Summer 2014

Temporary Utopia: “431 Gallery: Art and Impact” at Indiana State Museum

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, Summer 2014

Temporary Utopia:  “431 Gallery:  Art and Impact” at Indiana State Museum

Almost 25 years ago, Bill Ross and I had our first two-person art show in Indianapolis, Indiana at 431 Gallery.  We were both 24 years old.  The title was “The Fifteen Dollar Museum” and was a manifesto of sorts, an accidental action plan for the rest of our lives.  431 Gallery was a cooperative, artist-run, […]

Letter from Lebanon

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, Summer 2014

Letter from Lebanon

I returned from a visit to Lebanon in March 2014 with my head, eyes and emotions all over board, triggered in all directions, confused but at the same time fulfilled and satisfied. Lebanon was a chaotic whirlwind of energy, creativity, contrasts, contradictions, peaceful and agitated moments, fears of violence, restful encounters. It was the occasion […]

Deborah Butterfield’s New Sculptures, at Zolla Lieberman Gallery

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in *, Summer 2014

Deborah Butterfield’s New Sculptures, at Zolla Lieberman Gallery

Deborah Butterfield’s sculptures are not like the sculptures of the civilized and perfectly groomed horses standing beneath important men that adorn public places. They’re just themselves, seemingly contemplating their own existence with a serenity that belies their power. At Zolla Lieberman Gallery most of them gently stand while one lays prone, each comfortable with their […]

MASS MoCA: A Fusion of Arts

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

MASS MoCA: A Fusion of Arts

  In fall of 2009, I sat on my bed in a small apartment surfing the web with the fervor only a student soon-to-be graduate has. I wanted an internship—preferably an affordable one (a tall order in today’s arts economy, to be sure)—at a decidedly Really Cool Place.     Somewhere along the way, I […]

Flannery On My Mind

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Flannery On My Mind

“Nobody admires my painting much but me.” ~Flannery O’Connor   “I have come to think that the true likeness of Flannery O’Connor will be painted by herself, a self-portrait in words, to be found in her letters.” ~Sally Fitzgerald   “I am always astonished at Flannery’s pictures which show nothing of her grace.  She was […]

Rough Art for Hard Times

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

“Cries in the Night”  Cincinnati Art Museum June 21 – August 17, 2014 In spite of sailing scenes, landscapes, and portraits, it’s not possible to miss the sharp tang of cynicism in German Expressionism.  Like all movements in art, it was initially founded on defeating the traditional bourgeois tastes of the majority.  Both insider and […]

“Power of Place”: Celebrating International Women Artists

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

"Power of Place": Celebrating International Women Artists

YWCA Women’s Art Gallery   June 20 – Sept 11, 2014 A variety of work made by women artists born abroad are featured in this exhibit, expressing their diverse styles in a variety of mediums and formats.  Selected from eight different national backgrounds, these artists live in the Cincinnati area. Their roots run deep in their […]

Is Entertainment Enough?

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

We have been hearing for several decades now that the arts have to compete with all entertainment.  Since the advent of the “24/7” work schedule, wherein everyone is supposed to be available all the time, made significantly worse by the advent of technology, people who work have less and less available free time.  The assumption […]

Michael Sailstorfer: Every Piece is a New Problem

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Michael Sailstorfer: Every Piece is a New Problem

A dip into the waters of sculptural history reveals a spectrum of works ranging from the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (erected somewhere between 176 and 180 AD) to Dieter Roth’s 1972 biodegradable rabbit (excreted probably that same year).  What defines sculpture as sculpture is ever evolving, and right there, swaying between dry land and […]

What The CAC Has Done For Me

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

It started me collecting contemporary art. During my college years I had taken Art 101, and had also seen an exhibit in New York City, at the then Museum of Non-Objective Art, of all Kandinski’s, which opened my eyes to abstract art.  In 1946, when I returned home to Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center […]

Lois Rosenthal: In Memoriam

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Lois Rosenthal’s recent and untimely death gives pause to all of us as we think about her contributions to the arts and towards our increasingly unknown future with those same arts here.  I have always thought of Lois, to use the language of business, as an entrepreneur, rather than a manager.  Her great mind was […]

SHARA HUGHES: MIDNIGHT SNACKS At Institute 193, Lexington, KY

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

SHARA HUGHES: MIDNIGHT SNACKS At Institute 193, Lexington, KY

The current display at Lexington’s most venerable of exhibition spaces, Institute 193, is the work of Atlanta native Shara Hughes. Hughes, a driving force of the Atlanta scene when she lived there, decamped to Brooklyn this year, where she currently lives and operates a studio. The show at ‘193’ (as the locals refer to the […]

Anne Straus, 75, Local Multimedia Artist “I want to keep working forever.”

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Anne Straus, 75, Local Multimedia Artist “I want to keep working forever.”

“In my paintings, I am exploring uncharted territories and push at the boundaries I find,” said Anne Straus, 75, a multimedia artist who has lived in Wyoming, Ohio since 1963.  “I see visions of forgotten times, and I paint them with the eye of my heart.  I am an explorer, a messenger bringing back ethnic […]

“Todd Slaughter: American Primitives, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

“Todd Slaughter: American Primitives, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery

Although it goes against my grain in a visual arts review to start with the verbiage surrounding an exhibition, it seems to be the best way to approach “American Primitives: Todd Slaughter” at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery (his second there, the first being in 1996-1997). I was searching for something […]

Kehinde Wiley at The Taft Museum of Art

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Kehinde Wiley at The Taft Museum of Art

It’s been nearly a decade since Kehinde Wiley graced the cover of Art in America (2005) and since, he has become one of the most collected contemporary painters in America. This high profile artist made his mark re-imagining the African American figure in grand/large scale paintings.  Using classical poses from Western art historical references, Wiley’s […]

Cincinnati Silver: 1788 – 1865

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Cincinnati Art Museum June 14- Sept 7, 2014 It was a dark and mysterious gallery, relieved only by spotlighted display cases of historic silver. Shining back at visitors with the liquid reflections of fine silver, a story of a mighty city’s beginning unfolded via the items its leading citizens chose to ornament their tables and […]

Art For A Better World

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Art For A Better World

I.              Images For A Better World: Alison SHEPARD, Visual Artist Alison Shepard is a well-established artist and musician, born and raised in Cincinnati where she currently lives with her husband, Evan Hildebrandt, also an artist and director of Bromwell’s gallery. Shepard received her BFA from Northern Kentucky University and her MFA in printmaking from Miami […]

Book Review: Fourth of July Creek

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

A very pleasant surprise is in store if you read Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson.  This nearly epic novel is the author’s first, and he exhibits a maturity in his thinking, his writing, in the complexities of his plot, his delineation of character, and his extraordinary empathy for his people.  Set in contemporary […]

Book Review: “My Struggle”

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

Book 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six volume novel/autobiography/memoir has just been published.  These novels have been widely praised all over the world for their use of a different model of what constitutes fiction, or the novel itself.  I went a bought Book 1 and Book 2, to see what the hype is about.  They […]

Post-Tribal Shamanism: A New Look at the Old Ways by Kenn Day

August 15th, 2014  |  by  |  published in Summer 2014

The Age of Aquarius, better known as the 60’s, brought a vital return to what became known as New Age spirituality, and its subsets in fields like medicine.  As a chronic pain patient myself, I learned 28 years ago, when my “pain of undetermined origin” began, that the answers I was looking for were not […]