Archive for December, 2014

December Issue of Aeqai is Online

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Announcements

Aeqai is back with our December issue. We’ve taken this opportunity to give you more profiles this month, as so many galleries and nonprofits are showing their holiday wares/exhibitions/displays, though we also offer some key reviews. We hope that you’ve had or will take the chance to see the new neon installation by area artist […]

Profile of Dennis Harrington

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, December 2014

Profile of Dennis Harrington

Dennis Harrington hasn’t used his artistic training to create much of his own art lately. He instead makes it his mission to optimize the artistic visions of others. The longtime director of The Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery is widely thought to curate some of the region’s finest shows. In 2015 the […]

Bukang Kim: The Completed Journey

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, December 2014

Bukang Kim: The Completed Journey

All of the arts have been refreshed by waves of painters, writers, musicians and dancers, who fled their countries of origin between approximately 1933 and the present. Often called exile artists, writers from Nabokov to Kiran Desai, and painters from Max Ernst to Man Ray, from de Kooning and Mondrian to Gorky and Hans Hofmann, […]

Put a Bird on It: “Contemporary Narrative” at Clifton Cultural Arts Center

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, December 2014

Put a Bird on It:  “Contemporary Narrative” at Clifton Cultural Arts Center

“Contemporary Narrative” is up through January 10, 2014 at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, and it’s worth a look just to wander through the big space and appreciate some easy-on-the-eye drawings, paintings, ceramics, and other pieces that really don’t seem to narrate a contemporary story as much as convey whimsical little vignettes across a rainbow […]

Looking Where the Focus Isn’t: A Profile of Brian Sholis

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *

Looking Where the Focus Isn’t:  A Profile of Brian Sholis

Brian Sholis, the new Associate Curator of Photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum, says from the start that he has no training—“none at all”—in Art History. He sees himself as “a contemporary art person who zeroed in on photography,” as he explained in an interview with Aeqai earlier this year. His undergraduate degree was in […]

The Unbearable Lightness of Neon: Anthony Luensman’s “C A M P G R O U N D” at the Cincinnati Art Museum. A New Year’s Rumination

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, December 2014

The Unbearable Lightness of Neon:  Anthony Luensman’s "C A M P G R O U N D" at the Cincinnati Art Museum.  A New Year's Rumination

I. Man Versus Human Nature. “C A M P G R O U N D evokes a billboard one may still discover along a country highway. It advertises with the familiar vacation icons of tire swings and sparking campfires. The animated sign promises outdoor escape and primitive comfort against the massive holdings and complexities of […]

Anthony Luensman: C A M P G R O U N D Video and Interview

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Anthony Luensman: C A M P G R O U N D

Letter from Miami Beach

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Art Basel Miami, the most flamboyant art fair in North America ran December 3-7, 2014, at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  More than 70,000 people attended this 17th annual event, which features a curated collection of international galleries that specialize in cutting-edge contemporary art.  The art attracts collectors, art professionals, and celebrities who come to […]

Lexinton’s Murals and Public Art Scenes

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Over the years, Lexington, Kentucky has come to appreciate the value of art placed in our public realm. It has been a coughing, sort of sputtering-to-life kind of affair. We have had successes and failures with projects like: Art-in-Motion, the Lexington Extraordinary Art Project, LexArts’ Outdoor Mural Project, the Legacy Trail Public Art Consortium’s Master […]

Letter From Italy: Christmas Past

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Letter From Italy: Christmas Past

We were in three cars, and two of them had missed a turn. It was foggy, it was dark, it didn’t seem like Italy although that was where we were. The American cell phone, incompatible with the English one, only accommodated text messages but those of us in the two lost cars communicated by the […]

Felix O. Eboigbe

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Felix O. Eboigbe

“My artwork is personal.  It is food for your soul,” said Felix O. Eboigbe, a local sculptor still showing his artwork nationally at age 70. Originally from Nigeria in West Africa, Eboigbe grew up in the small town of Aba where he attended a Catholic private school, Princess Day School.  At age seven, he knew […]

