Past Exhibitions
-
July 24 – August 29, 2026
Artists: Jasen Burnthistle, Mansa Lamont Bey, Jacqueline Bon, Sequoia Bostick, Lisa Kutschbach Brohl, Michael Marefka, Yana Mikho-Misho, Alyssa Mills, Kyle Osborne, Arfil Pajarillaga, Coyote Peterson, Scarlet Rice, Zenaida Smith, Janet Stearns, and Anna Wagner.
Description: The scientists, artists, and writers who have contributed to this book were invited to share their experience and appreciation of Northern Ohio's wetlands in hopes of bringing attention to their beauty and environmental importance.
-
Dates: May 15 – July 18, 2026
Artists: Arfil Pajarillaga, Erykah Townsend, Briana Robinson, Kalia Horner, Jazzee Rozier, Monique Donesia
TONIC is an exhibition of installation and printmaking by the 2025 PROOF Fellowship cohort. The exhibition brings together a range of material investigations and processes developed over the course of the fellowship, foregrounding print as both method and structure within expanded spatial practices.
The show marks the cohort’s public debut and invites visitors to move through the space in direct engagement with the installations and printed forms.
-
Dates: November 22 – January 17, 2025
Artists: Zygote Members
Description: Our annual Holiday Show has become a beloved Zygote tradition, showcasing handmade, original works by local artists, members, shop artists, and interns. Expect to find an incredible variety of pieces at every price point, from framed and unframed prints to greeting cards, handmade books, and more. You’ll also find Zygote merch like shirts, mugs, tote bags, and aprons, perfect for holiday gifting. Every purchase directly supports local artists and helps sustain Zygote Press’s mission to keep printmaking accessible and community-driven.
-
Dates: June 6 - August 16
Artists: Ash Armenta, Fío Avocado, Ruben Castillo, Mads Golitz, Teddy Lepley, Brett Lysne, Carley Schmidt, Delia Touche, Brian Wagner, Matthew Willie Garcia, Erin Wohletz
HARBINGER is a selection of prints and print media that search for the sentiment of queer life and the soft moments - the familiar moments. This exhibition features eleven 2SLGBTQIA+ artists working in printmaking who offer insight to their world and the ordinary, genuine, significant act of taking up space. A refuge for quiet love, this exhibition focuses on that space - and how our environments shift and change around us, and us to them. It marks resilience and where we have always been and will continue to reside.
“Something that gives an anticipatory sign of what’s to come.” — HARBINGER considers printmaking as a medium and queer peoples’ place alongside the power of the multiplicity of printmaking and the queer voice. Just as the robin wards the coming of spring, these prints, books, and sculptures represent the resilience required to be that messenger and the constant adaptation of the community; the persistent love and tenderness present in the search for solace and change.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with the LGBT Center of Cleveland - who are one of the nation's oldest LGBTQ+ community centers, and are celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year! Exhibition curated by Brian Wagner.
-
Dates: March 14 - Saturday, May 17, 2025
Artists: John Brown VI, Ryan Harris, Leila Khoury, Anastasia Malone, Thao Nguyen and R.A. Washington
Description: This group exhibition features work by the 2024 cohort of Zygote's PROOF Fellows - the six artists include: John Brown VI, Ryan Harris, Leila Khoury, Anastasia Malone, Thao Nguyen and R.A. Washington - all are showing work they completed during their residency. Zygote's PROOF Fellowship offers six seats annually to BIPOC artists with little to no experience in printmaking. These artists are given the opportunity to learn a variety of printmaking techniques, including screenprinting, etching, lithography, monoprint, relief, and RISO. Each artist then completes a body of work in their new medium.
-
Dates: January 17 - March 1, 2025
Artists: d.a. levy and RA Washington
Description: Zygote Press is thrilled to be showing work by Cleveland poet and printer d.a.levy as part of the new exhibition d.a. levy: Subversive Printmaking in 1960s Cleveland. For a limited time, original works by levy will be on view which have been generously loaned by the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University. This exhibition focuses on levy’s use of printmaking - specifically his letterpress, pressure prints, photocollage, ditto (spirit duplicator) and mimeographic work. While there has been plenty of scholarship on levy as a poet, there has not been much attention paid to his actual printmaking skills and methodology. This show will explore how levy used these techniques to communicate his ideas, both in populist formats like his many publications, but also in his two Cleveland Print folios, which were very much a fine art enterprise.
In addition, Cleveland poet, artist, and Zygote PROOF Fellow R.A. Washington will be curating an installation inspired by levy’s work. The installation will include two new poems by celebrated Cleveland poets Kisha Nicole Foster and Michelle R. Smith.
