January/February 2020

“Pop Supernatural” at The Weston Art Gallery

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, January/February 2020

"Pop Supernatural" at The Weston Art Gallery

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 […]

Where The Sidewalk Begins

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, January/February 2020

Where The Sidewalk Begins

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 […]

MIDWESTHETICS: “Sentiments of Here” at Wave Pool and “Leap Year Cake Farm” at Thunder-Sky

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

MIDWESTHETICS: “Sentiments of Here” at Wave Pool and “Leap Year Cake Farm” at Thunder-Sky

As a longtime resident of the Midwest I’ve come to know the region less as a single place but rather as a transient crossroads of many contradictory things. Maybe that’s why I’ve always been skeptical of attempts to reduce it to an essence, which in my experience resides more in the nebulous than the nameable. […]

“We Don’t Have Anesthesia But We Have Music. . .” Feras Fayyad’s “The Cave” (2019) at Speed Museum Cinema

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

There is tragedy in losing control where control has been sought as a defense.  “The Cave” of the title is the nickname for an underground hospital in Ghouta, a district not far outside of the Syrian capital of Damascus. Ghouta has been a flashpoint of violence during the seemingly endless Syrian civil war.  “Underground” works […]

ON THE BASIS OF SEX

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

ON THE BASIS OF SEX

By Sara M. Vance Waddell Edited by Michelle Vance Waddell There have been numerous women pioneers that have made strides for themselves and their gender over the years to garner equality. One significant stride occurred 100 years ago this year, the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Finally, women thought, […]

Craig Britton, Ruth’s Parkside Café, through March 1, 2020

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

Craig Britton, Ruth’s Parkside Café, through March 1, 2020

At Ruth’s Parkside Café, a popular eatery in Northside (try the salmon), co-owner David Tape continues his commitment to showing local artists. He’s be Born in Chicago in 1955 and reared there and in the Kansas City area, Britton2  realized he wanted to be an artist when he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. […]

WILD TALES IN OAKLEY

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

WILD TALES IN OAKLEY

Two exciting artists are exhibiting at Caza Sikes Gallery in Oakley and their work is well married in a number of ways.  Jan Wiesner continues her series of female fables and environmental heroines. Tom Towhey displays a variety of colorful fantasy paintings that merge his environments with his love of gardening. Typically of Towhey, surprising […]

Along the Line Holland Davidson at the Indian Hill Gallery

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

Along the Line Holland Davidson at the Indian Hill Gallery

Holland Davidson’s paintings have a compulsive quality; it is as if she cannot not help but paint them and we cannot help but try to fathom the intricate patterns and unsettling images that fill each canvas.  Davidson’s work is on view at Indian Hill Gallery in “Along the Line,” a show that features sixteen large […]

CAROLYN SHINE: IN MEMORIUM

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

CAROLYN SHINE:  IN MEMORIUM

Carolyn Shine, who died late last year at the age of 101,  lived a life illuminated by visual arts and illuminated those arts for others. She was my colleague at the Cincinnati Art Museum, my friend before that, and always an example of life lived well. A Cincinnatian by birth, Carolyn’s home from the beginning […]

Two Photographers: A Personal Appreciation Part One

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

Two Photographers: A Personal Appreciation     Part One

In the autumn of 2019, two giants of American photographic arts died, a mere seven days apart from each other. They were close friends and neighbors in the New York of the ‘50s, at one time even working together on the same project (a film). Both were Jewish, and deeply humanistic, and both had children […]

Two Photographers: A Personal Appreciation Part Two

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

Two Photographers: A Personal Appreciation  Part Two

New York City in the 1950s and early ’60s was alive with art and music. The Abstract Expressionists were painting, the Beats were writing and reading poetry, performance art was taking off, jazz was everywhere and what would be called folk music was also being heard. Robert Frank was in his ‘30s making photographs, then […]

Within The Walls, The Beach! – Alexander Squier’s “Earthly Bodies: The Houston Brick Archive”

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

Within The Walls, The Beach! - Alexander Squier’s “Earthly Bodies: The Houston Brick Archive”

“Sous les pavés, la plage!” (“Under the paving stones, the beach!”) went the rallying cry of French students in the protests of May ‘68. Referring to the sand found beneath Paris cobblestones lifted to hurl at police and build barricades, this phrase, soon championed by the Situationists[1], came to symbolize a reclamation of freedom through […]

Letter from Reykjavik: Erró: Mao‘s World Tour Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhus May 1, 2019-January 26, 2020

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

Letter from Reykjavik: Erró: Mao‘s World Tour Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhus                                                                                         May 1, 2019-January 26, 2020

Located just below the Artic Circle, Iceland is the Land of Fire and Ice: a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic defined by its dramatic landscape with one-hundred thirty volcanic mountains, geysers, hot springs and lava fields. Iceland mostly stays quietly out of the news – but in 2010 – Iceland was major global […]

The Task of the Curator: “Everything is Rhythm” at the Toledo Museum of Art

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

The Task of the Curator: “Everything is Rhythm” at the Toledo Museum of Art

A dilemma faced by any art museum is how to keep the public consistently engaged. One way to do this is through visiting exhibitions, which are essential to the vibrancy of the museum. However, what about the permanent collection? How can a museum newly engage patrons with paintings they may have seen many times before? […]

I R E M E M B E R F E E L I N G F A R

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

I  R E M E M B E R  F E E L I N G  F A R

Carried across the country by a Seattle transplant, a little piece of Cincinnati finds its way into the Emerald City’s soil.  Now on display at Specialist, a gallery and artist-run space, artist Jay Stern features his first solo exhibition: I Remember Feeling Far.  With a centrally creative background, Stern has worked in the industries of […]

Fashion for Life – La Mode Pour La Vie

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

176 looks. 50 years of fashion. One iconic runway show. That’s how you end a career. Or, more aptly, that’s how iconic fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier retires. The final collection of any famed designer is always one met with sadness … Will anyone have a voice in fashion like them again? Will they be […]

“American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

“American Dirt”, the new and much anticipated novel by Jeanine Cummins, has caused a huge kerfluffle in leftist literary circles and amongst a number of writers of Mexican heritage, amongst others.  The novel itself may be getting lost in the swirls of controversy.   Cummins, who is a mostly white woman (her father was Puerto Rican), […]

“This is Happiness” by Niall Williams

February 15th, 2020  |  by  |  published in January/February 2020

A very good friend of mine recently observed that I probably read more than most people do; I’ve been a serious reader of mostly fiction since my junior year in high school way back in the ’60s. So when I claim that Niall Williams’ new novel “This Is Happiness” is the most beautiful novel I’ve […]