Angela Joy Oster

I'm so happy to be included in this club. Mizna Wada's solo exhibition will feature spooky-cute original paintings playing off the Japanese term "Kowaii" meaning scary, but very similarly pronounced as "Kawaii" which means cute. The show will also include originals by other artists following the same theme, Kowaii Club.

I had a tiny mention in ArtForum due to the GRAPHIC show at Artist Archives of the Western Reserve:

"Of course, comics and graphic literature have deep roots in Cleveland, and some local artists, feeling snubbed by FRONT’s lineup, even mounted their own event devoted to the genre (this is one of at least three local-led spinoffs, including CAN and, for those who didn’t make it into CAN, CAN’T. The former was quickly embraced by FRONT as a complementary event). “GRAPHIC,” devised by Gary and Laura Dumm, opened on July 19 at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, and includes work by younger artists like Ashley Ribblett and Angela Oster as well as legends like Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Reed Crandall, Robert Crumb, and Harvey Pekar. I hope the effort offers something that seemed missing from the mostly gritless FRONT, which was low on the rusty cynicism and underdog resilience I (stereotypically, perhaps) consider intrinsic to the town that birthed both Superman and American Splendor."

-- Zack Hatfield for ArtForum, at the inaugural FRONT Triennial

Read the whole article

Thank you to the Dayglo Corp for this fun interview

https://dayglo.com/blog/blog/artist-spotlight-angela-oster/

By Maggie Grimason, Albuquerque Weekly Alibi

Angela Oster described a visit to the cemetery with her mother and a friend of the family, who was an amateur photographer. The idea was to shoot some film. As the women traipsed the graveyard, Oster's mother turned to look for her daughter and recalled finding her tap dancing on a grave. Cute and spooky—quite evidently—is a thread that has been running through the Ohio-based artist's life for some time, and it’s something she chases in her ethereal works of art, a selection of which will be on display at Stranger Factory in Oster's most recent exhibition, The Lady is a Vamp, which opens on Oct. 6.

“My goal,” Oster said of her works—largely pencil and ink drawings, filled in with gauche and day-glo paint, “is to tell a story or see how I could make somebody laugh with just the minimal amount of marks on the page.” And so, wispy vampires glower from their frames, delicate monsters languish across fainting couches and all manner of vampy creatures march across the body of Oster's work. “Spooky and cute, yes, that's the sweet spot,” Oster affirmed as we spoke over the phone. “I want it to be both of those things at the same time. They're not scary, they're just slightly creepy.”

It's a style that took Oster awhile to settle upon—despite her childhood predilection for grave dancing and a local late night horror showcase called “The Big Chuck and Little John Show” that aired old monster movies. While as a child she frequently drew “things with giant eyes … [and] little ghosts that had sharp teeth” a tenure at art school shifted her focus to different art practices. “I was into the whole cerebral art theory kind of stuff—performance art, digital media and all that. Then, I got out of art school and I got away from that kind of built-in audience that you have there, and I didn't make anything for a long time,” she explained.

What galvanized Oster's work in illustration was the discovery of several Instagram accounts, and specifically Mab Graves' (@mabgraves) Drawlloween Club, which challenges artists to create supernatural drawings for each day in October. Several years ago, Oster committed herself to completing the challenge. “I found this group of people on Instagram that were very encouraging and they were a bunch of cheerleaders. This all came about through that, finding other people that like the same stuff that I do,” she explained, and by connecting with like-minded artists, she was able to allow herself to pursue the kind of art she had long wanted to make. “I realized I just wanted to draw cartoons, and I gave myself permission to do that and not feel like I had to have some big reason behind it.”

by Dott von Schneider, Cleveland Scene Magazine

Walking into the Derek Hess Gallery, we are privy to the unpacking of artwork for the Acting Out! exhibition comprising more than 30 local and national artists who have been diagnosed with or have been affected by mental illness and addiction. Derek Hess, who opened up to the world about his struggles with addiction and bipolar disorder through his autobiographic film, Forced Perspective, is on the front lines of bringing awareness and resources to Cleveland during his four-day Acting Out! festival. Along with long-time business partner Marty Geramita and marketing and events promotion powerhouse Angie Hetrick, he has pulled together a compelling lineup of emerging and established artists.

While the artwork in this exhibition is thematically heavy, its duty, as with all art, is to open up a dialogue between the work and the viewer. Here's a preview of some of the pieces.

by Josh Usmani, Cleveland Scene

The latest event at Canopy is part art exhibition, part fashion show. Bats in my Bouffant features collaborative works by visual artist and illustrator Angela Oster and textile artist Krista Tomorowitz. Opening with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. on June 30, Bats in my Bouffant showcases garments crafted by Tomorowitz using sheer silk chiffon, hand-painted or printed with imagery by Oster. The silk used to create the clothing features Oster’s drawings and paintings repeated to create unique patterns.

By Anne Nickoloff, Cleveland Plain Dealer

cleveland.com

Jan. 25, 2017

If your goal for the new year is to get a little more cultured, why not follow these 29 Cleveland artists on Instagram?

https://youtu.be/8T0GViABnb0