Summit Artspace named John Sokol as its 2025 Outstanding Visual Artist, an award given to Akron-area artists whose work has made a significant impact in their field over five years or more. Sokol is an Akron-based painter, printmaker, sculptor, and poet who graduated from Kent State University in 1973 with a BFA and MA.

Sokol works in painting, printmaking, sculpture, drawing, collage, and mixed media, and is known for using tar and varnish alongside traditional oils and acrylics. His work is held by the Akron Art Museum, including his painting Man Eating Trees, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Canton Art Museum, and Kent State University collections. Art critic Dorothy Shinn wrote that “Sokol brings a depth and sense of gravitas to his abstract paintings that few area artists are capable of achieving.”

Source: https://www.summitartspace.org/outstanding-visual-artist-2025/