Maps and Stars: “Not in New York: Carl Solway and Cincinnati” at the Cincinnati Art Museum, April 30-October 30, 2016
Carl Solway (and family) have been so deeply entwined with the art gallery scene in Cincinnati that it takes a timeline on the wall to keep it all straight. He graduated from Walnut Hills in 1952; ten years later, he opened Flair Gallery at Fifth and Race. Ten years after that, he had two galleries […]
The Suspicion of Life: Paul Kohl’s Photography
A quick cyber-jaunt reveals surprisingly little about photographer Paul Kohl, but the internet did offer one interesting morsel, stored within the digitized archive of the Crimson. A 1974 review by Susan Cooke included a couple sentences about Kohl, whose work had been featured in a group installation of artists decidedly unburdened by the parameters of […]
The Liminal landscape at Marta Hewett Gallery
With The Liminal landscape at Marta Hewett Gallery, Guggenheim Award winner and Cincinnati native Frank Herrmann presents an enlightening shift in a body of work that has been remarkably consistent and serious for the last 15 years. I encourage you to go see the exhibition; Herrmann is the breed of artist that is rare in […]
All over the Damn Place: “30 Americans” at the Cincinnati Art Museum
Kenya Barris’s Black-ish, a Wednesday-night sitcom on regular old ABC television, is simultaneously zeitgeist-y genuine, frantically people-pleasing, and deliciously aware of its own precarious situation: a high-energy comic take on the foibles and follies of a loving upper-middle-class African American family living in the lap of Southern California luxury. That luxury and status are constantly […]
Shinji Turner Yamamoto’s Sidereal Silence, at Weston Art Gallery
Turner-Yamamoto’s paintings and sculptures are so commanding yet austere that, depending on temperament, a viewer either pays little attention or becomes lost in front of them. The latter of course is preferable and, I would suggest, the point of art, conjuring an experience of a new thread of reality; and with any luck becoming a […]
Clifton Cultural Arts Center – An Indispensable Asset
Clifton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) is in very real of danger of losing access to the historical building it calls home. Leased from Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), CCAC has been notified that Cincinnati Public Schools is considering prematurely terminating their lease. Committed neighborhood residents, artists, institutions and friends of CCAC have rallied to garner support […]
“Utopia Parkway Revisited: Contemporary Artists in Joseph Cornell’s Shadow,” at Thunder-Sky, Inc.
Much has been written about Joseph Cornell’s work, but for me it can be summed up by saying that his boxes created worlds that we are invited into. Their small size makes them intimate experiences, and we involuntarily shrink to fit into his universe. In a gallery handout1 for “Utopia Parkway Revisited: Contemporary Artists in […]
Engendering Identity: LGBTQ (and u) at Wash Park Art
Gender is one of the first assessments we make. How does this instinctive process affect self identity and imposed identity? What happens if the self’s and society’s assessments conflict? Are we simply male or female? Why do we assign gender to objects? What is male? What is female? Why does it matter? Printed on […]
Weapons of Mass Construction
There’s nothing funny about guns. Even the toy gun that releases a flower after the trigger is pulled is still a formidable object despite the unmistakable irony. However, Brooklyn-based artist Natalie Baxter has found a way to transform firearms into colorful sewn sculptures that makes one almost feel giddy. OK-47, currently on-view at Institute 193 […]
Thoughts From A Millennial Artist
The millennial generation is baffling to most who are outside of it. Truthfully, it is confounding to us as well. The onslaught of the internet and the ever expanding opportunities it offers is fundamentally changing the way we as a society do almost everything. Being the generation who grew up parallel with the personal computer, […]