Gallery Reception: Jan 3, 6-9pm.
Live printing available in the gallery during the reception, featuring a collaborative printing block made by Covault and Meriç. Artist talk at 7:30pm.
The Harpist in the Paper Garden combines the work of Melih Meriç and Leo Covault, presenting contemporary perspectives on historic forms of cultural expression and storytelling. The multi-layered prints in Meriç’s “Stitched Editions” reference Turkish craft traditions, the continuous patterns parallelling the harmonious growth of a garden. Covault’s comic, “The Harpist,” explores the form of fairy tales through an expanded experience of gender expression within a vibrant, mixed media landscape. The Harpist in the Paper Garden broadens conventional understandings of relationships and the natural world through an immersive environment which encourages reflection upon various legacies of artistic expression.
Leo Covault is a printmaker and illustrator exploring gender through the lens of historical fashion and folklore. He creates risograph zines, paper doll and three dimensional set comics, and linocut prints. His work as a library Reference Associate influences his goal of making history accessible and interesting for modern readers. Covault graduated with a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2022, and has since been a Cleveland Scene Comics Edition artist, a Hudson Valley Seed Pack Artist, and the 2024 Genghis Con Poster artist. He lives in Cleveland Heights and enjoys museums and folk dance.
Melih Meriç (b.1998, Istanbul/Turkey) is a printmaker and educator. They explore a spiritual
journey through Islamic geometric abstraction. Using printmaking as their main medium, they
create works that talk about diaspora, assimilation and a combination of Middle Eastern
traditional practices. Their works combine traditional pattern making and a contemporary way
of creating editions of prints. With a passion for pattern and paper, they use innovative
methods of printmaking and textile arts to create stitched editions and embossed works on
paper. They received their MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and BA from
Bennington College in Printmaking. Their works have been exhibited in Michigan, Ohio
Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Vermont, Texas and internationally in Germany, Australia,
Netherlands, Austria, and Turkey.
“My work deals with making peace with a part of my culture that drove me to leave it. Finding
beauty in design and simplicity, then creating systems to complicate those principles. I fell in
love with printmaking and the idea of multiplicity when I first made the connection to tiles from
the Middle East. It suddenly became a tool to create and expand patterns that challenge
traditions in crafts.”
The Harpist in the Paper Garden will be open from January 3 through Feb 15 during regular gallery hours on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 12 p.m.-4 p.m., and by appointment on weekdays. To request an appointment, email info@waterlooarts.org or call 216.692.9500.
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