News

A retired graphic designer and art professor who taught at the Ohio State University, the former Western Reserve University, the Akron Museum of Art, and for 25 years at Kent State University, O'Sickey was a lifelong painter and passionate advocate of the value of sketching.

"Over a long career Joe mastered several styles and forms, finding beauty and unity in the world around us," said CIA President Grafton Nunes. "I had the pleasure of meeting Joe on several occasions and in May I went to Columbus to see him receive the 2013 Governor's Award for the Arts. He will be sorely missed."

Two exhibitions of O'Sickey's work closed just days before his death, a retrospective at the Canton Museum of Art, and a show at The Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland. His paintings are in numerous corporate, museum, and private collections.

Thanks to Nancy and Joseph Keithley's generous gift to the campaign that is funding the modernization and unification of CIA's campus , the critique space for painting and drawing will be named for O'Sickey.

He is survived by his son, Joel. A public celebration of the lives of Joseph O'Sickey and his late wife, Algesa (D'Agostino) O’Sickey, will be announced at a later date.

Click here to read an article by Plain Dealer art and architecture critic Steven Litt.