*
March 27th, 2021 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*, March 2021
In mid-March, the 2021 National Council on Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual conference was to be held in Cincinnati. Due to the pandemic, this highly anticipated event was changed to a virtual conference. However, in preparation for the conference, many exhibitions of ceramics were planned well in advance. The Cincinnati Art Museum, the […]
March 27th, 2021 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, March 2021
Clay and the Human Imprint: “Social Recession” at the Weston Gallery March 13-April 24, 2021; “Multi-Cultural Fellowship Exhibition” at DAAP Meyers Gallery, February 22-March 21, 2021; “Artifact: Ceramic-based Works,” “There is a Fly on a Plate” and “Firstlings,” “Sublimation,” all at Manifest Gallery, March 5-April 2, 2021; and “Sanctuary” at the Contemporary Arts Center, March […]
March 27th, 2021 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*, March 2021
Every past era offers us a view of the cultural riches deemed significant in its time. Looking back on an era gives us a glimpse into the thinking of the era’s makers and those who evaluate the makers, and gives us a chance to brush off our knowledge and our recollections of the times. American […]
March 27th, 2021 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*, March 2021
Featuring one or two works by twelve artists, Reflections of the Harlem Renaissance might at first seem a small show. But stopping to dwell with any piece reveals a vast and at times overwhelming attention to the history of art and politics in the U.S. Subtitled The Legacy Continues, the exhibit finds contemporary painters, photographers, […]
March 27th, 2021 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*, March 2021
Organized by the New-York Historical Society, “Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes” is a delight, sure to tantalize everyone with a foot fetish, or, at least, an awareness of how shoes make the man, or in this case, the woman. The 100 or so pairs shown span a couple of centuries […]
February 20th, 2021 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, January/February 2021
It’s long been discussed whether Duveneck’s lasting contribution to American art is more as a painter or a teacher. As a painter, his influence has been hard to characterize, but as teacher his impact is easier to trace. At various times and places, he was a mentor to artists as diverse as John Henry Twachtman, […]
February 20th, 2021 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*, January/February 2021
The new installation at the Weston Gallery called “And the Presence of Light” by Oberlin, OH based artist Johnny Coleman is inspired by the story of 4 year old Lee Howard Dobbins, an adopted child and fugitive slave who died in Oberlin on route to Canada, and freedom, in 1853. He contracted tuberculosis while traveling […]
February 20th, 2021 | by
Will Newman | published in
*, January/February 2021
For their annual SOS ART 2021, the Kennedy Heights Arts center is presenting a retrospective of the past five years of SOS shows. In a nutshell, SOS ART showcases artists who work for change, and who advocate for peace and justice with their work. This five year retrospective includes eighty nine local artists who fall […]
February 20th, 2021 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, January/February 2021
Editor’s Note: This show has been extended until August 15, 2021 In writing about Bukang Yu Kim’s extraordinary solo show of ten paintings at the Dayton Art Institute, I need to make two disclosures. First, I confess to coming late to an appreciation of her marvelous and powerful work, though I’ve had plenty of chances […]
February 20th, 2021 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*, January/February 2021
Printmaking encompasses a myriad of techniques. The processes can be complicated. The equipment is specialized. And often expensive. Some artists have the wherewithal to set up their own studios, but for most artists, it’s not possible. For them Cincinnati is fortunate to have the Tiger Lily Press, which celebrated its 40thanniversary in 2019. It exists […]
December 23rd, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, December 2020
I walked into the second floor gallery just as the choir began imitating the sound of pigs being slaughtered. “Four Industries,” the mesmerizing centerpiece of Mexico City-based artist Tania Candiani’s exhibition Sounding Labor, Silent Bodies at the Contemporary Arts Center, is a three-channel video installation in which an a cappella women’s choir mimics the sounds […]
December 23rd, 2020 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*, December 2020
