The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 15, 2025

Horizontally oriented, stylized acrylic painting depicting the Cleveland skyline condensed to show major monuments in the upper half and people gathered in the lower half, with a sign reading "Welcome to Cleveland" above them. The people, painted with strokes of solid color in vibrant colors have mostly medium-dark to dark skin tone on our left and medium-light to light on our right, intermingling across the road between them. Behind, skyscrapers are flanked by a baseball field left and football field and the glass pyramid of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame right.

My Home Town

1998

Michelangelo Lovelace

(American, 1960–2021)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
Acrylic on canvas
Unframed: 139.7 x 243.8 cm (55 x 96 in.)
Gift of the Artist, Michelangelo Lovelace, Sr. 2015.83
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

In Lovelace's painting, the city's east-west orientation is reversed on the upper half of the painting versus its lower half.

Description

Lovelace dedicated most of his career to depicting Cleveland’s urban landscape; many of the city’s iconic destinations are visible in the background of My Home Town. His paintings can be read as vibrant and candid commentaries on the city’s sociopolitical and cultural heritage. This work’s panoramic scene combines different local neighborhoods, represented as storefronts. Lovelace said, “I painted the way I remember Cleveland being—white on the west, black on the east, and with downtown where people came together in the middle.”
  • 2015
    Collection of the artist, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2015-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 77
    Rutland, Beau. “Acquisitions 2015: Contemporary Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 2 (March/April 2016): 26-27. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 27 archive.org
    Kraynak, Scott, Henry Adams, Douglas Max Utter, William G. Scheele, R. A. Washington, and Mike Hudson. The Heart of Cleveland. Shaker Hts, OH: Red Giant Books, 2018. Reproduced: P. 109, fig. 88
  • Michelangelo Lovelace: Art Saved My Life. Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (organizer) (May 4-August 18, 2024) https://akronartmuseum.org/media/exhibition/michelangelo-lovelace-art-saved-my-life/.
  • {{cite web|title=My Home Town|url=false|author=Michelangelo Lovelace|year=1998|access-date=15 November 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.83