If you are ready to take a break from politics and want to see some art there are two promising exhibitions opening this weekend.

"All Things Cleveland" group show Friday November 14, from 6pm-10pm @ Asterisk Gallery, free. For this exhibition, Arabella Proffer, one of my favorite local artists has done a little homage of sorts to Mr. Thomas Kinkade. She says: "there will also be a live Polka band and tons of sauerkraut. There have already been some legal throw downs in regards to this show involving city cheerleaders and their lawyers -- should be interesting!"

Spaces: Hyper-Nature, Opening Reception,Friday, November 14, 6pm, free, a group exhibition including painting, sculpture and installation, features the works of national artists who re-envision forms of terrestrial representation through the use of man-made and recycled materials: Sherry Bittle, Jason Briggs, Alison Carey, Gina Ruggeri, Kimberly Hart, Carin Mincemoyer, Laura Moriarty and Judith Mullen.
Imagine a world half-recognizable and familiar, while simultaneously skewed and illusory—a world filled with synthetic landscapes, natural and manufactured environments intersecting and blurring the boundaries between reality and the artificial.

And, in case you missed them last Friday, two great photography shows opened:

At Convivium 33 gallery, Michael Stephen Levy "The Black Church Project - Revelations" Levy's work is masterfully curated by fellow artist Douglas Max Utter.

At the Cleveland Institute of Art, Reinberger galleries (Re) Imaging Photography. The exhibition includes some impressive still and video images from artists around the world. One of my favorites was a series of still photographs titled "Fruitless" documenting the disappearing orchards in upstate New York.