Clay Street Press: Cincinnati Portfolio I-IV At The Carnegie

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Clay Street Press: Cincinnati Portfolio I-IV At The Carnegie

Mark Patsfall started the Clay Street Press in 1981 as a printer of small edition art prints produced in a variety of media—etching, screen printing, lithography and woodcut. Clay Street has worked with published artists from the region, nationally and internationally. Most recently Clay Street has been engaged in printing Jay Bolotin’s latest portfolio of […]

Spirit of Art Reigns in Three Solo Shows at Weston Art Gallery through February 22, 2015

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Spirit of Art Reigns in Three Solo Shows at Weston Art Gallery through February 22, 2015

Dennis Harrington, director of the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery, Downtown at the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Aronoff Center for the Arts, has put together a provocative and witty show for this holiday season. The three featured artists offer contrasting views on design and the human spirit. These three excellent solo exhibitions, which […]

Art For a Better World

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Art For a Better World

I.              Images For A Better World: Halena CLINE, Visual Artist In 1988 Cincinnati-born visual artist Halena Cline visited a retrospective exhibition of Umberto Boccioni’s paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. At the time she felt strongly the strength of his futuristic ideals and those of his comrades, ideals about moving […]

THE FOURTH OF JULY PORTRAIT PROJECT, JUNE 15-NOVEMBER 4, 2014

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

THE FOURTH OF JULY PORTRAIT PROJECT, JUNE 15-NOVEMBER 4, 2014

Poems By Huck Fairman

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Mourning Chant Turning again, yes turning back to the bedroom in late afternoon when the door had closed finally, and seeing again, yes seeing on the end of the bed the white shawl that had been held – no, clasped – by hands I’d enclosed in my heart, and looking but not seeing out the […]

Maxwell’s Poetry Corner

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Guillian-Barre Onset   What a way to wake up! One eye was stuck cocked to the side like a cartoon character who gets whacked in the head with a frying pan. Regardless, I went to the theater and watched with one hand covering one eye to see only one screen. A palsy, the doctor claimed, […]

Athena: Parthenos/Promachus by Huck Fairman

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

Huck Fairman takes a look at a declining contemporary American marriage through the lens of a vacation in Greece that is a “let’s give it one more try” getaway.  He uses a fascinating plot device, or series of them, by putting this couple at a party, where everyone pretends to have a name of an […]

Best Fiction of 2014

December 30th, 2014  |  by  |  published in December 2014

1.  Francine Prose, The Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 Prose creates a club friendly to gay, lesbian and transvestite clienteles, at a time when the Nazi presence is starting to be felt in Paris.  A photographer based upon the Hungarian born Andre Kertesz photographs the demimonde of Paris, while a belligerent lesbian athlete, abused from childhood, […]

November Issue of AEQAI Online

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in Announcements

The November issue of aeqai has just posted. November was a very busy month in the visual arts, with some FotoFocus shows still going strong, and fine offerings from many nonprofits and commercial galleries. We offer, again, a wide swath of the arts community in this issue. Jonathan Kamholtz completes our FotoFocus coverage with a […]

Modernist Directions and Misdirections: “Paris Night & Day: Masterworks of Photography from Atget to Man Ray” at the Taft Museum of Art, October 3, 2014-January 11, 2015

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in *

Modernist Directions and Misdirections:  “Paris Night & Day: Masterworks of Photography from Atget to Man Ray”  at the Taft Museum of Art, October 3, 2014-January 11, 2015

The art historical narratives of the history of photography and the advent of modernism are often intertwined, though in some of those narratives, photography helps facilitate modernism, and in others, modernism gives photography the nudge it needs to outgrow its 19th century roots. As the captions on one of the walls at the Taft note, […]

“Marcus Ratliff: Collages & The Art World: Forty Years of Graphic Design” and “Marcus Ratliff: Collages,” Carl Solway Gallery, through Dec. 20, 2014