-
Dates: December 6 - December 23, 2024
Artists: Zygote Member Artists
Description: It's that time again! Once again Zygote has joined forces with Praxis Fiber Workshop, SPACES Gallery, and the Morgan Art of Papermaking for our Off the Wall Holiday Sale. That’s right, all FOUR organizations will be holding a Holiday Members’ Showcase across all four locations.
Don't miss this amazing art sale - featuring handmade, local, original works of art by some of the area’s best artists. Support local makers and nonprofits this year with your holiday purchases - tons of gift ideas at all price points!
Image: Lisa Schonberg -
Dates: October 1 – November 22, 2024
Artists: Scout Bach, Fi Burnham, Leo Covault, Jen P. Harris, Brittany M. Hudak, Lawrence Hudson, R Kauff, Josie Krampitz, Last Pages of Humanity, tahm lytle, Wendy Partridge, Andy Passchier, Gina Washington, Jan Zorman
Description: This exhibition is presented in honor of LGBT History Month. Celebrated annually in October, History Month coincides with National Coming Out Day (Oct 11) and the first march on Washington for gay rights (1979). The aim of LGBT History Month is to provide role models, build community and honor our extraordinary lineage.
This exhibition also celebrates the history of Zygote Press, a nonprofit community printmaking studio in Cleveland’s vibrant AsiaTown neighborhood. For 28 years Zygote has been a safe haven for queer artists, offering support through residency programs, studio access, and artistic development in a collaborative environment open to all. Queer Histories: Zygote Press centers intergenerational queer artists who currently work at Zygote Press, including young emerging artists as well as established artists who have worked in the shop for many years.
-
Dates: September 13 – October 19th, 2024
Artists: Scout Bach, tahm lytle, Bee Ferance, Michaella Difiore
Description: Bringing art to everyone by breaking down barriers is at the core of Zygote’s mission. The Affordable Print Fair: Collecting 101 centers that mission by creating opportunities for emerging artists to exhibit their work, and by offering new collectors an affordable way to acquire art. This exhibition and the accompanying free, public programs demonstrate that print collecting is not just for the rich, but is rather a democratic way of building an art collection that reflects your individual taste, while supporting local artists.
Zygote has a long history of helping artists establish their careers through their residency programs, workshops, and community-centric printmaking studio. The Affordable Print Fair will feature works by emerging Zygote artists Scout Bach, Bee Ferance, Tahm Lytle and Michaella DiFiore.
The exhibition will also include back catalog prints, which will be used during the free public programs geared to help budding collectors and emerging artists navigate the print market, and will be available for purchase. Zygote rarely sells prints from their deep backstock, making this a major draw for both new and seasoned art collectors.
-
Dates: June 7 – August 24, 2024
Artists: Conceived by Cleveland-based artist Jen P. Harris, the exhibition includes drawings and collage-based paintings by Harris alongside paintings, textiles, prints, and sculptures by Ajdin Kulić (Cleveland), E.E. Ikeler (New York), Fidencio Fifield-Perez (Minneapolis), Leeza Meksin (New York), Sarana Mehra (Los Angeles), and R Kauff (Cleveland).
Description: Continuing Zygote's commitment to showcasing art by queer artists every summer, Incantations centers seven artists whose work questions ideas of ritual, spell-casting and magic through a queer lens.
Originally planned as a solo exhibition, Incantations expanded to include six additional artists when Harris partnered with Zygote Press. The diamond-shaped “tiles” in Harris’s paintings are based on the winged beasts and flames of a thirteenth-century apocalypse manuscript, which she painstakingly copies, then cuts up and reconfigures. Motivating this body of work is a series of questions: When you’re living inside one story, how can you see around or beyond it? What patterns lie hidden beneath indoctrinated ideals and conventions? How do received narratives change when viewed through a queer lens? These questions guided the curation of the group show: the exhibiting artists radically transform materials or symbols, often through repetitive, accumulative actions that suggest ritual or spell-casting. Fragmented bodies, plants, and structures recombine into forms that refuse to cohere into expected narratives. Different scenarios come into view.
This project is supported by The Satellite Fund, administered by SPACES and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting Program.
-
Dates: May 25, 2024
Artists: 2024 Pressing Matters students
Description: Pressing Matters is a free after school program for Cleveland area teens that introduces students to printmaking as a tool for expression, interpretation, activism and self-advocacy. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum, Pressing Matters encourages teens to deepen their understanding of public humanities, civic engagement, socially-engaged art production, and art education.
