Standing in Time’s Flow, Ceramic Sculpture by Robert Pulley
Standing in Time’s Flow, Ceramic Sculpture by Robert Pulley, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery By Karen S. Chambers Robert Pulley has found the perfect medium for his sculptures with their allusions to the earth’s geological history: clay, which is just mud, and perhaps symbolic of the primordial ooze of the beginnings of […]
Leslie Shiels: dizygotic, Cincinnati Art Galleries
Leslie Shiels: dizygotic, Cincinnati Art Galleries By Karen S. Chambers In October 2010, I reviewed a two-person exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Galleries for aeqai. The opening sentence was “There are twin—fraternal twins—shows at Cincinnati Art Galleries: Leslie Shiels: Lost Dogs Found and Kevin T. Kelly: Embracing the Yin.” I went on to write, “Shiels […]
Stephen Berens: Thinking of Pinturicchio (While Looking Out Sol LeWitt’s Windows and Elizabeth Bryant: Sol LeWitt Studio Still Lifes, Carl Solway Gallery
Stephen Berens: Thinking of Pinturicchio (While Looking Out Sol LeWitt’s Windows and Elizabeth Bryant: Sol LeWitt Studio Still Lifes, Carl Solway Gallery by Karen S. Chambers In the summer of 2010, L. A.-based artists Elizabeth Bryant and Stephen Berens, who happen to be married to each other, spent time in Sol LeWitt’s studio in Spoleto, […]
Jonathan Queen’s “Fresh Harvest” Mural at Kroger Headquarters
Size matters. Seeing Jonathan Queen’s mural, “Fresh Harvest,” on Kroger’s corporate headquarters downtown in reproduction is nothing like standing in front of it. (It’s visible from Walnut and Central Parkway.) Queen, who is represented by Miller Gallery, is primarily known for his small-scale still life paintings. When asked to submit a design for the commission, […]
Be Easy: Ceramics by Katie Swartz, 1305 Gallery
I first encountered Katie Swartz’s work in “All the Usual Suspects” at Thompson House Shooting Gallery (see aeqai.com, July 2012). She showed three crocheted animals: “Bartholomew,” 2010, an 11” tall, cuddly bear, and two friendly octopi: “Mario,” 11” tall, and “Myron,” 9” tall, both 2011. In that review, I placed her work in the context […]
Full of Color: Suzanne Fisher at The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center
By: Karen S. Chambers When you walk into Suzanne Fisher’s exhibition at The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center (one of six shows presented under the rubric “Full of Color”), you enter a world of wonder. In fact, if Fisher had given her show its own title, it would have been “Natural Wonders.” At the […]
Through a Dark Wood: New Glass Works by Steven Ramsey
Steven Ramsey’s exhibition of paintings on glass and glass vessels, “Through a Dark Wood,” is enchanting, but not “enchanting” the adjective meaning “charming.” It is “enchanting” as in casting a spell. And Ramsey’s spell is hard to break. The show’s title suggests a fairy tale, and the works are reminders of the original darkness […]
Speed Trials
“Speed Trials” was an essay commissioned for the catalog accompanying the exhibition “Trial by Fire: New Glass Work by Darren Goodman” at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM). Goodman was selected by the 4th Floor, an associated group of the Museum, for its biennial 4th Floor Award, a competition to promote local artists. j-hokkaido.com The organization […]
Presages: Gordon Smith’s Kentucky Coal Country Photographs
Gordon Smith’s (b. 1952) black-and-white photographs of Kentucky’s coal mining country and its people are disturbing documents of hardscrabble life. His images tell the story of the miners and their families who endure the crushing poverty that forces them to destroy their very environment to survive. A part of the photographic tradition of social commentary, […]
Still[ed] Life: Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it can also be a sincere source of creativity. That tenet is confirmed by “Still[ed] Life: Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis” at the Taft Museum of Art. In collaboration these two area artists (Parker is an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of […]