The Pits: Empire Falling: New Photographs by Elena Dorfman
The Pits: Empire Falling: New Photographs by Elena Dorfman Phyllis Weston Gallery, March 29-May 11 By Jonathan Kamholtz From a distance, “Empire Falling #6” (the artist’s titles are not very helpful as aide-memoires or to help us focus on the picture’s issues) might be a colorized photograph taken by a long-gone intrepid nineteenth century archeological […]
Atlas Points
Atlas Points By Chistopher Hoeting Cincinnati’s Emery once again opened its doors for the third consecutive year (under the leadership of The Requiem Project) with two shows this past weekend: Atlas Points—the visual arts component of Cincinnati’s MusicNow and FORTY/40—the Contemporary Dance Theatre’s 40th Anniversary celebration. These two significant events demonstrate The Requiem Project’s continued […]
“The River Having A Strong Flow”: Storm—Watershed—Riverbank
“The River Having A Strong Flow”: Storm—Watershed—Riverbank The 1913 Flood Dayton Art Institute, February 23-May 5, 2013 By Jonathan Kamholtz Associate Curator Jane A. Black has curated a trio of shows to commemorate the centennial of the flood of the Great Miami River. In March 1913, following a series of wet winter storms, the river […]
Subtle Bodies
Subtle Bodies Denise Burge “It’s not that I don’t care about content, but content is not the only way a photograph has meaning.”1 ~ James Welling The photographic work of James Welling is recognized for its pictorial elegance, and often described in terms that suggest the mystical. This sense arises from the viewer’s […]
Restaurant Cell-Phone Photography
Restaurant Cell-Phone Photography by Louis Zoellar Bickett Restaurant cell-phone photography is so ubiquitous that the act of documenting public dining has become de rigueur. Photography in our lives and public places is everywhere and everyone is a photographer—and seemingly the quality of the photograph is becoming more and more insignificant with the production of […]
A Monumental Collection: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center
A Monumental Collection: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center By Christopher Hoeting Only when we recognize the historical patterns of isolation and accept the responsibility of supporting those artists who express themselves in a universal language of form will black American artists be seen as major contributors to the art of this century. – […]
EAT YOUR IDYLLS!
EAT YOUR IDYLLS! “The Art of Food” at the Carnegie through March 21, 2013. by Regan Brown “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” ―William Blake from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” “Let them eat cake!” ―a quote erroneously attributed to Marie Antoinette. “The fury and cruelty of the French mob […]
Letter from Chicago
Letter from Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago: MCA DNA: William Kentridge by Cynthia M. Kukla The Drawing Center in New York featured the art work of William Kentridge in 1998, a year after he premiered at Documenta X, Kassel, Germany. The MCA-Chicago first presented the work of South African Kentridge in 2001 in his first […]
Gaela Erwin: My Mother, My Sister, Myself
Gaela Erwin: My Mother, My Sister, Myself Lexington Art League January 12 – March 3, 2013 by Sheldon Tapley Know Yourself: An ancient maxim. We find it hard to understand, difficult to pursue, and perhaps impossible to fulfill. Philosophers have discussed the imperative for centuries. Socrates gave primacy to self-knowledge. Seeking it properly takes courage, […]
Design Analysis: The Redesigned Schmidlapp Gallery and the museum as frame
Design Analysis: The Redesigned Schmidlapp Gallery and the museum as frame ~ Gideon Fink Shapiro Just as modern painting did away with the picture frame, modern art museums have typically downplayed their role as spatial frames. Increasingly neutral galleries suppressed architectural qualifications—color, texture, material, form, ornament—in a quest to make artworks immediately available to the […]