Looking For American Dreams @ Akron Art Museum thru 5/30/10

When examining Andrew Borowiec’s “Looking for the American Dreams” photography exhibit, which varies from black and white images of the Buckeye State’s rust belt along the Ohio River to color shots of upper-middleclass fabricated McMansions and popular retail centers, appearing now through May 30 at Akron Art Museum, one can’t help but think about Tom Petty’s famous line “She was an American girl/Raised on promises.”

“A lot of people feel (the exhibition subjects) are the American dream, but it’s not Andrew’s American dream and it’s not his dream for America, that’s for sure,” said Akron Art Museum Director of Curatorial Affairs Barbara Tannenbaum. “Certainly the 19th century towns along the Ohio River at a certain point in their history did represent the American dream where everybody could own a home and people who were factory laborers could have a nice decent living. The black and white photos show us how that’s evaporating and has evaporated over the past quarter of a century. So that’s a dream that you can’t have anymore.”

If that’s the past, then the other half of Borowiec’s exhibit shows the present, which invariably questions the future.

“The color works shows us what’s being substituted for (the American dream),” Tannenbaum said. “So we have these other dreams, which are the lifestyle center and shopping at the mall in suburban houses where everybody has a plastic-sided house and a sodded lawn. And it’s kind of a shallow dream. Is that really worth dreaming for? That’s what Andrew is asking in his photographs. This sort of instant gratification and whether it will have future lasting value or not is open to anybody’s idea. But the American dream is to own a nice home, have a nice job and your car parked in front of it or in the garage. What happened – and the people who can afford that and what kind of jobs provide that American dream – has certainly changed in Ohio over the last quarter of a century. And this exhibition gives you a sense of that change.”

Borowiec’s experience in Ohio is completely different from his past, which included growing up in Europe and spending quite a bit of time in parts of Africa. In fact, when he arrived in the Midwest he quickly discovered his muse, with the results being “Looking for the American Dreams.” The exhibit boasts 25 black and white prints from his series “Along the Ohio,” which was shot during the 1980s and 1990s but not exhibited in Northeast Ohio. The other gallery debuts 12 large-scale color images from Borowiec’s newest series “The New Heartland.”

“This exhibit is for anybody who loves photography and is curious about the state in which they live and what’s happened to it in the past 25 years,” Tannenbaum said. “I hope people walk out feeling as though they have cause to think about the environment in which they live, and what it was and what it is and what it could be.”

Looking For American Dreams is at The Akron Art Museum through 05.30.10, and is located at 1 South High Street, Akron. Tickets are $7/adult, $7/student (with valid ID), $5/senior (65+) and children 12 and under are free with adult. For more information, call 330-376-9185 or visit http://www.akronartmuseum.org.

Free-lance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio.

When he's not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com