The program is facilitated by Antwoine Washington and Michael Russel, co-founders of the nonprofit organization MOCHA, in collaboration with Zygote Press’ Aaron Williams (Arts Education Specialist), Brittany Hudak (Senior Program Manager), and Jackie Feldman (Executive Director).
-
Dates: March 8 – May 11, 2024
Artists: Chester Hopkins-Bey, Lawrence Hudson @lhudphotos, Sydney Kay @wannabe_future_artist, Chudney Patterson, Lacy Talley @lacerrrr, McKinley Wiley @thedarkroomco
Description: This group exhibition features work by the 2023 cohort of Zygote's PROOF Fellows.
Zygote's PROOF Fellowship offers six seats annually to BIPOC artists with little to no experience in printmaking. These artists are given the opportunity to learn a variety of printmaking techniques, including screenprinting, etching, lithography, monoprint, relief, and RISO. Each artist then completes a body of work in their new medium.
-
Dates: February 23 – March 2, 2024
Artists: Mosijah Roye
Description: The Cleveland Print Room invites you to Zygote Press on February 23rd for The Gen Z Project presented by NY photographer @mozijah. This project was a study of Generation Z’s mindset toward their future career endeavors as they moved toward graduation. Mosijah began with thought-provoking questions to students like, “How does what you aspire to do inspire or produce change in the world?” Interviewing almost 60 students in his high school Mosijah decided to choose 30 students and expand on his idea encouraging students to bring in props that were significant to their career goals to create captivating images of every student who participated.
Following the opening of The Gen Z Project Mosijah will be taking pictures and holding an artist talk on Saturday, February 24 from 12 – 4 P.M at Zygote Press. Mosijah opens this time up to learn more about him and his practice as a professional photographer in his generation and to interact with other Gen ZRs to take photos with props and ask the question “How does what you aspire to do inspire or produce change in the world?” as he continues documenting the present-future of this generation
The Gen Z Project is generously supported by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.
-
Dates: December 1, 2023 – February 10, 2024
Artists: ArtsPass Member Artists
Description: In case you haven’t heard, last year Zygote joined forces with Praxis Fiber Workshop and SPACES Gallery to have a group Holiday Sale – and just recently, the Morgan Art of Papermaking joined too! That’s right, all FOUR organizations will be holding a Holiday Members’ Showcase across all four locations!
Each venue has individual dates and hours, please click the logo below to learn more about each sale.
-
Dates: October 20 – November 11, 2023
Artists: Christopher Mason
Description: Stephen Bivens' Fellowship recipient, Christopher Mason began his 2022/23 residency straddling the mediums of photography and printmaking in the creation of this project, so it only seems like a natural step for the Cleveland Print Room to partner with us to show his work publicly. With a strict photoshoot schedule that included photographing the city, along with populating sketchbooks and journals with prints while working at Zygote, Mason's determination to take his photography to another artistic realm in his practice is present in this new body of work.
Mason writes, "Like a silent power, my work speaks in enigmatic tones, impressing through brevity. Childhood memories bloom, guiding my creative journey. The art of youth's joy and discovery emerges in blurred motion, textured grain, abstract repetition, and atypical compositions. Urban rhythms pulse, mirroring society's urgency....Art becomes a compass for uncharted territories."
Stephen Bivens Fellowship: Stephen Bivens was a self-taught photographer who preferred to work with 35mm film. A teaching artist with CPR, Bivens instructed students in Cleveland schools on shooting film. He was a 2018 Cleveland Arts Prize Verge Fellowship winner and 2016 received a Ballot Box Project award through the Kresge Foundation and ArtPlace America. Bivens died suddenly on June 1, 2020 after a short illness.
Thanks to Jen Bivens, artBIV and the George Gund Foundation for their support of the Bivens Fellowship.
-
Dates: October 6 – 13, 2023
Artists: Pei-Hsuan Wu
Description: Don’t miss this Pop-Up Exhibition, organized by our International Artist in Residence Pei-Hsuan Wu from Taipei City, Taiwan. “Involved” is a multi-national project that includes 20 artists from four different countries, including Cleveland printmaker, Karen D. Beckwith.
-
Dates: July 14 – August 26, 2023
Description: “We’re Here, We’re Queer!” celebrates work made by Queer-identifying printmakers from across the country and Canada. While the subject matter ranges - political, social, sexual, gender, race, environmental topics are all catalysts for the work - what unifies them is the contemporary practice of the centuries-old craft of letterpress printing.
Letterpress printing is how information has been disseminated for over 500 years, and unlike the ephemeral nature of social media, the permanence and tactility of a letterpress print is becoming increasingly impactful in our digital age. Despite the challenges of the medium (in particular access to the necessary tools) this show demonstrates that the popularity of letterpress printing continues flourish, develop and grow.
