Coming soon to Corning Gallery
Internationally renowned artist Derek Hess (b. 1964, Cleveland, OH) first emerged into prominence as the most artistically capable figure in the 1990s rock poster art renaissance.
Since then, he’s made a name for himself in the worlds of fine arts, apparel, tattooing, and even music festivals. Though he explores dark and intense themes, he’s nonetheless made art so broadly appealing that his work has been collected by such fabled institutions as the Louvre and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as in dive bars and tattoo parlors.
Hess is proud to add the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to that list with the exhibit ROCK OF AGES: The Evolutionary Art of Derek Hess. He’s been visiting the Museum since early childhood, and making drawings here for almost as long; at age five, he wanted to be a paleontologist! The influence of the natural sciences on Hess’ work has been evident since his earliest concert posters, which depicted the dinosaurs, mastodons, ancient aquatic life, and fossils he’s been sketching at the Museum throughout his life—always striking an admirable balance between creative expression and rigorous scientific accuracy.
With ROCK OF AGES, Hess hopes to share with viewers the inspiration the Museum has always been to him, and to reveal how science can be a launching pad for art.
This exhibition is included with general admission.
