Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council
Press Release:  January 24, 2012

The Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council in partnership with the City of Port Clinton is proud to announce the commission of artist Mike Sohikian to install “Restructuring Matisse” a metal sculpture in an exhibit at the Friendship Park on Perry Street.  The exhibit will be available for viewing from January 26, 2012, to mid April.  With the help of artists like Mike Sohikian, the City of Port Clinton and the GPCAAC are able to display art in the community at no expense to the taxpayers of the area.

The placement of public art along Perry Street helps create identity for Historic Downtown Port Clinton’s retail corridor and conveys a message that the community values the cultural arts and our local talent. 

Featured artist is Ottawa County local Mike Sohikian of Genoa.   Mike is a retired ironworker with a lifetime love and appreciation of art, but he did not begin his career until 1995.  Since then he has garnered acclaim and numerous prestigious awards and recognition for his paintings and sculptures.  Sohikian is best known for his taking salvaged steel to new heights with impressive and innovative concepts.  Within the past thirteen years his paintings and sculpture works have been published in news articles and numerous art publications, most noteworthy is inclusion of his work in four of Schiffer Publishing Collectors Editions, most recently Ironwork Today Volume 3 (Illustrated) by Arthur Williams, 2011.   Mike’s paintings and sculptures are in over 400 art collections nationwide, Mike’s sculpture “Restructuring Matisse” installed in this exhibit was voted the most popular sculpture in the Canton, Michigan sculpture exhibit.

The Greater Port Clinton Arts Council is a non-profit organization created to strengthen, support and promote arts and culture in Ottawa County.  GPCAAC was founded in 2006 by a group of people trying to raise money for a larger than life bronze statue of a local fisherman and during the process discovered there was more to it than just purchasing and placing. This group felt that a formal 501(c)3 non-profit organization was needed to help our community recognize and celebrate the power of the arts and cultural and to acknowledge its impact on individual growth, development and learning, and on the overall quality of life and economic sustainability of the community.