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George Rush Walls, Windows, Rooms, People At the Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati Ohio

George Rush complicates the privacy of domestic and gallery space with his exhibition Walls, Windows, Rooms, People at the Weston Gallery. Using changes in texture, color and spatial context, Rush asks the viewer to simultaneously act as voyeur and participant in his airy carefully planned pictures. Rush visited the great Roman wall paintings in Italy […]

Read | Comments Off on George Rush Walls, Windows, Rooms, People At the Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati Ohio | Tags: January/February 2017

Glenn Brown at the Contemporary Arts Center

I have been aware of the work of artist Glenn Brown ever since he was first introduced in the 1990s as a loose member of the British YBA group. The artists’ paintings have changed minimally over time, Brown has found great success to the tune of auction prices into the millions of dollars. In Britain, […]


The Liminal landscape at Marta Hewett Gallery

With The Liminal landscape at Marta Hewett Gallery, Guggenheim Award winner and Cincinnati native Frank Herrmann presents an enlightening shift in a body of work that has been remarkably consistent and serious for the last 15 years. I encourage you to go see the exhibition; Herrmann is the breed of artist that is rare in […]

Read | Comments Off on The Liminal landscape at Marta Hewett Gallery | Tags: * · April 2016

Emil Robinson Interviews Sculptor/Installation Artist Matt Jones

What are your ambitions as an artist?   To work my fingers to the bone, as long as it makes me happy!  Also to create works that revolve around human/environmental interactions.  I will continue to explore new materials and discover new places in which they resonate.   Describe your art in its current form. What […]

Read | Comments Off on Emil Robinson Interviews Sculptor/Installation Artist Matt Jones | Tags: April 2016

Review of Kim Flora, Mike Hancock, and Bill Renschler at Aisle Gallery

Aisle Gallery on the third floor at 424 Findlay has a reputation for presenting high quality exhibits of local artists’ work. Spaces such as Aisle and Semantics in adjacent Brighton represent the kind of quirky but serious spaces that fuel vibrant art communities. Aisle has been absent on the scene for a few years. That’s […]

Read | Comments Off on Review of Kim Flora, Mike Hancock, and Bill Renschler at Aisle Gallery | Tags: May 2015

A Vessel Filling Slowly

This past week I was in New York City and saw West of the Future, a show of oil and distemper paintings by the California and Iceland based artist John Zurier. The paintings are on display at the venerable Peter Blum Gallery in midtown Manhattan on 57th street. The show runs through April 4. Sometimes […]

Read | Comments Off on A Vessel Filling Slowly | Tags: March 2015

Review of Cody Gunningham at Richard Butz Gallery

Cody Gunningham has had a show of new paintings up at the Richard Butz Gallery on Main Street in Over the Rhine for the last month. The show continues until October 26.  Cody is a recent Art Academy graduate who transitioned from work in illustration to work in painting. Despite his young age, Cody’s work […]

Read | Comments Off on Review of Cody Gunningham at Richard Butz Gallery | Tags: September 2014

Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? Painting Parody and Disguise

by Emil Robinson Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? Painting Parody and Disguise at the Contemporary Arts Center presents a range of painterly practice from sculptural to traditional, conceptual to formal.  As such it is a coup for the Contemporary Arts Center, whose recent presentations can seem to under-represent the current […]

Read | Comments Off on Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? Painting Parody and Disguise | Tags: * · May 2014 · On View

Review of Degas Renoir and Poetic Pastels at the Cincinnati Art Museum

Review of Degas Renoir and Poetic Pastels at the Cincinnati Art Museum By Emil Robinson Pastel has always been a contentious medium. Today most practitioners fall into the hobbyist variety. It is the bright color and ease of operation that attracts the serious and the idle alike. In the late 19th century, pastel experienced a […]


Landscapes Re-Framed: Sculptures By Celene Hawkins

Landscapes Re-Framed: Sculptures By Celene Hawkins By Emil Robinson The traditional role of the frame in the presentation of art is not as simple as it once was. Many contemporary artists have found interesting ways to question it. Yet the frame continues to hold its traditional role as a way to assign importance to the […]

