Release Date: July 21,2026
Akron Soul Train Announces New Exhibitions Featuring Artist-in-Residence Ron Copeland and Emerging Artist Cory Sheldon
July 21, 2026, Akron, OH — Akron Soul Train is pleased to present two new exhibitions featuring Artist-in-Residence Ron Copeland and Emerging Artist Cory Sheldon, on view August 5 through September 12, 2026. The exhibitions open with a free public reception on Friday, August 7, from 5:00–7:30 p.m. at Akron Soul Train, 191 S. Main Street, Akron. Guests will have the opportunity to meet both artists and experience two distinct bodies of work that examine memory, place, storytelling, and the ways we construct meaning through the environments around us.
Ron Copeland’s Casual Recollections
In Casual Recollections, Artist-in-Residence Ron Copeland explores time, place, and memory through the visual language of typography, signage, and the evolving built environment. Working across painting, photography, screen printing, sign painting, sculpture, and assemblage, Copeland transforms found materials—including weathered signs, industrial artifacts, and salvaged objects—into layered installations that blur the boundaries between documentation and imagination.
Rather than preserving the past through nostalgia alone, the exhibition considers how ordinary objects become vessels for shared experience. Fragments of painted metal, faded lettering, rusted surfaces, and reclaimed materials become visual poems that speak to resilience, impermanence, and belonging. Together, the works form an evolving archive of place-based memory, inviting viewers to reflect on the landscapes and histories that continue to shape their own lives.
A Northeast Ohio native, Copeland is an installation artist and sign painter whose research-driven practice has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and commercial spaces throughout the region and beyond. His work draws inspiration from the history of American signage, typography, architecture, jazz, railroads, and regional identity, transforming overlooked materials into contemporary works rich with cultural memory.
Cory Sheldon Brings Merry Bear to Life
Emerging Artist Cory Sheldon presents Merry Bear, an immersive installation that brings his long-developing independent video game into the physical gallery. Digital environments, props, posters, and set pieces are translated into sculptural forms, creating a surreal experience that blurs the boundaries between virtual and physical space.
While Merry Bear exists primarily as a video game, the exhibition expands its narrative into an environment visitors can inhabit. Playing with shifts in scale, abstraction, and materiality, the installation examines the translation of ideas from digital illustration to physical experience. The work also reflects on themes embedded within the game itself, including nostalgia, idealism, and the myths of mid-twentieth-century American culture.
Sheldon is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, animator, designer, and storyteller whose work spans film, animation, publishing, and interactive media. He is a co-founder of Akron's Nightlight Cinema, has collaborated extensively with Film+Pixel and GroundWorks DanceTheater, and is currently completing Merry Bear, his first independent video game.
Exhibition Details
Ron Copeland: Casual Recollections
Cory Sheldon: Merry Bear
Location: Akron Soul Train, 191 S. Main Street, Akron, OH 44308
Opening Reception: Friday, August 7, 2026 | 5:00–7:30 p.m.
On View: August 5 – September 12, 2026
FREE and open to the public
About Akron Soul Train
Akron Soul Train is a nonprofit artist residency program dedicated to supporting visual, literary, and performing artists through stipends, exhibitions, and community engagement. Since its founding, the organization has supported over 100 artists and continues to foster creative exchange, amplify diverse voices, and contribute to a vibrant cultural landscape in Akron and Northeast Ohio.
For more information about these exhibitions and opening reception, visit our website and events page at www.akronsoultrain.org or contact Akron Soul Train at info@akronsoultrain.org.