The March issue of Aeqai has just posted; it’s a somewhat abridged issue, as many columns couldn’t get written due to the closing of galleries and museums due to the coronavirus pandemic. But some of our writers did manage to see and review their shows before all those closings, and we include those in this issue, which still contains some exciting reviews and essays.
Since Jonathan Kamholtz wasn’t able to see the Wyeth show at The Taft Museum of Art, which we will presume will be published in our April issue, he decided to select one print by the Dutch artist Hercules Seeger at Cincinnati Art Museum, and write his thoughts about it; it’s apparently a very rare edition by this lesser known artist, but interest in his work has exploded in the last couple of years internationally. Kamholtz’s analysis of this one print is astute and creative and inspired. Cynthia Kukla did manage to see the Romare Beardon exhibition at Cincinnati Art Museum before it closed, and we include that review with pleasure; Beardon, a by now very famous African-American artist, shows work that’s highly autobiographical in often the collage format; we’ re very lucky here in Cincinnati to have this show and hope that our readers will see it when the Museum reopens (lots of things at CAM and The Taft are currently online). Marlene Steele’s review of former Cincinnatian Perin Mahler’s new paintings at Manifest Gallery combines her own great knowledge of figurative painting and of color; she finds Mahler’s work exceptionally brilliant.
Steve Kemple manages to offer us two reviews, this month, in spite of circumstances; he looks at the “quilts” made mostly our of plastic bags/detritus by Jesse Dunahoo at The Carnegie in Covington, as well as a fascinating installation by Antioch College professor Michael Cassellini at The Blue House Gallery in Dayton. Megan Marie Bickel gives us another brilliant review of an installation in Louisville, by artist Kim Charles Kay, at Sheherandeze Gallery there. I offer my curatorial statement (with pictures) of my own show at Cincinnati Art Galleries, which I guest curated, called “Atmospherics: Longing for Beauty”, featuring the work of l6 regional artists, nine of them women artists in this, 2020, the year of the woman in the arts; it’s a show of romantic landscapes, including work by Kay Hurley, Valerie Shesko, Bukang Kim, Paula Risch Head, Kent Krugh, and Lisa Molyneux, amongst others; the show is available online.
Continuing a series on how museums actually work behind the scenes, Laura Hobson spent time with those at The Cincinnati Art Museum and at The Weston Art Gallery to explain exactly how their shows are put together; that’s a fascinating read, and highly educational; Hobson will continue this series in upcoming issues of Aeqai (her first article on how the education curators at three area museums/arts centers are working/creating programming in this era of diverse audiences, and appeared in the Jan/Feb. issue of Aeqai). Jane Durrell gives us a profile of one of Cincinnati’s favorite and most creative artists, Bonita Williams Goldberg, whose work is currently on display at Ruth’s Parkside Cafe, whenever it reopens. And Kent Krugh offers another FotoFolio this month, with photographs by John Blom. Annabel Osberg returns this month with a stellar review of the second biennial work in clay at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles.
I offer two book reviews this month , one of the new masterpiece by Hilary Mantel, “The Mirror and The Light”, the third and last in her triology about the life and demise of Thomas Cromwell, chief of staff, if you will, to King Henry VIII, and the other of the splendid debut novel by Meng Jin, “little gods”. We hope you all enjoy this issue, as we’re pleased to have one at all, and plan to return in April with a full issue, if circumstances have returned to normal by then. We welcome your comments (and any donations!), as always. To go directly to the site, click onto www.aeqai.org.
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–Daniel Brown,
Editor, www.aeqai.com