Semiotic Overloads and Proxy Dimensions: Joomi Chung and John Humphries at the Weston Art Gallery
Changes of shape, new forms, are the theme which my spirit impels me now to recite. Inspire me, O gods, and spin me a thread from the world’s beginning… —Ovid, Prologue to Metamorphoses[1] In Joomi Chung’s Image Space/Memory Space, there are mountains and motorbikes, traffic cones and tree branches, satellites and skyscrapers, flocks of birds […]
Henry Lawrence Faulkner
The bohemian life and creative mission that drove Henry Lawrence Faulkner encompassed more than visual art, but it is perhaps his stylized and sometimes colorist work that most indelibly left an impression on the world. Extraordinarily prolific, Faulkner left behind more than 5,000 works. He was both a romantic and pragmatic, at times knowing that […]
Art of Ernest Blumenschein
The Dayton Art Institute continues its celebration of its Centennial year by highlighting the career of one of Dayton’s most successful 20th century artists: Ernest Blumenschein. This exhibition of 15 works examines his love of the spontaneous sketch, his stature as a fine oil painter and his remarkable contribution to his community in the American […]
Best Fiction of 2019
2019 was an exceptionally fine year for new fiction. My list of the best fiction of this year was difficult to make, as so many excellent choices are available. In reading other such lists (“The New York Times Book Review”; “The New Yorker”, NPR, Amazon, amongst others), I noted that these lists have few novels […]
Two Photographers: A Personal Appreciation
Part One In the autumn of 2019, two giants of American photographic arts died, a mere seven days apart from each other. They were close friends and neighbors in the New York of the ‘50s, at one time even working together on the same project (a film). Both were Jewish, and deeply humanistic, and both […]
Intervening on the Museum – Lauren Henkin’s “Props”
When you visit the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center within the next few months, you’ll notice some oddities hiding in the buildings’ nooks and crannies. If you’ve visited before, you’re familiar with the famous building designed by architect Zaha Hadid. Curator Steven Matijcio says it’s “meant to disorient the viewer,” and Hadid wants you to recalibrate […]
“A Celebration of Life,” YWCA Greater Cincinnati Women’s Art Gallery, through January 10, 2020
The Women’s Art Gallery at the Greater Cincinnati YWCA ends the year with “A Celebration of Life,” which was co-curated by Ricci Michaels, Urban Expression 101 Project, and Ena Nearon, Women’s Art Gallery manager. The show features the work of seven visual artists and one poet: Erika Nj Allen, Guatemala; Monica Andino, Honduras; Hei-Kyung Byun, […]
Kienholz' Fortune-Telling Carousel Revolves Around Empathy and Chance
Currently on view at LA Louver, Ed and Nancy Kienholz’ playfully eerie mixed-media tableau, The Merry-Go-World or Begat by Chance and the Wonder Horse Trigger (1988-92), evokes the feeling of exploring an abandoned carnival. It’s as though the clowns have departed, the crowds have disappeared, and the games have been packed up; but for some […]
Gerhard Richter’s Distorted Fields of Vision and Allen Feldman’s “Photopolitics”
A collection of Gerhard Richter’s prints are currently being exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City’s Upper East Side. The works include two more recent pieces–Mustangs (2005, fig. 1)[1] and Frau mit Kind (Woman with Child, 2005, fig. 2)–and the infamous Betty (1991). Rather than extensively detail Betty’s theoretical mirth, which has been […]
15 ͤBiennale de Lyon – Art Contemporain – Là où les eaux se mêlent
This past October, I spent three serendipitous days in Lyon, France where the 15th Biennale de Lyon Art Contemporain Là où les eaux se mêlent (Where Water Comes Together with Other Water) happened to be taking place. This extraordinary international art exhibition opened September 18th, 2019 and runs through January 5th, 2020. The Biennale […]