Ron Isaacs at Manifest Gallery
The impact of Ron Isaacs’ paintings is greater than their subdued colors and modest dimensions. At first impression, the viewer is taken by an effortless
Clint Woods – PRACTICE March 4- April 25, Park National Bank Gallery, UC Clermont College
There is a strong sense of the sacred in the work of Clint Woods. His own words offer the work as “employing a triggering device
Bill Davis No Dark in Sight: Light and the Night It Transforms
“Featuring a new body of work by Bill Davis, Associate Professor and Area Co-Coordinator of Photography and Intermedia, the exhibition No Dark in Sight examines light
Art Design Consultants, Inc.
Fine art abounds at Art Design Consultants, Inc., owned and managed by Litsa Spanos for over twenty-five years. It is now located at 310 Culvert
Khaled Khalifa’s “Death is Hard Work”
A new voice in fiction, at least for Americans, is that of Syrian writer Khaled Khalifa, whose new novel, “Death is Hard Work”, is both
Elizabeth McCracken’s “Bowlaway”
“Bowlaway”, by the hugely gifted novelist Elizabeth McCracken, is currently my Number l best novel of 2019 to date. Part fairy tale, part realism, “Bowlaway”
Winter 2019 Issue of Aeqai Online
The Winter (Jan./Feb.) issue of Aeqai has just posted. We bring twenty-two columns in this issue, rich with critical anaylsis, profiles of artists, and book
Both Ends of the Brush: “Winslow Homer to Georgia O’Keeffe: American Paintings from the Phillips Collection” at the Taft Museum of Art, February 9-May 19, 2019
High modernism is well over a century old by now, and its roots are even older. How could that even have happened? The Phillips Collection
The Window of Clarity: Eric Hatch’s “Faces of Addiction"
Award-winning writer and photographer Eric K. Hatch has made his reputation by focusing on landscapes and the built environment. So when an acquaintance who lost
Close Reading: Proximity of Syllables by Migiwa Orimo at the Weston Gallery
A pair of curtains adorned with a large set of parentheses hung at the entrance to the exhibit “Proximity of Syllables” at the Weston Gallery
“Art Academy of Cincinnati at 150: A Celebration in Drawings and Prints,” Cincinnati Art Museum, through April 28, 2019
If there were any question about the importance of the Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC) or the quality of its teachers and students, the thoughtful
On a Certain Tendency of Contemporary Installation Art
British installation artist Alex Hibbitt’s Rhizome: Falling (2018) has traversed numerous gallery locales throughout the States in the last few years and hangs, suspended and
What Rich Mix Is This?
Judy Pfaff New Prints Isaac Abrams Paintings + Drawings Kirk Mangus Drawings + Ceramic Works This handsome show of a trio of artists opened in late January and continues
Deb Brod at The Carnegie
In The Carnegie’s Open Source series of exhibitions, Trajectory engages the gallery space with swooping arcs of fabric and fiber that weave and stretch across
SIMILITUDE: A survey of contemporary portraiture
Dreams, dragons and confrontation with contemporary overtones– “Similitude” is an exhibit of current portraiture work by contemporary, largely regional, artists at the Manifest Gallery in
On the Question of How to Approach a New Visual Language?
Synthetica, which showed at the Weston Art Gallery from November 30, 2018 – January 27, 2019, professed a keen logic of material innovation accompanied by
The Terrace Plaza Hotel: Recognizing Greatness
Cincinnati is fortunate to have a number of noteworthy examples of architecture and history, recognized with numerous listings on the National Register of Historic Places.
ZVIZDAL [Chernobyl- so far so close] Berlin
ZVIZDAL is the latest documentary-installation by the Dutch company Berlin. It comprises a large double-sided projection screen over three diorama tables depicting a primitive Ukranian
STATE Ingri Fiksdal
Ingri Fiksdal’s STATE explores the role of dance as ritual in society and was performed in the Contemporary Arts Center’s black box theatre. Accompanied by
Fotofolio – Susan Patrice
“The Enveloping Landscape” Susan’s statement: The Enveloping Landscape project began as a way to heal. Much like the Appalachian landscape itself, my body holds a
Emma Webster's Complicated Vistas of Human Nature in Dioramic Landscapes
Nothing seems right in Emma Webster’s No Man’s Land (all works 2018): toadstools are weirdly spotlighted; wispy arboreal cutouts contain more than mere foliage; and
"Art School"
I’ll never forget my first day of art school. It was my freshman year at UC’s DAAP and I had been instructed by my professors
Saying Goodbye to an Icon
While fashion is an ever-evolving industry spurred by constant winds of change, some things are just predictable. We know that four cities will present runway
Stewart Goldman
Stewart Goldman has been making art longer than many viewers – although not this writer – have been alive, a circumstance that does not seem
Movies Filmed in Cincinnati Have a Visual Arts Influence
Visual arts play a part in many movies, according to Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Film Commission Executive Director Kristen Schlotman. Hollywood producers have shot
Visionary Artist Reilly Stasienko: Chronicling Consciousness Through Oil Paintings
Some art seeks to capture, in stark detail, the beauty of the natural world around us. Other art turns inward and seeks to transcend the
