Arianna Papai

Arianna Papai is a figurative and abstract painter from Galion, OH and attends the Cleveland Institute of Art pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting anticipated in 2025. Papai’s work focuses on tackling negative stereotypes on feminine presenting people, as well as celebrating her own female sexuality. She often includes text, fabric, tire shreds, and other materials within her paintings as textural 3D elements that express both femininity and a hint of the grotesque. In 2024, Papai is a part of the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Creativity Works program and will be having an exhibition that focuses on the reclamation of female sexuality in late spring at the Kelvin Smith Library on Case Western University’s Campus. Her work will also be included in a group exhibition, Ready Set Relay in partnership with the Progressive Art Collection at their main campus. She currently works in Cleveland, OH.

For this class exhibition, Arianna’s work responds to Climbing Rosebush (2005) by Valerie Hegarty!