Ms. Barbara Chira

According to Gallery West Co-Director Barbara Chira, "'Musing Constructs and Contraptions is intended to provoke thinking about connections and contrasts between constructivist and deconstructivist impulses, between the painting and the object, and between form and content, as well as to be simply a buoyant and visual delight."Chira also

Barbara Chira: Intuitive Painting, Portrait Drawing, Book Arts, Craft/Studio Art

Barbara Chira is an adjunct faculty member at Cuyahoga Community College/Western Campus, teaching Foundation Drawing, and where she is also Co-Director of Gallery West (www.tri-c.edu/gallerywest).Ms. Chira is a guest lecturer at other area colleges, and also teaches in community arts settings.She maintains a private working studio in the ArtCraft Building downtown on Superior Avenue, where she is an active member of "City Artists at Work -- In the Superior Arts Corridor," a local artists' group comprised of over 70 artists across 12 buildings in that downtown neighborhood (www.cityartistsatwork.com).Ms. Chira maintains a consistent exhibition record.Her work tends toward commentary and activism, in sequential art and/or large-scale installation formats, and often with strong drawing and semantic components.She received most of her formal training in Studio Art from Ursuline College, with concentrations in drawing, printmaking, and ceramics, and where she graduated with the highest departmental award.Ms.Chira and her husband live in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of the city of Cleveland, where she also maintains a volunteer commitment to facilitate expressive and healing arts projects with underprivileged groups.Contact her at barbara.chira@tri-c.edu.