Dexter Davis, Body & Soul / Robert Wright Civil Disobedience / David Batz, A Creative Odyssey

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve (AAWR) is incredibly pleased to present three concurrent shows Dexter Davis, Body & Soul / Robert Wright Civil Disobedience / David Batz, A Creative Odyssey for its final three exhibitions of 2026. On display through December 19, these are the inaugural exhibitions that celebrate the acceptance of their work into the Archives. While each of these artists’ works is unique in comparison to each other, they do have some overlapping characteristics. Each of them uses a postmodern aesthetic utilizing some appropriation, personal experience rather than objective truth, and collapses the distinction between high art and mass or popular culture.

Dexter Davis, Body & Soul is an exhibition predominantly of works coming directly from him made in 2022 to 2026. Also included are works from the AAWR permanent collection, as well loans from private collectors, Lawrence Waldman, Tony Serna, and Dolin / Maxwell. Dexter considers his process to be very expressive in nature, and while he uses collage to put the whole together, he likens his work more to painting or drawing. Representative drawings and prints are mixed together with items from his daily life, so that new ideas are formed. One week after the opening of this show, Mr. Davis will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the visual arts from the Cleveland Arts Prize.

Davis Batz, A Creative Odyssey, comes completely from the Archives’ permanent collection of his work. The exhibition encompasses a sampling of mainly ceramic work, both sculptural and functional, with a few sculptures pieces made from natural materials as well. While A Creative Odyssey focuses on the ceramic work, Batz also was prolific in producing art prints and utilizing a variety of studio papermaking techniques. Batz traveled extensively and drew inspiration from other cultures, incorporating elements of those experiences into the imagery of his work. The Archives’ collection, and this exhibition, includes a large number of colorful impressed and brightly glazed works from his Odyssey series.

Robert Wright, Civil Disobedience is an exhibition made up equally of works from the AAWR collection dating from 2002 to 2023 and works on loan from the artist from 2026. Wrights works are based on the idea of motion. As a deaf person Robert is interested in capturing music through motion. To this end he visits ballet practices where he draws the dancers and then reduces them to abstracted characters based on their movements. Wright’s recent works are a part of his Civil Disobedience series, which inspired the title for his exhibition, are predominantly oil paint on canvas. The series itself was titled after the jazz project created by New York bassist David Ambrosio. Wright is fond of listening to jazz music while painting, and finds the current upheaval in our society matches the reflective jazz music produced during the turbulent 1960’s.

Free and Open to the public, Weds. – Fri. 10a – 4 p. Sat. Noon – 4p