For decades, from the 1950s through 1970s, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) recorded the lives of the “rich and famous” He caught them at their favorite watering holes: Beverly Hills, Palm Beach, Park Avenue, Capri, Gstaad, the French and Italian rivieras. You name it and he was there. He was a documentary photographer as sure as Walker […]
December 23rd, 2020 | by
Marlene Steele | published in
*, December 2020
Cincinnati Art Galleries is on the bandwagon of regionalism with its current offering entitled: Panorama of Cincinnati Art 2020. The Queen City stands out historically in the Midwest region as a hotbed of art, music and culture. In the fine art field, the confluence of collecting, commissioning, and teaching legacies resulted in supporting a flourishing […]
December 23rd, 2020 | by
Annabel Osberg | published in
*, December 2020
Little need be said about the strangeness of 2020: A year inundated with historic events has brought to a standstill the customs and contact that once defined our lives. In March, as the reality of the pandemic set into Los Angeles, museums and galleries closed with the lockdowns, leaving in their wake a slew of […]
December 23rd, 2020 | by
Daniel Brown | published in
*, December 2020
2020 was a terrible year for most of us, between a rampaging and terrifying pandemic and a bizarre election that tested the very limits of democracy, but it was a splendid year for fiction. I’m offering my annual “best fiction of 2020” list this year, as I have for decades now. My list is very […]
November 25th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, November 2020
“Art Ascendant” at Cincinnati Art Galleries on 6th Street is a great show to see on a fall day. It’s a full show, with about 100 works on display by about 20 artists covering all of the gallery’s walls. The exhibit drew upon many of the CAG’s stable of living painters (and one sculptor). In […]
November 25th, 2020 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*, November 2020
The Cincinnati-based Paloozanoire organization dedicates itself to creative collaborations and community health, linking the arts to the pursuit of mental wellness. In 2020, when the ravages of a pandemic combined with the shockwaves of racist violence, the need to support psychological and social wellbeing could hardly be plainer. Paloozanoire’s Black and Brown Faces at the […]
November 25th, 2020 | by
Laura Hobson | published in
*, November 2020
Emerging Arts Leaders had a creative and Facebook conversation about The Catalyst of Black Art on October 28. Participants included Emmitt Rider, education and community engagement coordinator, Cincinnati Arts Association, panelists Asha White, Latausha Cox, Brandon Hawkins, Adoria Maxberry, Cedric Michael Cox and Vinay Duncan. They talked about their experience in creating the Black Lives […]
November 25th, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, November 2020
Like the skies’ lightning, a flash of energy has come … to infuse its magic into history’s wavering course. …Then the gates of the possible swung wide. – Georges Bataille Two lightning strikes bracket Allora & Calzadilla’s exhibition at The Menil Collection in Houston. The first is a pine tree which the artists have presented […]
November 25th, 2020 | by
Deborah Johnson | published in
*, November 2020
On a dry breezy November Saturday morning I was greeted at the door of Gallery Askew by Stewart Goldman, creator of “War Zone.” The exhibit had opened October 10th during Camp Washington open studios and gallery day. Attendance had been minimal as it has been for most gallery exhibits during the pandemic. Indeed, I was […]
October 25th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, October 2020
In the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a popular genre of fiction known as “It-Narratives” or “Novels of Circulation,” which told their stories in the voice of some object which passes through many hands. Some of the earliest of these began with money (the story, say, of a bank note): the genre spread to […]
October 25th, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, October 2020
A few weeks ago I made my first visit to the Contemporary Arts Center since the pandemic’s beginning. After holding up my phone so the visitor staff could scan the QR code of my timed entry ticket, I stepped over to the lobby in order to behold the Brussels-based Marjolijn Dijkman’s newly commissioned wallpaper. Earthing […]
October 25th, 2020 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*, October 2020
