The Canton Museum of Art (CMA) is one of Ohio’s premier museums for an exceptional visual arts experience. CMA is recognized for powerful exhibitions focused on American art, its influences and themes that allow everyone to connect with creativity and cultural heritage. The Museum’s diverse education programs serve thousands of students and adults of all ages. CMA’s acclaimed Collection focuses on American works on paper, primarily watercolors, and ceramics. Founded in 1935, CMA is a cultural destination for the city and region, with community events and programs making the inspiration of art accessible to all — serving nearly 45,000 participants annually.

Fall Exhibitions on-view August 22nd through October 29th, 2023.

Family Album: Our Stories

"Family is the most profound example of a universal primordial experience. It’s a mixed bag, for sure, a marker of time, that which grounds us or disables us in ways that can follow us the whole of our lives. Everything about family continually changes, but memories linger. A curiosity arose about these notions of memory and generational transition with the juxtaposition of simultaneously raising my own children and caring for my mother and my aunt through aging and illness. Their deaths, a month apart, were preceded by the bestowal of the family albums. It was important for both of them to also pass down the details of names, places and stories behind each picture. I did not write them down, although in hindsight I wish I had as I have realized that time and distance mute the memory of those conversations.

This exploration inspired a broadening of focus beyond my own family. I was on the hunt for vintage photographs discarded at thrift shops and my yearly pilgrimage to the Hartville Flea Market. How was it that these photos were not carefully passed down from one generation to the next. These dusty, abandoned piles of pictures begged the question, “What becomes of us when there is no one to remember?” My efforts to animate, to embellish these strangers speak to our own longing to be remembered in some form or fashion.

As I collected more and more of these candid photos I was drawn to the women in these photos and the implied narratives revealed in a stance, a look, a hint of a difficult relationship. I was raised in a three generation household so there was something so familiar about these women. The paintings look behind the veil of their daily contributions, an implied narrative of the complexities, ambiguities and messiness of their vital role. Historically, women are the source of the stream from which we all flow. These paintings serve as a vehicle of remembrance, gratitude, redemption and closure.

It is natural that this series continues to unfold and expand. Embedded deeply in my practice and work as a visual artist is a belief that art in it most fundamental form is a personal expression and ultimately finds its rightful place through the engagement of the viewer in particular and the community at large. It is within this wider context that art is in its most powerful role. It not only reflects societal norms and transitions, but can assist in bringing vital change as well. It is time to invite others to join this exploration of the most common of experiences. As a part of the Family Album: Our Stories exhibition at the Canton Museum of Art I intend to make a large scale multiple panel painting and a digital installation using photos from the community as inspiration. These references will be inclusive of race and gender, to reflect the whole of the Stark County. My purpose as an artist is driven by the belief that art should be accessible to all. My hope is that this particular exhibition, draws in individuals and families in underserved communities and provides an experience through observation, programming and education which inspires deeper understanding and appreciation of those whose shoulders we stand upon, an exposure to a visual language expressing the complex navigation of human relationships." - Amy Pleasant

Amy Pleasant is a Seattle figurative painter, born and raised in Ohio. Her work examines the most common of experiences; family, life transitions and generational change. Amy's early figurative paintings integrated shape and pattern and were rooted in vintage photographic images. More recent work incorporates less structured figures in the tradition of abstract expressionism, allowing the viewer freedom of interpretation. Her paintings provide a visual language, hinting at the complex navigation of human relationships. Embedded deeply in her practice and work as a visual artist is a belief that art in its most fundamental form is a personal expression and ultimately finds its rightful place through the engagement of the viewer.

In this CMA original exhibition,"Family Album: Our Stories," Amy Pleasant reflects the nostalgia of family moments, matriarchs, spaces and neighborhoods.

Human/Nature: The Trompe L'oeil Constructions of Ron Isaacs

"My three primary recurring subjects are vintage clothing (for the way it continues the life of the past into the present, for its rich structures and colors and shapes, and for its anthropomorphic presence as a stand-in for the figure); plant materials in the form of sticks, leaves, flowers; and found objects…these three subjects combine to provide apparently endless sources of composition and design, interacting in visually striking, poetic, and evocative ways" - Ron Isaacs

The masterful trompe l'oeil work of Ron Isaacs is as charming as it is technically brilliant. Using birch plywood, select cutouts, and beautifully painted details which fool the eye, Isaacs creates compositions that pique your curiosity. A sense of surprise and appreciation is experienced when discovering his talent.

