Letter From London
In London, on the day I went to both exhibitions, it seemed that everyone who wasn’t at the National Gallery’s stunning Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan had come to the Royal Academy for David Hockney’s knock-your-eye-out responses to the English landscape. Each show was at controlled maximum attendance but the crowds […]
"Juxtaposition at the 'Center of the Earth'"
Nick Cave lives up to his hype. The artist’s sprawling installation/intervention at the Cincinnati Art Museum, “Meet Me at the Center of the Earth” covers all three floors with some thirty-six of Cave’s iconic “Soundsuits,” ten oversized glossy color photos, nine videos, two tondos, and three bears/beavers made from repurposed sweaters (oh my!) The monumental […]
Side By Side: Choreography and Costumes Compliment Each Other
Author’s Note: Valinkat (aka Kathy Valin) is a blog I created in the summer of 2010. I am currently a freelance writing and editing professional enjoying life in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, when I’m not traveling all over the world with my husband. On Valinkat I regularly post a mix of urban diary, […]
Beyond Emancipation at Kennedy Heights Arts Center
The insistent art works in Beyond Emancipation at Kennedy Heights Arts Center demand attention. “Look at me,” they seem to cry out. “Look at me now. WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M SAYING?” The first message, and there are others, is that emancipation was a first step, a needed step, but only the beginning. Nowhere is […]
Winter Solace, YWCA Women’s Art Gallery
Rather poetically, the announcement card for “Winter Solace” says the two-woman show of Kim Flora’s paintings and Trina Feldhake’s ceramic baskets “reflects the quiet, the surprise, and the texture of the winter season.” It does. At least in part. essay of education To start, a group of Flora’s haunting encaustic-and-oil-over-digital-transfer panels immediately captured my attention […]
Letter from New York: Hidden Gems
This is the second in a series of a quarterly letters, which will cover painting shows in greater New York. “From the top of the arched opening – as it gradually widens – pours forth a sparkling flow of jewels, a pattering rain of diamonds, and, directly following, a tumble of gems of every color, […]
Samson and Delilah
Flesh. It gleams and swells in Samson and Delilah, giving us the whole story before we can recall the details. It shows us her allure and his weakness. It gives life to this picture, but it is made from paint brushed across a wooden panel. In Rubens’ hands, paint and flesh transform a morality tale […]
Pop-Secret: Keith Benjamin’s “The Weight” at PAC Gallery
A stratified structure of litter (constructed of packaging that once housed Cheez-Its, cans of Bud Light and Diet Coke, and Pop-Secret microwavable bags of popcorn) rests precariously atop an old-school reel-to-reel tape recorder in Keith Benjamin’s “the weight,” a sculpture that teeters toward absurdity while evoking the loneliness and exactitude of a hoarder’s consciousness. Nothing […]
Phyllis Weston, Complex and Amazing Woman
Editor’s Note: I’d been away in college and graduate school between 1964-1970, returning to Cincinnati married and seeking employment while interviewing for what became my first job here (Coordinator of Cultural Affairs at The University of Cincinnati). Two names kept surfacing as visionary arts leaders; Irma Lazarus and Phyllis Weston. I’d known various Lazari (as […]
Cerebral Material
Cerebral Material “Material Witness” at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery is the thinking artist’s art exhibition. Independent curator Matt Distel’s smart grouping of multi-disciplinary artists, whose only ostensible common thread is consistent consideration of media, raises thoughtful questions about locations in space and time without providing any easy answers. Eight […]