Reflecting the turbulence of the times we now live in, particularly for Queer individuals, this exhibition also pays tribute to Queer activists, and poster and printmakers of the past. “We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Used to It!” was the rally cry for the direct action group Queer Nation in the 1990s. Made up of HIV/AIDS activists who were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media, their slogan is sadly as relevant today as it was then.
-
Dates: May 5 – June 24, 2023
Artists: Dakarai Akil - @dk1994, Angel Bazan - @angelswurld, Sequoia Bostick - @sequoiabostickillustration, Malcolm Dakar - @malcolmdakar, Toby Griffiths - @firstpainter, Marco Kazandjeff - @whitewhoadie, Crystal Miller - @crymuseum, Ashton Peck - @ashton_peck, Garth Philips - @garfff_, Theadis Reagins - @blvckthesis, Jack Romer - @j_yute, Derek Walker - @derekwalkerart
Description: Aawful Friends: The Future is Now postulates a future where art created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and traditionally made art are in conflict. The setting for this group show is a dystopian future version of Cleveland, Ohio. The city has been left in ruins, ravaged by a mysterious force, and the remaining citizens are ruled by an evil group of tyrants who keep the populace under control using AI.
Featuring the work of 12 local artists in a range of media including painting, sculpture, and digital art, this exhibition explores the impact that new technology has had on the creative process. A powerful commentary on the future of art and the potential conflict between AI and human creativity, "Aawful Friends: The Future is Now," examines the role of AI in today’s society, and its potential misuse in the future.
-
Dates: March 3 – April 15, 2023
Artists: Charisse Harris, Paula Jackson, Sydney Jefferson, Bri Robinson, Ron Shelton, will0w watson
Description: This group exhibition features the work of the last two cohorts of Zygote’s BIPOC Residency in 2022. Zygote offers paid fellowship seats annually to 6 local Black, Indigenous, and People of Color art educators, artists, or creatives with little to no experience in printmaking.
The fellowship is a 10-week program that gives artists the opportunity to learn a variety of printmaking techniques, including silkscreen, etching, lithography, monoprint, relief, and RISO.
To learn more about this Residency Opportunity, or to apply, click here.
Many thanks to Ben Levy, Phd Candidate Joint Program of Art History at CWRU and the Cleveland Museum of Art, for his help in coordinating this exhibition.
-
Dates: December 3 – December 22, 2022
Artists: ArtsPass Member Artists
Description: In case you haven’t heard, Zygote has joined forces with Praxis Fiber Workshop and SPACES Gallery to launch their ArtsPass Reciprocal Membership Program. In the spirit of this new partnership, the three organizations will be holding a Holiday Members’ Showcase across all three locations! The exhibitions open Saturday December 3 and run through Thursday, December 22. In addition, each organization will be holding a public reception with refreshments and holiday cheer.
Don’t miss this amazing art sale held at all three ArtsPass locations - featuring handmade, local, original works of art by some of the area’s best artists. Support local makers and nonprofits this year with your holiday purchases - tons of gift ideas at all price points!
-
Dates: September 9 – November 5, 2022
Artists: ANEMONE, Rachel Delmotte, Genderfail, Henry Gepfer, Issue Press, Sabrina Lau, Julia Schimautz, Secret Riso Club, Taxonomy Press, Travis Shaffer, Tiny Splendor Press
Description: Digital duplicators were originally designed for cost efficient single color high-volume print jobs like flyers, diner menus, business cards, and religious pamphlets. As commercial print shops began to retire these 80's and 90's machines, artists and graphic designers adopted them as affordable means of producing multiples. They embraced the duplicators' quirks, imperfections and limited color palettes. Risograph is the most popular brand of duplicators. In the past decade, countless print studios, artists, and publishers have created incredible artwork using the Risograph. Zygote is happy to present an exhibition of contemporary artists and publishers using Risograph duplicators to produce fine art editions and artist books.
Organized by Anna Tararova
-
Dates: July 9 – August 31, 2022
Artists: Aja Joi Grant, Davin Ebanks, Eva Kwong, Harris Rosenblum, John W. Carlson, Karl Anderson, Kayli Salzano, Maya Matthews, Megan Lubey, Sarah Paul, Valerie Goodman
Description: CAN Triennial: “You Are Here” is a multi-venue exhibition organized in collaboration with an intergenerational, diverse team of curators from a range of institutional affiliations. Together, these exhibitions will give us an experiential journey through the literal geography of our city, and the ever-complicated situational understandings of place, context, identity, and–ultimately action. For more info + locations, click here.