Trained as a painter, Isaacs work now stands halfway between painting and sculpture. Beginning in about 1970, the paintings transformed a step at a time from a flat, rectangular picture to become irregularly shaped elaborate relief constructions fabricated completely from Finnish birch plywood painted in matte acrylics.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ron Isaacs now lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky.

Legacy: Getting to Give, Giving to Get

"My work is influenced by the idea of legacy, and the ways in which our family history, oral histories, and DNA shape our personalities and life trajectories. There is a saying, 'We die two deaths. The first, when we die, and the second is when we’ve been forgotten.' Are our ancestors truly forgotten or does our DNA retell their past whether we know it or not? " - Susan Mentrak

Susan Mentrak is a ceramic artist and illustrator born and raised in Ohio. Susan graduated with a degree in Illustration from The Columbus College of Art and Design. After adopting in 2003 she chose to devote the majority of her time into being a Mom. Her creative spirit never ceased though.

In 2017, she saw an advertisement on Facebook for a ceramic class at the Canton Museum of Art and registered. She was very nervous meeting people and found it extremely difficult to communicate after 4 years of self-isolation. Through the nurturing ceramic community at the Canton Museum, she fell in love with ceramics and thrived in exploring her new creative medium. The Canton Ceramic Artists Guild took her under their wing, exposing her to the science of clay, as well as encouraging her to pursue her ambitions.

She is a member of the Canton Ceramic Artists Guild and the Ceramic Studio Manager at the Massillon Museum of Art. She has sold her ceramic pieces in Guild shows, online and at the Massillon Museum store. Her show Legacy: Getting to Give, Giving to Get. is her first solo exhibition.

An American Journey: Watercolor Achievements from the CMA Collection

Watercolor has the power to transport us through its luminous colors, its dappled brilliance of light, its cheerfulness, and its storied past. Take a journey with us as we dive into a world of dazzling color and captivating stories in An American Journey: Watercolor Achievements from the CMA Collection. Throughout time, artists have used watercolor to express themselves through the medium’s spontaneity and ability to capture the visually stunning effects of light and color. Many of the greatest achievements in the history of American art have been realized through the medium of watercolor, due to artists’ ability to use the medium to quickly render what they see around them. By the turn of the century, the popularity of watercolor painting as well as its versatility and directness led many critics to proclaim watercolor the “American Medium.” Additionally, due to its accessibility as a medium, watercolor was popular among women, such as Alice Schille, Claude Hirst, and Jane Peterson, who excelled as some of the most well-known and accomplished watercolor painters.

Watercolor painting has been part of the artistic tradition within Ohio for centuries. The arrival of watercolor as a major genre in American art can be traced to the founding of the American Society of Painters in Water Colors in 1866. Watercolor had long been popular in the United States, but it was largely considered a medium best suited to amateur artists. The Society’s first exhibition in 1867 drastically altered this trajectory, and America’s leading artists increasingly viewed watercolor as a serious creative and commercial pursuit. In the 1920s, Cleveland surpassed Boston as the country's leading center in watercolor painting. The medium achieved popularity in Ohio due to the close-knit character of the artistic community, and soon, Ohio became a state filled with booming artistic colonies which produced thousands of paintings and cultivated generations of notorious painters.

Over the last several decades, the Canton Museum of Art has built a thorough and extensive collection of works by some of the most celebrated watercolor artists in hopes of sharing this rich history with the community. Comprised of works from the Permanent Collection that trace the dynamic history of watercolor painting since the nineteenth century, An American Journey will highlight major American artists, including those from Ohio, who took the watercolor medium by storm and produced some of the finest works seen in the medium. You will see examples including Winslow Homer, who was significant in the revitalization of watercolor in America, John Singer Sargent, Oscar Bluemner, Charles Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth, and Edward Hopper, among others.