Visions of Mexico: Bernard Plossu’s Photographic Road Trip
Perhaps the first stanza of the 113th chorus in Jack Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues (1959)—his both critically praised and abhorred epic poem of scat-sung, jazz-imbued stanzas—might serve well as a preface to Bernard Plossu’s photographs of Mexico: Yet everything is perfect, Because it is empty, Because it is perfect with emptiness, Because it’s […]
Paul Muller, the CPA, and the Rauh House
Paul Muller, AIA, the Executive Director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA), was trained as an architect. His profession, along with his experience with, and passion for, historic preservation, make him ideally suited to lead the CPA. That training is especially relevant now that concern for preservation of modernist and postmodernist architecture is growing locally […]
“Journey of the Spirit: Landscapes by Kevin T. Kelly,” Cincinnati Art Galleries.
Hometown boy Kevin T. Kelly’s earlier work has been called as “Neo Pop” or “Post-Pop,” and described as “Roy Lichtenstein meets Dennis Hopper on Steroids.” Using what he calls a “hyperchromatic” palette, he juxtaposed disparate and hard-edged images to express social commentary. It’s pure Tom Wesselmann, another hometown boy, for whom Kelly served as studio […]
Run-On, Rambling Letter from New York
From LGA, cab to the Bowery via the Williamsburg bridge (that much I’ve learned), the 6 train to 51st, walk to D. Wigmore Gallery in the Crown Building on 5th Avenue at 57th to see the 1960’s Op Art of Tadasky, eye wobbling crazy candy in a serene and classic mid-town gallery, then a short […]
A River Runs Between: “American Impressionism: The Lure of the Artists’ Colony” at the Dayton Art Institute, March 7, 2015-May 31, 2015
Frank Benson, an artist probably best known today for an oeuvre of duck hunting etchings that are, oddly, both academic and commercial, self-identified enthusiastically as an Impressionist: “I follow the light, where it comes from and where it goes.” The Dayton Art Institute is hosting an exhibit of more than a hundred paintings from the […]
The Clean Edge May 8 – June 4 C-Link Gallery, Brazee Street Gallery
Varieties of abstract art work are too wild and woolly to begin to try to categorize them, yet the one constant is its unmistakable opposition represental realism. The real world surrounds us with its beauty and ugliness. The abstract world takes reality apart and opens minds to other forms of imagery and a new ways […]
Review of Kim Flora, Mike Hancock, and Bill Renschler at Aisle Gallery
Aisle Gallery on the third floor at 424 Findlay has a reputation for presenting high quality exhibits of local artists’ work. Spaces such as Aisle and Semantics in adjacent Brighton represent the kind of quirky but serious spaces that fuel vibrant art communities. Aisle has been absent on the scene for a few years. That’s […]
Not Your Everyday Sightseeing Tour of Cincinnati Review of Peter Waite’s The Cincinnati Series
Artist Peter Waite approaches architectural panel painting as an experienced tourist explores a new city. He takes in the recommended key sights and then discovers the fascinating hidden places that most tourists and residents miss. His impressions of Cincinnati are embodied in a solo exhibition, The Cincinnati Series, at the Carl Solway Gallery in the […]
Returning To Our Beginnings
In the 1980s the support staff at the Cincinnati Art Museum, like others before them and after them,was engaged with the collection, with the Museum, and with the idea of visual art itself, all of which enlivened their days. Last month some of those 1980s staffers gathered (from Chicago, from Cleveland, from Washington, D.C. as […]
Returning To Our Beginnings
In the 1980s the support staff at the Cincinnati Art Museum, like others before them and after them,was engaged with the collection, with the Museum, and with the idea of visual art itself, all of which enlivened their days. Last month some of those 1980s staffers gathered (from Chicago, from Cleveland, from Washington, D.C. as […]