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Spitsbergen Island, Norway opened in 2008 as the world’s largest secure seed storage. Located above the Arctic Circle, it is designed to remain above water in the event of melting ice caps to protect its comprehensive catalogue of the world’s seeds. The opening of this facility fascinated photographer Dornith […]
October 25th, 2020 | by
Laura Hobson | published in
*, October 2020
Continuing my behind-the-scenes series is a look at smaller arts organizations and how they interact with the social justice movement. Starting off is Wave Pool, a contemporary art fulfillment center where experimental art connects community and creates change. Located in Camp Washington at 2940 Colerain Ave., Wave Pool offers a diverse menu of programs. Cal […]
October 25th, 2020 | by
Deborah Johnson | published in
*, October 2020
“Stillness and Receptivity: Modes in Contemporary Photography and Painting” Indian Hill Gallery, September 18th through November 1st, 2020. Participating Artists: Jonathan Eiten, Jordanne Renner, Sally Schrohenloher, Sarah Sedwick, Ed Shrider, John Sousa, Matthew Zory. Curated by Casey Dressell, Gallery Coordinator with support by FotoFocus The exhibit “Stillness and Receptivity: Modes in Contemporary […]
September 26th, 2020 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*, September 2020
The retrospective exhibition “All Things Being Equal” by Hank Willis Thomas has recently opened at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Planning for this highly anticipated show began three years ago, and the timing of its opening was postponed for several weeks due to the Coronavirus pandemic. During those weeks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery […]
September 26th, 2020 | by
Laura Hobson | published in
*, September 2020
What does it take to be a curator? Aeqai continues its behind-the-scenes stories on how museums work internally. I talked to several curators from the Cincinnati Art Museum as well as the Taft Museum of Art to get their insight and perspective. Dr. Julie Aronson, CAM’s curator of American paintings, sculpture and drawings, was always […]
September 26th, 2020 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*, September 2020
On Sunday, September 13th the Clay Street Press in OTR held a Pop-Up Exhibit from 12 – 5pm along with Volatile [redux], a Pop-Up Bookshop featuring artist monographs and art reference books and booklets at the Clay Street Press Gallery. It was a great idea to have this pop-up during a dreary there-is-no-art-to-see-time. Art in the […]
September 26th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, September 2020
The biggest current project at the Cincinnati Art Museum has nothing to do with the permanent art collections under its roof. Rather, it is a monumental set of steps—164 in all—connecting the north end of the CAM’s main parking lot to the corner of Gilbert Avenue and Eden Park Drive. At nine stories tall, it’s […]
September 26th, 2020 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
The Weston Art Gallery’s Beacon exhibition elicits a range of meanings from its title. Beacons in the show are by turns literal and symbolic, concrete and conceptual. Gallery notes invite us to watch for “luminary individuals, institutions, and ideologies” while remembering the sense of beacon as “a kind of warning.” Bringing together ten lens-based artists […]
August 23rd, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, Summer 2020
Francis Bacon’s last painting is mostly raw canvas. It depicts a single form: a ghostly bull bridging the blackness of an open doorway. A bit like one of those optical illusions where a shape simultaneously pushes forward and recedes, the bull alternates between presence and absence; charge and rest. Study for a Bull (1991) derives […]
August 23rd, 2020 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*, Summer 2020
Each year the nonprofit Clifton Cultural Arts Center sponsors a juried exhibition. The first-place winner receives a Golden Ticket, redeemable for a solo exhibition. Last year Ct King nabbed it and cashed it in for “Ct King: Dangerous Little Strangers.” This year’s Golden Ticket is not as shiny as in the past because of the COVID-19 pandemic. King’s […]
August 23rd, 2020 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
When we encounter a portrait of the artist in her studio, a readymade that calls into question its own selection and display, or a time-lapse series that documents change in specific structures and locations, we receive an invitation to reflect on processes of artistic invention and performance. In most any exhibition, we can find works […]
August 23rd, 2020 | by
Marlene Steele | published in
*, Summer 2020
“I believe truly great art serves as a trigger into something deeper within all of us” Joseph Lorusso Nostalgic romance is alive and well at Miller Gallery in Hyde Park in the contemporary figurative work of Joseph Lorusso. Born of Italian descent in Chicago in 1966, Lorusso has been exposed to art from an early […]
