Drew Ippoliti's "Here, There and Everywhere" exhibit
When Drew Ippoliti moved from Massachusetts to the Akron area six years ago to teach ceramics at The University of Akron, he only knew what he heard about the region. Akron is home to tire producers and Devo, and the May 4, 1970, shootings happened at nearby Kent State University. But all that largely took place before his move, and now he wants to share his experiences. To him, Akron is a city undergoing an exciting renaissance with vast changes occurring in the few years he has been here.
“Now I really love walking downtown,” says the sculptor and assistant professor of instruction in the ceramics department. “It feels so much more accessible and vibrant.”
In August, through his Akron Soul Train residency, he examined the redevelopment of Akron by collecting stories of people’s experiences and turning those perspectives into symbolic abstract sculptures. In 2019, Ippoliti did a similar project as a Fulbright Scholar in Seoul, South Korea, creating sculptures addressing topics like the economy and family. For the Akron project, he is collecting stories from local storytellers and people at community listening sessions.
“I comb through it and distill symbols that feel related … and create some kind of art,” he says. “This is a nice moment to pause and think empathically about someone else’s experiences.”
For example, someone shared a story about seeing a double rainbow after it rained. He used the shared experience as a lens to reflect on how the city is moving forward and hope for a better future. To tell that story through sculpture, he began by sculpting two half circles, and then he joined them to form a mountain and a rainbow.
“It’s something that you see on the horizon,” he says. “That’s something you have to look up and look away from what you’re currently involved in to see.”
Like many of his recent pieces, this sculpture has rings on top to represent barriers that separate us and shape our experiences such as social distancing during the pandemic and using technology daily.
“The rings are the weight of the last few years,” he says.
See up to 10 of his final works in the exhibit “Here, There and Everywhere” at the Akron Soul Train gallery Oct. 26 to Dec. 3. His goal is for the pieces to communicate his and other people’s experiences within Akron.
“Through art, we can learn about each other. The more we know about each other, we see similarities rather than differences,” he says. “It makes us a more harmonious group of people who can live together with less static and friction and really enjoy each other’s company.”
191 King James Way, Akron, akronsoultrain.org