The newest exhibitions at the Akron Art Museum take audiences deep into the creative process by exploring how artists think inside their studios - and how they can transform the museum itself, when they get the chance.
The shows don't always hit the intended targets. But they're engaging, fun and well worth seeing. And they share one common denominator: a desire to envelop and overwhelm viewers in complex, spectacular visual experiences. [...]
[...] For example, a room-size installation by the English-born American artist Judy Pfaff envelops the viewer in a three-dimensional galaxy of swirling discs and clouds of various materials that appear to float within an open-work lattice resembling an exploded grid.
Entitled Turtle, the work refers to a myth describing the world as flat and resting on the shell of a giant turtle. With its references to twirling galaxies and nebulae, the work seems to take a more expansive view of cosmology than the turtle myth implies.
Pfaff's work invites contemplation about her commanding use of space in an installation custom-created for the Akron Art Museum, but "Turtle" doesn't seem to have much to do with how the artist thinks on paper.