August 23rd, 2020 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*, Summer 2020
Before the pyramid builders in Egypt began their staggering achievements, in our Americas, ancient people were erecting pyramids that rose splendidly and improbably above the formidable rainforests of Central America and Mexico. Like the Egyptians, the ancient Maya civilization had an elaborate pictographic language. Little known too, is the fact that it was the Maya […]
June 27th, 2020 | by
Ekin Erkan | published in
*, June 2020
Recently, given the fomenting protests following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery (amongst countless others), much discussion has erupted amongst contemporary artist-activists about the proper place for art and the aestheticization of politics. This is, of course, by no means a novel conversation. Historically, the aestheticization of politics has been disparaged […]
June 27th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, June 2020
James VanDerZee (1886-1983) produced somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 photographs in his creative lifetime, maybe even more, almost all of them of African Americans who lived in or were passing through Harlem. He had a fraught relationship to street photography and worked predominantly out of his studio. At the height of his career in the […]
June 27th, 2020 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*, June 2020
What to write about Mark Bradford? His ascent into the art world seems to border on the magical. His story makes for a perfect Hollywood movie if Hollywood was inclined to turn its lens to artists more often, which it does not. Mark Bradford is African-American, born and raised in South Los Angeles, in the same […]
June 27th, 2020 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*, June 2020
Can’t you see it Can’t you feel it It’s all in the air I can’t stand the pressure much longer Somebody say a prayer Alabama’s gotten me so upset Tennessee made me lose my rest And everybody knows about Mississippi goddam -Nina Simone In 1963, Nina Simone wrote this song in protest of the atrocities […]
June 27th, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, June 2020
Engaging with Kahlil Robert Irvings’s installation requires action. Its scale requires moving one’s body, viewing it first from afar and then up close. From a distance, such as viewed from outside standing on 6th street, it’s a frenetic tableau of screenshots. There are memes and browser tabs, overlapping digital prints filling the lobby’s central wall. […]
May 23rd, 2020 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*, May 2020
This first image shows Hildegarde receiving Divine Inspiration and sharing it with the monk Volmar. She was famous throughout central Europe in the late Middle Ages, advisor to kings; venerable abbess, composer and musician, artist and mystic. She is called the ‘Sibyl of the Rhine.’ Hildegard of Bingen was as Sir Roger Penrose is to […]
May 23rd, 2020 | by
Annabel Osberg | published in
*, May 2020
Mother Superior and her creepy bearded henchman have come to retrieve the septet of uniformed captives from their human beehive. It is time for the girls to go to work. As always, mysterious hypnotic forces compel them to mount their bicycles, starry-eyed, and follow their captors towards the tower. The tails of their habits become […]
May 23rd, 2020 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*, May 2020
During this time of the pandemic, in addition to reading, what I have been doing a lot of is walking. Every day, sometimes going two or even three times, just for the purpose of getting out of the house, getting some space to think or reflect. A change of scenery at a slow pace. An […]
May 23rd, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*, May 2020
A few years ago, way back when art could still be encountered in person, Emily Bauman, Photography Curatorial Assistant at the CAM, wrote an online note about the experience of being able to handle and see up close a cyanotype by Anna Atkins, the figure who is generally credited with being the first woman photographer […]
May 23rd, 2020 | by
Laura Hobson | published in
*, May 2020
What goes into acquiring art institutionally? Aeqai takes a look at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Skirball Museum at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. Cynthia Amneus, curator, fashion arts and textiles at CAM, is an expert in acquisitions which can be gifts or purchases. Sometimes, a curator will receive a call […]
April 25th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