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in *

“Marcus Ratliff: Collages & The Art World: Forty Years of Graphic Design” and “Marcus Ratliff: Collages,” Carl Solway Gallery, through Dec. 20, 2014

Cincinnati should be proud that it has produced some of the most important artists of the latter half of the 20th century: Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004), Jim Dine (b. 1935), and Marcus Ratliff (b. 1935). It may seem like hyperbole to include Ratliff because he was a commercial artist, a term that seems quaint today. But […]

The Urban Landscape: Six Artists – Six Views Clifton Cultural Arts Center

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in *

The Urban Landscape: Six Artists – Six Views Clifton Cultural Arts Center

How odd – not one of the artists whose works comprise The Urban Landscape: Six Artists – Six Views at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center  through December 5 indicates that people occupy the spaces they portray. This seems to be a curatorial decision, as the show’s defining statement says “Six contemporary painters explore the urban […]

Profile of Stewart Goldman

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, November 2014

Profile of Stewart Goldman

Stewart Goldman’s career has shown many variations during more than 50 years of painting and drawing. Through it all, color has driven his art. Perhaps a bigger force behind his creations, although not always as obvious, have been absences, or memories of things that no longer are. It’s interesting that absence has such a large […]

“Beyond Pop: A Tom Wesselmann Retrospective” at the Cincinnati Art Museum

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, November 2014

“Beyond Pop: A Tom Wesselmann Retrospective” at the Cincinnati Art Museum

I was invited to attend the Founder’s Opening of “Beyond Pop: A Tom Wesselmann Retrospective” at the Cincinnati Art Museum, which for me, felt like both a homecoming and a reunion. It was heartwarming to see the hometown museum of one of the greatest masters of Twentieth Century Art celebrate the dedication and achievement of […]

Engine Trouble: “Beyond Pop Art: A Retrospective of Tom Wesselmann” at Cincinnati Museum of Art

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Engine Trouble:    “Beyond Pop Art:  A Retrospective of Tom Wesselmann” at Cincinnati Museum of Art

When I think about Andy Warhol, I don’t just think about Liz Taylor.  I often remember his series of car-crash and electric-chair screen-prints (plus those ones of the people jumping to their deaths off of skyscrapers) just as much as his over-the-top prints that both parody and enthrone superstars like Liz, Farrah Fawcett, Elvis, and […]

Wesselmann and Women

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Wesselmann and Women

To a millennial, the term ‘Feminist’ has negative connotations; it brings up images of Birkenstocks, short hair, and radical views that make most conservative Midwesterners cringe. I’ve never considered myself a feminist but after seeing Tom Wesselmann’s work at the Carl Solway Gallery I have no choice but to lump myself into the category.  The […]

“Two Buckeyes: Fritz Dreisbach and Paul Marioni,” Atmosphere@Neusole

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

“Two Buckeyes: Fritz Dreisbach and Paul Marioni,” Atmosphere@Neusole

The Neusole Glassworks has moved from Walnut Hills to Forest Park, from a neighborhood where police crime scene tape and chalk outlines are common to a verdant college-campus-like industrial park. The building, which houses facilities for glassblowing, glass fusing, and lampworking, is smaller than the East McMillan location, but feels much larger with the open […]

Face First, Extremities, and Losing Your Head at Manifest Gallery

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Face First, Extremities, and Losing Your Head at Manifest Gallery

Through a multi-dimensional compilation of works, Manifest Gallery presents a topically divided but conceptually supportive examination of the human form in three exhibitions.  Indulging in long pursued studies of humanity, the artists of Face First, Extremities, and Losing Your Head, give way to surprising and didactic work.   The technical achievements of some of the artists […]

Mark Hanavan: Alone Together Expressions of Estrangement in the Technology World

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Mark Hanavan: Alone Together Expressions of Estrangement in the Technology World

