Clear as a Bell: Peter Halley at Solway Gallery
Clear as a Bell: Peter Halley at Solway Gallery By Keith Banner Sometimes I walk in the dead mall near where I live when I want to clear my head. Tranquility emanates from all the shut-down luxury, the rubbed-off logos above vast empty storefronts, the black-garbage-bagged entrances surrounded in high-gloss marble and hard-wood. […]
Evolution, Jeremy Johnson and Aaron Kent
Evolution, Jeremy Johnson and Aaron Kent At Prairie Gallery By Matthew Metzger Science is fertile ground for mystery. Neo-Platonic notions of the fertility of the soil; animal magic; the cooperation of the tribe; the numinous atmosphere; the ungraspable vastness of the universe; infinity; the void. Our best scientists are by necessity also poets and […]
Marta Hewett Gallery: “This is contemporary art.”
Marta Hewett Gallery: “This is contemporary art.” By Karen Chambers Even though the computer ate gallery owner Marta Hewett’s “What Is Contemporary Art?” essay for aeqai, it set her to thinking about the question. (For how other citizens of the art world answered that question, see the September issue.) Once on this path, Hewett came […]
Radical without a Cause: “Matisse: A Life in Color”
Radical without a Cause: “Matisse: A Life in Color” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art By Keith Banner A docent was giving a tour of “Matisse: A Life in Color” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art when I was strolling through. I overheard her say, “Matisse didn’t have any social causes in his work. He […]
Deconstructing America: Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19-Century American Art
Deconstructing America: Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19-Century American Art Taft Museum of Art September 20, 2013-January 12, 2014 By Jonathan Kamholtz “Telling Tales” at the Taft makes its case for American art the hard way. This excellent loan exhibit from the New-York Historical Society surveys American painting with very few of the go-to works […]
GEORGE WESLEY BELLOWS at the Columbus Museum of Art
GEORGE WESLEY BELLOWS at the Columbus Museum of Art By Kevin Ott Columbus Ohio’s favorite son of the art world, George Wesley Bellows (1881-1925), has returned to his hometown museum, the Columbus Museum of Art, for a compact but enjoyable and educational show. Bellows was, and is, a titan of American early 20th […]
You Know What I Mean: Joey Versoza and JR at the Contemporary Arts Center
You Know What I Mean: Joey Versoza and JR at the Contemporary Arts Center By Keith Banner Joey Versoza’s “Is This It,” at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) through February 2, 2014, offers continual clues to a mystery that’s disintegrating while you stand inside its contexts and riddles. Versoza uses video, found objects, photography, […]
“Vessels: All the Eyes Can Hold”
“Vessels: All the Eyes Can Hold,” Kennedy Heights Arts Center By Karen Chambers I don’t know how many exhibitions have been organized around the theme of “vessel,” or the number of shows of craft materials where the vessel form is the natural result — wheel-thrown clay, blown glass, lathe-turned wood, and spun metal. The final […]
“Balance: an exhibition of contemporary ceramics by Terri Kern”
“Balance: an exhibition of contemporary ceramics by Terri Kern” By Sara Pearce Birds face off against one another at either end of a ladder-like seesaw, perch on the edges of nests, are trapped mid-flight by ladder rungs, and barely touch down atop stacks of ladders, branches and books. There is a sense of urgency – […]
LETTER FROM NEW YORK
LETTER FROM NEW YORK By Jane Durrell It’s slow going on a Sunday afternoon in the new installation of European Paintings (1250-1800) at the Metropolitan Museum. The handsome spaces have been spruced up and galleries once given over to temporary shows now are part of the logical flow of ideas and innovations that can be […]