The High Renaissance portrait sought to depict dignity—the sense of worthiness that was, typically, an even more valuable quality in a portrait than likeness—in repose. The great 16th century portraits tried to capture what was least changing about their subjects. Though the period knew, of course, that human beings were subject to time, they assumed […]
April 25th, 2020 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*
Damn. I should take drugs when I paint. Look at French painter Gustav Moreau. He must have taken something to make these mind-bending paintings in the 1800’s. I know contemporary painter Peter Doig takes drugs because he admitted so, figures; his paintings are breathtakingly hypnotic, mystical, irrationally emotional and compelling. But Moreau? He’s dead. We […]
April 25th, 2020 | by
Annabel Osberg | published in
*
During this time of quarantine, it’s enjoyable to get lost in The Kitchen Garden on the Eyot (1946) by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). Delicately limned in egg tempera on a small panel, the scene is easy to enter online, and its cryptic serenity casts a rosy glow over one’s feelings of confinement. A sense of mystery […]
April 25th, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, April 2020
“These capricious vagabonds fly somewhat in the manner of bats,” Camille Flammarion wrote in 1872[1], “which seem to dive at the turrets, and suddenly turn back, describing a parabola, to vanish in an unexpected direction.” Although the French astronomer was describing the movement of comets through the cosmos, he may as well have been describing […]
April 25th, 2020 | by
Megan Bickel | published in
*, April 2020
There are / were a lot of holidays effected by COVID-19 measures this spring; Ramadan, Passover, and Easter to name the heavyweights. For me what stood with a heavier weight than normal was Earth Day. Every year on April 22, we celebrate the beginning of what is now known as the official beginning of the […]
March 28th, 2020 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*
It is a major coup that the Cincinnati Art Museum is showcasing the work of the renowned African-American artist Romare Bearden who launched his career during the height of the early twentieth-century’s Harlem Renaissance in New York. The exhibition “Something Over Something Else”: Romare Bearden’s Profile Series gives Cincinnatians a visual treat this spring and […]
March 28th, 2020 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, March 2020
It was a drizzly Tuesday afternoon. With long sleeves balled around his hands, Matt Distel opened the front door of The Carnegie. The previous Friday would have been a big night for the Exhibitions Director, but along with art and cultural events across the country, the opening reception for four new shows was cancelled due […]
March 28th, 2020 | by
Laura Hobson | published in
*
From soup to nuts. Ever wonder how a piece of art makes it to the gallery floor? Here’s an inside look at the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery and the Cincinnati Art Museum and how that happens. Weston Art Gallery shows an eclectic mix of emerging and professional artists […]
March 28th, 2020 | by
Marlene Steele | published in
*, March 2020
A contemporary analysis of social stress is the subject of investigation of Perin Mahler’s colorful, large scale narrative figure paintings at the Manifest Gallery in Walnut Hills. On viewing this work serially, one cannot avoid becoming cognizant of the artist’s social perceptions as well as his personal introspections which inspire the narrative scenarios of these […]
March 28th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
I was looking forward to reviewing the N. C. Wyeth show at the Taft, and was planning on seeing it on a Sunday with my wife. We’d see the show, have brunch, check out the gift shop. On Friday the 13th—I know, right?—I went online to check out the museum’s hours—is it that they open […]
February 15th, 2020 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
When I first came to Cincinnati, I was told that I-75 had been designed by someone who had heard of an interstate highway but never actually seen one. At times, it feels like it was little more than a good guess on the builders’ part. I-75 sprouts red barrels as empty fields sprout crabgrass, and […]
February 15th, 2020 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
Revolutionary: Being American Today advances a poignant, collaborative statement about the contradictions of contemporary U.S. citizenship. At once historically dense and urgently contemporary, it draws together works by John Brooks, Kiah Celeste, Amanda Curreri, Stephanie Cuyubamba Kong, Brianna Harlan, Anissa Lewis, Melissa Vandenberg, and Renzo Velez. Curator Jessica Oberdick assembles those works in ways that […]
