July/August 2017

Angela Teng’s “To Have and to Hold” at Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in *, July/August 2017

Angela Teng’s "To Have and to Hold" at Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC

Angela Teng’s To Have and to Hold opened on the 13th of May at Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC, and closed on the 17th of June. Teng’s monolithic crocheted paintings are composed of literal strands of acrylic paint, effectively colliding materiality and paint in the substrate of work that historically, and in many contemporary contexts too, […]

Sleeping Clowns, Screaming Color, and Transcendent Stairwells: Ugo Rondinone at the Contemporary Arts Center

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in *, July/August 2017

Sleeping Clowns, Screaming Color, and Transcendent Stairwells: Ugo Rondinone at the Contemporary Arts Center

Ugo Rondinone, born and based in Switzerland, is known for sculptures and installations with alternately an absence or an overabundance of color. Referred to by the artist quite literally as “night” and “day,” one oeuvre contains mostly greys, browns, and earth tones while the other—what’s on view now at the CAC—a vibrant spectrum of bright, […]

Unruly Currents: Tony DeVarco and Mayako Nakamura at the Marta Hewett Gallery

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Unruly Currents: Tony DeVarco and Mayako Nakamura at the Marta Hewett Gallery

For all the distance between them, Tony DeVarco and Mayako Nakamura have uncanny aesthetic affinities. Both revere the cycles and surprises of the natural environment; both attempt, in the same visual plane, to capture fluid forms and the emotions they evoke; both frame the viewer’s experience as a creative act rather than one of static […]

“Bookworks,” the 18th Annual Cincinnati Book Arts Society exhibition, through September 3, 2017, The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Main Library Atrium

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

“Bookworks,” the 18th Annual Cincinnati Book Arts Society exhibition, through September 3, 2017, The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Main Library Atrium

For aeqai I reviewed two earlier editions of “Bookworks” (2013 1 and August 2016 2),  Like its predecessors, the 18th Annual Cincinnati Book Arts Society (CBAS) 3 exhibition covers a lot of aesthetic ground trying to demonstrate the diversity of how artists interpret the Platonic idea of book. There are conventional volumes and sculptural objects that may only allude to that idea. There are […]

You might not like your reflection in “Windows on Death Row”

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

You might not like your reflection in “Windows on Death Row”

A dialogue: that’s what the gallery attendant at the University of Houston-Downtown O’Kane Gallery told us is the goal of “Windows on Death Row,” an exhibition of inmates’ art and political cartoons that has been touring the U.S. and Europe since October, 2015. Founded by married couple Patrick Chappatte, an editorial cartoonist for the International […]

What I Did on Summer Vacation

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

What I Did on Summer Vacation

Our plan: a couple of quick museum visits and a fair amount of relaxation, reading and restaurants, but, plans go awry as there is much, much more going on in the Berkshires than James Taylor at Tanglewood. First of all, the Berkshires really are beautiful—mountainous on a human and green scale, lovely lakes and picturesque […]

Fotofolio – Charlotte Niel

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Fotofolio - Charlotte Niel

“Second Hand” Charlotte’s statement: Julie Winokur wrote in her essay Slow Down, Aging Ahead that “everyone wants to live a long time but no one wants to grow old.”  The passage of time, how we attempt to control it, what we do to preserve it and its impact are themes I am interested in capturing […]

Wash Park Gallery Review

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Wash Park Gallery Review

In a neighborly gesture, Wash Park Art at 1215 Elm Street welcomes the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to its new location half a block away with “Midsummer Dreams,” a show inspired by the Company’s first offering there, Midsummer Night’s Dream. More than a dozen artists, many with Cincinnati ties, are represented in this engaging exhibition. The […]

Jonathan Monk's "Perfectly Concocted Context" at Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Jonathan Monk's "Perfectly Concocted Context" at Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

Paradoxically, Jonathan Monk’s show at Cherry and Martin exists simultaneously as a well-curated group show and Monk’s single-authored conceptual installation. Surprisingly, instead of leeching all significance from its constituents, the show embodies its title, “Perfectly Concocted Context.” Individual artworks are shown to advantage while uniting to form a more meaningful whole that resounds their spirit […]