Read | Comments Off on Landscapes Re-Framed: Sculptures By Celene Hawkins | Tags: September 2013

Cincinnati Everyday at the Cincinnati Art Museum

Cincinnati Everyday at the Cincinnati Art Museum By Emil Robinson Cincinnati Everyday is currently on exhibition at the Cincinnati art Museum. The show pairs two Cincinnati natives, artists Courttney Cooper and Cole Carothers. Cooper is represented by three large ballpoint pen drawings on collaged paper, and Carothers displays five oil on wood paintings. This is […]

Read | Comments Off on Cincinnati Everyday at the Cincinnati Art Museum | Tags: * · June 2013

Symbiotic Balance, Light Projections by Kathryn Kuntz at the Weston Gallery

Symbiotic Balance, Light Projections by Kathryn Kuntz at the Weston Gallery By Emil Robinson Science and art have always had a complementary relationship. Ocular perception, linear perspective, and color theory all utilize the rules of science for expressive purposes. Contemporary artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Robert Irwin, and James Turrell utilize science to create transcendent […]

Read | Comments Off on Symbiotic Balance, Light Projections by Kathryn Kuntz at the Weston Gallery | Tags: June 2013

William McGee Works 1954-1977

William McGee Works 1954-1977 By Emil Robinson William McGee Works 1954-1977 just closed at the University of Cincinnati’s Reed Gallery. The show gave a wonderful introduction to a talented artist who had the good and bad fortune to be making work alongside some of the most important American painters in history. McGee was a painter […]


Sarah Vanderlip at the Cincinnati Art Museum

Sarah Vanderlip at the Cincinnati Art Museum Review by Emil Robinson Sarah Vanderlip’s show at the Cincinnati Art Museum, September 29, 2012-December 9, 2012, entitled Drawings For Sculptures of Buildings, is the inaugural show for the new triennial competition, The Marjorie Schiele Prize. Marjorie Schiele was a Cincinnati artist who spent her life traveling between […]


Polaroids from “Stay the Same Never Change”

Polaroids from “Stay the Same Never Change” by Emil Robinson The act of looking is brave. Especially if you look at things you can’t handle. I think that most people do not look. If you’re really paying attention you could have your heart broken twelve times a day. Most of the time we aren’t looking […]

Read | Comments Off on Polaroids from “Stay the Same Never Change” | Tags: October 2012

Joseph Winterhalter at Clay Street Press

Joseph Winterhalter’s show “The Revolution Says:” at Clay Street Press, presents a portrait of a contemporary American society lacking political will and stifled by emotional inertia.  He presents two large paintings on canvas, a series of small sculptural paintings, a wall sculpture of hand made tiles, and some lithographic prints. When listed this way, the […]

Read | 1 Comment | Tags: * · April 2012

David Miretsky’s Allegory of Painting

David Miretsky immigrated to the United Sates in 1975 after being jailed for the satirical and naturalistic content of his paintings in Kiev. Miretsky made Cincinnati his home and Phyllis Weston presented his first solo show at The Closson Gallery downtown. Miretsky is still tackling tough subjects these days, as a biting but often humorous […]

Read | Comments Off on David Miretsky’s Allegory of Painting | Tags: * · March 2012

Cole Carothers

As an artist ages, he or she becomes increasingly sensitive to the world and more uncertain of how to proceed. As the artist grows wiser, he or she must make the decision to continue groping for the elusive threads of memory and the constant uncertainty of personal experience. It is important for the work that […]

Read | Comments Off on Cole Carothers | Tags: December 2011 · Features · On View

The Wettest Year On Record

When asked to write about a favorite painting at the art museum, I saw it as an invitation to reestablish my emotional connection to the art I see. Recently, I find it hard to have a gut reaction to works that I spend time in front of. This is especially true if I sense that […]

Read | Comments Off on The Wettest Year On Record | Tags: Digest · November 2011