Hanavan’s exhibit is titled and marketed to make a statement connecting  the concept of self with the virtual self of social media and internet technologies. While the constant comment of Twitter, FB, the image clutter of Instagram and other technologies teeter on the edge of the diluvial, the virtual technological presence is not without its […]

Transfigurations

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Transfigurations

COLUMBUS – Any time you can bask in the presence of 19 superb works by Pablo Picasso within 111 miles of Fountain Square, you should do it. To say nothing of 19 generally better pieces by Alberto Giacometti, 14 very nice works by Jean Dubuffet and an excellent sculpture of a 14-year-old female ballet dancer […]

DOWNTOWN LEXINGTON FERGUSON PROTEST, NOVEMBER 25, 2014, The Archive Louis Zoellar Bickett

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

DOWNTOWN LEXINGTON FERGUSON PROTEST, NOVEMBER 25, 2014, The Archive Louis Zoellar Bickett

What makes Cincinnati Union Terminal an architectural icon?

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

What makes Cincinnati Union Terminal an architectural icon?

Cincinnatians have heard a lot lately about saving our architectural icons, namely Cincinnati Union Terminal and Music Hall.  A number of people have asked me who and what determines an icon?  These are fascinating questions, and I have given them some thought and scholarly inquiry, which I share here with our readers.  My Merriman-Webster dictionary […]

A Conversation with Cameron Kitchin

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

A Conversation with Cameron Kitchin

Cameron Kitchin, the new director of The Cincinnati Art Museum, firmly believes that “public service is in the DNA of this institution”, referring to the museum itself.  He and I sat down for a combined conversation/interview on Monday, November 3rd, which lasted for just under two hours.  Although he had only been on the job […]

Jane Alden Stevens Photography in Motion

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Jane Alden Stevens Photography in Motion

“Creativity is a lifelong process which requires courage, perseverance and hard work,” said Jane Alden Stevens. Winner of the university-wide Dolly B. Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching at the entire university in 1991, Stevens had an illustrious career as a teacher of photography at University of Cincinnati’s College of DAAP.  Stevens was described in […]

The Loss of Leisure and Its Social Cost

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Everyone in the working world is busy, overwhelmed. Even students’ days are filled to the brim. Yet if many are living comfortable, engaging lives, is there a problem, a downside, to being ever busy? A number of observers, from the ancient, democratic Athenians, to Henry David Thoreau, to several contemporary observers and historians all point […]

ART FOR A BETTER WORLD

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

ART FOR A BETTER WORLD

I.              Images For A Better World: Kelly and Kyle PHELPS, Visual Artists Identical twin brothers Kelly and Kyle Phelps are Associate Professors at private Catholic universities in Ohio. Kelly is an Associate Professor and Chair at Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH) where he oversees the sculpture department; Kyle is an Associate Professor at University Dayton (Dayton, […]

Cincinnati Preservation Association Celebrates 50 Years and Makes 2014 Awards

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Cincinnati Preservation Association Celebrates 50 Years  and Makes 2014 Awards

Cincinnati Preservation Association was founded in 1964 as the Miami Purchase Association.  An attractive exhibition about CPA and its work, “Celebrating 50 Years of Working Together to Save Historic Places,” which was curated by CPA and the Cincinnati History Museum, is on display in the Culture Gallery of the Cincinnati Museum Center.  It s free […]

Book Review: Some Luck by Jane Smiley

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Jane Smiley’s novel One Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer Prize, is compelling and gripping not only because the book builds to a surprise and horrifying climax, but also because Smiley understands the rhythms of farm life, the influence of weather, the very soil of Iowa, in which her characters are seeded and grow.  Smiley […]

Book Review: Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories by Paul Theroux

December 1st, 2014  |  by  |  published in November 2014

Books of short stories are often difficult to review, particularly when the stories do not overlap, one to another, almost like a novel in short stories.  But I have long considered Paul Theroux to be one of America’s most important writers in three different genres: travel writing, fiction, and short fiction.  Theroux burst on the […]