February 15th, 2020 | by
Josh Beckelhimer | published in
*, January/February 2020
On view through April 5th at the Weston is an exhibition by a Cincinnati native and current New York dweller, Todd Pavlisko. Pavlisko’s “Pop Supernatural,” is – as you might guess – guided by conversations with popular culture. The Weston’s two floors organize the exhibition. The entrance level floor holds a few different threads, while […]
February 15th, 2020 | by
Laura Hobson | published in
*
“The city has room for three different art centers,” said Elise Solomon, director of learning and engagement at the Taft Museum of Art. Shawnee Turner, Elizabeth Hardin-Klink and Emily Holtrop, her counterparts at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAM) and the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) respectively would agree. Often under the radar, they all actively develop […]
February 15th, 2020 | by
Stewart Maxwell | published in
*, January/February 2020
In the midst of Downtown Cincinnati, there is a much beloved architecturally and historically significant building celebrating its 200th birthday. With the exception of a few other early American and European Colonial and Native American structures on this continent, most have not survived and even fewer in this region of our country. Cincinnati was founded […]
December 28th, 2019 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
Sohrab Hura is a young Indian photographer (b. 1981) who in 2016 came to the cities, towns, and countryside that stretch along the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, down to the Gulf of Mexico, looking to understand a section of the United States that was profoundly unfamiliar to him. Along the way, he wanted to […]
December 28th, 2019 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, December 2019
Changes of shape, new forms, are the theme which my spirit impels me now to recite. Inspire me, O gods, and spin me a thread from the world’s beginning… —Ovid, Prologue to Metamorphoses[1] In Joomi Chung’s Image Space/Memory Space, there are mountains and motorbikes, traffic cones and tree branches, satellites and skyscrapers, flocks of birds […]
December 28th, 2019 | by
Will Newman | published in
*, December 2019
The bohemian life and creative mission that drove Henry Lawrence Faulkner encompassed more than visual art, but it is perhaps his stylized and sometimes colorist work that most indelibly left an impression on the world. Extraordinarily prolific, Faulkner left behind more than 5,000 works. He was both a romantic and pragmatic, at times knowing that […]
December 28th, 2019 | by
Marlene Steele | published in
*, December 2019
The Dayton Art Institute continues its celebration of its Centennial year by highlighting the career of one of Dayton’s most successful 20th century artists: Ernest Blumenschein. This exhibition of 15 works examines his love of the spontaneous sketch, his stature as a fine oil painter and his remarkable contribution to his community in the American […]
December 28th, 2019 | by
Daniel Brown | published in
*, December 2019
2019 was an exceptionally fine year for new fiction. My list of the best fiction of this year was difficult to make, as so many excellent choices are available. In reading other such lists (“The New York Times Book Review”; “The New Yorker”, NPR, Amazon, amongst others), I noted that these lists have few novels […]
November 24th, 2019 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
In Birgit Jensen’s Flugblätter (Flying Letters), nothing settles comfortably into place. The purportedly autonomous artist ruptures into the collective. The collective expands and contracts like a breathing organism, dismissing its own consistency with Whitmanesque abandon. The radically distributed artist takes transformation as its topic, working paradoxically to make temporal processes concrete, all while inhabiting the […]
November 24th, 2019 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*
“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” A single sentence from Anne Frank encapsulates Manifest Gallery’s “DARK: Shadows, Nightscapes, and Darkness” exhibition. From a pool of’ 359 works by 103 artists representing five countries, 30 states, and the District of Columbia, the blind jury selected 17 pieces by 15 […]
November 24th, 2019 | by
Marlene Steele | published in
*, November 2019
Leave your comfort zone and imagine trekking into the wilds of Wyoming with artists Chuck Marshall and Robert Hagberg. Descriptive plein air paintings, several of them executed in the wilds, are contemporary interpretations of Wyoming wilderness currently exhibited at Eisele Gallery. The concept that inspired the “Into the Wilderness” experience of Hagberg and Marshall, was […]
