Profile of Leslie Shiels
Leslie Shiels makes paintings and prints as her own response to life, to what she sees around her in solid fact and in underlying meaning. Talking with her, I had the feeling that she just can’t help it; when something interests her, bothers her, gives her an idea, she wants to make art of it. […]
“Calling” by Kate Kern at the Weston Art Gallery
The realm of artist Kate Kern is the ethereal space of imagination, wherein she depicts an actual, tangible place that is like this world, but not quite. Here it is, a bare room, a few empty chairs, the wind ruffling the curtains. Here it is, the dense voids of deep sea and deep space. And […]
“Bijoux Parisiens: French Jewelry from the Petit Palais, Paris,” Taft Museum of Art, through May 17, 2017
It was just before Valentine’s Day, when I saw the lavish “Bijoux Parisiens: French Jewelry from the Petit Palais, Paris” exhibition at the Taft Museum of Art, and how I longed for a wealthy beau. The show features some 75 pieces of French jewelry, primarily from the early 19th- to mid-20th centuries. They are from […]
KayWalkingStick at the Dayton Art Institute
I can’t decide if I should leap for joy or feel cheated by the art world when I discover yet another marvelous woman artist who has not received appropriate mainstream recognition. Here’s Kay WalkingStick, now in her eighties and thriving in her studio practice, who has had a vibrant career with early New York accolades. […]
Short Circuits and Exposed Networks: The Wired at Weston Gallery
Artworks today enter digital markets of circulation. Even the seemingly dematerialized, non-commodifiable works of land art and conceptual art are subject to economies of reproduction and intellectual property. The contours and cracks of these networks inform four very recent artworks in The Wired, an exhibition currently on view at the Alice F. and Harris K. […]
"Dressed to Kill: Japanese Arms and Armor” Cincinnati Art Museum through May 7, 2017
On the quiet Tuesday that I visited the “Dressed to Kill: Japanese Arms and Armor” exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum, there were only a few people in the gallery, mostly middle-aged men. They were carefully studying the 11 suits of armor on view, but were equally intent on the many, many weapons on display: a […]
“The Trump L’Oeil Olé!” SOFT REGARDS: INSTALLATION BY ELENA HARVEY COLLINS AND LIZ ROBERTS Weston Art Gallery DEC. 9, 2016–JAN. 29, 2017. A Déjà Revue by Regan Brown
“I read a theory once that the human intellect was like peacock feathers. Just an extravagant display intended to attract a mate. All of art, literature, a bit of Mozart, William Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and the Empire State Building just an elaborate mating ritual. Maybe it doesn’t matter that we have accomplished so much for the […]
“Max Beckmann in New York,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, through February 20, 2017
In “Max Beckmann in New York,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art has brought together 14 works painted when the artist lived in the city in 1949 and 1950, and 25 earlier paintings (1920-1948) from New York collections. Although the New York-centric focus would appear to be narrow, the show provides a concise overview of his […]
Report from New York: Walking between Dreams in Three Immersive Cinematic Exhibitions
This winter, three major New York institutions hosted exhibitions of immersive, moving image installations. In many ways the works featured in these shows were direct descendants of “expanded cinema,” a term now used broadly to describe many artistic practices engaging the physical situation of moving images outside of theaters though first applied to the utopian […]
Feeling History: “The Poetry of Place” at the Cincinnati Art Museum, December 10, 2016-June 11, 2017
“The Poetry of Place” is a small show at the Cincinnati Art Museum, with only 18 photographs by only three artists, William Clift, Michael Kenna, and Linda Connor, the works all selected from the Museum’s permanent collection and organized by Curatorial Assistant of Photography Emily Bauman. In recent years, there have been some outstanding museum […]