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Shepard Fairey. Mural outside the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, 2010. Staff Photo.
It is opportune that the Contemporary Arts Center is currently hosting Shepard Fairey's 'Supply and Demand,' as the outreach and marketing needs of the CAC are in sync with the artist's broad-based demographic appeal.
A brief stroll into the CAC inundates the senses. Fairey's massive mural covers the entryway support column, immediately filling one's vision with warm red /orange hues and strong black lines. A giant female figure defiantly gazes outward. On the second floor, the first vision here is a wall covered with smaller framed poster prints (or originals?) of his oeuvre. The same colors fill the gaze, strongly contrasted with black: the works are nearly monochrome. Compositions are evident in the style of, or taken directly from, art nouveaux, left-wing political posters, Peter Max psychedelia, and agitprop-style government propaganda.
I personally felt a dual connection to this work. I recalled my frequent visits to Harvard Square, in Cambridge, MA, over twenty years ago. At this time, Fairey had already begun his covering of the region with the early form of his Obey stickers. I noticed them everywhere, and wondered what they were about. When I learned last year that he was also the author of the Obama campaign sign, I was deeply pleased by the memory and association.
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M. Katherine Hurley.
Winter, 2009. Pastel, 7.5x11.5in. Photo Courtesy of the artist.
The glowing pastel landscapes of M. Katherine Hurley at 5th Street Gallery, corner of Fifth and Race, suggest moments in time when the precarious balance of nature is at rest. Something may have just happened, or be about to happen, but here is a perfect instant in between.
Hurley creates these sanctuaries for the eye with what might be a limited palette but in her hands is endlessly varied. "I have maybe thousands of pastels but use perhaps 100,"she says. "In layering, I want the underneath to peek through, the eye will blend them."Her colors range through delicate greens, yellow-reds turning orange, blues that deepen into purple. Hurley's works at 5th Street Gallery, an artists' cooperative showcasing a full spectrum from local artists, appear at first glance to be almost abstract horizontal layers of rich color. They settle into landscapes, the only verticals an occasional tree trunk or the dim outline of a distant barn. The calm elicited by horizontals is countered by Hurley's exciting colors, a rewarding schism.
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Chris Radtke,
Ghost (Wall) 24, 2009. Nylon mesh and poly-monofilament, each: 23x23x22 inches. Overall dimensions variable. Photo Courtesy of Country Club.
Post-Minimalism as defined in the late 1960s was a response to the closed and reductive trends of Minimalism. With more varied materials and even organic forms, Post-Minimalists re-engaged the viewer with open and dynamic compositions. This re-forming of the form is the subject of Shapeshifter, currently on view at Country Club in Oakley. While sharing with Minimalism a focus on shape, the shifting these artists enact clearly reveals an affinity for an interest in exploring the physicality of form, the human body, and our social concerns consistent with Post-Minimalism.
Even if the exhibition title does not offer enough of a clue as to what the show is about, upon entering the gallery, the number of sculpted squares and other minimal forms reveal quickly the conversation. However, if the stark white walls and hard edge forms of Minimalism seems daunting or uninviting, this show is not. The gallery, filled with organic forms that are both tactile and recognizable, is welcoming.
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Shepard Fairey: 
