“Art enables us to find ourselves and love ourselves at the same time,” said Thomas Merton, American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, poet and scholar (1915 – 1968). His words ring true with many art events and institutions in the Tri-State.

Laura Hill Chapman: a Memorial

By Marlene Steele, gently edited by Mark Schlachter

Born April 24, 1935, in Miami, Florida, a resident of Cincinnati since 1970, passed away at her residence on August 17, 2021

Spring and flowers go hand-in-hand, but flowers in art are nearly as closely linked. Today of course, the subject tends to make art lovers think first of the Impressionists: everyone knows about Monet’s marvelous gardens in Giverny and his seductively beautiful waterlily paintings. But flowers have enchanted painters since at least Roman times. We have Vesuvius to thank for preserving some very early murals featuring the gardens of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

Vital Cotton: Kevin Beasley’s On SiteBy Josh Beckelhimer As I walked the sidewalk toward the Regen Projects gallery building off busy SantaMonica Boulevard, I heard

Pictures hung (centered) at 57 inches

Audience kept at a distance

Important art in glass cases

Keep everything quiet

Lights must be blinding

This is the manifesto I imagine persisting through museums across forever. It creates the very felt culture that leaves gallery goers wondering how to engage with art when such measures have been taken to protect it from them.

Described as one who both reminds of something and is also a reminder itself, Remembrancer is the title of the current exhibition at the Indian Hill Gallery. It places the work of Lisa Merida-Paytes, Robert Pulley, and Patrice Trauth in a manner that allows consideration of scale, space, light, materiality, and the self.

Breaking Water: Exploring approaches to the subject of water, liquidity, and feminism
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
On view through August 14th 2022

The University of Kentucky’s Art Museum is a two story jewelbox of a home for art. It is small, well-lit, and was—when I visited—unusually concerned with encouraging visitors to see behind the curtains of what an art museum, of whatever size, did and why. There was a small exhibit about the sorts of questions a museum asked about the objects it collected and a larger show about how the museum contextualized its new acquisitions in terms of the objects it already owned.

We have several exciting reviews for you to enjoy in our Spring double posting!
Jon Kamholtz brings us two exhibits from the University of Kentucky Art Museum: Goya’s enigmatic series of etchings Los Disparates from the museum’s permanent collection and the titillating allure of Tom Hido: The Poetry of Darkness.