Robert W. Fieseler’s “Tinderbox”
Gay Liberation in America is generally thought to have begun with the Stonewall Inn protests in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1969. Homosexuality was,
Guy Gunaratne’s “In Our Mad and Furious City”
Guy Gunaratne has written a powerful and important novel, “In Our Mad and Furious City”, which takes place in contemporary London, or those parts of
Tessa Hadley’s “Late in the Day”
The English writer Tessa Hadley is rapidly becoming one of that country’s foremost fiction writers; her work in the past couple of years has expanded
December 2018 Issue of Aeqai Online
The December issue of Aeqai has just posted. It’s a shorter issue, as less shows opened this month, and many of Aeqai’s writers are unavailable
The Hills are Alive: Cole Carothers’s “The Cincinnati Collection, 1985–2012” on display at Roehr Insurance Company, curated by Caza Sikes, November 2-30, 2018
In Cole Carothers’s “Margin” (2008), we are in Northern Kentucky somewhere—I’m thinking probably Monmouth Street—where the roadway dips down under some train tracks. There is
Picasso to Pollock: Modern Masterworks from the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University at the Speed Art Museum
According to the Speed Art Museum, Picasso to Pollock: Modern Masterworks from the Eskenazi Museum of Art showcases the impressive early 20th-century art collection owned by
Queen City Struts Her Stuff Panorama of Cincinnati Art – 33rd Anniversary Benefit for the Taft Museum December 1st through Friday January 18th, 2019
As a prominent river town, the Queen City has long been a storehouse for culture. Picture Benjamin West’s massive painting Ophelia and Laertes – 109
Welcome Project Hosts a Series of Cincinnati Neighborhood Dinners
Sharing a table and a meal together can make a community stronger. During a time of unrest nationally and internationally, this is the season to
Best Fiction of 2018
2018 was an odd year for fiction; good and occasionally superior books appeared throughout the year, though it took some sleuthing to find them.
Diverse Artists Navigate Boundaries in "Here" at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
Los Angeles encompasses so many neighborhoods, districts, and suburbs that nary a local can keep track of them all. In a city so sprawling and
“TAPPED 9: Artists and their Professors,” Manifest Gallery, through January 11, 2019
The title says it all: “TAPPED 9: Artists and their Professors.” In this ninth iteration at Manifest Gallery, there are seven pairs (the teacher is
Christopher Myers : Recognizing Covington’s Potential
On occasion, the planets do align and a person with the appropriate knowledge, skills, enthusiasm, and temperament is hired to fill an employment position. Fortunately,
Artist-Educator Karen McGarry on merits of arts-inclusive education
An odd feeling creeps into my mind while sitting in Karen McGarry’s Brazee Street studio. The feeling that the many small figures strewn about the
Artist-Educator Karen McGarry on merits of arts-inclusive education
An odd feeling creeps into my mind while sitting in Karen McGarry’s Brazee Street studio. The feeling that the many small figures strewn about the
Profile of Carl Samson
The challenge for figurative painting, says Carl Samson, practitioner of same, is that it needs to be relevant to today. He speaks of hoping that
Film Review: In "Sgt. Will Gardner," a Tormented Combat Veteran Battles Against His Own Memories
Possibly the earliest visual record of shell shock, the above photograph shows a Crimean War infantry captain whose eyes appear as windows to a hollow,
November Issue of Aeqai Online
The November issue of Aeqai has just posted. We’d like to both thank and commend all of those at FotoFocus, who have offered all of
Nuclear Fallout: The Bomb in Three Archives at Antioch College
Nuclear Fallout: The Bomb in Three Archives at Antioch College’s Herndon Gallery investigates historical documentation and mines personal accounts to challenge cavalier attitudes and awaken
Signs of Erasure: “Finding Kenyon Barr” at UC’s Meyers Gallery
At the outset of the tumultuous 1960s, more than 25,000 Cincinnatians found themselves evicted from their homes by city planners. Those losses came as a
Three Artists' Techno-futurist Dystopias
“‘I’m living my life out in a cell in a row of beehives and when I wake up and think of it like I did
Unnatural Worlds: “No Two Alike: Karl Blossfeldt, Francis Bruguiere, Thomas Ruff” at Contemporary Arts Center, September 21, 2018-January 13, 2019
FotoFocus 2018 promised, in its thematic title, to burrow into the archives, and at the CAC, they uncovered something. The roots of its show, “No
Keltie Ferris: *O*P*E*N* at the Speed Art Museum: Casualist Painting / Not-cAsual SetTing
When I was an undergrad I fumbled into Sharon Butler’s essay “The New Casualists” published in “The Brooklyn Rail”. I found it at a crucial
Folded, Scratched, Discarded: Photographic Memory in the Work of Akram Zaatari
In our contemporary image-saturated, screen-based culture, the materiality of photographic prints and negatives seems part of a quaint memory of the artwork before the age
Lookin’ For Some Hot Stuff Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tête-à-tête Dayton Art Institute, Oct. 20–Jan. 13, 2019
Lookin’ for some hot stuff, baby this evenin’ I need some hot stuff, baby tonight I want some hot stuff, baby this evenin’ Gotta have