November 24th, 2019 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
This is a big show with a big story to tell, one that both celebrates and critically examines what it means to be Hispanic. The show focuses on, but is not limited to, European Spain, which it follows through many of its incarnations: an ancient civilization, a Roman outpost, a Christian outpost, a center of […]
November 24th, 2019 | by
Steve Kemple | published in
*, November 2019
“Yes, I understand these,” I might have said to myself on my first encounter with Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s photographs at Houston’s Blaffer Art Museum. In the Los Angeles photographer’s first major museum survey, arriving from the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, fragments of figures bend and tangle against cool walls and in dark rooms. […]
October 26th, 2019 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
I grew up in New York, and so the Hudson River was the river of my childhood. As a child, I thought of it starting in New York City rather than ending there, and then it went, straight and broad, some 300 miles north into the mysterious territory those from the city called “upstate.” It […]
October 26th, 2019 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
More than thirty years after Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center staged a mid-career celebration of Robert Colescott, the arts center has assembled the first survey of his life’s work. Art and Race Matters features 85 pieces produced over more than five decades, taking the viewer from his early studies at Berkeley to his sojourn at the […]
October 26th, 2019 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*
In this the one-hundredth anniversary of the Women’s Suffragette Movement, the Cincinnati Art Museum joins numerous museums across America to focus on and celebrate women’s equality. But the Cincinnati contribution is oh-so-different. The curator, Ainsley M. Cameron, Curator of South Asian Art, Islamic Art & Antiquities at the Cincinnati Art Museum explained that all eight […]
October 26th, 2019 | by
Susan Byrnes | published in
*
In the exhibition “Dress Up, Speak Up: Regalia & Resistance”, 21C Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites assembles an impressive group of international artists whose work subverts, reinterprets, and reframes representations of cultural power, communal dignity, and personal agency through costume and its context. While regalia is a familiar term, indicating a formal outfit or ornament […]
October 26th, 2019 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*
“They (Herman and Bessie Wessel) believed that recording the infinitely varied pageantry of the visible world with paint was an exceedingly and challenging pursuit; one that dwelled not on the ebb and flow of any fashionable modernist creed, but rather on the simple and timeless of joy of living.” 1 That is the beginning of […]
September 28th, 2019 | by
Ekin Erkan | published in
*, September 2019
In my home country, Turkey, the amorphous term “terrorist” has adopted folk-lore speculative projections: from a baklava magnate to journalist dissenters and high school teachers, from professors to artists, the unpredictability of being labeled a “terrorist” blankets all such dissenters who dare problematize the ruling AK Party/President Erdoğan. One such case is that of Oktay […]
September 28th, 2019 | by
Ena Nearon | published in
*, September 2019
Intersectionality, a deconstructionist critical theory that attempts to identify how different aspects of political and social discrimination overlap and impact marginalized members of our society, is a term that was coined by black feminist scholar, Kimberle’ Williams Crenshaw in 1989. It includes various forms of social stratification, such as class, race, sexual orientation, age, religion, […]
September 28th, 2019 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
The Art of the Automaton at Caza Sikes Gallery in Oakley boasts an array of interactive machines designed by seven artists from across the United States. They have honed their craft as builders since childhood, traveling to such places as Bali, Tanzania, Nigeria, Senegal, and Peru to develop their technique. Works by Dewey Blocksma, Randall […]
September 28th, 2019 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
Some art work we are likely to do alone, as little outside assistance is required: street photography, for example, or sketching wildflowers in the woods, or singing in the shower. Other types require support systems of various sorts: a string quartet or bronze casting. Artists frequently pool their resources to draw nude models, though they […]
