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June 17, 2026
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 202
CLEVELAND—Cleveland Institute of Art Painting junior Tion "Toast" Best presents his latest solo body of work, Let the Hood Cry. The exhibition is on view at Cain Park’s Feinberg Gallery as part of Bringing Light, a dual-presentation format alongside Room for Dessert? by fellow CIA student Ashley Olszewski.
Let the Hood Cry expresses collective grief for young Black children across America who have been left with no viable alternatives to death and prison. As a Black artist from the South Side of Chicago, Toast utilizes 2010s Chicago drill-era aesthetics and memorabilia to reconstruct the all-too-common stories of youth trapped inside an inescapable cycle of poverty, gangs and violence.
To Toast, this era specifically was marked by a simultaneous surge in creativity and violence, serving as the direct aftermath of successive, racially targeted legislative acts that shaped Chicago’s modern environment. By precisely capturing the everyday in his artwork, he forces viewers to look beyond the surface and ask what conditions have shaped this generation’s normal.
Let the Hood Cry opens with a public reception from 6 to 8pm Friday, June 19 at the Feinberg Gallery (14591 Superior Road, Cleveland Heights). The exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, August 2. Admission is free.
"Working through the final stages of Tion’s Creative Works project with him has been truly enlightening. His ideas and personal experiences have been thoughtfully executed in his paintings; creating a cohesive body of work in which each piece serves as pages in a storybook," says Michelle Barnicky Stachnik, curator at Feinberg Gallery. "He is receptive to input and feedback, which has resulted in an extremely professional exhibition."
To learn more about the exhibition, visit LTHC.World. To keep up with Toast and follow his ongoing artistic practice, connect on Instagram at @toast_best.
Let the Hood Cry was created through the Creativity Works program, which is made possible by the generous support of the Fenn Educational Fund and the G.R. Lincoln Family Foundation. Creativity Works is a self-initiated internship program with the goal of supporting a student's professional development. Participating students create proposals that align with their long-term professional goals.
Contacts
Cleveland Institute of Art
Michael C. Butz, Director of College Communications + External Relations
mcbutz@cia.edu / 216.421.7404
Michael C. Butz, Director of College Communications + External Relations
mcbutz@cia.edu / 216.421.7404
Cleveland Institute of Art
The Cleveland Institute of Art is a private, nonprofit college of art and design that has been the training ground for countless students who have gone on to make important contributions to the fields of creativity and innovation since it opened in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. Its students have designed internationally recognized products, their artwork has been exhibited in major museums and private collections around the world, and their entertainment media has been enjoyed by audiences and game players for generations. It enrolls about 550 students nationally and internationally and has a faculty of about 100 full-time and adjunct members, all of whom are practicing artists, designers and scholars.
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