Lois Rosenthal: In Memoriam
Lois Rosenthal’s recent and untimely death gives pause to all of us as we think about her contributions to the arts and towards our increasingly unknown future with those same arts here. I have always thought of Lois, to use the language of business, as an entrepreneur, rather than a manager. Her great mind was […]
SHARA HUGHES: MIDNIGHT SNACKS At Institute 193, Lexington, KY
The current display at Lexington’s most venerable of exhibition spaces, Institute 193, is the work of Atlanta native Shara Hughes. Hughes, a driving force of the Atlanta scene when she lived there, decamped to Brooklyn this year, where she currently lives and operates a studio. The show at ‘193’ (as the locals refer to the […]
Anne Straus, 75, Local Multimedia Artist “I want to keep working forever.”
“In my paintings, I am exploring uncharted territories and push at the boundaries I find,” said Anne Straus, 75, a multimedia artist who has lived in Wyoming, Ohio since 1963. “I see visions of forgotten times, and I paint them with the eye of my heart. I am an explorer, a messenger bringing back ethnic […]
“Todd Slaughter: American Primitives, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery
Although it goes against my grain in a visual arts review to start with the verbiage surrounding an exhibition, it seems to be the best way to approach “American Primitives: Todd Slaughter” at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery (his second there, the first being in 1996-1997). I was searching for something […]
Kehinde Wiley at The Taft Museum of Art
It’s been nearly a decade since Kehinde Wiley graced the cover of Art in America (2005) and since, he has become one of the most collected contemporary painters in America. This high profile artist made his mark re-imagining the African American figure in grand/large scale paintings. Using classical poses from Western art historical references, Wiley’s […]
Cincinnati Silver: 1788 – 1865
Cincinnati Art Museum June 14- Sept 7, 2014 It was a dark and mysterious gallery, relieved only by spotlighted display cases of historic silver. Shining back at visitors with the liquid reflections of fine silver, a story of a mighty city’s beginning unfolded via the items its leading citizens chose to ornament their tables and […]
Art For A Better World
I. Images For A Better World: Alison SHEPARD, Visual Artist Alison Shepard is a well-established artist and musician, born and raised in Cincinnati where she currently lives with her husband, Evan Hildebrandt, also an artist and director of Bromwell’s gallery. Shepard received her BFA from Northern Kentucky University and her MFA in printmaking from Miami […]
Book Review: Fourth of July Creek
A very pleasant surprise is in store if you read Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson. This nearly epic novel is the author’s first, and he exhibits a maturity in his thinking, his writing, in the complexities of his plot, his delineation of character, and his extraordinary empathy for his people. Set in contemporary […]
Book Review: “My Struggle”
Book 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six volume novel/autobiography/memoir has just been published. These novels have been widely praised all over the world for their use of a different model of what constitutes fiction, or the novel itself. I went a bought Book 1 and Book 2, to see what the hype is about. They […]
Post-Tribal Shamanism: A New Look at the Old Ways by Kenn Day
The Age of Aquarius, better known as the 60’s, brought a vital return to what became known as New Age spirituality, and its subsets in fields like medicine. As a chronic pain patient myself, I learned 28 years ago, when my “pain of undetermined origin” began, that the answers I was looking for were not […]