The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2025 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Michelle Stitzlein maintains a studio in a former grange hall in the community of Baltimore, Ohio. Her large scale sculptures and installations created with repurposed materials have been shown nationally in solo exhibitions. She has been an AIR at Shenandoah National Park, VA, Denali National Park, AK, and the Millay Colony of Arts, NY, and has been awarded two Individual Excellence Grants from the Ohio Arts Council.
Stephan Stubbins
Producer and Performer
“Broadway in Love” is a concert experience that’s been energizing audiences around the world with the laughter, the thrills and the chills of Broadway’s greatest songs as shared by real-life Broadway married couple, Libby Servais (Glinda from Broadway’s “Wicked”) and Stephan Stubbins (from Broadway’s “Mary Poppins”), and their special Broadway guests.
Byproduct Studios is a collaboration between artists and designers Molly Jo Burke and Nathan Gorgen. The collaboration centers on artmaking processes that allow the studio to utilize excess material from the artist’s respective practices and domestic life together to create new artworks. The creations play with perceptions of a material’s purpose, quality, and value, as waste remnants and the byproducts of our life are transformed through the process.
Nick Stull is an artist, muralist, and designer living in Columbus, Oh. Nick has exhibited his experimental portraits nationally and is represented by Sarah Gormley Gallery. Nick also owns an art & design firm called Day Blink Creative, where he produces a variety of large scale murals, custom painting and portraiture, and branding & design projects.
Grace Summanen was born in Ashtabula, OH, and currently lives and works in Euclid, OH. Her artwork pushes traditional definitions through material exploration and systematic approaches to abstraction. She works in various media including relief painting, installation, and works on paper. She received her MFA in painting from Kent State University in 2011 and her BFA in painting, drawing, and printmaking from Carnegie Mellon University in 1996. Grace has shown at numerous locations in Northeast Ohio including Abattoir Gallery, Zygote Press, Spaces, Waterloo Arts, and Yard Projects. She has shown nationally in group exhibitions including To See Is To Have: Navigating Today’s Art Ecosystem at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; Big Idea at the Painting Center in New York City; and surface/material at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Grace is a faculty member at Lake Erie College and Lakeland Community College.
Yan Sun
Professor of Art
Yan Sun, Distinguished Professor of Art, Chair of Art Department, and Gallery Director at Muskingum University. With an M.F.A. from Texas A&M University-Commerce, Yan Sun’s artistic journey spans expressive landscapes to portraiture, showcasing his exploration and expertise. He is a signature artist of Oil Painters of America and a signature artist of American Society of Marine Artists. Zanesville Museum of Art named a gallery in his honor. Hayden Museum of American Art published his paintings in books. His diverse exhibitions include esteemed museums and galleries, and his works are in museum and private collections.
I am an artist based out of east Columbus near Whitehall, where I create my art as well as work full-time as a Peer Recovery Supporter supporting others in early addiction recovery and attempting to bring creative coping skills to my clients and the recovery community. I am an acrylic painter, but can also crochet, cross stitch, embroider, mixed media.…
Michael Surber
Artist
As an award-winning Ohio-based artist, Michael Surber has carved out a unique niche in the art world, one that honors the legacy of painting while pushing its boundaries. His artwork continues to inspire and captivate, securing his place as a significant contemporary artist whose work resonates with a wide audience, inviting us all to find our own stories within the vibrant hues and bold textures of his creations.
Born in Columbus Ohio, art has always been a very important part of her life. Gale’s passion for art was nurtured early at Northland High School where she was able to interact with a dedicated teacher and many other talented art students.
Chris Swanson
Playwright
Chris Shaw Swanson’s plays have been honored in more than thirty competitions and seen on more than one hundred stages in the U.S. and abroad. Her publishers include Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press, Meriwether and the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP). A member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the ICWP, Chris is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Playwriting. She has also taught playwriting at schools and universities in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
Nita Sweeney is the award-winning wellness author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving. A long-time meditator, three-time marathoner, and former assistant to writing practice originator Natalie Goldberg, Nita founded the Facebook group Mind, Mood, and Movement to support mental well-being through meditation, exercise, and writing practice. She also publishes the writing resource newsletter, Write Now Columbus. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband, Ed, and their yellow Labrador retriever, Scarlet. Go to Nita’s website to download your free copy of Nita’s eBook Three Ways to Heal Your Mind.
Matt Swift is a Columbus based artist, filmmaker, educator and community organizer whose work combines multiple mediums and modes, including photography, painting, video, digital compositions, mixed media with a deep connection to historical avant-garde and experimental movements of all art forms.
I am a 1981 graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art. I have exhibited locally in NE OH, nationally and internationally. My art has been published in two exhibition catalogs and have authored a book. Upon graduation from CIA I began a career in the graphic arts industry. Positions I have held include art director, gallery director, and production manager of Publications at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Shannon Tackett
Artist
Shannon Tackett was born in Frankfurt, Germany and raised in Fairborn, Ohio. He has always enjoyed the arts and being creative. He enjoys drawing, painting, and building things. Shannon has a passion for music and the creative arts and has painted stylized portraits of the like of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, KISS, and Chester Bennington to name a few. He has also been known to build websites, loves graphic design and woodworking, and also enjoys digital music production in his free time.
During the pandemic Shannon created a nonprofit organization called the Art is Love, LLC that provides artists with art supplies to keep them creating artwork and spur creativity during difficult times.
Saving the world one painting at a time, Judy Takács is best known for the painterly realism and message of female empowerment of her traveling portrait series, Chicks with Balls: Judy Takács paints unsung female heroes, which opened at the Zanesville Museum of Art as her first solo museum show in early 2020. Her current series, The Goddess Project re-imagines mythological characters from all religions via a contemporary feminist lens and takes on women’s rights in jeopardy here in the United States and in Ohio.
Stephen Takacs is an artist, educator and professional photographer based in Columbus, Ohio. Takacs holds a BFA from the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA from The Ohio State University Department of Art. His artwork often combines an interest in history, portraiture and a fascination with the natural world with his passion for alternative photographic processes.
Talle Bamazi
Father of Flying Calabashes
Born in Kara, Togo, West Africa, Talle Bamazi can best be described as an artist who uses canvas as a site for activism. He began his artistic career as an apprentice to his uncle, a traditional Togolese artist. Although he went on to study architecture in Lomé, he favorably transitioned to painting.…
Simon Tam
Author/Musician/Speaker
Simon may best be known for winning a landmark case in 2017 that helped expand civil liberties for minorities, unanimously, at the Supreme Court of the United States (Matal v. Tam). He is the founder and bassist of The Slants, one of the first all-Asian American dance rock bands in the world, and also leads The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides resources and mentorship for artists that incorporate activism into their work.
Em Tamulewicz (b. 2000) is a printmaker, illustrator, and writer originating from Phoenix, AZ. They received their BFA from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. They are currently the Artist Opportunities Manager at the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory (Cleveland, OH) and a Shop Artist/intern at Zygote Press (Cleveland, OH). Em’s work has been featured in shows across the United States, from Ohio to Colorado, internationally in Seoul, South Korea, and is featured in the permanent collection of Akron’s Children Hospital (Brecksville, OH).…