nicole Eisenman combined a painted portrait by the twentieth-century avant- garde artist Francis Picabia with her own self-portrait taken with the popular app Snapchat. The layered images combine unevenly, obscuring the artist’s features and highlighting the app’s various icons along the lower margin. Through this juxtaposition of history and contemporary life, Eisenman comments on the construction of identity and the evolving role of self-presentation in a digital world.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

To create this print, Nicole Eisenman combined a painted portrait by the twentieth-century avant- garde artist Francis Picabia with her own self-portrait taken with the popular app Snapchat. The layered images combine unevenly, obscuring the artist’s features and highlighting the app’s various icons along the lower margin. Through this juxtaposition of history and contemporary life, Eisenman comments on the construction of identity and the evolving role of self-presentation in a digital world.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

Contemporary artist Rashid Johnson draws on the traditions of painting and conceptual art to explore the lived experiences of African American men. This print belongs to a series that began as an exploration of the artist’s own anxieties but grew to express the experiences of young black men during a time marked by police violence and mass incarceration. In the artist’s words, “I . . . realiz[ed] that my anxiety was not mine exclusively.”

One of the first group of women to be hired as firefighters by the Cleveland Fire Department in 1985, Perrinn had attained the rank of lieutenant by 2003. At that time, her two sons and a brother also worked for the department. This is one of a series of portraits of women who launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women.

Carmel Buckley’s Untitled highlights the artist’s imaginative approach to materials. In a series of work begun in 2008, Buckley makes graphite stick rubbings of mundane or industrial metal objects that often have ties with the industrial history of a place. These “drain drawings” relate to her broader interest in the ways that urban architecture and artifacts link residents and visitors to the historical past and to everyday cultural artifacts. In this rubbing, she captured one of many sewer drain covers found around the city of Cleveland.

Bare Arms (The Practice #1), one of a pair of drypoints by Darius Steward in the CMA’s collection, forms part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of his childhood in East Cleveland in juxtaposition to that of his own children, whom the work represents. He writes: “My portrayal of my children now borders on appropriation of many personal moments and memories. I recognize what they are experiencing and make connections between what I experienced some 30 years ago versus what I missed out on in East Cleveland. I have greater aspirations for a better life for my children and all people.” In Bare Arms (The Practice #1) Steward’s skilled draftsmanship and unusual, cropped composition conveys physical struggle in the guise of play.

Mickalene Thomas uses collage to combine art historical and pop cultural references and question societal standards for Black femininity. Combining photography and printmaking, Thomas cultivates the aesthetic of publications such as Jet from the 1960s through 80s. This work features a woman who confidently adapts a pose from Impressionist painter Edouard Manet’s 1862 canvas Luncheon on the Grass. Each element of the collage was individually printed and hand assembled in a process that took over two years to complete.

To create El Manto Negro, Margolles collaborated with artisans in Mata Ortiz, Mexico, a region known for its ceramic work. The artisans produced thousands of square-shaped ceramic tiles, sourced from deposits at the base of Mata Ortiz’s mountainous zone. Each tile represents a victim of the drug wars that are now rampant in the region; as a grid, they speak to a collective history. El Manto Negro presents Mata Ortiz not only as a site that has fallen prey to violence, but also as a site of artistic productivity that prevails alongside hardship.

Amy Sherald is known for her distinctive style of portraiture that presents Black figures with grisaille (or gray) skin tones, inviting consideration of skin as a signifier. This print, the first made by the artist, reinterprets a painting of the same title. Both depict a dancer from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, founded in 1958 to combine modern dance and African American culture. The subject appears with a casual pose and assertive gaze that align with the artist’s goal, in her words, to “paint black people just being people.”

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

Ethiopian-born contemporary artist Julie Mehretu draws from a wide range of source material, including maps, architectural renderings, found photography, and current events to create abstract images composed of gestural lines and forms. This print belongs to a series inspired by a trip to China’s Mogao Caves, each of which bear a title taken from Bardos—liminal states between life and death in Buddhism. Drawing from imagery such as calligraphy and ancient cave painting, the artist worked with a master printer to produce the etching in a large scale meant to create an absorptive experience for its viewer.

Contemporary Brooklyn-based artist Nicola López explores the concept of place in her work, inspired by a longstanding interest in anthropology. This print belongs to López’s Monuments series, in which she created abstract images based on the urban landscape. Objects from everyday life—here, a television—are presented in forms and settings that monumentalize them beyond their regular use.

Bush, who holds an associate degree in applied science from Cuyahoga Community College, worked at a garden center before joining the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, where she is a horticulturist. This is one of a series of portraits of women who have launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women.

“The fantasy that failure leads to success," remarks the artist, "despite hitting the ball successfully only around a third of the time. The romantic myth of the restless wanderer, even as they cram in 162 major-league games a season. And the central American fantasy that says we have to do something extraordinary to lead a meaningful life.”

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

Moon’s series on ancient trees is part of a tradition of tree portraits dating back to the beginning of photography. The distinctively shaped, endangered dragon blood’s tree is unique to the island of Socotra off the Horn of Africa. Its sap is a dark red resin that has been valued since antiquity for medicinal and other properties.

In a grouping of twelve photographs, Lambri sensitizes us to the complexity and richness of texture and tactility designed into the museum’s north wing. Six of the images are close-ups of its iconic alternating light and dark gray stripes; the other six are close-ups of the joins of solid, monochromatic, medium gray blocks of stone.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for large-scale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague story line, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

Texas-based artist Michael Menchaca uses the stacked forms and flattened compositions of Mayan codices—the earliest books in Latin American culture—to comment on current social issues. This print’s title references the popular video game Pokémon but connects its emphasis on capturing with violence on the border and against Black Americans by featuring a group of uniformed men with guns drawn surrounding Mesoamerican bird-headed figures.