September 28th, 2019 | by
Josh Beckelhimer | published in
*, September 2019
Through October 10-13, the city will roll out the massive, citywide light-based art spectacle BLINK for the second time after a successful first go around in 2017. The outdoor festival, however, isn’t the only attraction that people should gravitate toward to view interesting light-based work. It’s perhaps appropriate that the smaller exhibition, “Emanate,” is featured […]
August 24th, 2019 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*
As I whipped through “Kimono: Refashioning Contemporary Style” 1 at the Cincinnati Art Museum, several things struck me. First was the aptness of it title, which quite succinctly sums up its basic thesis that the kimono has inspired Western clothing design through its form and surface decoration beginning in the 1870s and continuing to the present. The […]
August 24th, 2019 | by
C. Miles Turner | published in
*, Summer 2019
Britni Bicknaver has had a very busy year. The Cincinnati native has exhibited new works in group shows at the Weston Art Gallery (Cincinnati, OH) and The Carnegie (Covington, KY) through the spring and summer of 2019, before opening her solo show Cinema of Memory at Reverb Art + Design (Cincinnati, OH) on August 7. […]
August 24th, 2019 | by
Hannah Leow | published in
*
Nestled in the niche neighborhood of Northside, Visionaries + Voices (V+V) is home to Kevin White, a contemporary and founding artist of the ability-forward hub. A solo-show of his work to date, Kevin White Retrospective catalogs the oeuvre of the prolific and present-day artist. Installations, paintings, and live-art comprise the show, as well as photographs […]
August 24th, 2019 | by
Josh Beckelhimer | published in
*, Summer 2019
Weightless by Christy Lee Rogers Through September 7 The Miller Gallery 2715 Erie Ave Cincinnati, OH 45208 “What lifts you up?” asks the prompt for Christy Lee Rogers photography exhibit Weightless, which appears at Cincinnati’s Miller Gallery. It’s a question that met my curiosity with an initial skepticism, as it’s a question that could’ve have […]
August 24th, 2019 | by
Marlene Steele | published in
*, Summer 2019
The moon, Earth’s singular satellite, has fascinated the earthbound human mind for thousands of years. The 50th anniversary of the successful 240,000 mile journey of American astronauts to the moon occurred in mid-July, 2019. Especially noted for the first steps on the lunar surface are native Ohioans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Their historic journey […]
June 30th, 2019 | by
Christopher Carter | published in
*
Creatures: When Species Meet locates creative processes less in the imagination of singular artists than in the encounter between living things, their negotiation of each other’s habits and desires through media both traditional and emergent. As the show catalogs those processes, it disrupts humanist views of nonhuman animals, defending against their reduction to symbols within […]
June 30th, 2019 | by
Jonathan Kamholtz | published in
*
“Magnitude Seven” is neither the oldest nor the smallest show of small things in town, a distinction that probably goes to the Art Academy’s “Minumental” show every fall, which has run for over thirty years, and requires that each work be no larger than two inches in any direction. Jason Franz, Founding Executive Director and […]
June 30th, 2019 | by
Karen Chambers | published in
*
Sometimes it takes time for the aesthetic worth of something to be recognized. This most definitely was not the case with French advertising handbills AKA posters from its Golden Age, from 1880 to the late 1890s. They immediately attracted a passionate bunch of collectors, earning them the sobriquet affichomaniaques–poster maniacs. “L’ Affichomania: The Passion for French […]
June 30th, 2019 | by
Ekin Erkan | published in
*, June/July 2019
The Guggenheim’s spring retrospective of the seminal Swedish painter, Hilma Af Klint, has, naturally, evoked a multitude of art critics and visual culture scholars who laud her radical abstraction which, at the beginning of the 20th century, preceded Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian. Yet, where much attention has been given to the symbology and motifs riddling Klint’s […]
June 30th, 2019 | by
Cynthia Kukla | published in
*
“Egypt: The Time of the Pharaohs” Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Avenue Cincinnati, OH Through August 18, 2019 Step into a time when civilization grew along the Nile, pyramids dotted the skyline and people believed gods walked among us…… From the mythic Nile to the mighty Ohio, “Egypt: The Time of Pharaohs” made its U.S. […]