Stormy Weather features Cleveland artists Douglas Max Utter, Justin Brennan and Clay Parker,   whose recent projects make commentary on the human condition in our present day. Like storms, life’s struggles can be tumultuous. But, turbulent weather passes, and is usually followed by light. Utter, Brennan and Parker portray the bad weather, both literally and figuratively, with honesty to expose it and possibly even shift the winds.

Douglas Max Utter’s recent paintings are glimpses of daily life and dreamstates, moody and nostalgic. His urban nightscapes and weather pattern studies are created with thick layers of black and brown oil paint that both soothe and disturb, while his recent figurative work focuses on family life, lovers and most recently, cartoon caricatures from Dick Tracy newspaper comics. There is an overall pensive mood in the paintings that addresses the feelings of uneasiness many have in today’s political and socioeconomic climate.

Justin Brennan’s new figurative paintings are of anonymous people and loved ones, influenced by his career as a caretaker at The Cleveland Clinic. A recent woman and child painting is absent of any facial depictions, yet Brennan has captured their emotional bond with bold, colorful outlines and the thick oil stick gestures he’s well known for. He has also embarked on a series of non-representational work, an amalgamation of abstracted objects painted in a flurry of bright patterns and loose, dancing brushwork that could imply hope amidst the despairing messages that seem to overwhelm current headlines.

Clay Parker, a multifaceted artist who has recently resurfaced in Cleveland, is known for his illustrations fronting punk bands, designing band flyers and large scale murals in the region. A recent battle with cancer has inspired him to create again, non stop. His graphic black and white ink drawings and paintings portray current events, commentary on the government, and the intensity of coping with life’s storms.