This installation comprises supplies, tools, and debris from Sze’s home and studio. These ordinary materials challenge the perceived barrier between art and the everyday that we inhabit. The industrial ladder at the center of the sculptural composition is scaled to the viewer’s body, issuing a playful (though not literal) invitation to climb into the work of art. Similarly accessible, the recurring photographs of sunsets could be taken by anyone at any time in any place.

In this print, biracial Latinx printmaker J. Leigh Garcia explores her dual identity by focusing on Texan history and immigration. A border patrol truck drags a row of tires behind it, a practice adopted by agents to detect footprints near the border and prosecute those who have attempted to cross into the United States. Garcia draws a parallel between this contemporary practice and the past by featuring a tableau of Mexicans tracked by Texas rangers more than a century earlier within the tires’ path. Flat areas of screenprinted color further blend the images into the landscape, and history to the present.

The series Unspoken Conversations explores the complexity and universality of the mother-daughter relationship. “Like the rest of my work,” says the artist, in this series “I am exploring through my photography what I find myself and my daughters going through. Observing mothers and daughters together seemed to me to offer versions of the same person separated by the years.”

In this print, Jennie C. Jones uses formal elements—such as color, line, and shape—to evoke the essential qualities of jazz music. Drawing on minimalism, an art movement that relied on such stylistic elements and was largely dominated by white male artists, Jones’s work invites the viewer to consider the social implications of the arts. Here, various shades of red and overlapping rectangles create a sense of movement and syncopation that defined this genre of music, which was developed by Black artists.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.

The landscape, a primary subject in Chinese painting, here features a female figure in nature, traditionally reserved to the male figure, while women usually occupy the domestic interior. The artist also breaches conventions by juxtaposing the landscape with an affectionate letter from European composer, Gustav Mahler, to his wife Alma, presented in her own calligraphy.

Contemporary Brooklyn-based artist Nicola López explores the concept of place in her work, inspired by a longstanding interest in anthropology. This print belongs to López’s Monuments series, in which she created abstract images based on the urban landscape. Objects from everyday life—here, a satellite dish—are presented in forms and settings that monumentalize them beyond their regular use.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

A Cleveland Police Department detective, Britten joined the force in 1994 after working as a substitute teacher. This is one of a series of portraits of women who launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

This portrait, made using a flatbed scanner as the camera, engages in a dialogue between contemporary technology and the early days of photography. The two-minute exposure time and shallow depth of field harken back to the limitations of the first photographic processes. Unlike the small-scale of historic images, Bross prints her image larger than life-size, enhancing the tension between the photograph’s intimacy and its simultaneous sense of distance.

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

Brooklyn-based painter Dana Schutz is known for largescale figurative painting, often drawing on narrative and humor. This print portfolio evokes Schutz’s signature subject matter, but translates it to the monochromatic palette of etching. Working with contemporary publisher, Two Palms, Schutz created dense, painterly layers of grainy aquatint. Although the ten images suggest a vague storyline, the artist left their meaning to the viewer to interpret.

This riverscape in blue-and-green style with a waterfall and fishing boat is directly inspired by the 12th century handscroll painting Cloudy Mountains by Mi Youren in the CMA’s collection (1933.220). The calligraphy, a transcribed personal letter by the Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975), does not connect with the landscape other than that they are united by the hand of the artist.

Gohar Dashti’s Stateless series comprises eight metaphorical tableaux that evoke the purgatory experienced by refugees throughout the world today. “Hoping for a better life,” writes Dashti, “they struggle in a never-ending limbo. . . . The sky becomes the ceiling and the mountains become the walls of their new homes, because Nature is the only place that promises shelter, an eternal and everlasting refuge.”

Fabiana Barreda, an Argentinian photographer, video and performance artist, curator, and art critic, produces art concerned with environmental issues. Simple line drawings on “Venus’s” body link her womb, heart, and hand, delicately sketching out emblems for home, love, and the beauty of nature. The verdant background and lush flowers in the woman’s hair reaffirm age-old associations of women with sensuality, fertility, and nature.

This portrait of a projector inspector for the Cuyahoga County Sanitary Engineering Division is one of a series showing women who launched nontraditional careers with help from the Cleveland organization Hard Hatted Women. Cousett, who was a board member of the organization for a decade, had studied dietetics at the Ohio State University before joining the Sanitary Engineering Division in 2001.

Las Meninas draws on traditions throughout global art and culture to address issues surrounding the female body, race, beauty, and community. The work’s skirted form conjures figures from the Spanish Golden Age painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, apparel worn in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition candomblé, and Mousgoum buildings in Cameroon. The white-glazed terracotta torso, alluding to sacred and secular traditions of body painting, leads to a faceless head, incorporating both figuration and abstraction.

Polly Apfelbaum’s work builds upon the American abstract tradition of color field, pop, and abstract expressionist painting, while rejecting what she calls the “aggressive masculinity” of these movements. Atomic Mystic Cosmic 16 was stimulated by a year Apfelbaum spent in Italy, when she became fascinated with drapery and colored fabrics depicted in Renaissance and Baroque paintings, as well as the decorative inlay of medieval mosaic floors. For the color, she employed the “rainbow roll” technique, in which multiple colors are partially mixed to achieve a continuous gradient effect. The effect is one of dazzling color and pattern, while also creating spatial relationships that complicate the composition’s hard-edged geometry.

Lisa Kessler was commissioned by The George Gund Foundation for their 2015 Annual Report to document progress inside the schools as a result of the implementation of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, which had been in operation just under four years at that point. Kessler’s portraits and documentary images capture that transition, depicting students and teachers actively engaged in learning and creating.