Cleveland Institute of Art, Flux Factory present By Way Of, the inaugural Regional Artist Mobility Program residency-exchange exhibition

CLEVELAND—The Cleveland Institute of Art's Reinberger Gallery presents By Way Of, a group exhibition of new work by the inaugural cohort of the Regional Artist Mobility Program (RAMP), a residency exchange between CIA and Flux Factory in New York.

By Way Of takes its title from the common preposition for an indirect route—a nod to the oft absurd, circuitous path taken by makers for their art. Leaning into processes of working backwards, taking the side quest, wandering off or rerouting, each of the artists in By Way Ofchannels a practice through something that already exists: by way of a melting shoe, by way of reenactment, by way of material resistance or by way of Saturday morning cartoons.

The inaugural RAMP cohort includes two CIA faculty members: interdisciplinary artist and designer Rachel Ferber and painter Mike Meier. It also includes two Flux Factory community artists: textile artist and designer Itala Aguilera and interdisciplinary artist and former actor Li-Ming Hu.

Aguilera makes garments from historical patterns in soluble, degradable and edible materials, so that undressing becomes an entropic striptease. Ferber challenges notions of contemporary productivity and value through “inefficient” routes such as a fictitious lifestyle brand, or an anthrotype print that will disappear over time. Hu reenacts found performances and interviews, inhabiting them in drag and masquerade. Meier’s paintings and drawings, like a punk song, engage how violence reverberates through North American media, art history and popular culture.

Through RAMP, Ferber and Meier spent six weeks in residence at Flux Factory in May and June, and Aguilera and Hu spent six weeks at CIA in September and October. RAMP was founded to address increasing regional divisions and decreasing opportunities for artist mobility within the United States. 

"Reinberger Gallery functions as a social and intellectual infrastructure where students encounter working artists, where artists can experiment and where a community can imagine what a continued practice in the arts looks like after art school," says Meghana Karnik, Curator & Exhibitions Director at Flux Factory. "This exchange channels Flux's artist-run model through CIA's educational and fabrication resources, and CIA faculty into Flux's international collective. Together, we are practicing another model of supporting ambitious work beyond the New York–LA circuit."

"Working with Meghana to co-organize By Way Of and with Flux Factory on the RAMP exchange reflects a meaningful expression of CIA's mission of cultivating creative careers and strengthening our network of artist communities," says Nikki Woods, Director of Exhibitions + Galleries at CIA. "Investing in artists and their work through time, care and resources helps create the conditions for a thriving creative network that not only benefits the artists themselves, but also the entire ecosystem. I hope this partnership demonstrates how arts organizations can work together to share resources and expand opportunities for artists during a time of economic precarity, prevalent uncertainty and widespread disruption."

By Way Of will open to the public with a reception from 6 to 8pm Friday, November 13 at CIA's Reinberger Gallery. Remarks will begin at 6pm and will be followed by a live one-night-only performance by Aguilera at 6:15pm. The exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, February 7, 2027.

A free artist talk, By Way Of: Cleveland, will take place from 12:15 to 1:30pm Friday, October 16 in CIA's Peter B. Lewis Theater as part of Reinberger Gallery's Lunch on Fridays lecture series. The event will feature Meier and Ferber in conversation with Karnik. The discussion will center these two CIA faculty members' experiences in residence at Flux Factory in New York City and will explore how RAMP and other exchanges between artists and arts organizations can successfully build further networks between artist communities across the country. 

The Regional Artist Mobility Program is made possible with the support of The Kettering Family Foundation. Karnik's co-organization of By Way Of is supported by CIA's Roulet-Hernandez Family Curator Fund.