99 Cents or Less // MOCAD

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

99 Cents or Less // MOCAD

It’s such a shame when bad exhibitions happen in great museums. I have a fondness for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit. If you aren’t familiar, the MOCAD is a 22,000 square foot space that was built, or rather assembled, in the early 2000’s within the walls of an old car dealership—a poetic placement […]

Gailan Ngan’s Moonlighting Papel and a selection of painting by Alison Yip Nagazussa at Monte Clark Gallery

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Gailan Ngan's Moonlighting Papel and a selection of painting by Alison Yip Nagazussa at Monte Clark Gallery

Gailan Ngan’s Moonlighting Papel opened at Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver, BC on the first of June and closed on the thirtieth of the same month. In conjunction with Ngan’s exhibition, Monte Clark also exhibited the work of Alison Yip Hagazussa for the same duration. Both artists showed thoughtful bodies of work that felt mature […]

‘Queen City: A group show of local womyn + queer artists’ at Bunk Spot Gallery

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

‘Queen City: A group show of local womyn + queer artists’ at Bunk Spot Gallery

I had never heard of Bunk Spot Gallery when I started seeing mentions of it popping up on my Facebook newsfeed. These mentions were coming from many of the female identifying artists whose work I respect and follow in the local arts scene. Suddenly the gallery’s name seemed to be everywhere. I immediately took notice. […]

Southern Elegy: The Stephen Reily Collection // Speed Museum at University of Louisville

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Southern Elegy: Photography from the Stephen Reily Collection is a small exhibition in the North Building of the Speed Museum, and includes some black and white photographs by William Eggleston. If you choose to walk up the intrinsically modern stairway of the Speed, Southern Elegy is the first exhibition you approach as a viewer.  It […]

Amélie Ducommun’s “Unfolding Memories” at Winsor Gallery in Vancouver, BC

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Amélie Ducommun’s Unfolding Memories opened at Winsor Gallery in Vancouver, BC on June tenth and was exhibited through July eighth. I happened upon the gallery as I was making my way around the Vancouver gallery scene with my friend and fellow painter Danielle Roberts. We were making a B-Line for Catriona Jeffries and stopped into […]

In The Streets

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

In The Streets

Fashion being a living art form unlike others of its kind, we know that when collections are shown on the runway, they will soon be available in a store near us. In fact, more and more designers are closing the time in which garments are sold after being shown on the runway. Clothes which used […]

Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center:  A Window to the World

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center:  A Window to the World

Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center on 620 Greenup St., Covington, offers a wide variety of programs including over 40 art classes, a family museum, and Victorian gardens on a campus of 3.5 acres.  A visitor can see two mansions, the Baker Hunt Mansion and Family Museum, and the Kate Scudder House, a 1920s auditorium […]

Francis Spufford’s “Golden Hill”

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

One of this summer’s surprise best novels is Francis Spufford’s “Golden Hill”, subtitled ” A Novel of Old New York”.  My main book -reading friend, Kevin Ott, recommended it to me and it’s sheer delight, brilliantly researched, both funny and astute, and ultimately deadly serious.  New York in l746 was a very small town of seven thousand […]

Richard Ford’s “Between Them”

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Richard Ford is one of America’s greatest living writers.  I think that his trilogy of novels, The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and Let Me Be Frank with You, all featuring the central character Frank Bascombe, are second only to John Updike’s “Rabbit” novels for sheer excellence in writing and the creation of such a quintessential American […]

Arundhati Roy’s “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

Arundhati Roy’s second work of fiction, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, is a triumph.  (Her first novel, The God of Small Things, won the prestigious Booker Prize; her other published writings are all nonfiction).  I’ve been rather surprised at some of the negative comments on The Ministry.  Roy is perhaps difficult to categorize as a […]

Allegra Goodman’s “The Chalk Artist”

August 6th, 2017  |  by  |  published in July/August 2017

The world of video games, I suppose inevitably, has begun to seep into both the fine arts and into contemporary literature.  Typically, with any new American technical innovation/ addiction, video games come with reams of theory on why they are excellent aids in education and the like; there’s a sociologist and/or psychologist to bless every […]