The June issue of aeqai has just been posted, again reflecting the wide variety of visual experiences available in this region, and across the nation. The Contemporary Arts Center downtown continues to offer exciting exhibitions for us, and aeqai critic Keith Banner reviews Titus Kaphar’s remarkable “The Vesper Project”, while Zack Hatfield analyzes former Cincinnati artist and critic Matt Morris’ offering, a tribute to James Lee Byars’ work and its interrelationships with gender identity, and “queer theory”, an outgrowth of recent examinations in gender studies, in an installation at CAC. The Cincinnati Art Museum has been acquiring parts of the entire contemporary glass (and some wood) art from the collection of area collectors Nancy and David Wolf, selections from which are now on display at the museum, and reviewed for us this month by aeqai critic and international art glass expert Karen Chambers. And The Taft Museum of Art is represented this month with a review/feature of area artist Jonathan Queen’s studies and drawings for the new Carol Ann Carousel at Smale Park, by Marlene Steele. Queen is known for his realism and his integrative use of toy figures into his work. (Aeqai will offer its review of the just-opened Edward Curtis photography show in our summer issue, along with the just-opening Dutch painting show at The Cincinnati Art Museum).
2015 is the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Mapplethorpe photography show at CAC, and FotoFocus Curator Kevin Moore has arranged what appears to be a splendid symposium, which will be held at CAC (and ends at 21C Hotel), in late October, and I offer my own essay/thoughts on Mapplethorpe then and now, which includes two phone conversations with Curator Moore. (The CAC’s own exhibition’s tribute to that Mapplethorpe show will open about two weeks after the symposium).
Other reviews this month: Fran Watson offers a highly informed and astute look at the new offerings from Tiger Lily Press, at Venue 222 in OTR, curated by Amy Doran, while Jane Durrell offers a very thoughtful analysis of work in one of the shows at Manifest Gallery. Saad Ghosn writes a memorial tribute to the late Andy Fausz, whose work’s on display through early August; Fausz died in his mid-thirties. We’ll have an actual review of this same show in our summer issue, too. Marlene Steele also offers an amusing and smart review of the Duck Tape show at UC/DAAP, or sponsored by same, put together by UC/DAAP professor Joe Girandola. Hannah Loew returns with a fascinating review of medical illustrations and analysis of same at the downtown Lloyd Library, another fine curatorial offering from The Lloyd Library’s Curator Anna Heran. And Sue Ann Painter, our architecture , urban planning, and historical preservation critic/specialist, reviews a Sister Cities photography show just opened in The Aronoff Center downtown (outside the Procter and Gamble theater), which pairs work by Cincinnati photographer Tom Schiff and Munich photographer Schmid. Jennifer Perusek, aeqai’s fashion critic, reviews the new Burberry men’s line of clothes, and offers her socio-psychological analysis of the line and how it does and doesn’t reflect gender changes around the Western world in particular.
Anise Stevens, our LA critic, gives a superb review of new work by Deborah Martin at George Billis Gallery in LA, and Susan Byrnes a splendid review of work by Doris Salcedo in Chicago (by terrance). Our Chicago correspondent, Cynthia Kukla, will review the Venice Biennale for aeqai in our summer issue, as well.
Our journalistic offerings, this month, includes profiles of area curator Mary Heider, by Susan Byrnes, and of artist Radha Lakshmi, by Laura Hobson. Saad Ghosn’s Art for a Better World column looks at work by visual artist Julie Lonneman, and literary artist Carl F. Laque. Sue Ann Painter’s essay on how the Design Review Board works with the City of Cincinnati on not-yet-built buildings, particularly on The Banks, appears this month, as does a photoessay by Brooklyn-based photographer Raymond Adams, who continues to document/interpret Coney Island in greater New York City . Maxwell Redder offers two new poems, and I, two book reviews, including the year’s finest novel to date, in my opinion, A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, which is also a splendid view of America’s millennials.
After this June issue, aeqai only posts one summer issue, which will appear in the first two weeks in August, so we’ll be back then, and, as always, we appreciate your comments and support, as our readership continues to grow regionally, nationally, and internationally.