20 North Gallery will open a new exhibit this Friday, July 12 “Consuming Culture.”
The exhibit is an ode to the designs, commercial spaces, advertisement art and pop culture of today. Four local artists’ work will be on display, Philip Hazard, Dustin Hostetler, Bernadine Rais and Michael Sheets, featuring an array of mediums, including digital illustration, traditional oil painting, mixed media collage and neon artwork.
The gallery will kick off the exhibit with a free, Public Opening Reception on Friday, July 12 from 6 to 9pm. The evening’s celebrations will include a light tapas bar and cash bar to enjoy while exploring the artwork.
Artwork will include pieces such as Hazard’s 12-foot-wide mixed media and neon work and Sheet’s Diner Still Life series. Rais will display paintings depicting commercial spaces, inspired by Edward Hopper and Hostetler will debut digital illustration artwork created specifically for the exhibit.
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Hazard, local to Toledo, spent 25 years in New York City where he worked in the neon sign industry. Prior to NYC, Hazard received his BA from UT in Film and Design and his M.F.A. from BGSU. Hazard’s work is influenced not only by his career experience but his personal life as well when he creates his multi-layered mixed media art which merges several mediums, paint, photographic silkscreen, mixed media and neon.
Hostetler, a Toledo artist, has had a lifelong career in creative design. He has created illustrations for several large corporations, including The Washington Post, PBS, Havas, Converse, Motorola and American Eagle. He currently is the leader of global strategic communications at Ford Design. Hostetler utilizes new media techniques to create illustrations and typography.
Rais, local to Toledo, is an “up-and-coming painter” in the Toledo art scene. In 2018, she received her degree from The University of Toledo in Biology, as well as earning the School of Visual and Performing Arts Director’s Award and in 2023, the Best of Show in The University of Toledo’s Art on the Mall and Second Award in the category of Painting at Crosby Festival of the Arts. Rais uses oils to create her art depiciting commercial spaces.
Sheets, a Toledo native, has been painting for over 30 years and his work has been featured in almost 300 private, corporate and public collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Sheets received both his Education and Masters of Education degrees from UT. In the early 1990s, Absolut Vodka featured his Stones Series paintings in their Absolut Statehood ad campaign for the Absolut Ohio bottle, which rendered his painting as an etched river stone.
The “Consuming Culture” exhibit will be available to vuew from July 12 to Sept. 21 during Gallery Hours, Wednesday-Saturday, 12 pm to 4 pm and by appointment. “Consuming Culture” will also feature an online art exhibit, which will contain images of the full exhibit, available to view on 20northgallery.com.
For more information, visit 20northgallery.com/consuming-culture.
