"Divergent Deliveries" exhibition at Akron Soul Train

Nagelberg received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is Chair of Ceramics at Cleveland Institute of Art.  He blends hand work with digital and industrial processes.  His designs focus on forms that can stand alone or work together as modules of larger compositions.  He states, “I choose materials for their properties, so it is not unusual to find myself working in ceramic, wood, glass or metal.  By exploring these properties, I strive to create new ways of working with a material, coaxing it to do something new”.  In the studio he begins with curiosity and play, cutting and folding paper until ideas begin to form.  Throughout his work he has a playful and humorous approach to everyday objects – cups appear to tumble, vases spin, inviting you to look and play.

Sorensen is a multimedia conceptual artist with interests in science and travel. He, too, incorporates playfulness into his work as demonstrated in his installation On Exactitude in Science, derived by flying graphite-coated paper airplanes into the gallery walls and marking each landing with a red flag, a sort of mapping of flight patterns.  This manner of drawing is contrasted with his residency work consisting of ten graphite drawings reflecting his digital travels into Google’s algorithms and a search for “Jack”.  It was his interest to understand a world where “real things have been exchanged for a manufactured experience and my search limited to what I know”.  Sorensen received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design.