The Summer issue of Aeqai has just posted. The summer’s brought us some stimulating art exhibitions, promising, too, an exciting fall season as the visual arts begin another season here. We’re also pleased to welcome two new writers, C.M. Turner and Josh Beckelhimer, who both have reviews in this issue and will continue with Aeqai as we head into the new season.
We start our summer coverage with Karen Chambers’ review of the Japanese kimono textile/fashion show at The Cincinnati Art Museum; Chambers’ vast knowledge of textiles and fabrics is much on display in her review, which shows us the very wide applications that the originally Japanese kimono has had and continues to have in world fashion. One of the simplest, yet most complex designs in fashion anywhere, the kimono has exerted an enormous range in the its multiplicities of style over the centuries. Marlene Steele went up to the Dayton Art Institute, and she reviews two of their shows in this issue, one centered around Claude Monet and other Impressionists/friends of Impressionists, and the other a fascinating show about The Moon (“The Moon Museum”, since we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original moon landing this year). And Susan Byrnes reviews the work of Saya Woolfalk at The Contemporary Arts Center, “A Cabinet of Anticipation”; the artists uses the medieval idea of the Chimera as her takeoff point for her exhibition/installation to great creative affect.
C.M. Turner offers a very sensitive and instructive review of Britni Bicknaver in her show “Cinema of Memory” on Court Street in downtown Cincinnati at Art + Design. Josh Binckleheimer’s first review for Aeqai is also of a photography show, gorgeous work by Christy Lee Rodgers at The Miller Gallery in Hyde Park. Kent Krugh’s FotoFolio this month offers fascinating photographs by Susan Goldstein. Megan Bickel offers a pithy look at new work by Letitia Quesenberry in Louisville. Hannah Leow analyzes the amazing work of Cincinnati artist Kevin White at Visionaries and Voices.
Jane Durrell gives a wonderful profile of long-time Cincinnati artist and arts impresario Jan Brown Checco, who’s responsible for all of the Sister City programs between Cincinnati and, in this case, China, with work that was shown at Caza Sikes Gallery in Oakley of plein air paintings made both by Cincinnati artists and their new friends from Liuzhou, China. Laura Hobon offers a fascinating feature of restaurants in Cincinnati that offer exhibitions of work by Cincinnati artists, and Will Newman looks at work sponsored by Off Ludlow Gallery in Clifton that’ s meant for new murals in Clifton, which will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary Ludlow Garage performance space. Martha Dunham offers a gorgeous review of work in Seattle, in a show titled “The Magic Box” at Bonfire Gallery there. Coming full circle back to the kimono show, Aeqai fashion critic offers a look at new fashions by China-born, Paris abiding fashion designer Yang Fang’s work, so our readers can see the influence of the kimono in the same issue of Aeqai.
I offer three book reviews this month, of new fiction by Elizabeth Gilbert, Kathleen Alcott, and a debut novel by Cincinnati fiction writer Paul Young.
It’s an eclectic issue of Aeqai; we offer reviews of work in small spaces, large museums, and other spaces and places in between. We hope you find this issue stimulating; as always, we welcome your comments, and want to announce, too, that Aeqai’s annual fund-raiser/silent auction will take place on November 14 at Pendleton Photography, a new gallery owned by Cincinnati photographer Jens Rosenkrantz, and we hope to see many of you there as it’s our one annual fund-raiser (Aeqai’s a nonprofit, and we’re now headed into our thirteenth year of operation!). To go directly to the site/new issue, click onto www.aeqai.com/main.
Happy Summer Reading!
Daniel Brown
Editor, http://www.aeqai.com/main
